A report on three years of inspiring interest in typography in Sri Lanka
Last year (2019) Sri Lanka joined the International Typography Association country delegate team thus, we can be considered as one of the latest additions. With that excitement, I am glad to pen down the activities done in the last few years, that defined type and typography in Sri Lanka.
Establishment and flow of Events
Starting with the year 2017, which was a turning point to us, was the year that Sri Lanka hosted the first Type related conference ‘Typography Day’. This conference is coordinated by Industrial Design Centre (IDC), Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay) with support from India Design Association (InDeAs) and Aksharaya and in 2017 Department of Integrated Design, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka collaborated with the organizes and marked its 10th anniversary and, for the first time, this conference stepped out of Indian soil. Under the conference theme ‘Typography and Diversity’, the context of culture, multilingual scripts, the native and indigenous scripts were discussed to a large audience of 70% being international. It was also the first time, I believe, that Sri Lanka heard the term ‘typography’ and what it meant. I say this very confidently is because this term was only spoken in small communities and never to a larger audience.
Parallel to the conference, ‘Design Educators Forum’ was held at the Department of Integrated Design, University of Moratuwa chaired by Gerry Leonidas (President of ATypI). Here we discussed the practices of teaching type and typography with the attendance of many academics from Local Design School/ Institutes and Universities.
This year (2017) also marked the initiation of a small type community in Sri Lanka called ‘The Akuru Collective’. It comprised a team of type enthusiasts who got together for the Love of Type and organized monthly mini-events titled ‘Colombo Type Meetup’. These mini events included talks and workshops conducted by pioneers in the field of Design who contributed to type and typography in the country. The object of these meetings were to build awareness and strengthen the type community. The first Colombo Type meetup featured Mr. Pushananda Ekanayake, pioneer Sinhala font designer and founder of The Font Master, Sri Lanka. Thereafter, these monthly meetups were featured by many personalities: Mr. Russell Miranda, Type enthusiast and Art based Creative Director of Dentsu Grant Advertising Sri Lanka, Mr. Mahinda Bandara, Lecturer, Department of Visual Communication Design, Faculty of Visual Arts, University of Visual and Performing Arts, Mr. Tharique Azeez, type designer and font engineer, Dr. Kavan Rathnatunga, Researcher and Sri Lankan scholar with interests in astronomy, archaeology and numismatics. Mr. Chamila Liyanage, Senior Research Assistant at the University of Colombo School of Computing.
Akurucon Conference
Year 2018, the Akuru Collective compiled a manifesto to define its aim and objectives and as a result Sri Lanka’s first homegrown type conference ‘AkuruCon’ came to light. This event built stability and visibility among several stakeholders; the Department of the National Archives, Design schools and the Embassy of the Netherlands to name but a few. In return, the conference consisted of several events and hosted Mr. Martin Majoor, a Dutch type designer as a key figure for this event. Majoor contributed by sharing his design philosophy, and elaborated on the history of san-serif and the last Dutch telephone book. The event also included workshops and discussions on all relevant aspects of letters: Calligraphy. Lettering, Typography and Font making. The event was held from 28 August 2018 to 1st September 2018. It was noted that this Conference will continue as a bi-annual event. This event also featured Sri Lankan academics; Dr Sumanthri Samarawickrama, Kosala Senevirathne, Pathum Egodawatta and Dr Karan Rathnatunga.
Among a few landmarks, Akuru Collective launched a font revival project ‘Galle Project’ to revive typefaces of the Dutch Press in Ceylon. The first modern printing press was established in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 1700s by the Dutch colonials and Sinhala script was first printed using the modern printing techniques in this press. The Galle Fonts Project was initiated by Mooniak, a local type design studio in collaboration with the collective members Janaka Attanayake, Kosala Senevirathne. This project was funded by the Embassy of the Netherlands.
