LANGUAGE MATTERS

Graphic Design

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I worked with filmmaker David Grubin to create a logo for a documentary he directed about the world's disappearing languages. He sent me a spreadsheet with thousands upon thousands of languages around the globe that are at the risk of extinction or have already vanished from existence. Some of the most effective logos are simple and identifiable even at a super small scale, but my challenge was to incorporate as many of the names as possible, inherently calling for an intricate and complex design. I began by manually going through the list, one language at a time, and typing each name out to create a circular shape to represent the world. The film highlighted three specific languages: Welsh, Hawaiian and Amurdak, so those were given special prominence. Once the list was exhausted, I added dimension to the circle by tilting it on an axis like earth does in outer space and shading it to represent gradual dissipation of the spoken languages in question.