Chisaokwu Joboson 
Dave Crossland 
Mirko Velimirovic 
Seyi Olusanya 
Taurai Valerie Mtake Myself (Mirko Velimirovic), Chisaokwu Joboson, Agyei Archer, Taurai Valerie Mtake, David Udoh, Eyiyemi Adegbite, Oluseyi Olusanya, Nate Willis, and Adam Yeo worked together in the fall of 2023 and the spring of 2024 to create several OFL fonts for Google Fonts. All of the designers involved were first time type designers.
We were overseen by Dave Crossland and Thomas Phinney and aided in our production by Laura Meseguer, Lisa Huang, Eben Sorkin, Denis Jacquerye, Juan Villanueva, Travis Kochel, and Lizy Gershenzon.
This panel aims to discuss the historical background of each of the panelists projects, their cultural context, the scope of the projects with regard to a large character set covering much of Latin based Sub-Saharan African scripts, the process we engaged in to design and produce the fonts, a heartfelt thanks to all of the people involved globally who aided in the design and production of the fonts, and finally a discussion of where the projects aim to go in the future. We think that in the process of sharing the way in which we approached this work that we might provide valuable insight to design teams that wish to do something akin to what we have accomplished. We also think that it is valuable to share the work as it stands to invite discussion about how these projects can grow in the future. We would be very keen to hear audience feedback and discussion about the triumphs and shortcomings of the work.
Each panelist will describe their project and have examples of the work, process, and tooling on display as they speak. In the event that panelists are unable to attend Atypi in person in Copenhagen their work will be shown as a short video. Panelists will share their work and discuss the aforementioned points while doing so.The font projects discussed by panelists will be Danfo, Tac one, Ojuju, Jaro, Matemasie and Madimi One.
Danfo by Afrotype came from a desire to represent the vernacular vinyl lettering found on the buses of Lagos, Nigeria. Tac One also by Afrotype is a typeface based on the word mark for Festac ’77. Ojuju by Chisaokwu Joboson was inspired by the spirit dancers of Nigeria, and Afro-Futurist architecture and design. Madimi One by Taurai Valerie Mtake was inspired by Nguni symbols and organic forms. Jaro by Agyei Archer is an expansion of the linocut forms developed by Jaroslav Benda in the early years of the 20th century with a character set covering most Sub-Saharan Latin based orthographies. Adam Yeo will discuss his work on Matemasie with Nate Willis.