Oniresi is a display typeface designed during the Type@Cooper's workshop Principles of Typeface Design: Display Type, in the Fall of 2020, with Juan Villanueva to suit and celebrate the specificities of the Yoruba (Èdé Yorùbá) language.
Doing the research on the structural part of the language, I found a project called Pan-Nigerian that was idealised in the 80's by professor Dr. Victor Manfredi (African Studies Center of Boston University) and developed with the help a famous german type designer. Back then, the idea was to create one unified character map for typewriters and typesetting that contemplated the most common languages in Nigeria, in addition to Yoruba, English, Igbo and Hausa.
My goal is to apply a critical view by approaching the original drawings with another mindset and listening to current communication needs of the Yoruba users in the digital era. In Unicode, the Yoruba diacritics are inconsistent, often illegible and not easily made the basis of text search, which is the foundation for the information economy that the world has adopted.
This project is not a revival but an attempt to take another path.
Leaving behind what we no longer want to perpetuate.
aknowledgements
cláudia horta, lucas horta, wilson horta, victor manfredi, moussa kone, juan villanueva, rodrigo lopes, rômulo silva, dámiláre fáladé, priscilla karen, félix ayoh'omidire, lêda maria martins, aline furtado, jota mombaça, pedra silva, castiel vitorino brasileiro, henrique freitas, igor miranda, babá sidnei nogueira, equipe ilê ará, dandara suburbana, babá alexandre teles, marina mota, thais esmeraldo, diana fernandes, fernanda siebra, cyla costa, gabrielle tavares, andrea kulpas, fabricia ribeiro, ana laydner, luisa baeta, aline kaori, lygia pires, l leitenperger, flávia zim, flora de carvalho, fernanda martins, fátima finizola, zrinka buljubašić, zofia janina borysiewicz, ana michel, jamie otelsberg, beatriz lozano, jaamal benjamin, gen ramires, stephen nixon, henrique nardi, eduilson coan, leonardo buggy, henrique beier, álvaro franca, fernando mello, filipe negrão, guilherme menga, igor sturion, guadalupe gil,
jackson alves, claudio reston, mateus moretto, rafo castro, samuel tomé, jonas v. holanda,
valentina d’avenia, lucas blat, sid maia eduardo vasconcelos, guillermo zetek, fernanda meireles, igor caracas,
lucas cavalcante, igor gonçalves, johann freitas, yuri alexsander, magno leitão, daniel rana, maria do céu,
josé geraldo, clélia maria, elvis ronaldo & sofia benedicto.
jackson alves, claudio reston, mateus moretto, rafo castro, samuel tomé, jonas v. holanda,
valentina d’avenia, lucas blat, sid maia eduardo vasconcelos, guillermo zetek, fernanda meireles, igor caracas,
lucas cavalcante, igor gonçalves, johann freitas, yuri alexsander, magno leitão, daniel rana, maria do céu,
josé geraldo, clélia maria, elvis ronaldo & sofia benedicto.