CH-EN
Language is the bridge for all communication. It can be expressed through pronunciation, which involves sound, or written letters and characters, which are shapes. I am interested in the forms of written languages, permutations of shapes, and semiotics, and so in my project I explored the graphic design aspects of converting texts between Simplified Chinese and English.
My experiment involves two phases, each differentiated by design concept directions. The first direction entails moving from Simplified Chinese to English; in it, I designed En KaiTi, a Latin typeface, using the stroke pattern developed from HuaWenKaiTi, the Simplified Chinese textbook typeface. My typeface includes all uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, punctuation for both language systems, and pinyin accents — the pronunciation system of Mandarin. The second direction involves going from English to Simplified Chinese. I built a website, yulin, to help people learn Simplified Chinese by decoding the rules within Simplified Chinese writing systems.
With detailed information in character radicals, writing sequence, evolution history, and pronunciation, the platform contains knowledge benefitting users of all levels. Further inspired by the concept of the dictionary and the archive, the website was developed as a platform to accommodate information on users' own pace and help users have fun while learning.