A conversation between design educators Aasawari Kulkarni and Naïma Ben Ayed that explores the struggles and hopes of decolonizing typography.
“Educators In Correspondence: Decolonizing Typography” is a moderated conversation between design educators exploring feminist, decolonial, and anti-racist pedagogies. To create dialogue through difference, each conversation pairs persons in positions from across cultural, geographical, and linguistic contexts.
On June 22, 2022, we will hold a conversation around Decolonizing Typography with Aasawari Kulkarni and Naïma Ben Ayed, who imagine and develop new, locally-centered curricula at the intersection of type, language, and culture. They will discuss their experiences with challenging modernist and Latin-centric type design canon and designing multilingual scripts in India, the SWANA region, and beyond.
Aasawari Kulkarni (she/her) is a graphic designer, writer, and design educator, and she is currently an AICAD teaching fellow at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in Rhode Island, U.S.A. Her work explores the intersection of human behavior with culture and design. She holds an MFA in Graphic Design from the Maryland Institute College of Art in the U.S.A. and works as a freelance designer. Her former and current clients include Penguin Random House, Center for Craft, and the Visible Voices podcast.
Naïma Ben Ayed (she/her) grew up in France and is of Tunisian heritage. She has been (re)connecting with this heritage through her design practice. She is an independent type and graphic designer working with Arabic and Latin scripts. Her interests are in the borders and spaces in between and how they translate into design forms and ideas. After working for several years in a corporate environment, she began her own practice in 2019. She leads workshops that focus on connecting type design to storytelling, language, and archives. She also takes part in initiatives that contribute to opening up the discipline to broader audiences.
A conversation between design educators Aasawari Kulkarni and Naïma Ben Ayed that explores the struggles and hopes of decolonizing typography.
“Educators In Correspondence: Decolonizing Typography” is a moderated conversation between design educators exploring feminist, decolonial, and anti-racist pedagogies. To create dialogue through difference, each conversation pairs persons in positions from across cultural, geographical, and linguistic contexts.
On June 22, 2022, we will hold a conversation around Decolonizing Typography with Aasawari Kulkarni and Naïma Ben Ayed, who imagine and develop new, locally-centered curricula at the intersection of type, language, and culture. They will discuss their experiences with challenging modernist and Latin-centric type design canon and designing multilingual scripts in India, the SWANA region, and beyond.
Aasawari Kulkarni (she/her) is a graphic designer, writer, and design educator, and she is currently an AICAD teaching fellow at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in Rhode Island, U.S.A. Her work explores the intersection of human behavior with culture and design. She holds an MFA in Graphic Design from the Maryland Institute College of Art in the U.S.A. and works as a freelance designer. Her former and current clients include Penguin Random House, Center for Craft, and the Visible Voices podcast.
Naïma Ben Ayed (she/her) grew up in France and is of Tunisian heritage. She has been (re)connecting with this heritage through her design practice. She is an independent type and graphic designer working with Arabic and Latin scripts. Her interests are in the borders and spaces in between and how they translate into design forms and ideas. After working for several years in a corporate environment, she began her own practice in 2019. She leads workshops that focus on connecting type design to storytelling, language, and archives. She also takes part in initiatives that contribute to opening up the discipline to broader audiences.
