Agụ Display

In 2023, Google Fonts commissioned me to build Agụ Display, a decorative display typeface with a substitution axis that makes the letters dance.

It brings Nsibidi, the symbol system of the Ekpe secret society, from Cross River to Cameroon, into type. Before I drew a single letter, I spent about two years exploring Nsibidi visually.

Conceptualisation

The research left me with a set of Nsibidi pictograms. I drew them on a 64px grid so they could sit side by side or stack, and that set became the library every decoration comes from.

Then I drew the skeleton, a plain alphabet that stays the same in every style. Each master swaps a different group of pictograms onto it: bones, chevrons, ladders and bristles.

The axis works by substitution. On MORF, from 0 to 60, each master owns a range, and moving along it swaps one set of decorations for the next. It was the first variable axis of its kind.

Start with a skeleton

The base typeface is the skeleton. Every Nsibidi decoration sits on top of it.

Three masters, one axis

Agụ Display has three masters: Ụzọ, Osisi and Àlà. They morph into each other on one substitution axis, and each takes its decorations from different Nsibidi symbols.

The letters dance

Once the interpolation worked, I tested spacing and colour so each master still reads as its own style as the axis moves.

Stamps, stickers and motion

For the launch I made stamps and stickers with Midjourney and Runway, then finished every one by hand in Photoshop and Illustrator.

Release

Agụ Display launched on agudisplay.com in 2024 and joined the Google Fonts library in 2025. I led the project with guidance from the Google Fonts team.