I was very pleased to talk about the Tifinagh script in the 7th International Conference of Typography in Valencia. This time the focus was in its cultural, social and political aspects. The standardization of the Amazigh language implied the choice of a script to write it. The election of the Tifinagh rather than the Arabic and the Latin was a controversial issue which, to some extent, remains nowadays. It illustrates visibly the political implications of a writing system in multilingual/multicultural environments. Other issues like the need to adapt an ancient alphabet to the new technologies, but above all, to the needs of a mostly Tifinagh-illiterate population in order to facilitate the learning and the use of the script in common life raised interesting questions that I tried to describe.
I want to thank the organisers of the 7CIT for allowing me to participate, and to all the people who worked hard to make this possible. Thank you very much.
It seems that the end of this year is going to be intense. I am really glad to announce my talk about the Tifinagh script in the Face Forward conference in Dublin. I’ll talk about the normalisation and unification of the Amazigh language, as well as the renaissance and standardisation of its original script, the Tifinagh alphabet, in Morocco, where it coexists with the Arabic and the Latin scripts.
The practice of typeface design in this peculiar context raises extremely interesting and uncommon questions, namely: Which are the criteria to define a unified and manageable character set from more than 20 dialects each one with diverse peculiarities and uses? How to translate the shapes of ancient carved letters into digital media? How to encourage the adoption of an unfamiliar writing system in a context of competition with the Arabic and the Latin script? Would the design of a cursive and more easily writable alphabet facilitate its use at schools? Would a bicameral script help readability in long texts? If so, is Tifinagh an uppercase or a lowercase alphabet? Which would be the right approach to devise a bicameral writing system from a monocameral script that has no calligraphic tradition? I will show a glimpse of the history and development of the Tifinagh alphabet as the answers to these questions are analised.
This was one of the nicest surprises of last month. While I was in Marrakech taking part in the TMM3 project, I got an email from Pablo Gámez (Chulotype / Typomad) inviting me to give a talk in Typomad 2015 about multiscript design, focusing on the project I developed during my Master’s Degree at the University of Reading, and more specifically on the Tifinagh script. I gladly accepted the invitation. It will be a pleasure to share stage and experiences with Jean Baptiste Levée, Toshi Omagari, Sol Matas, Raul García, Ismael González, Julia Kahl, Jesús Morentín, Diego Dier and Damià Rotger among others.
You will find all the information about the conferences, workshops, exhibitions and tickets at the web of Typomad.
Poster of the TMM3 project displaying Amaikha Tifinagh, among other typefaces.
I am glad to start the News section with this project. During one year a group of European (Dutch, Spanish, French) and Arab (Lebanese, Moroccan, Tunisian) designers will research and develop tri-script font families that combine Arabic, Tifinagh and Latin scripts harmoniously. Both the Maghribi and the Tifinagh scripts have not been fully explored in contemporary digital fonts, though they harbor a wealth of aesthetic variety and expressive potential.
I am really honoured to work with such talented type designers as Laura Meseguer, Kristyan Sarkis, Naïma Ben Ayed, Redouan Chetuan, Salah Bellizi and Andreu Balius. The first workshop took place in Marrakech, from 12th to 19th September 2015. Following three busy days of introductions, presentations, meetings with experts and calligraphers, visits to the IRCAM (Institute Royale de la Culture Amazigh) and the manuscript collection of the National Library of Morocco and, of course, fieldwork and research in the medina and the souk, we had two intense working sessions at the École Supérieure des Arts Visuels de Marrakech (ESAVM).
Arabic handwriting on wall in our way to the Majorelle Garden and the Berber Museum
The three teams defined their initial ideas and sketches for the tri-script families. They are diverse in conception but equally interesting and challenging. We will see how they evolve in the next months and how the Tifinagh script, for which I am an advisor in two of the teams, matches the Latin script and the peculiar Maghribi style. Next stage will take place in November in Granada and Córdoba (Spain). I want to thank the Khatt Foundation for giving me the opportunity to work in this project.
See also:
Typographic Matchmaking in the Maghrib (Marrakech)
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