🔺Watch full video on the YouTube
How to Build a Font Industry in a Bankrupt Country by Pathum Egodawatta At @sldesignfest 2024
Pathum Egodawatta opened the Script and Structure conference with a deep dive into typography's role in South Asia—exploring the intersection of language, politics, technology, and society while sharing insights into building a font industry in Sri Lanka.
✚ About the Speaker
Pathum Egodawatta, a renowned type designer, researcher, and educator, specializes in Sinhala and South Indian scripts. With an MA in Typeface Design from the University of Reading, he’s worked with Google Fonts, Uber, Toyota, and co-founded Mooniak & Akuru Collective, revolutionizing Sinhala typography.
✚ About SLDF
The Sri Lanka Design Festival (SLDF) is the country’s top platform for design, arts, and culture—connecting Sri Lanka’s creative industry to the global stage since 2009.
✚ About the Conference
Held on November 9, 2024, the conference explored the evolution of South Asian scripts, multilingual design challenges, and typography’s cultural impact. Speakers included industry leaders from Apple, Spotify, Matra Type, Whitecrow Designs, and Mooniak, shaping the future of type and branding.
🔥 Watch now to explore Akuru, the future of Akurugraphy!
#SLDF2024 #Typography #Design #Akurucollective
Tomorrow I am in this panel exploring the revolutionary visual and linguistic world of Sugathapala de Silva. Also go and see this exhibition ending tomorrow.
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From his iconic, high-contrast poster art to the “gritty” urban vernacular Sugath pioneered, we’ll be breaking down how his historic innovations bridge the gap to modern design and communication.
🗓 Sunday, 29th March
🕚 11:00 AM
📍 Outer Canopy, Mihilaka Medura
🗣 Language: Sinhala & English
In conversation✨
Pathum Egodawatte
Muvindu Binoy
This session is specifically designed for designers, artists, and creative practitioners. Don’t miss out!
I love talking about things that spark my passion and getting people excited about ideas.
Last week I presented my 2013 final year graduation design project from @aod_graphicdesign , other-letter, named Amma, to students of @id.research . I designed a Sinhala + Tamil hybrid script, letterforms, and a font.
This was the first time I’d spoken about it since presenting at Typoday India in 2014. The website where people could try the font went offline, and as I started making “real fonts,” this critical design project felt increasingly irrelevant.
But talking to the students made me realise the Amma project quietly shaped everything we built at @mooniakhq over the last decade, from designing type to organizing communities. We’ve done some epic work for our languages and culture here on the island, and this year, talking about that work is a priority for me.
nostalgia #001 (2008) Pages from early work;
1. We made this image of the horse originally around 2007 experimenting with letters with Coral Draw. Was first uploaded to internet sometime around 2010 and committed to Public Domain in 2014. Now it is all around the internet.
2-4: These are pages from a magazine I edited and designed for the Media Day at Royal College, Colombo (2008)
DESIGNING FOR MULTILINGUAL, MULTICULTURAL MARKETS
South Asia's vast linguistic and cultural diversity presents unique design challenges. Sri Lanka, with its intricate history of language politics, faces many of these head-on.
How do you design something—a sign, an app, a book—that truly connects across different scripts and cultures?
WE'LL EXPLORE:
→ What are the real challenges of multilingual design in South Asian contexts?
→ How do we create type systems that work across Sinhala, Tamil, and English?
→ What does language equality look like in visual communication?
→ Real-world examples from designers navigating these complexities
MODERATED BY
Tanya George (India)
Typographer, Type Designer, and Researcher
Independent designer whose work weaves letterforms, identity, and culture across Indian scripts. Designs custom fonts and visual identities, curates typographic walks through Mumbai, and writes for platforms including Letterform Archive where she serves as global docent.
SPEAKERS
Pathum Egodawatta (Sri Lanka)
Type Director, Founder, Mooniak
Transforming how Sinhala and Tamil scripts function digitally. Director of the Institute of Typography—Sri Lanka, establishing new standards for multilingual typography and positioning type as essential infrastructure for cultural communication.
Kosala Senevirathne (Sri Lanka)
Type Designer, Partner at Mooniak
Specializing in Sinhala script with work spanning typeface design, typographic research, and multiscript editorial design. Advocates for language equality and has contributed to numerous multiscript typefaces integrating Sinhala, Tamil, and English.
#MultilingualDesign #Typography #TypeDesign #SinhalaScript #TamilScript #SouthAsianDesign #LanguageEquality #DesignDialogue #SLDF #ScriptDesign #CulturalDesign
DESIGN AND SOUTH ASIAN IDENTITIES IN BUSINESS
As global commerce shifts its focus, South Asia is now at the center of major corporations and home to global enterprise leaders. Yet a crucial question remains: Who controls the creative and design work that fuels this economic engine?
This dialogue addresses the urgent need for South Asian creative agencies and designers to claim their rightful value in the global marketplace.
WE'LL EXPLORE:
→ How can South Asian design businesses compete and excel globally?
→ What strategies enable creative enterprises to scale successfully?
→ How do we claim our value in shaping the creative economy?
MODERATED BY
Pathum Egodawatta
Founder, Mooniak
Type designer and cultural entrepreneur transforming Sinhala and Tamil scripts for the digital age. Director of the Institute of Typography—Sri Lanka, positioning typography as essential digital infrastructure for cultural continuity.
SPEAKERS
Anant Ahuja (India)
Managing Partner, Irregulars Alliance
Leading creative decisions for clients including Spotify, Apple, Snapchat, and Meta. Organized India's first Anti Art-Fair and publishes The Irregular Times. Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 (2020).
Randhula de Silva (Sri Lanka)
Founder, GoodLife X
Working at the intersection of strategy, creative leadership, and transformational change. Co-author of the THRIVE Canvas, leading initiatives across agri-food systems, sustainable tourism, and circular economy while collaborating with contemporary Sri Lankan artists.
Shiva Viswanathan (India)
Director, DesignUp | Founder + CMO, Catenate.io
Three decades of design experience spanning brand strategy, UX design, and AI-centric solutions. Academic advisor teaching design thinking across leading institutions in India and Sri Lanka.
#DesignBusiness #SouthAsianDesign #CreativeEconomy #DesignLeadership #SriLankanDesign #IndianDesign #DesignDialogue #SLDF #CreativeEnterprise #GlobalDesign #DesignStrategy
