Educational project
Kokumo
The role of type design in promoting indigenous scripts at risk of extinction
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The Kokumo project aims to promote and preserve endangered indigenous writing systems through a variable font that illustrates their evolution using contemporary typographic features. The thesis analyses the Adlam, Tifinagh and Latin scripts, championing linguistic cultures that are often overlooked.
Over the centuries, many indigenous communities have lost their languages and writing systems as a result of conquest and colonisation, with serious repercussions for ethnolinguistic preservation.
The Kokumo project promotes and supports indigenous writing systems at risk of extinction through the discipline of type design.
The research has led to the creation of a variable font, capable of shifting from linear to serif styles, to demonstrate that such systems can evolve by adopting contemporary typographic features, despite their limited digitisation. The thesis focuses on two African systems, Adlam and Tifinagh, alongside Latin as a basis for development.
The project proposes a format applicable to many other writing systems around the world, with the aim of supporting often-neglected ethnic and cultural minorities. Dissemination takes place via a web platform and through publications that provide historical context and serve as font specimens. The name Kokumo, of Yoruba origin, means ‘she who has stopped dying’ and represents the principle underlying the project: resilience and cultural continuity.
The Kokumo project promotes and supports indigenous writing systems at risk of extinction through the discipline of type design.
The research has led to the creation of a variable font, capable of shifting from linear to serif styles, to demonstrate that such systems can evolve by adopting contemporary typographic features, despite their limited digitisation. The thesis focuses on two African systems, Adlam and Tifinagh, alongside Latin as a basis for development.
The project proposes a format applicable to many other writing systems around the world, with the aim of supporting often-neglected ethnic and cultural minorities. Dissemination takes place via a web platform and through publications that provide historical context and serve as font specimens. The name Kokumo, of Yoruba origin, means ‘she who has stopped dying’ and represents the principle underlying the project: resilience and cultural continuity.