Design · Calligraphy
Runatal
Рунаталь — когда кровь говорит, руны отвечают
A hand-written calligraphy book: a Cyrillic alphabet drawn in the shape of runes
I drew a Cyrillic alphabet in the shape of the Elder Futhark runes, then wrote a whole text with it by hand: the Rúnatal, Odin's song of how he won the runes. The pages are red and black, the lines bend and cross like cuts, and the book folds out as an accordion.
Do you know how to cut? Do you know how to read? Do you know how to stain?
Brief
The assignment was to develop a hand of my own from a historical script, and to make a book with it. I chose a text that is itself about writing: the Rúnatal from the Hávamál, where Odin hangs on the windswept tree for nine nights and takes up the runes. Its questions run through the book: “Do you know how to cut? Do you know how to read? Do you know how to stain?”
If the text is about runes, it should be written in runes, but readable in Russian. So I made a Cyrillic alphabet out of runic strokes: straight lines, sharp angles, no curves, letters that look carved rather than drawn.
Two colours only, red and black, like blood and ink. The lines of text curve, cross and run off the edge of the page, as if they were cut into wood rather than set in rows.
Process
I started from the Elder Futhark, studying how each rune is built, and matched Cyrillic letters to runic shapes. Then I wrote the whole text by hand with a pen, scanned it, and set the scans in InDesign. There were two versions of the layout: the first one and a fixed one, which went to print as an accordion-fold book.
A printed accordion book in red and black, every letter written by hand.
Credits
- Text: the Rúnatal from the Hávamál (Elder Edda), in an existing Russian translation
HSE Art and Design School, BA Communication Design