talk
What would it mean for a typeface to be feminist?
For the talk, I would like to share my feminist variable typeface experiment that I worked on as a part of my MFA thesis at the Maryland Institute College of Art.
Nari is an experiment in variable font technology that attempts at answering the
question, “what would it mean for a typeface to be feminist?”. The result is
an interactive variable typeface designed by a woman of color, one that has
multiple voices, that represent choice, expression, and inclusivity; does not
belong to any one extreme, and is fluid in nature. Its proportions tickle the eye, and the letterforms are anything but neutral.
The three variables are voice(weight), mindset(width), and fight(contrast).
Through a permutation and combination of these three variables, Nari—meaning
woman in Hindi, can generate various different styles, similar to how a
woman is a powerhouse of assuming different roles at given points of time.