Noramoji is a combination of the Japanese words, nora (stray) and moji (text.) It's a font that appears in the signs of local vintage storefronts in Japan. These vintage fonts offer a distinct look and insight into the history of Japan. The Noramoji project started out between three friends Rintaro Shimohama, Naoki Nishimura and Shinya Wakaoka, where they travel around town in search for vintage toy and stationary shops, local florists and aged barbershops to create a complete set of typefaces based on the storefront's font design (after getting approval from the store owners,) making them available for download.
The video simply illustrates the process of the creation of Noramoji, the first being the search and obtaining permission from store owners. The second step involves taking apart the components of the sign and reconstruct it so that a full set of Japanese characters can be made. The fonts will be made for downloading and can be used in your own laptop or computer.
Key Themes Behind This Trend
- Vintage Fonts
- Offering customizable downloads of rare and meaningful vintage font sets provides a differentiated offering that appeals to nostalgia enthusiasts and designers alike.
- Localized Typography
- Leveraging regional typography from local storefronts and other landmarks presents a unique and potentially revenue-generating opportunity in the graphic design and advertisement industries.
- Customizable Fonts
- By offering customized retro font downloads, businesses can tap into a growing demand among individuals, designers and companies looking for unique branding opportunities.
Where This Applies
- Graphic Design
- Providing customizable font sets presents a tremendous growth opportunity for companies that offer design services and software.
- Advertising
- Offering personalized typography for marketing communications allows companies to create more impactful and localized campaigns, potentially generating higher engagement from target audiences.
- E-commerce
- With the increased demand for unique fonts, online storefronts that offer customizable font sets can create a new revenue stream, driven by a surge in demand for customized design.
