johnson banks: phonetikana johnson banks: phonetikana
oct 09, 2009

johnson banks: phonetikana

driven by trips to japan and continual frustration at being unable to read the language, michael johnson and his team at johnson banks have been trying to design a katakana typeface that has english phonetic sounds embedded: ‘phonetikana’.

characters from the phonetikana typeface

for example, UNIQLO in japanese is pronounced ‘yoo nee koo roh’ above are the four characters in phonetikana.

this is how ‘michael’ would look in the typeface.

‘big apple’

‘cheese’

‘doki doki’ (japanese for the ‘sound of my beating heart’)

‘baa + moo’

‘big in japan’

‘nee-koh’ – japanese for ‘smile’

‘koo-roo’ – japanese for the sound of something spinning

andy butler I designboom
oct 09, 2009

  • More fashions welcome go to visit[url=http://www.tradebeneficiary.com/] http://www.tradebeneficiary.com[/url%5D

    LILY says:
    Oct 10, 2009

  • Really interesting idea… but impossible to read down small! (Perhaps just learn the language).

    Bosco says:
    Oct 14, 2009

  • How much time to Johnson Banks have on their hands? Yet another, pointless, self-initiated, self-congratulatory project. much like the annual ‘April Fool’ effort.

    M-G says:
    Oct 14, 2009

  • Agreed, if you’re keen to speak Japanese… why don’t you just learn the language? Why make a hybrid form? Westerners can be lazy ; )

    Ramzod 13 says:
    Oct 14, 2009

  • wow, super… i love everyone that. Get more fashions [url=http://www.tradebeneficiary.com/] here[/url]

    angel says:
    Oct 17, 2009

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