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. Shani 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.

Articles

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)