Mann.Otf is a deeply personal typographic and editorial zine, inspired by my mother’s resilience. It brings together custom type design, emotional storytelling, and material experimentation.
The typeface features rounded bottoms symbolizing softness and vulnerability, and sharp tops representing growth and strength. The editorial layers translucent papers to reflect her life’s visible and invisible battles. Each page, each curve, and each material choice is a design tribute to her emotional legacy.
Process:
The process blended emotional research, material prototyping, and type design exploration:
I began with memory mapping, poetry writing, and intimate reflections on my mother’s life (pg. 4–7)
Translated emotional arcs (anxiety, loss, transformation) into visual forms and letter curves
Studied typeface references and built moodboards reflecting softness, inner strength, and quiet energy (pgs. 10–12)
Created sketches, followed by iterative refinement in Glyphs app (pgs. 11, 15–17)
Developed a unique continuous thread motif running through characters, symbolizing unbroken spirit
Prototyped with baking paper, parchment, and tracing sheets to test layering, tactility, and light flow (pg. 20)
Designed a physical zine that invites the reader to slowly uncover emotion, page by page
Problem:
Typography often celebrates precision and style but rarely emotion. I wanted to explore:
Can type become a language of care and memory?
Can we embed unspoken strength and pain into form, paper, and layout?
How can personal grief and resilience become public emotional design without becoming overly sentimental?
Mann.otf was my response, an emotional artefact in typographic form.
Solution:
The Typeface
Rounded terminals at the base → emotional instability, softness
Sharp upper terminals → survival, growth, strength
A threaded stroke that runs through most characters → represents continuity through trauma
Subtle negative spaces → absence, grief, silence
Balanced forms → personal but universally readable
The Zine
Built on translucent layers: Stories revealed gradually as you flip each page
Used poetry, repetition, contrast, and spatial silence
Booklet structure mirrors phases of her life: origin, identity, transformation, and legacy
Custom print flow: tested 4 paper types for contrast, mood, and feel
Pages designed as emotional vignettes; not just layouts, but moments
Result:
The final zine was received as an intimate, emotional storytelling piece.
Reviewers highlighted its “unusual restraint and elegance in expressing pain”
The project sparked invitations for collaborative keepsake booklets and interactive poetry exhibits.
More than a typeface, Mann.otf became a conversation starter on grief, identity, and design as healing.
