Artistic heritage as a foundation of cultural identity in contemporary typographic design in Ukraine

A prominent thematic focus in the humanities and design fields in the 21st century has been the exploration of cultural identity in the context of globalisation, the promotion of unity in diversity, the recognition of the value of local cultures, and the development of methods to influence graphic design processes. This article aimed to analyse typographic design with Ukrainian identity from 2014 to 2024 and to investigate the sources of Ukraine’s cultural heritage that 21st-century designers have drawn upon in the creation of typefaces and lettering. The findings confirmed that typographic design was a vital element in expressing cultural identity within the work of Ukrainian designers, aligning closely with international practice. It was established that the reflection of Ukrainian identity in typefaces and typography was achieved by referring to four groups of cultural heritage sources: traditional Ukrainian writing systems, the synthesised experience of early 20th-century typographic art, the work of specific 20th-century graphic artists, and selected typographic artefacts (handwriting of cultural figures, archival photographs of urban shop signs, book and magazine graphics from the first half of the 20th century, and archival documents). Two distinct stages in the development of digital typeface content reflecting Ukrainian identity over the period 2000-2024 have been identified: 1) the creation of typeface families that made historical developments accessible (including cursive scripts, as well as the work of Heorhii Narbut and his followers); 2) the rise of Ukrainian fonts characterised by glocal design, along with the expansion of the source base referencing cultural heritage. The study identified both implemented approaches and existing gaps in the engagement with Ukrainian cultural heritage. It demonstrated the research-driven, synthetic, and experimental nature of typographic design in Ukraine during 2014-2024. It has been shown that Ukrainian designers approached the development of fonts with distinctly Ukrainian visual features in a deliberate and thoughtful manner, actively promoting their use through social communication. The findings are of value to both Ukrainian and international scholars, as they reveal the particularities of Ukraine’s engagement with a broader international trend in graphic design in the 2020s