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To celebrate Māori Language Week, we were inspired by: (1) The Manaia, a messenger between mortals & the spirit world, depicted with the head of a bird, the tail of a fish & a man’s body; and (2) early-settler documents capturing the Māori language with ornate ink characters.
This led to the creation of a typography based on the Manaia’s role as carrier of culture from past to present. It’s a metaphor for language. We created the 15 Māori alphabet characters, including the two digraphs, only in capitals, to be used to tell the most important stories.