Type Electives Lecture Series:

Drawing Extended Latin with Aleksandra Samuļenkova

Join us for a series of insightful conversations exploring the challenges of language support, diacritic design, and the role of type design in language revitalization. Our guests will share their experiences designing for diverse languages and scripts, offering both practical insights and critical perspectives.

In this session, we’ll be speaking with Aleksandra Samuļenkova about Drawing Extended Latin, focusing on the design of diacritics and additional Latin characters essential for multilingual typography. We’ll discuss how diacritics shape readability, impact visual rhythm, and reflect linguistic diversity—moving beyond basic Latin. We’ll also examine the cultural and historical significance of characters such as ß, ł, Ø, and æ, and the challenges designers face in creating type that supports a wide range of languages.What makes a well-designed diacritic? How do we balance tradition and innovation? And how do the needs of language users inform type design decisions?

While this session will primarily focus on characters within the Latin Extended-A range, the methodologies discussed will offer valuable insights applicable to other Latin-based alphabets. Whether you're a type designer honing your diacritic design skills or simply fascinated by the intersection of language and letterforms, this conversation will provide a deeper appreciation for the details that make typography truly multilingual.

This session will feature a short presentation, followed by a conversation moderated by Juan and Lynne, and an open Q&A for the attendees.

Send us your questions through our Instagram @typeelectives

The event will be hosted online via Zoom.

We look forward to having you with us!

Aleksandra Samuļenkova

Aleksandra Samuļenkova (she/her) is a Latvian-born type designer based in the Netherlands. She designs for Latin, Cyrillic and (occasionally) Greek, and consults on the former two scripts. Aleksandra is known for her typeface Pilot—one of the few contemporary type designs that has been cast in metal, as well as for her award-winning Cyrillic and Greek extensions of notable typefaces such as IBM Plex. Aleksandra also specializes in designing diacritics and special characters for the Latin script, and enjoys lecturing on the topic at various educational institutions, among others—her alma mater—Type and Media Master programme at the Royal Academy of Art in the Hague, and Type@Cooper in NYC.

Instagram: @aleksdandrasamulenkova