How does independent type foundry Inari Type based in Campinas, Brazil, manage to express culture through typeface design?

Founded in 2020 by Caio Kondo & Satsuki Arakaki, Inari Type has designed various typefaces each intricately linked to cultural narratives. We’ll explore the design and narrative behind one of their primary fonts: Nikkei Maru.

Nikkei Maru

For the history buffs among you, the term Nikkei might ring a bell. Nikkei refers to the Japanese emigrants and their descendants, who experienced a notable surge during the early 1900s as a result of the Meiji Restoration. Today, the largest Nikkei communities are situated in Brazil and the United States.

Inari Type's font "Nikkei Maru" pays homage to the history of Japanese immigration through its typographic design. The inspiration for the font stemmed from a collection of photographs depicting the ships that carried Japanese immigrants to the American continent, fueled by their personal ancestry.

The upper case characters of the font drew inspiration from the painted ship names that marked the onset of the Japanese immigrants' journey to the American continent, symbolizing the commencement of the immigration process. All of these ships possessed a distinct typographic identity. The type for the ship’s names featured Latin inscriptions manually painted in a sans-serif grotesque style, all caps.

The development of the lowercase characters in the font were inspired by the newspapers that circulated within Japanese immigrant communities residing in Peru, Brazil, Argentina, and the United States. These newspapers showcased a style that was harmoniously compatible with the uppercase characters, which initially sparked the project.

No font is complete without dingbats, or glyphs. The dingbats for Nikkei Maru were influenced by the art of Japanese typesetting and the intricate pattern designs often seen on monyos (Japanese towels) and kimonos. The outcome is a compilation of distinctive symbols that can be molded into unique patterns.

The exploration behind Nikkei Maru, rooted in Japan's migration history, ranges from the names of ships in 1908 to the archival newspapers of Nikkei communities. It presents a beautifully designed homage to this moving and rich chapter of the nation's history.

You can try out or buy the Nikkei Maru font family here. Be sure to check out Inari Type’s other remarkable fonts, Miro and Eiko. The design of the Eiko font was influenced by the creations of Japanese costume designer and art director Eiko Ishioka.

In addition to crafting unique typefaces, Inari Type offers customized solutions to meet your specific requirements, such as bespoke fonts, expanding character sets, or translation to different writing systems. Follow Inari Type on Instagram to see the typefaces in action and follow their journey.