Intonation is an integral but confusing aspect of the Vietnamese language, as words with the same consonants and vowels could change meaning completely depending on tonal components. Using variations in letterforms and baselines, I aim to highlight the relative relationship between different vowels and tones, and show how adding accent marks would modify them.

What makes this language unique is that the tone changes in a complex and multi-directional way. For example, the tone “hỏi” (represented with a hook) starts out flat but drops in pitch rapidly toward the end, while the tone “ngã” (represented with a tilde) starts out low and rises in pitch abruptly in the end.

To tie these informations back to more practical use cases, I paired the sounds with names of fruits that contain these tones in Vietnamese, while also adding in a playful distortion inspired by the transformation caused by the tones.

An excerpt of this project was displayed at the Swash&Serif 9 - Toronto’s Largest Typography Show.