A Reverse-Stroke Tibetan Type Project. Born quirky.
In 2019 I had the chance to travel around Tibet with a friend who has been a backpacker and educator. As we visit temples and learn about Tibetan buddhism, I find myself taking pictures of the typography printed, written, or engraved on the body of Tibet. In 2021, I got to learn from a brilliant typography designer Jo De Baerdemaeker at TypeSchool. To understand the visual component of a language as a designer, I also had to study Tibetan to the extent of how to pronounce each phoneme and the anatomy of each Tibetan character.
Designing a type is not designing graphics.
Information takes shape. Written language takes its shape in its typography. While the age of digital publication has diminished the need of hand writing, the visceral experience of conveying a message through spatially organize a written character need not be abandomed.
This type, Untitle Tibetan, is inspired by the risk-taking strokes and vibrant curviture in Maelstrom, and evolved into a modern look that preserves certain flows of hand-written letters.
