Huaka‘i Typeface Design

Each semester, student copywriters and graphic designers from Grand Canyon University (GCU) join to work on a passion project that allows them to improve collaboration skills, embrace their creativity and have fun. During the Spring 2023 semester, students set out to design original fonts that helped fulfill unique design challenges.

Designer Megan Lee-Watanabe noticed a lack of fonts compatible with Polynesian languages, as many standard fonts do not include necessary accent marks and macrons. Seeing this need, Megan and copywriters Ireland Fleck and Noah Fischer set to work creating a concept and developing a landing page and poster to advertise this new original font.

Deliverables created include:
• Project concepting
• Typeface design
• Posters
• Presentation
• Landing page

The result of their work is Huaka‘i, a display typeface inspired by Hawaiian culture. The serif font is designed for use in headers, including macrons, to elongate the sounds of vowels and accents common in Polynesian languages. Display typefaces often do not include these important accents, making this font significant in pursuing language inclusivity.

Island beauty is built into every letter of this font. The H is hollowed out to look like a surfboard as a nod to Hawai’i’s surf culture, and the T is shaped as a fishhook. The M is designed to look like mountains, and the A resembles a traditional hut. The general shape of the characters is rounded out, sharpening toward endpoints. The simple yet solid appearance makes it a perfect font for adventurous pieces. This truly was a passion project of mine and I feel blessed to have been able to explore it as a student employed by GCE.