The Geoffrey Bawa Space presents **Akurugraphy**, a new exhibition exploring the history, culture, and future of letterforms across Sri Lanka’s three official languages. Showcasing the decade-long work of Colombo-based graphic design firm and type foundry Mooniak, the exhibition examines how the digitisation of Sinhala, Tamil, and Latin scripts shapes communication, identity, and cultural continuity in the digital age.
The exhibition explores the vital role of writing systems in preserving knowledge and connecting people across time and place. Beyond their function as tools for reading, letterforms are presented as cultural artefacts that reflect history, identity, and belonging. Through contemporary type design, Akurugraphy highlights the intersection of art, linguistics, technology, and design, inviting visitors to consider the decisions that influence how languages are represented and preserved for future generations.
Featuring typographic specimens, archival material, and software developed throughout Mooniak’s practice, Akurugraphy celebrates letterforms as both artistic expression and essential digital infrastructure. The exhibition also considers the technical and cultural challenges of designing typefaces for multilingual audiences in an increasingly connected world.
Throughout the exhibition, the Geoffrey Bawa Space will host a programme of monthly talks, curatorial tours, workshops, and children’s activities, encouraging visitors of all ages to engage with typography, language, and design.
Akurugraphy is open Wednesday to Sunday from 10.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. and runs until **8 November 2026**. The exhibition has been designed to be welcoming and accessible to all visitors, with step-free access, wheelchair-accessible facilities, and tactile elements throughout.
Mooniak is a Colombo-based graphic design firm and type foundry working at the intersection of culture, typography, design, and identity. Specialising in multilingual type design for Sinhala, Tamil, and English, the studio combines local insight with a global perspective to create typefaces and visual systems for Sri Lankan audiences. Working with a network of collaborators from around the world, Mooniak is committed to advancing Sri Lanka’s visual identity while fostering an open, collaborative culture. Much of its work is published under libre and open-source licences, making high-quality type design more widely accessible.
