Title | ADLaM |
Brief | To help preserve the Pulaar language — and help fight illiteracy within the community — we worked with the Barry brothers to rebuild ADLaM for the digital age and put it in the hands of the 60 million Fulani across the globe connecting through technology.While alphabets usually take hundreds of years to evolve into their final form, we were able to speed the process, using real-time community feedback to revise ADLaM’s outdated letterforms.Taking inspiration from Fulani visual culture, we researched hundreds of traditional textile patterns and designs, uncovering their unique meanings to define the final form of the characters. By weaving their heritage into the solution, the Fulani saw themselves in their very own alphabet.This new version of the alphabet is being made accessible on over one billion devices around the world, enhancing the Fulani’s access to educational, business and social tools—ensuring both the language and culture ADLaM represents live on for generations. |
Agency | McCann New York |
Campaign | ADLaM |
Advertiser | Microsoft |
Brand | Microsoft |
Date of First Broadcast/Publication | 2023 / 4 |
Business Sector | IT Solutions & Professional Networks |
Story | A new alphabet for an ancient people promises to preserve their culture and connect their community. |
Philosophy | The language of the Fulani people of West Africa, known as Pulaar, is spoken by over 40 million people, so it’s not in immediate danger. However, for most of its history, Pulaar never had an alphabet. Fulani are increasingly doing business, finding information, and expressing themselves via text on mobile devices. And if they can’t communicate digitally with an alphabet that reflects the language they speak, they will use other writing systems, and one day, other languages. For languages that have no digital script, the writing is on the wall. Thirty years ago, two Fulani brothers took it upon themselves to reverse this inevitability. They created an alphabet that would one day spread across the global Fulani community and beyond. It would come to be known as ADLaM, an acronym using the alphabet’s first four letters, which stands for Alkule Dandayɗe Leñol Mulugol, or “the alphabet that protects the people from vanishing.” |
Problem | What does it mean to lose a language? Deep knowledge, passed down over millennia—gone. Ways of thinking about the land, the sea, the sky, and the flora and fauna that inhabit them. Rituals and recipes. Myths and memories, erased. And for those who spoke the language, it means losing a part of themselves. |
Media Type | Digital |
Length | |
Music | Human |
Advertising Manager | Kathleen Hall |
Advertising Manager | Carol Phillips Hutchinson |
Advertising Manager | Steve Simmons |
Advertising Manager | Hannah Westing |
Advertising Manager | Lori Gross |
Client Global Creative Director | Sven Seger |
Client Senior Creative Director | Phyllis Murphy |
Client Creative Director | Steve Foyle |
Advertising Manager | Karina Reck |
Advertising Manager | Aleksey Federov |
Advertising Manager | Krystofer Glover |
Advertising Manager | Shyla Lindsey |
Producer | Kaity Butcher |
Strategist | Steve Wiens |
Advertising Manager | Si Daniels |
Advertising Manager | Andrew Glass |
Regional Chief Creative Officer | Sean Bryan |
Chief Creative Officer | Shayne Millington |
Chief Creative Officer | Pierre Lipton |
EVP, Global Executive Creative Director | Cristina Reina |
EVP, Global Executive Creative Director | Pete Johnson |
EVP, Head of Design | Matt Van Leeuwen |
Design Director | Mook Phoungbut |
Designer | Chocho Han |
Designer | Malik Dupree |
Senior Creative technologist | Alicia Foor |
Senior Art Director | Mikey Bready |
Senior Copywriter | Sarah Wagner |
Associate Creative Director / Art Director | Kazuo Kubo |
Associate Creative Director / Copywriter | Lucas Ribeiro |
Group Creative Director/Art Director | Guilherme Racz |
Group Creative Director / Copywriter | Lucas Casão |
EVP, Chief Production Officer | Aaron Kovan |
SVP, Executive Integrated Producer | Stacy Flaum |
Senior Integrated Producer | MJ Soler |
Senior Integrated Producer | Jory Sutton |
Junior Producer | Travae Davis |
Videographer | Katie Henry |
Senior Music Producer | Colleen Dahlstrom |
Junior Music Producer | Madison Rowe |
Chief Strategy Officer | Erica Yahr |
VP Strategy Director | Amadeo Plaza |
Associate Strategist | Kyla Jackson |
Post Production | Craft NY |
Director | Jean Didi |
Director/Photographer | Andrew Zeitner |
Photographer | Khadija Farah |
Announcer | Sahlima |
Creator | Ibrahima Barry |
Creator | Abdoulaye Barry |
Typeface Design | Mark Jamra |
Typeface Design | Neil Patel |
Typeface Design | Andrew Fotit |
Textile Expert | Duncan Clarke |