Dina Benbrahim This 2-hour practice-based workshop investigates the speculative potential of typographic form through systematic constraint manipulation. Participants engage in iterative transformation of a single Tifinagh character— zay, which signifies “free human” in Tamazight—across six discrete temporal exercises, each imposing specific material, conceptual, or contextual restrictions.
The methodology employs timed constraint protocols (six 15-minute cycles) that prompt participants to reconceptualize the letterform through divergent lenses: architectural structure, material decay, cognitive distortion, utilitarian redesign, environmental adaptation, and political resistance. This structured approach to typographic experimentation interrogates how letters function as sites of cultural memory, political meaning, decolonial metaphor, and speculative futures.
The workshop culminates in a narrative sequencing exercise where participants arrange their six iterations to excavate emergent storytelling within typographic transformation. Through partner dialogue and collective reflection, the session illuminates how constraint-driven design reveals unintended narratives embedded in the evolution of letterforms.
By centering an Indigenous North African script within contemporary design discourse, this workshop addresses the underrepresentation of non-Latin writing systems in typographic pedagogy while proposing constraint methodology as a tool for decolonizing design practice. The Tifinagh letter’s semantic resonance—”free human”—becomes both material and metaphor, raising questions about typography’s relationship to autonomy, legibility, and resistance.
Materials: Analog drawing tools, paper, transparent overlays, plywood, laser-cutting if available, and any preferred materials by participants are welcome.