Supporting Indigenous Languages in North America Through Type

Typotheque engages in ongoing language support work with Indigenous communities in North America, and recently published a new book presenting the typography of the Syllabics, Cherokee, Osage, and Complex Roman writing systems for the many First Nations and Inuit communities that use them. Typotheque’s Kevin King will present the book and describe the larger context behind the work and its impact on local communities.

Letterform Lectures are a public aspect of the Type West postgraduate program. The series is co-presented by the San Francisco Public Library, where events are free and open to all.

Kevin King is a typeface designer, typographer, calligrapher, and type researcher based in Canada. After working at Toronto’s Coach House Press and Canada Type, he completed his Master’s degree in Typeface Design with distinction at the University of Reading in 2018. His work focuses on font support and research for minority languages, working directly with Indigenous communities in North America to support their language revitalization and preservation efforts. Through his work collaborating with Typotheque, he has contributed to reforming the text standardisation for the Unified Canadian Syllabics in the Unicode Standard through character additions and representative glyph revisions. In conjunction with his type design work, he maintains a calligraphy practice, teaching workshops and lecturing on both subjects in Canada and Europe.