In his travels throughout the world, Jean-Benoît Lévy collected specimens of hand-signage that he discovered in various pack­aging, sign­age or in­struc­tion manuals. More than a decade of research and design on the subject of hand signs resulted in this award-winning* icono­graphical type­face and the publi­cation: “Handbook: A book of handsigns” The name “H-AND-S” blends the subject with the name of Lévy’s San Francisco based studio, AND, where it was created.

We are all individually different but we have one thing in common: each of us regularly comes in contact with those modern hiero­glyphs, which are the little hand sign codes prevalent in our daily lives. Even if particular signs mean something different from one culture to another, there remains a common hand-sign lan­guage. All around us these signs are used like a global language because they are meant to be understood by all of us. Each time we use a tool, open a container, or play rock-paper-scissors we are utilizing the language of hand signs. Worldwide, people make these easily understood signs we so often rely on for information, for help, or for directions. We take these signs for granted so are we truly aware of them?

Collecting, redrawing, ordering, unifying. The simple graphical exercise of collecting those signs became step-by-step, a complex signage program. The choice of those signs is based on daily movements and on universal hand codes. Logically, this typeface starts with the “Manual Alphabet for the Deaf” and is mapped to the upper and lowercase keys of the QWERTY keyboard. H-AND-S is the first time so many hand signs were assembled and redrawn in one consistent style. The language of hand signs is universal. It belongs to no one in particular and to all of us in general.

*The H-AND-S typeface received a Grand Prize in the 2024 United Designs Alliance Annual International Design Competition for Signs, Systems, and Letterform Marks.