republi.sh is such a cool project by Behalf Studio. The team is bringing back and digitizing typefaces from Southern Vietnam in the 20th century, including those seen on hand-painted signs, colonial buildings, and old newspaper and book headlines.
I love how they’re preserving the historical significance of these fonts and turning them into unique design pieces that feel fresh and relevant today. Below are two of my favorite fonts from republi.sh!
The team kicked off the Typography as… (Chữ là chi…) exhibition in early 2021, showing how these typefaces can be brought to life in modern design through a mix of creative approaches. The team also shared their process of developing a typeface from Research → Exploration → Development → Refinement → Output. The Research phase helps them study letterforms and define the style of the typeface they’re designing.
This is something I found really inspiring for my own typeface design project. I didn’t have a research phase at the start, I jumped right to the design of typeface, which made it difficult for me to define a clear style while still keeping the personality of the typeface I was digitizing. 🤔 Looks like I need to go back to the Research phase sometime!