Oded Ezer experiments with typographic translations

Typographic artist Oded Ezer uses typography and translation to add mystery and emotion to logos.

From the Series

Oded Ezer, described as a "master of inventive Hebrew lettering" by Michael Bierut, recently briefed his students to design a Hebrew version of a Latin/Arabic/Japanese brand logo, or – as Ezer explains the project – "literal typographic translations".

"By investigating and understanding the very basic structures and architectures of the Hebrew letters, the task was to match – stylistically – the two languages, but without forcing the Hebrew to look like English, Arabic or Japanese letters."

The results are familiar yet mysterious explorations of type, evocative of Joseph Brodsky's claim that it is poetry that is gained in translation.

"It sounds easy, but it's not," says Ezer. "The students simply did a very good job here."

All works done at Oded Ezer's advanced typography class at H.I.T (Holon Institute of Technology), Visual Communication Dep., Israel

Credits:

Al Jazeera (Hebrew version) done by Oded Ezer as a demonstration for the students.

Students 2012:

Zaytoon (Hebrew version) by Doron Baduch

Alice in Wonderland (Hebrew version) by Doron Baduch

Disney (Hebrew version) by Daniela Geigner

Leffe (Hebrew version) by Ben Gilboa

Pinterest (Hebrew version) by lizzy Ezra

Elaf (Hebrew version) by lizzy Ezra

Lübzer (Hebrew version) by Hadar Tal Yosef

Walkman (Hebrew version) by Dana Levy

Pokemon (Hebrew version) by Doron Porat

Students 2010:

IBM (Hebrew version) by Rotem Dayan

NY Times (Hebrew version) by Michal Shani

Sega (Hebrew version) by Ziv Feldman

Unilever (Hebrew version) by Tamar Roth

Carmel (Hebrew version) by Stav Axenfeld

Hallmark (Hebrew version) by Orly Dekel

Watch the Talk with Oded Ezer