studio M

Solidarity Through Letterforms

made for: We Are Ukraine
in collaboration with: Kyiv Type Foundry
year: 2023

I was approached by Kyiv Type Foundry to contribute stylistic letterforms to a free font they were working on with Banda agency for We Build Ukraine, aimed at helping Ukraine’s economic recovery. They invited designers around the world to participate, and the outcome was a set of stylistic glyphs for the Unity Sans font.

Building the foundation

Seeing the theme is about rebuilding, I thought of designing letters in the form of graphic silhouettes of objects related to construction (Meccano plates, and building bricks,) measurement tools (rulers,) and transportation (railway track sections.)

The finished construction

The letters D, and B (also works as V in Cyrillic) were selected for the final font. They appear in the “Display Max” version.

source: KTF

‘The font has three styles: “Basic” for text-heavy typesetting, and “Display/Display Max” for expressive typography. Unity Sans has 40 available sets and 293 alternative letters that you can play with, depending on the task and level of expression.’ — UnitySans.com

Unity Sans Basic

Unity Sans Display

Unity Sans Display Max

The font is free to download, and since then have been found in use and out in the wild, from a book fair to a kiosk.

source: UnitySans.com

Unity Sans

graphic design
in collaboration with: Kyiv Type Foundry
year: 2023

Unity Sans was created to support Ukraine in rebuilding its economy and fostering new businesses. Designed specifically for the “We Build Ukraine” project, this typeface serves as a symbolic contribution to the nation’s reconstruction efforts.

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Hi! Melissa Chan is a human person/ graphic designer ☻

Working primarily on visual identities and typographic-led graphic communication.

Based in UA, by way of NL and MY.
Received her BDes from the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague in 2015.

Open to working together ↪ m[at]melissachan.nl
Connect ↪ linkedin, ig

Cycling With

How do we present and fit all the topics of the summit celebrating women from all walks of life? Initially I illustrated the literal nouns with pictograms but it didn’t feel right. It wasn’t connecting with the story of the summit. I was stuck, and went back to the drawing board. How do I approach this from a fun angle?

Well, I love illustrating objects. The target audience are cyclists. Illustrating the essentials cyclist bring on them on the road suddenly made a lot of sense. CW added to the idea: How about including items related to each speakers?

illustration
in collaboration with: Annalisa van den Bergh
year: 2025

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