Greetings and welcome! This blog will serve as detailed documentation of my major research project (MRP) as part of the Masters of Digital Media (MDM) program at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU). Through this medium, I’ll share my progress, insights, challenges, and useful takeaways from my academic research journey.
Since graduating from OCADU in 2006, I’ve worked in graphic design, digital accessibility, marketing and web development. I’ve worked at small design agencies and as a freelancer, but I’ve mainly worked for the Ontario government as a public servant. I’m on a sabbatical from my government job, taking the one-year MDM program at TMU. Digital media has been a common thread throughout my career, and I chose this program to develop my technical and critical thinking skills. I am interested in exploring how public institutions can better serve the needs of all citizens, especially those marginalized by disability, language barriers, or access to mainstream technologies.
With these interest areas in mind, I have decided to study the design and development of Canadian Aboriginal syllabic fonts. Existing open-source font libraries, such as Google Fonts, lack typefaces with accurate syllabic character sets, preventing use in Indigenous syllabic writing systems with regional orthographies. Access to accurate digital fonts enables First Nations and Inuit communities to read and write in their preferred writing system and orthography, leading to greater Indigenous language use with an aim to support Indigenous resurgence.
It’s important to note that I am not Indigenous; I am a sixth-generation Canadian with British and Irish ancestry. As a white, protestant, heterosexual, and able-bodied man, my positionality is marked by significant privileges. English-speaking and of European descent, my family and I have greatly benefited from the socio-economic structures established under colonialism. I make my home in T’karonto (Toronto), the traditional territory of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples. T’karonto continues to be home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. Recognizing this, I acknowledge my role as a colonial-settler and my responsibility to address and advocate for the rights and sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples, aiming to contribute to a more equitable, decolonial, and inclusive society.
Indigenous studies and type design
As part of my MRP, I’m taking a directed studies course focused on Indigenous sovereignty and typeface design. My goal is to review literature on Indigenous sovereignty and language revitalization efforts, followed by a study of recent research conducted by Kevin King and Typotheque in collaboration with Indigenous communities and language keepers. These theories will develop alongside Latin and non-Latin type design theories and practices to support Canadian Syllabic typeface design and production.
By the end of the spring-summer semester, I will design a single-weight display font with Latin and Ojibwe language support. By the end of the fall semester, I plan to extend an open-source Google font with full Canadian syllabic Unicode support. Documentation about the process will be made freely available on this blog and on GitHub to support type designers in adding Canadian syllabics to other fonts.
I’m exploring various design-based research methods and frameworks with some questions in mind. How might I create a scholarly dialogue between theory and practice while creating a professional open-source typeface? And perhaps more importantly, how might I do so in a respectful and decolonial way, in collaboration with the Indigenous community and implementing two-eyed seeing?
Featured image: Article One of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Inuktitut. Carving by Tim Brookes. Photo by Glenn Moody. Source: Atlas of Endangered Alphabets