ATypI Working Seminar in Colombo
In 2019, with the initiation of Gerry Leonidas, ATypI announced the relaunch of ATypI Working Seminars and with his blessing and the ATypI team together with the Akuru Collective, FARU (Faculty of Architecture Research Unit), University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, hosted the event in Colombo on the 22-23 March 2019 as a single track two-day event. The contributing speakers for this event were Dr. Shaima ElBardawil, Educator at the College of Fine Art and Design, University of Sharjah, Dr. Keith Tam, Head of Department of Communication Design and Director of the Centre for Communication Design at the Hong Kong Design Institute, Prof. Girish Dalvi, Educator, Industrial Design Centre, Indian Institute of Technology, India and myself, Dr. Sumanthri Samarawickrama, Senior Lecturer, Department of Integrated Design, University of Moratuwa. Simultaneously a public event was held in the evening on ‘Typography, Text Technologies and Fonts as infrastructure for Culture and Economy’; the panel consisted of Muthu Nedumaran, Pooja Saxena. Lalindra Nanayakkara, Gerry Leonidas and Pathum Egodawatta.
A community type foundry
There is a lack of Unicode compliant fonts in Sri Lanka and the limited market size does not encourage foundries to make an investment in the market. To counter this problem with the initiation of Pathum Egodawatta, the Akuru Foundry was established to motivate amateur type designers to design and release their font. Akuru Foundry is set up as a community cooperative organization owned by the members of the collective and all fonts are released under free and open source fonts for public use. As a result, four Unicode compliant fonts by Damith Welikala, Lalith Rathnayake and Aravinda Illangedara has been released.
Gatherings and activities
Several events were organized by the Akuru Collective to inspire and to build an interest in the subject of type and typography. Many gatherings included movie nights, type clean up sessions where a large bulk of discarded old wood type were preserved for use.
Online activities
‘30 Days of Akuru’ was an online initiative to anyone interested in creating Sinhala and Tamil letters. It was launched in 2019 and held it for two years in celebration of the Mother Language day in the month of January. The event was a success with over 1000 entries.
Few links
30 Days of Akuru (@30daysakuru) • Instagram photos and videos
Akuru Collective Facebook page
Akuru Manifesto
The story of the Akuru Collective sounds like a modern creative fairy tale. It began around 2017 when a group of young, ambitious design enthusiasts with an "itch for that right font and big dreams" gathered at a roadside tea shop [01:03]. They made a daring decision: to bring TypoDay, a major South Asian type conference, to Sri Lanka.
Against the odds, they succeeded. By inviting the regional type community to the island, they were able to share Sri Lanka's rich design language and lettering heritage on a massive scale. When TypoDay 2017 concluded, it left behind a profound legacy—a mobilized community of passionate designers, researchers, and type enthusiasts ready to build something bigger.
From the momentum of TypoDay, the Akuru Collective was officially born. The word Akuru translates to "letters," and the "collective" represents everyone involved—creators, researchers, and the public [01:46].
Their core manifesto is beautifully simple yet impactful: to understand letters, share them, and use them in ways that connect communities and cultures. Since its inception, the collective has spearheaded the Sri Lankan type community, focusing heavily on type research, modern innovation, and the crucial preservation of historical scripts.
Over the past eight years, the Akuru Collective has achieved remarkable milestones that have put Sri Lankan typography on the global map:
- Akurukan 2018 & 2021: In 2018, the collective hosted Akurukan, Sri Lanka's first-ever type conference, in collaboration with the Academy of Design and the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands [02:29]. The event celebrated the shared typographic heritage between Sri Lanka and the Netherlands. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, they hosted the second Akurukan in 2021, shifting the focus to multilingualism and the coexistence of multiple languages and scripts in Sri Lanka.
- Global Bridges (2019): Partnering with the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Moratuwa, the collective brought the prestigious ATypI working seminars to Sri Lanka [03:12]. This marked the first time in 27 years these seminars were held, successfully bridging South Asia with the global type community.
The Akuru Collective doesn't just host academic conferences; they actively engage the public and safeguard history through several distinct initiatives:
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30 Days of Akuru: A month-long social media challenge that encourages individuals to push the creative boundaries of Sinhala and Tamil typography [03:42].
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Colombo Type: A dedicated space and discussion series for designers, researchers, and enthusiasts to share their ideas, passion projects, and insights.
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The W.A. Silva Museum: In 2019, the collective collaborated with the W.A. Silva Foundation to establish the Museum of Literature, Language, and Letters [04:09]. This vital institution preserves historic wood type blocks, literature archives, and restored printing technologies—ensuring that students and future generations can study and appreciate the physical history of Sri Lankan languages.
