Taurai Valerie Mtake Typography is not only a vessel of communication but also a carrier of identity, memory, and belonging. Yet, in today’s digital landscape, the “homescreen” rarely feels like home for many African language communities. Dominated by Latin defaults, mainstream typefaces often overlook indigenous writing systems and visual traditions, leaving entire cultures absent from the digital stage.
In this talk, I share my journey as a type and graphic designer from Zimbabwe, now based in Sweden, working to reimagine and preserve Southern Afrikan scripts and visual systems. Drawing on my award-winning project Madimi, in whch the typeface was commissioned by Google Fonts, I explore how indigenous motifs, oral traditions and symbol-based storytelling can inform contemporary type design. This work demonstrates how type can be both a tool of preservation and a means of innovation, bridging ancestral knowledge with modern technology.
Framed within the sub-theme “Split Screen,” my proposal examines the fractures in global typography and the unfinished work of making the digital age inclusive. By interrogating what and who is left out of the mainstream, I ask: How can design create a sense of digital belonging for historically marginalized scripts and languages? And how can honoring these systems inspire fresh approaches to global type design?
Ultimately, this presentation argues for type as a site of cultural belonging and agency, where homescreens can truly reflect the multiplicity of voices that shape our world.