Oded Ezer's students translated famous logos into Hebrew typography

Ezer — called a 'master of inventive Hebrew lettering' by Michael Bierut — tasked students with matching two languages stylistically, by investigating the basic structures and architectures of Hebrew letters.

Class projects across 2010 and 2012 at H.I.T's Visual Communication Department: Hebrew versions of Al Jazeera (Ezer's own demonstration for the students), Zaytoon, Alice in Wonderland, Disney, Leffe, Pinterest, Elaf, Lübzer, Walkman and Pokemon (2012); IBM, NY Times, Sega, Unilever, Carmel and Hallmark (2010), each credited to a named student.

Design Indaba published the works in May 2012, calling the results 'familiar yet mysterious explorations of type', evocative of Joseph Brodsky's claim that poetry is what is gained in translation. Ezer's verdict: 'It sounds easy, but it's not.'

Design Indaba reported in May 2012 on a project from the advanced typography class of Oded Ezer — typographer, type designer, artist and teacher, self-introduced as a 'typoholic' — at the Holon Institute of Technology in Israel. Ezer briefed his students to design Hebrew versions of Latin, Arabic or Japanese brand logos, or, as he explained it, 'literal typographic translations'.

The task was to match the two languages stylistically 'without forcing the Hebrew to look like English, Arabic or Japanese letters', by investigating and understanding the basic structures and architectures of Hebrew letters. Ezer demonstrated with an Al Jazeera Hebrew version; students delivered Zaytoon, Alice in Wonderland, Disney, Leffe, Pinterest, Elaf, Lübzer, Walkman and Pokemon in 2012, and IBM, NY Times, Sega, Unilever, Carmel and Hallmark in 2010.

Design Indaba described the results as 'familiar yet mysterious explorations of type', invoking Joseph Brodsky's idea that it is poetry that is gained in translation. Ezer's assessment of the student work was simple: 'The students simply did a very good job here.'

Logo recognition survives translation: style cues carry the brand even when letterforms change script.

The constraint forbade mimicry, forcing students to rebuild the brand's personality in Hebrew anatomy.

A class setting allowed brands no one had commissioned — from Al Jazeera to Lübzer — to be tested at once.

Publishing the exercises turned coursework into a public argument about what logos are made of.

Translation is a design act: keeping a logo's personality while obeying another script's anatomy reveals what a brand's style actually is.

The projects remained class exercises; Ezer went on talking and teaching, including an August 2012 Design Indaba talk on morphing typography with other organisms. No brand adopted the Hebrew versions.