Font Aid V Is for Japan

Theresa Stone

The Society of Typographic Aficionados is organizing Font Aid V — a collaborative project uniting the typographic and design communities with a goal of raising funds to expedite relief efforts after the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
Your creative contributions will be compiled into a typeface and sold through the sogojapan.org site being set up by Neil Summerour from Positype. The hope of Sogo Japan is to directly deliver funds to organizations in Japan, such as AMDA International (Association of Medical Doctors of Asia). Sogo Japan will circumvent regular international charity channels and the inefficiencies associated with them.
Submission Guidelines
Create a glyph that is your own personal interpretation of Japan.
* You may submit up to three glyphs
* Glyphs must be supplied as vector files only (not bitmaps)
* Adobe Illustrator .ai or .eps files are preferred
* Fontlab or Fontographer source files will also be accepted
* Glyphs must be black and white only
* Do not use colour, complex textures, or embedded bitmap images
* Remember, simple is often better
Send the following to [email protected] by March 25th, 2011:
* Final vector artwork file(s)
* A short description of each of your glyphs
* Your name (as you like it to appear on the project page)
* Your countr
Font Aid is a charitable endeavor. We wish to ensure that we provide the maximum support possible to the people and organization that need it. Any work submitted to a Font Aid project will be deemed a charitable gift and a work made for hire. Whenever possible, we are happy to credit the creativity of the participating designer
Font Aid: A Brief History
Swedish type designer Claes Källarsson conceived of the initial Font Aid project in 1999. More than 25 type designers participated in designing a collaborative font, with proceeds going to UNICEF to help war and disaster refugees.
Font Aid II
In 2001, the Society of Typographic Aficionados became involved when Stuart Sandler was inspired by Källarsson’s efforts and initiated Font Aid II. This second collaborative typeface was created to benefit the victims of the September 11 tragedies in the US. The font consisted of nearly 100 question mark glyphs contributed by designers from over 20 countries.
Font Aid III: Fleurons of Hope
In 2005, Building Letters joined forces with SOTA on the Font Aid III project. Uniting the typographic and design communities, Font Aid III raised funds to expedite relief efforts in countries affected by the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunamis. More than 220 designers worldwide submitted over 400 glyphs for the collaborative “Fleurons of Hope” typeface.
Font Aid IV: Coming Together
In 2010, SOTA produced “Coming Together”, a font created to benefit Haitian earthquake victims. Consisting of over 400 ampersands, it represented the idea of people coming together to help one another. Nearly 400 type designers, graphic designers, and other artists from around the world contributed to the Font Aid IV project.