The Making of OS Monogaga: A Tale of Two Cultures
How ancient symbols and modern streets inspired a new voice in type.
Every typeface is a conversation—a dialogue between the past and the present, between form and function, between the artist and the world. For OS Monogaga, that conversation began on the bustling streets of Abidjan, echoed in the silent geometry of ancient Adinkra symbols, and found its voice in the digital realm. It is a font born from a desire to create something unapologetically modern, yet deeply rooted in the rich cultural soil of Côte d'Ivoire.
The initial spark was not found in a studio, but in the raw, unfiltered energy of street art. The hand-painted signs, the vibrant murals, the sheer typographic diversity—it was a living museum of lettering. We asked ourselves: how can we capture this vitality, this human touch, and distill it into a versatile, digital tool?
From Symbol to System
The second key influence was the Adinkra symbology. These visual representations of concepts and aphorisms possess a remarkable graphic efficiency. Their clean lines, balanced forms, and inherent modularity provided the structural backbone for OS Monogaga. We didn't want to simply copy these symbols, but rather to understand their underlying principles—the rhythm, the weight, the negative space—and apply that understanding to the Latin alphabet.
This process involved countless iterations. Early versions were too literal, others too sterile. The challenge was to find the sweet spot where cultural homage meets typographic utility. The distinctive curve of the 'g', the sharp angle of the 'k', the open aperture of the 'c'—each is a small tribute to this dual inspiration.
A Tool for Modern Storytellers
Ultimately, OS Monogaga was designed to be a workhorse. Its extensive weight range, from delicate Thin to impactful Black, makes it suitable for everything from elegant headlines to legible body copy. We built in a robust set of OpenType features—stylistic alternates, case-sensitive forms, tabular figures—to give designers the flexibility they need to tell their own stories. It is a typeface that feels at home on a gallery wall, a magazine spread, or a digital interface. It is a piece of our world, now ready to become a part of yours.
