Gibberish to Shibboleth: A typographic and type design approach for multiscriptural and multilingual design based on a case study of the Bai and Han languages

This research proposes an approach for designers to improve multiscriptural and multilingual design. Built on a case study that includes field interviews, historical artifacts analysis, and research through design methodology, this project examines the multilingual relationship between the ethnic Bai language and the dominant Han language of China. This case study explores different optimizations for multiscriptural designs, which appear between historical orthography and contemporary standardized orthography of Bai, as well as the contemporary Romanized Bai script and the Chinese character system. The case study constructed a theoretically feasible alternative orthography around the typographic concept of visual shibboleth to preserve the Bai language through communication design. This core concept of visual shibboleth is then applied to explore the improvement which designers can utilize in their type/typographic design through multiple typographical and type design explorations. With the case study and design iterations combined, this research proposes a typographic and type design approach that is expandable to other multilingual settings, which can be applied to the ideation, testing, and evaluation of communication designs to improve language and scriptural equality.