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FiftyFifty: Glyphs of Belonging

Glyphs of Belonging is the second edition of the FiftyFifty Traveling Exhibition, bringing together typographic and calligraphic works by students from universities and design schools around the world. Centered on the theme Glyphs of Belonging, the exhibition explores how letterforms can express identity, memory, culture, and place through diverse scripts, languages, and visual traditions.

The exhibited works reflect a wide range of creative and research-driven approaches to typography, demonstrating how emerging designers engage with both local heritage and contemporary practice. Together, they reveal the letter as a shared medium of communication that simultaneously carries distinct cultural narratives and personal experiences.

Presented as part of ATypI 2026 Sharjah, the exhibition celebrates the diversity of global typographic education while fostering dialogue across cultures through the universal language of type. The accompanying exhibition animation was created by Mahmoud Kanso, extending the exhibition’s themes into motion and reinforcing the dynamic nature of typography as a living form of expression.

fiftyfifty 2026
Speaker

FiftyFifty

An international typography and visual communication platform founded and directed by Nada Abdallah, bringing together student work from universities across different countries, languages, scripts, and cultural contexts. It explores typography as a space for exchange, identity, and belonging. Through its traveling format, the exhibition connects emerging designers internationally, highlighting how letterforms, scripts, and visual systems carry cultural memory while creating new conversations across diverse design traditions and communities.