Ukrainian identity and font - a topical issue!
I want to show some moments from my speech at the international conference GRANSHAN «Signs of the times», 20-21 May 2022, Munich
For every nation, the verbal form of communication is important, i.e its language and writing. Ukraine is no exception. Ukrainian graphic artists and designers at different times searched for the forms and styles of letters, based on the traditions of handwritten and printed primary sources, as well as taking into account the requirements and trends of the present
Now no one can say what the Cyrillic alphabet would be like if it were not for the forceful intervention of the reform of Peter I. These actions, unfortunately, stopped the historical development, the soft formation of the Cyrillic alphabet. The Ukrainian alphabet, as it is now, is not actually Cyrillic, because apart from a few letters, all other letters are an exact copy of the modern Russian Cyrillic alphabet - the so-called " grajdanka"
n recent years, there has finally been a trend towards the return of historical forms of some graphemes or the development of completely new forms that give the Ukrainian alphabet a certain self-identification. Changes in the graphics of the letters of the Ukrainian alphabet occur from below thanks to the work of type designers of Ukraine, who create fonts with "Ukrainian coloring". So they strive to bring type design to a new, modern level and at the same time preserve our cultural heritage
The well-known calligrapher Vasil Chebanik, who developed the decorative font "Ruthenia", in which he proposed changes in the graphemes of the letters of the Ukrainian alphabet, is engaged in changing the cultural code of the country
The main differences and characteristics of the most frequently transformed letters in the works of designers
New forms of Ukrainian characters are very actively used in display, however, in relation to the text font, the changes here should be slower and more balanced. If you change many letters too quickly or clearly imitate historical forms that were just beginning to develop in their time, then there may be a danger of being drawn into the archaic, which will entail certain problems and questions - for example, the trajectories of writing lowercase characters, printing problems, etc. Another important technical issue is the introduction of Ukrainian characters into the Unicode font system
Also young people, students of creative universities join the search for Ukrainian identity. Creative competitions and exhibitions of the international level act as a platform for experiments among young people. In general, international type design competitions are becoming a certain marker of the state of the market for the profession, so the appearance of a competition for young people is an event for both higher education and type professionals
The slides use the IT Extrazium font
https://rentafont.com.ua/fonts/it-extrazium
