Yonael Berhe

Ge’ez Display Type Exploration

Typography Design

 Ge’ez is an ancient southern semitic script which originates from Eritrea, and is the basis for many languages in the Eritrean/Ethiopian regions. Eritrea & Ethiopia is also where my family immigrated from, so I’ve grown up around the languages my entire life, and is what sparked my interest to explore the Ge’ez typography. 

In my research I found that there weren’t many options available for more decorative, fun, explorative forms in Ge’ez script, but rather purely functional. I wanted to challenge that norm through an exploration of what display type could potentailly look like in this script, and also give me the oppportunity to become closer to my heritage.

With over 200 characters, I began this endeavor by exploring 3 stylistic paths of the 7 starting letters, and the applications in which they could potentially be used in.