Being native to a script or just an alphabet is rightfully considered to be an advantage or even a crucial requirement when designing typefaces for that script or alphabet. As a type designer who designs for three scripts while being native to only two of them, Aleksandra Samuļenkova is eager to examine the concept of nativeness in type design. As part of the Herb Lubalin Lecture Series Aleksandra Samuļenkova examines what exactly is considered to be native to a script, an alphabet within a script, or a single letter within an alphabet and in type design, what aspects of the nativeness are most important.

Register for the online talk here.

Aleksandra Samuļenkova is a Latvian-born type designer based in the Netherlands. She studied visual communication in Riga and Berlin and graduated from the TypeMedia master program at KABK in The Hague. Aleksandra designs for Latin, Cyrillic and (occasionally) Greek, and consults on the former two scripts. She is known for her award-winning Cyrillic and Greek extensions of notable typefaces (such as IBM Plex), and for her typeface Pilot—one of the few contemporary type designs that has been cast in metal. Aleksandra's area of competence additionally includes designing diacritics and special characters for the Latin script, and she enjoys lecturing and consulting on the topic.