Typographic representation of ancient writing systems: from research to type design

The earliest form of writing dates back to around 3300 BC. This was followed by the invention of many writing systems in the world (pictographic, ideographic, alphabetical…). As civilizations evolved, these writings systems have also been transformed under the influence of several factors such as trades, treaties, and conquests. Projects like PIM and The Missing Scripts demonstrate that the vast field of research in writing systems of the world requires exchange between various disciplines. In such initiatives, type design aims to preserve the minority and ancient scripts, as well as providing a tool to aid the study of human societies and cultures in addition to the history of writing.

Morgane Pierson is specialized in the development of ancient, minority, or not yet encoded writing systems. After joining The Missing Scripts project as researcher student at the Atelier national de recherche typographique (ANRT) in 2017, she designed the first typeface for Elymaic, an ancient writing system from Iran, newly in Unicode. She is currently developing a multi-script typeface for monetary inscriptions for the PIM project in collaboration with the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and ANRT.