Kozei（Type Design）
“Kozei” was created based on an independent study with a focus on the relationship between the shapes of letters/characters in old writing and the language used. The Japanese kana characters seen in old writing are written in an unbroken line. Controlling links between letters is a delicate communication attempt to express words and phrases in the writer’s original form. “Kozei” reflects the strong consciousness about this beautiful character expression and provides writers with diverse options, including 50 kana phonetic characters in four types of shapes that create links between the letters. Therefore, sentences expressed by making full use of the advanced composition functions of an OpenType font require a sophisticated sense of beauty on the part of the writers. We feel that this will offer an unknown experience toward expanding the possibility of Japanese typography. This is an experimental task meant to question how letters and characters should be to go beyond their role as a symbol to convey words and phrases in modern composition. We are very happy that this work, born from a respect of the richness of the Japanese language, was appreciated by being given the TDC Award.
