Sámi kids’ books
This typeface is a self-initiated project which aims to contribute to keep a group of minority languages alive through solving issues in the education environment.
The idea came from a PhD on Sámi typography at the Aalto University in Helsinki, which was not carried out. However, during my preliminary research for the application process Hannu Kangasniemi, secretary of learning material at the Sámi Parliament in Aanaar, Finland, mentioned that they had a problem when teaching kids their language. The Finnish government has an official typeface for education which does not cover Sámi properly and for Sámi textbooks it is not easy to find typefaces similar to those recommended by the Finnish education board.
Letterjuice started working on Sápmi, a typeface covering all Sámi languages using Latin, which later became Aanaar at our library. We also decided to provide a bigger typographic palette which would enable them to set better layouts in terms of typographic quality by adding information hierarchies. This will help kids navigate the text more easily which will ultimately help them in their learning process.
