Meet the Nigerian graphic designers bringing African expression to typography

Contrary to what might be known, type design has always had a quiet but steady presence in Nigeria’s visual culture. Long before digital fonts and design software, lettering thrived on the country’s streets: hand-painted shop signs, market boards, danfo buses, and film posters all carried unique typographic expressions that reflected regional dialects and everyday aesthetics. These vernacular letterforms, often created by self-taught sign painters, formed the foundation of a distinctly Nigerian typographic identity, one rooted in improvisation, and storytelling. But they weren’t widely appreciated or respected, so gradually, these vernacular letterforms began to find themselves amidst imported Western forms which slowly blurred their identity.

However, the good news is a growing number of Nigerian designers are returning to the craft, building on both digital innovation and traditional sensibilities. These type designers are experimenting with indigenous scripts to craft fonts inspired by street typography, and they are even redefining what Nigerian type can look like. And the beautiful thing is, this is finding its way into global design conversations.

Chisaokwu Joboson understands there is a lack of infrastructure for type designers in Lagos and Africa at large. There are no formal programmes, limited tools and only a few peers, which he says can be isolating. But he has also been vocal about building a community for type designers, so future designers wouldn’t have to start from scratch.

Chisaokwu’s pivot into type design was propelled by lack of inclusion. He was designing for African brands at first and felt frustrated that type designers like himself had to settle for Western typography that didn’t fully represent them – so he sought to change that. The journey has since been challenging and rewarding for him.

“Type design has a way of humbling you, it’s precise, technical, and often time-demanding, but also expressive and full of discovery. For me, it’s been a journey of learning, unlearning, and trying to bring a bit of African culture into a field that’s historically Western,” he explains.

Chisaokwu approaches his craft as a conversation in which the letter has deep meaning enough to capture people’s attention or evoke a specific emotion. He usually starts with an idea that is somewhat cultural and visual, then he sketches and tests it digitally. He tells me about his latest project titled Mekanikal Display, which is a monospaced, industrial-inspired font rooted in African vernacular. “The name comes from the local spelling of mechanic, and its beveled cuts mimic the shape of a nut section, a small nod to workshop aesthetics. To me, it’s bold, raw, and mechanical but with a handmade spirit, supporting African languages,” he says.

Over the years, Chisaokwu has created some programmes and brands. First is the Ụdị Foundry, an independent type foundry where he creates typefaces rooted in African expression but made for the global design space. With his brand Studio Ansa, he blends strategic designs with storytelling, and also uses it to help other brands find an answer to their design problems. Type Afrika is the community he built to cater to other creatives like himself and has since been a space for sharing knowledge, and building a new generation of type designers across the continent.

He is currently working on Gidigbo and Afro Sans, which he hopes to release in 2026. Gidigbo is an expressive display font inspired by Yoruba traditional wrestling and Afro Sans is an Afrocentric approach to san serif type design. He is also expanding Ojuju, calling it a version two, with a newly added weight, and improved metrics and kerning.

Seyi Olusanya sees type design in two ways: a means to learn about the continent and a way to contribute to the visual vernacular. It is why he wants designers to add genuinely African types to their design vocabulary and not have to rely entirely on pattern tropes or the expected colour schemes.

Seyi studied both architecture and environmental design. While in school, he took on brand and marketing design to get by, then started type design because he wanted to try something new. He has realised that he doesn’t want to dedicatedly do type design, he wants to make a few typefaces that he really likes. “I am more interested in building out African design visual language beyond the tropes and one of the ways I’ll do that is with type design,” he says.

Part of his process involves looking through archives especially sites like archivi.ng and Nigerian Nostalgia Project. He is also inspired by his environment: bus stops, signage, church marketing, small businesses with capital constraints.

Seyi’s most significant work is Danfo, a 2018 project that draws direct inspiration from the vinyl cut-out lettering found on Lagos’s public buses. Tac, his second project was inspired by the wordmark of Festac’ 77, which he had collaborated with Google Fonts to create. “Working on Danfo and Tac solidified in my mind the kind of type design I am interested in.” he tells Its Nice That.

It was also the reason he set up Afrotype in order to build out a catalogue of typefaces, inspired by important events and figures in African history as well as environment and culture. At the moment, he runs Da Design Studio, which is dedicated to creating a modern brand identity systems for Nigerian businesses and has done great works for huge startups across Lagos.

Before his big pivot into type design, David James Udoh was a graphic designer without formal training and with only a passion and a dream he mentions was ambitious. His curiosity eventually led him into brand design, which gave him a playground to experiment with typography constantly. He was working with type every other day, manipulating and breaking it. On many occasions, he wished certain typefaces had existed to make his work easier. Moments like that were all he needed to change the trajectory of his career.

The journey ever since has been a learning curve, spending months obsessed with details most people can hardly notice – but that’s the beauty of it. He has learnt that it is a meditative path which allows him to slow down and pay attention to insignificant things.

David’s process usually starts with collecting photos, sketches, objects and even sounds. From there, he starts sketching quite loosely, either on paper or directly in glyphs without worrying about perfection. Once he has managed to lock in the style and direction, then comes the endless refinement: testing, spacing, redrawing, testing again. Over the years he has drawn inspirations to the minds of few type designers and studios, but Ohno Type definitely stands out the most. “I absolutely love how expressive and stylistic their typefaces are. They feel alive in a way that really excites me. Their work has this energy that refuses to be boring, and that’s exactly the kind of type design I’m drawn to, the kind that has personality and isn’t afraid to show it,” he says.

Currently, he runs an independent visual archive, Caveat Emptor that collects and documents vernacular design culture in Nigeria. “Spending time with these signs made me realise how deeply design lives in everyday spaces and how much creativity happens outside formal training. It has shaped how I see letterforms, not just as aesthetic objects but as reflections of people's stories and ingenuity.” he says.

His work Funky Waka is a funky, highly stylised serif typeface inspired by the hand-painted transit and signage designs found across Lagos and Mombasa. The font captures the essence of local visual culture, infusing elements of spontaneity and dynamic, energetic letterforms into its design. At the moment, he is currently working on the extended version in which he plans to add comprehensive support for Sub-Saharan African languages.

Closer Look

Ugonna-Ora shares further reading, research and people to follow, around the subject of contemporary Nigerian type design.

• Read: The reinvention of Nsibidi and The Nsibidi script series by Author Nnedi Okorafor.

• Look through: Festac ’77 images on Instagram, detailing all the highlights from the archive.

• Follow: Chisaokwu Joboson, Seyi Olusanyan, David James Udoh, Afrotype, archivi.ng, Nigerian Nostalgia Project, Ụdị Foundry.