Learning to Design a Cherokee Syllabary with Mark Jamra
Channel: The Cooper Union
Date: 2017-11-17

This lecture, which took place in the Frederick P. Rose Auditorium on July 13, 2015, was part of Type@Cooper's Herb Lubalin Lecture Series at The Cooper Union. The recording was made possible by a generous sponsorship from Hoefler & Company. For more information about Type@Cooper, visit http://www.coopertype.org.

Many issues and questions arise when designing non-Latin forms that lie outside a designer’s experience. How do the history, function and particulars of the Cherokee syllabary affect a type designer’s understanding of typographic communication? Do any of the characteristics of the contemporary, multi-font family actually apply to a syllabary with such a unique history and purpose? This will be a personal account of the lessons learned from a challenging project that's leading to new typographic forms for this particular language.