Problem:
Our rarest languages are fading. As this happens our cultural history is at risk.
Solution:
A campaign to raise awareness for the issue, teaching people the word for “goodbye” in these languages.
Saying
Good
bye
Language is important. In our languages we store stories, our history and our heritage. But as we become a more global society, small regional languages are slipping through the cracks. When learning languages, the first word you are often taught is “hello”. But in the conversation surrounding this issue, there simply isn’t time.
“We’re losing something we may have not even known that we had. It’s something that ties us to the ground.”
— Janet Watson, Centre for Endangered Languages, Cultures and Ecosystems
HOW LANGUAGE LOOKS
To visually represent these spoken languages, this campaign would use a bold, vibrant, texture system. This offers lots of unique permutations to celebrate the richness and uniqueness of the language and culture that is disappearing.
Inspired by the Kiki and Bouba concept (the idea that phonetic sounds can have visual representations), I created a series of patterns that can be used to reflect the phonetic structure of of these languages. These patterns fit somewhere on on the spectrum between ‘soft’ and ‘harsh’.
THE CAMPAIGN
As a visual metaphor for language extinction, the campaign shows the translation of the word “goodbye” into different endangered languages. Behind the endangered language is a vibrant graphic representing the languages’ cultural vibrancy. Playing with typographic hierarchy, the translation becomes smaller to the point where it is illegible and then gone for good. In print this campaign would play out over a series of days, each day posters being replaced, subtly shrinking the vibrant design.
