Sahn began with a desire to explore how Thai and Latin scripts might speak in closer dialogue—not by reducing one to fit the expectations of the other, but by allowing each to inform the other’s development. Designing both scripts at the same time meant constantly shifting attention, not only between letterforms, but also between meanings and context. What does emphasis look like in Thai, a script without a typographic italic tradition? What does it mean to adapt the rhythm of one script to match the tone of another?
Rather than treating Latin and Thai as separate problems to solve, Sahn worked through the overlaps and mismatches and then created an exchange between them. Some elements translated smoothly; others resisted. The loops in Thai, for instance, offered a specific color that could influence Latin script, not in a decorative way, but as a way of rethinking how texture works across scripts. The diagonal stress and modularity of Latin italics opened up a way to think about movement and emphasis in Thai, even if their visual outcomes remain distinct.
Much of this process involved visiting historical references, everyday typographic habits, and how scripts behave when used together in real contexts. That meant not aiming for symmetry or perfect alignment, but for a shared tone of voice. Some decisions were intuitive, while some were deliberate. Many required revisiting decisions I hadn’t realized I was making along the way.
Sahn doesn’t claim to offer a model for designing multi-scripts, but it does ask what might happen if we take the idea of translation seriously, not just as a linguistic operation, but as a design method. It’s an ongoing process, the project has raised more questions than it answered. But perhaps that’s where the work begins.
Diploma project developed during my time at
@ecalmatd , mentored by Alice Savoie and Julia Born.
#typedesign #multiscriptdesign #typeface #thaitypedesign #typography #editorialdesign
