Torah, and essentially serving as the legal and religious record keepers of their time. They were considered masters of Hebrew writing and were crucial in transmitting the Jewish tradition through written texts. Their main objective was to teach the To- rah to the Jewish masses, and Jewish youth in particular. Ancient Israelite scribes also shared their ideas and language traditions with people from neighbouring cultures. In the fifth or fourth century BCE, after the Jews returned from exile in Babylon, Ezra—a direct descendant of Aaron and known skilled scribe—is believed to have played a key role in gathering and stan- dardizing the existing Torah scrolls, ensur- ing their proper transmission. You might say that Ezra was one of the first editors, essentially hiring scribes to write down and revise what had been, until that point, an oral tradition. If ancient scribes were akin to our mod- ern-day editors, perhaps studying the evo- lution of ancient scribal Hebrew could lead me to an appropriate choice of a mod- ern typeface to serve as the basis of Scribe Quarterly ’s logo. (You may be wondering why I am using the word typeface instead of the term you’ve likely heard much more often: font . A typeface is an overarching design or style of lettering while the word font refers to the specific variations with a typeface. For example, Arial is a type- face, and Arial Bold is a font.) I immediate- ly began delving into examples of scripts used by ancient Hebrew scribes for Torah scrolls, and drawing visual connections to their modern digital counterparts. The story of Jewish writing is an in- credible journey through time and place. Hebrew script has dramatically changed over thousands of years, influenced by culture, religion, and technology. He- brew script originates from the ancient Semitic alphabet which dates to about 1700 BCE. By the eighth century BCE, Aramaic, a branch of the Semitic script, was using modified versions of the orig- inal letterforms. Scrolls created be- tween the third century BCE and the first century CE show a clear evolution of that scribal tradition. Many of the contempo- rary basic features of the Hebrew script are already present in these scrolls, and the text can be deciphered and read by almost
YPOGRAPHY — the art of organizing letterforms and text that makes words legible, clear, and visually appealing—is more than just words on a page. It’s in every aspect of our lives: on our phone screens, in logos on product packaging, and on high- way signs which need to be readable quickly while you’re moving at high speeds. Typography embodies not just styles and functions but emotions, intentions, and identities. One of the biggest (and most fun) challenges in typog- raphy: designing a wordmark. (Wordmark is just the tech- nical term for a logo that only uses typography; other lo- gos may also use symbols, shapes, other graphic elements, or some combination of these). Designing a typograph- ic wordmark that effectively encapsulates approximately 5,000 years of Jewish thought is a uniquely Jewish chal- lenge. As a people, we are constantly exploring and balanc- ing our deep historical roots with contemporary relevance. How can typography—a tool of expression and purpose, yes, but one that is limited to geometric shapes and their arrangement on a page—convey such a rich history, while also operating in a modern context? How can you channel that history without being stuck in the past? Not all design missions begin with extensive historical research but, in this case, some was clearly called for. Giv- en Scribe Quarterly ’s name, would knowing more about scribes’ work and their role in creating ancient Hebrew script inform the new logo’s tone and flavour? The scribes of ancient Israel were a tiny literate mi- nority in an overwhelmingly illiterate and oral-based cul- ture. These Jewish scribes were primarily responsible for copying and preserving the Hebrew scriptures, acting as experts on Jewish law by studying and interpreting the
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