top of page
Type. Design. Research.
Shani Avni is the Ismar David Assistant Curator in RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection since 2020. She designs, researches, teaches, consults, writes and lectures on Hebrew type design and typography. Avni holds a BA in Graphic Design from Shenkar College, Israel, and an MA in Typeface Design from the University of Reading, UK. For her MA thesis she researched the David Hebrew typeface family and, since receiving her degree, continues to do so. In 2017, she was chosen for The Cary Research Fellowship, where David's work is archived.
Her work in The Cary includes facilitating the access, arrangement, description, preservation, and enhancement of the Ismar David papers, as well as processing and researching the printing realia collection of historic Hebrew and Yiddish wood type.
In addition to her focus on Hebrew typography,
she holds various classes on the history and practice of Latin typography and type design using the Cary Collection's rare holdings.
Talks & Workshops
Curating Jewish Type Collections
Letters That Link Us: Histories & Mysteries of Hebrew Type. An Interdisciplinary Symposium. University Of Minnesota, 2024
Hebrew Type and Typography
Center for Jewish Studies, University of Rochester, 2024
Defect Turned Default: Navigating Technology's Impact on Hebrew Type Design, with Liron Lavi Turkenich.
Face/Interface: Global Type Design and Human-Computer Interaction, Stanford Humanities Center, 2023
Wayzgoose 2023: Hebrew/Yiddish Wood Type Workshop with Lynne Avadenka
Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum, 2023
Hebrew Type Intensive: Cast, Typeset, and Print Historic Jewish Wood and Metal type.
The Press and Letterfoundry of Michael and Winifred Bixler Skaneateles, New York, 2023
Masters of Letters: German-Jewish Type Designers in Service of Modern Hebrew Typography
EAJS, Frankfurt, 2023
Hebrew Wood Type at the Cary Collection,
GRANSHAN, Munich, 2022
Center for Jewish Studies, University of Rochester, 2022
The Wonders of Hebrew Wood Type, Typewknd 2021
Hamilton Hang, online, 2021
RIT Friends Group, online, 2020
Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum Awayzgoose, online, 2020
Type Design Research
Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design
Jerusalem, 2019
Unfolding the first Hebrew typeface family
St Bride Foundation, London, 2019
Practice Led Research
Alfred Cooperative Institute for Art & Culture
Tel Aviv, 2019
Sheqel for your thoughts
ATypI 2018, Antwerp
Innovation meets tradition
ATypI 2017, Montreal
JCC Rochester, US
Monotype Imaging Inc., NYC
Unfolding the first Hebrew typeface family
Type talks, Birmingham City University
Ismar David & the first Hebrew typeface family
The Cary Graphic Arts Collection, Rochester NY
The Type Directors Club, NYC
Kvutsa Ivrit, Hebrew Group, North London
Bezalel Academy of Arts & Design, Jerusalem
Shenkar College of Engineering & Design,
Ramat Gan, Holon Institute of Technology, Faculty
of Design, Holon
Discoveries from Ismar David's archive
Holon Institute of Technology, Faculty of
Design, Holon
Greetings from Ismar David
The Typophiles Inc., NYC
Tel Aviv > Reading > Tel Aviv
University of Reading MATD & MResTD, 2018
Latin & Hebrew typography
Goren School of Graphic Design & Visual
Communications, Yezreel Valley, 2016
What is Hebrew typography?
Environmental Leadership High-School, Tel Aviv, 2009
An overview of Hebrew type
Ben Gurion University, Computing & Information Systems MA course, Beer-Sheba, 2008
Articles
NYPL Researcher Spotlight
Ismar David's visitors book design for the Jewish Palestine Pavilion, New York World's Fair 1939
Hebrew Type Anatomy
TypeTogether
Yosef Haim Brenner's "Ha-meorer"
Ha-meorer project (Hebrew)
Ha-meorer: A Print Adventure (Hebrew)
Ismar David’s quest for original Hebrew
typographic signs
Visible Language, Special Issue
Winner of The 2019 Design Incubation Communication
Design Educators Awards
David Hebrew: the first multi-style Hebrew typeface family, academic dissertation
TypeCulture
Lost and found (and lost again)
Alphabettes
The important job of the left thumb
Alphabettes
Greetings from Ismar David
Alefalefalef (Hebrew)
The disappearance of the David Hebrew
typeface family
Alefalefalef (Hebrew)
Contact
Header photos:
_ Rockford Hebrew Wood Type Collection, Cary
Graphic Arts Collection. Photos by: Jiageng Lin
_ Ismar David papers, Cary Graphic Arts Collection
_ Ambersonius typeface by: Jawaher Alali, Shani Avni,
Zenab Bastawala, Lisa Dröes, Manuel von Gebhardi,
Calvin Kwok, Rob Pratley.
_ Hebrew & Latin Gozalle typeface by Shani Avni
bottom of page