November 2, Saturday 15:00 – Salt Galata
Stone inscriptions record not only the human activities of their time but also the gestural tendencies of the craftspeople who carved them 2,000 years ago. Located in the south of Asia Minor, the Pamphylia region hosted the ancient Greek city of Perge, one of the most important capitals of the Mediterranean which is also rich in epigraphic findings from the Roman Imperial period. The Perge Project is a Greek typeface design project that draws its core visual references from the stone inscriptions of Perge’s Columned Avenue and Theater. This project takes inspiration from epigraphic and paleographic evidence, the textures observed on these stones, and the impact of 2,000 years of erosion. The aim of this project is to resurrect these ancient stone inscriptions and transform them into a useful design tool—a typeface—suitable for contemporary contexts, whether for archaeologists, epigraphers, or graphic designers. A joint collaboration between Sabancı University and Istanbul University, the Perge Project, under the supervision of Onur Yazıcıgil and with the invaluable guidance of the Department of Classical Archaeology at Istanbul University, explores the possibilities of type revivalism from a multidisciplinary perspective. In this presentation, Bartu will discuss the emergence of this project, its development, and how he ended up buying an Indiana Jones hat in admiration of archaeologists.
Bartu Başaran is a graphic and type designer who earned his BFA in Graphic Design from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in Istanbul. He is currently pursuing a MA degree at Sabancı University, where he continues his studies and research in type design under the supervision of Onur Yazıcıgil. Additionally, he works as a teaching assistant in typography courses at Sabancı University. His thesis project concentrates on multi-script typeface design, particularly Greek and Latin. Bartu resides in Kurtuluş (Tatavla), one of the oldest and most multiethnic neighborhoods in Istanbul.