Bye/lingual: Multilingual Lettering Kit

Bye/lingual is a lettering kit designed for multilingual designers and lettering enthusiasts.

Type

Packaging, Print & Publication, Design

Year

2023

Credits

Capstone project under the guidance of Jon Hannan and Charlotte Falk

About the project

Bye-lingual is a term jokingly used for individuals who speak two (or more) languages but start losing vocabulary in both of them.

The kit explores a unique method of diversifying typography by investigating the relationship between language and culture within design through the experimental process of hand lettering.

This project was supported by the Emily Carr University DDM Student Micro-Grant and exhibited in the 2023 Grad Show.

Inside the Kit

The kit contains 3 mini lettering workshops, each with its own approach to creating letterforms.

Lorem Ipsum

  • Oftentimes typography follows a strict set of rules to ensure maximum legibility. This activity encourages you to abandon all that and push the boundaries of what a character is supposed to look like.

  • Lean into the playfulness of lettering and draw characters based off of a set of predetermined shapes that can be applied to any language or script.

Food to Letter

  • This kit invites conversations around culture and language through discussions around food.

  • With food as the subject, the challenge is to create letterforms inspired by the qualities of various food items from different cultures.

Frankentype

  • So much design goes into each element of a typeface. With the deconstructed characters, these design considerations are laid out for you to play with and develop new ways of approaching typography within a multilingual space.

  • Mix and match the deconstructed characters to create new and interesting letterforms.

Workshops & Development

  • Inviting people to write a letter using at least two languages and observing the nuances in how each one is written - direction, spacing, writing styles, ratios of languages.

  • A mark-making workshop with a focus on different writing tools and the various marks that can be produced. Letting the nature of the tool influence how you approach drawing a character.

  • Design with Food: a 2-day food and lettering workshop organized with Airi Nishioka. Bilingual creatives from different backgrounds gathered together to discuss food, culture, and language within design.

  • While having conversations around food & culture, each participant was challenged to cook a dish and share it with the group on the second day to collectively design a hand lettered menu.