Phonetikana

This typeface, called Phonetikana, takes the Japanese phonetic script, Katakana, and embeds English language phonetic sounds into the characters. This enables visitors to Japan to ‘pronounce’ the Japanese sounds correctly, and to begin to understand and recognise key characters and shapes. Katakana is used to ‘translate’ Western words into Japanese, so it seemed logical to start with that script. The typeface was designed primarily for educational purposes, but has already been used in Japanese fashion applications and in Japanese magazines.