Dana SaltounLet’s talk

2026

Aleph

Homage to Michal Sahar

  • Typography
  • Print

Michal Sahar’s three typefaces, in a catalogue that presents her work as a complete visual system.

  • MediumPrint
  • RoleDesign, research, print production
  • ContextCourse project

About the project

The catalogue was born out of admiration for her work.

Aleph, Homage to Michal Sahar examines three typefaces by Michal Sahar: Fedra Hebrew, Masada, and Greta Text Hebrew. The typefaces are characterised by a wide range of weights, a historical foundation, and trilingual support.

Typography is the field that draws me more than any other. When it came time to choose an artist for the catalogue, I knew I wanted a typographer, and I chose Michal Sahar: a contemporary type designer whose work influences visual culture in Israel.

This catalogue is my semester project for the Artist Catalogue course, under the guidance of David Moskovitz and Tal Fransky.

HIT · Visual Communication BA · Second year · Artist catalogue

The catalogue standing upright, its kraft cover printed with a large red Aleph, the translucent jacket lifted away from it

Process

Research

I went looking for Michal’s typefaces at work in the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, in its own branding. Then I interviewed her. I came away with material, and with answers to things I hadn’t been sure of. I understood how she arrived at the work she does today.

  • Dana photographing an exhibition wall at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the Hebrew title and text set in a typeface on the white wall beside her
    At the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
  • Greta Text on its foundry’s page, Latin small caps above and a line of Hebrew below, shared on screen during the interview
    Michal Sahar walking me through Greta Text, in our interview.

The grid

The object, a letter or a picture, always stands at the centre. The text goes in the margins, still inside the columns.

  • An empty spread in InDesign: the column guides in violet and the margins, the same on both pages
    The grid, empty.
  • A spread on the grid: a large white Bet on black on the left, its serif picked out in red, and Hebrew and Latin letters set side by side on the right
    Masada: the letter at the centre, the words in the margin.

Covers that didn’t make it

Three of the many sketches for the cover, tried and set aside before the final one.

  • Cover sketch on kraft: a solid red Aleph
  • Cover sketch: the outline of the Aleph with its curve points, and a solid Aleph cropped large beside it
  • Cover sketch: the outline of the Aleph with a small solid Aleph inside it

Key decisions

Name and cover

All three typefaces are present on the cover itself.

I looked for a letter that could be broken into three parts, matching the number of typefaces in the catalogue, and chose Aleph (א), the letter that signifies beginning and opening. I deconstructed it into three parts and assembled a new Aleph, with each part built from a different typeface: Fedra, Masada, and Greta.

The kraft cover with its solid red Aleph beside the translucent jacket, which draws the same Aleph as a red outline with its curve points
The kraft cover, and the jacket that draws the same Aleph in outline.
The catalogue's kraft cover and its translucent jacket laid flat side by side on a grey table

Typography

Each chapter is set in the typeface it presents.

The chapter openers display that typeface across its weights. The introduction and the final chapter are set in Greta Text Hebrew, a typeface designed for running text and therefore suited to continuous reading.

The catalogue open flat at a spread from the Masada chapter: one letter drawn across both pages in black, its serif in red, and a short Hebrew line at the top right
A spread from the Masada chapter: one letter across both pages, its serif in red.

Material

The cover is made of kraft.

A paper produced from wood pulp, as an echo of the wood type once used in letterpress printing. The interior is printed on uncoated DALUM paper with a greyish tone.

The spine of the catalogue under its translucent jacket, the Hebrew title along it and the red outline of the Aleph on the cover above
The kraft board under the translucent jacket, at the spine.
The catalogue lying on its side, the spine and the jacketed cover seen close

Red under red

A red chosen to disappear.

Under a red film sits a passage that shows selected weights of the typeface. I printed about 120 reds on the catalogue’s own paper and laid the film over them, to find the one that hides best: #D21600.

Part of a trial sheet: the same Hebrew sentence printed in twenty four named reds, each with its code
Part of the trial sheet: about 120 reds, in five groups.
The whole first page of the trial sheet, the same sentence in rows of reds from scarlet to burgundy and a systematic sweep of hue and brightness

The opener, from first trial to the film

  • A hand holding an early print of the Fedra chapter opener, its right page covered in red and black specimen words, and on the table a sheet with a large Aleph in red and black
    A very first trial, and beside it an Aleph that shows the kinds of serif.
  • The Fedra chapter opener in InDesign: a page of running text in red in several weights of Fedra, each labelled, and opposite it the name Fedra
    The passage, set on the grid, before the film.
  • Two hands holding the catalogue open at the Fedra chapter: both pages red under the film, the running text gone, only the small white names of the weights and the title Fedra showing
    The final opener, under its red film: the passage disappears, the names of the weights stay.

Inside the catalogue

  1. A spread naming Masada Mono, the Hebrew and the Latin set opposite each other and joined by leader lines
  2. A spread for a children's typeface, its letters cut into red and blue shapes on the left page and the full character set on the right
  3. An open spread tiled with one Hebrew letter repeated in black across both pages, three of them picked out in red
  4. A spread of running text set in Hebrew, Arabic and English at the same size, side by side
  5. An open spread with the words Hebrew typography set large on both pages, red marks drawn across the letters
  6. The book held open, a page of running text on the left and a grid of punctuation and symbols in red and black squares on the right
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On show

Selected for a month-long display at Beit Ariela.

Part of the “Art Catalog Design” exhibition.

Dana on stage at the closing event at Beit Ariela, in conversation from two armchairs, the catalogue's cover and jacket projected on the screen behind them
At the closing event, I presented it on stage and answered questions from the audience.
The stage at Beit Ariela before the closing event, two armchairs under a screen reading 6/6 Art Catalog Design
The catalogue on the exhibition table seen from above, its jacket over the kraft cover, beside a card with Dana's name and a short text
The exhibition text on an acrylic stand, a poster from another catalogue behind it, and the catalogue lying in front