Akuru Collective’s story starts with a chance encounter between Pathum Egodawatta and Dr. Sumanthri Samarawickrama at a Typography conference in India. When these two strangers first shared their common interest on the subject, they also shared their common vision to encourage typography in Sri Lanka. Their vision came true in 2017 when Sri Lanka hosted the first Type related conference ‘TypoDay’, a typography conference coordinated by Industrial Design Centre (IDC), Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay) with support from India Design Association (InDeAs) and Aksharaya.
In the 2017, Department of Integrated Design, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka collaborated with the organizers in marking its 10th anniversary, for the first time, this conference stepped out of Indian soil. Under the conference theme ‘Typography and Diversity’, the context of culture, multilingual scripts, the native and indigenous scripts were discussed to a large audience of 70% being international. It was also the first time when all the type lovers of Sri Lanka got to connect with each other and share their enthusiasm. This small type community would later become ‘The Akuru Collective’, a team of type enthusiasts who got together for the Love of Type.
The Akuru Collective started with organizing monthly mini-events titled ‘Colombo Type Meetup’. These mini events included talks and workshops conducted by pioneers in the field of design who contributed to type and typography in the country. The objective of these meetings were to build awareness and strengthen the type community. It is still one of the most anticipated events in Akuru monthly calendar.
In 2018, the Akuru Collective compiled a manifesto to define its aim and objectives and as a result Sri Lanka’s first homegrown type conference ‘AkuruCon’ came to light. This event built stability and visibility among several stakeholders; the Department of the National Archives, Island’s many Design schools and the Embassy of the Netherlands to name but a few. The event included workshops and discussions on all relevant aspects of letters: Calligraphy. Lettering, Typography and Font making. Akuru envisioned continuing this conference as a bi-annual event.
Parallel to AkuruCon 2018, Akuru Collective launched the ‘Galle Project’ to revive typefaces of the Dutch Press in Ceylon. When the first modern printing press was established in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 1700s by the Dutch colonials, Sinhala script had their first opportunity to be printed using the modern printing techniques. This had marked a significant transition of Sinhala letter forms which had been written on palm leaves up until then. The Galle Fonts Project is about examining and conserving this design transformation as a shared cultural heritage. The project was initiated by Mooniak, a local type design studio in collaboration with Akuru Members.
In 2019, with the initiation of Gerry Leonidas, ATypI announced the relaunch of ATypI Working Seminars and the ATypI team together with the Akuru Collective, FARU (Faculty of Architecture Research Unit), University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, hosted ATypI Working Seminars Colombo on the 22-23 March 2019 as a single track two-day event. The Working Seminar Colombo was the first Working Seminar in 27 years for ATypI, and certainly the first of its kind in the region with an exclusive focus on teaching typography. Raising ATypI’s profile in Sri Lanka and the region was a key benefit, and is certain to lead to future local initiatives.
Akuru had identified a lack of Unicode compliant fonts in Sri Lanka. The limited market size does not encourage foundries to make an investment in the market. To counter this problem with the initiation of Pathum Egodawatta, the Akuru Foundry was established to motivate amateur type designers to design and release their font. Akuru Foundry is set up as a community cooperative organization owned by the members of the collective and all fonts are released under free and open source fonts for public use.
Along the way, Akuru COllective has also been able to promote and encourage love of type in all communities through online opportunities as #30DaysofAkuru 2019 & 2020. #30DaysofAkuru is organized by Letters.Lanka, a project initiated by a group of Akuru members. It is for anyone interested in creating Sinhala and Tamil letters. The event so far, has been a massive success with over 1000 entries.
In late 2018, Akuru came across W.A. Silva foundation, a team dedicated to pass on the legacy of renowned Sri Lankan author W.A. Silva and to continue his great national mission towards language and literature of the Island. W. A. Foundation had preserved the house “Silvermere” in Wellewatte, Colombo where Silva lived, as a national treasure and thereby had established a Language-Literature Museum. Sharing their passion for language and printing, Akuru found an inspiring space at Silvermere, for Colombo Type meetups and similar events. Thus, started the continuing collaboration between Akuru and W.A. Silva foundation- partners in promoting language, literature and letters in Sri Lanka. In 2019 September, W.A. The Silva Museum became the home to Akuru.
In 2020, Institute of Typography was established as the legal guardian and patron to Akuru. Institute of Typography is Sri Lanka's first institution for research, development and education of typography, font design, letters and related fields.
Within a short period of only three years Akuru had come a long way, and yet, a long way ahead. Akuru warmly welcomes anyone with a passion for typography and letters to come along the journey.