Events
Tone in Tongue: Exhibition Tour
with Mary Y. Yang
Join the curator from Radical Characters for a radical exhibition tour at Letterform Archive
- Date
- Time
Next in the reading room, we will be hosting Tone in Tongue, a multi-venue international exhibition curated by Radical Characters, an educational and curatorial platform exploring typography, language, and Hanzi (Chinese characters).
Join Mary Y. Yang, co-founder of Radical Characters for a curator talk at Letterform Archive. The talk will start promptly at 1:00pm and will include a Q&A segment at the end of the tour.
For the talk, Mary will offer an in-depth look at the exhibition’s concept and curatorial approach and how Tone in Tongue brings together contemporary design studios, independent publishers, and emerging designers through multilingual typography and print—finding common ground across language, diasporic identity, and visual culture.
Tone in Tongue brings together 50 international designers and over 100 publications, and includes commissioned posters by international studios; contributions from emerging practitioners selected through an open call; a curated collection of independent publications; and a design magazine tour tracing evolving perspectives on East Asian graphic design over the past two decades—featuring selections from the archives of Design360° (China), GRAPHIC (South Korea), and idea magazine (Japan).
Mary Y. Yang
Mary Y. Yang (she/her) is a graphic designer and educator based in Boston, MA. She is the co-founder of Radical Characters, an educational and curatorial platform that researches and explores graphic design, typography, and culture through Hanzi (Chinese characters). Yang is an Assistant Professor at Boston University, where she teaches in both the undergraduate and graduate Graphic Design programs. Her research and pedagogical approach examine how language, particularly multilingual writing and design, can serve as a tool for cultural exchange, cultivating collection sites for knowledge, and bridging cross-cultural dialogue to foster deeper understanding and connection across diverse communities.
She is currently the 2025–2026 Artist-Writer-in-Residence at Johns Hopkins University’s University Writing Program. Her work has been recognized by Communication Arts and featured in AIGA, PRINT Magazine, Society of Typographic Arts, Design360°, and Hyperallergic, and has been named as one of Graphic Design USA’s 2026 People to Watch.
