Naïma Ben Ayed’s article sheds light on the biases of teaching typography from the European perspective.
“Latin is the script of the Global North, the center of the type design industry, and the hegemonic voice of capitalism. Consider where most commercial type foundries are based—Europe and North America. Even the tools we use to create typefaces are software designed for Latin by European and North American type engineers. Also, the majority of programs and specializations to study type design are located in Europe and North America.”
(Ayed, 2023)
“Type, at its core, is a connector; a crucial node in the communication circuit that allows for the circulation of knowledge.”
(Ayed, 2023)
“Brands want custom typefaces to speak with one voice across continents, pushing foundries operating in the global North to expand their libraries into multiple scripts with the hopes to breach into new markets.”
(Ayed, 2023)
“Working against the legacies of colonialism and structures of capitalism, could we imagine a program to destabilize the hegemony of Latin and imagine type design education otherwise?”
(Ayed, 2023)
“Multi-script typefaces provide matching qualities across various languages, guaranteeing that the different scripts are equally legible and express a similar identity. Wouldn’t it make sense for an approach to multi-script type design education to emerge in a context where multiple languages overlap on a daily basis? Working against the legacies of colonialism and structures of capitalism, could we imagine a program to destabilize the hegemony of Latin and imagine type design education otherwise?”
(Ayed, 2023)
In Ayed’s principles for a design programme, she states:
- Archiving is a vital collective ritual.
- Bringing together people and knowledge from outside but connected to the discipline of type design facilitates zooming out and perhaps moving on from the status quo.
- Type design is a vessel to facilitate the questioning, exploring, expanding, navigating, and expressing of identities in a broad sense and outside of branding.
- Education is a collective, collaborative, and deeply caring project.
Ayed, N. B. (2023) ‘A Multi-Script Type Design Program: Imagining a playground for collective archiving, researching and letter-making’, Futuress, 29 Mar. Available at https://futuress.org/stories/letters-words-stories/ (Accessed 22 January 2025)