ALICE CHEN — HYBRID TYPEFACE

Hybrid typeface is a design project that seeks to combine Chinese writing into Latin script to create a new and fresh alternative to preexisting ethnic fonts.

“As someone who is British born Chinese, I like to explore themes of identity and culture in my work. With this as my personal context, I wanted to try visualising these concepts into a typeface. However, the project also seeks to address a broader design issue in the industry.”

Ethnic fonts are those that try to emulate or represent a certain culture but often do not do so accurately or respectfully. In terms of Chinese ethnic fonts, they are commonly used for signs for takeaways or restaurants. These typefaces are outdated and play heavily on stereotypes and cliches, so this typeface project aims to become a modern alternative. As part of the design process, I researched Chinese fonts and experimented with how to implement Chinese characters into English letters. I used various resources to research type design principles and I learnt how to use digital type software to create each character, that could then be exported into a typeface.

“My project at the moment consists of a display typeface with a complete set of letters, numbers and some punctuation. As an open font file it can practically be used like a regular font, which fulfils my goal to successfully make a typeface this year.”

The project is still not complete. With improvements to be made and with the help and feedback of others, Alice continues to take this project further: “Throughout this process, I have realised just how complicated typeface design is — it requires patience, experimentation and attention to detail. Going from first-idea sketches to a finalised typeface requires much more time than I could have imagined. Furthermore, there are other factors to consider like how the typeface can be marketed and distributed to the design community. As of now, I’m taking the next steps to make this typeface the best version that it can be.”

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DPS—SIP—EXPO—2023 // DPS self-initiated projects (SIPs) have been an opportunity for UAL LCC London DPS students to express themselves via their personal projects and wider creative endeavours over the course of their DPS year.