Afronik N’ko font is a display font supporting only the N’ko alphabet used to write Manding languages of West Africa. Souleymane Kanté created the N’Ko (ߒߞߏ – N’Ko) alphabet in 1949 to suit the sounds of the Mande languages — including Mandika, Dyula, Bambara and related languages.Neither the Latin nor the Arabic characters have enough breadth to encompass the nuances of African speech. Both writing systems lack symbols for some of the phonology, in particular the subtle but distinct tonalities. When transcribed with the foreign scripts, which have no adequate way of marking precise vowel tones, the meanings of words can ...

ALVARADO Alvarado is an open-source variable typeface based on vernacular signage found on the namesake street, specifically on the stretch through the Westlake and Pico-Union neighborhoods of Los Angeles which are among the highest population density in the USA: http://primary-foundry.com/typefaces/alvarado/ LICENSE This Font Software is licensed under the SIL Open Font License, Version 1.1. This license is copied above, and is also available with a FAQ at: http://scripts.sil.org/OFL AUTHORS Alvarado has been designed by Hector Torres (astudionameddesire.com) and published by Primary Foundry (primary-foundry.com) DESIGN Alvarado was created by Hector Torres using Glyphs and the Dinamo Font Gauntlet (fontgauntlet.com)

Arena is an open-source typeface inspired by Architype Bayer, Are.na, and heat transfer letterforms and numerals used for athletic kits. Arena has 136 glyphs with basic Latin characters, lining figures, alternates, ligatures, punctuation, and symbols. License includes two styles, Normal and Round, with Desktop (OTF), and Web (WOFF) font formats for Print, Web, App, and Broadcast use. Open Font License allows the font to be used, modified, and redistributed. Typeface designed by Jonathan Maghen.

This issue doubles as a catalog-of-sorts to Ecstatic Alphabets/Heaps of Language, a group exhibition curated by Laura Hoptman at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, from May 6 to August 27, 2012. It is a *pseudo*-catalog in the sense that, other than a section of images at the back, it bears no direct relation to the works in the exhibition. Instead, the bulletins extend in different directions from the same title, and could be collectively summarized as preoccupied with the more social aspects of Typography. In this way we hope to throw some *glancing* light on the exhibition. For ...

GERARDO VELÁZQUEZ wrote filth poetry. No taboo was off limits. As a self-described militant homosexual, he skewered societal norms through his transgressive sound art, performances, computer graphics, song lyrics, and poems. Velázquez was born in Mexico in 1958 and later immigrated with his family to Los Angeles. In 1978, he co-founded the infamous synthpunk band Nervous Gender alongside bandmates Michael Ochoa, Edward Stapleton, and Phranc. The band emerged from the early LA punk scene of the late 1970s wielding synthesizers in lieu of guitars. Their sound was raucous and confrontational, fondly described by punk fanzine Slash as “absolutely un-hummable.” They ...

Happy Karrik is an open-source variable typeface created by combining two existing open-source static typefaces, Happy Times at the IKOB by Lucas Le Bihan and Karrik by Jean-Baptiste Morizot and Lucas Le Bihan. Happy Karrik combines the contrasting themes and classifications of the two into one. Happy Karrik is the third SIL Open Font License typeface released by Primary Foundry and has 220 glyphs with extended Latin characters, lining figures, alternates, ligatures, punctuation, and symbols. License includes one variable typeface with 9 instances: Serif Regular, Serif Slant, Serif Italic, MidSerif Regular, MidSerif Slant, Midserif Italic, Sans Regular, Sans Slant, and ...

The history charted by the museum will be familiar to anyone who’s taken an introductory typography class. It begins with models of cuneiform tablets and Egyptian hieroglyphics, which slowly lead into alphabets by the North Semitic, the Phoenicians, the early- and classical-Greeks, the Etruscans, and then the Modern Roman characters we read in the west today, with significant attention paid to the technologies that made such writing and printing possible. The museum also features rooms dedicated to the development of Cyrillic, Aramaic, Arabic, Hebrew, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Cherokee, and Indic writing systems. Each room communicates a profound fascination ...

Iota Display is a modular typeface that is constructed using a series of plus and multiplication signs, which is intended to be a way of visually representing the potential for positive connections between people within a group or network. To express this idea further, the typeface is designed to expand and rotate each element with interaction and input from the viewer. Iota Display has 1566 glyphs, across 18 styles, with basic Latin characters, lining figures, punctuation, and symbols. License includes two families, A and B, six weights each, with Desktop (OTF), and Web (WOFF) font formats for Print, Web, App, and Broadcast ...

Fraser Muggeridge is a graphic designer based in London. His studio works across a range of formats with a focus on typography and formal innovation. In 2010, he founded and is a tutor at the Typography Summer School, a week-long program for recent graduates and professionals and in 2022, he completed a PhD at RMIT called “A Knowing Wrongness: Innovation in graphic design through combinations of traditional mastery and deliberately unconventional techniques.” In this conversation, Jarrett and Fraser talk about the ideas behind a knowing wrongness, the importance of process, and why so much contemporary graphic design looks the same.

TSG Bamum is a font supporting the Bamum syllabary of Cameroon. The Bamum scripts are an evolutionary series of six scripts created for the Bamum language by King Njoya of Cameroon at the turn of the 19th century. They are notable for evolving from a pictographic system to a partially alphabetic syllabic script in the space of 14 years, from 1896 to 1910. Bamum type was cast in 1918, but the script fell into disuse around 1931. A project began around 2007 to revive the Bamum script. This font supports the modern version of the syllabary, not the pictographic version. The Bamum ...

TSG Bassa Vah is a opensource font supporting the Bassa Vah writing system of Liberia. About Bassa Vah Also known as simply vah (‘throwing a sign’ in Bassa), Bassa Vah is an alphabetic script for writing the Bassa language of Liberia. It was invented by Dr. Thomas Flo Lewis inspired by the ancient symbols of the Bassa people. In the early days,type was cast for it, and an association for its promotion was formed in Liberia in 1959. However, these days it has fallen into disuse but there are ongoing efforts to revive the script. Vah is a true alphabet with a total ...

TSG N’ko is a typeface supporting the N’ko Alphabet of Guinea. N’Ko (N’Ko: ߒߞߏ) was created by Solomana Kante in 1949, as a writing system for the Manding languages of West Africa. The term N’Ko, which means I say in all Manding languages, is also used for the Manding literary standard written in N’Ko script.The introduction of the script led to a movement promoting literacy in the N’Ko script among Manding speakers in both Anglophone and Francophone West Africa. N’Ko literacy was instrumental in shaping the Maninka cultural identity in Guinea, and it has also strengthened the Manding identity in other ...