I-jusi Typografika

The student was required to create a typeface influenced by Africa. I-jusi holds up the African imagery with pride and is a means of educating the world on what Africa stands for and the magazine enables the world to view the bright side of Africa through design, through the visual. Africa to me is a healer. Africa is our voodoo. It is seen through the language of colour you find in our beadwork. It is in our folklore. It is behind the sheets of our street barber shops. Africa is locked in our hair. It is in our hairstyles. It is in our roots. It rises from our shacks and rural huts smeared in mud. It is seen through the curves of our pottery and our African women.


As a child a lot of structures are embedded in your memory and live with you throughout your life. Taverns are such structures. My font is inspired by the architecture of taverns as they were and still are the architecture of rural happiness. These structures have not changed much, the only change I have seen is the addition of Supermarkets on the side and many are renamed Supermarkets but the tavern still exists inside.

iTavern Final Font

iTavern Line and Bold Font

The font is made from the Taverns I visited in my hometown Imfume in Portshepston and it is from these Taverns I found the letters to my font. I wanted to make it real in the sense that the letters are pieces I took from the Tavern architecture. The font was selected for the I-jusi Typografika Magazine.