Yanek Iontef
Visual Communication Design
Established Designer Award
“Despite prevailing concern that technology will obliterate Hebrew script, we are now at a place where, myself included, it is possible to achieve widespread cultural influence and make long-forgotten treasures of the Hebrew characters accessible to designers and typography enthusiasts in Israel and abroad".
Typographer and letter designer Yanek Iontef was born in 1963 and graduated from the Visual Communication department at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in 1989. His work combines historic type research with a continuous dialogue with contemporary design values, designing and developing original Hebrew and Latin fonts. Over a series of typographic projects, he collected rare materials from different periods in the evolution of the Hebrew script, letterpress printing and typesetting catalogues, research books from Israel and abroad about the Hebrew script.
Iontef is a recipient of the 2022 Edmond de Rothschild Design Award for Established Visual Communication Designers.
The jury panel’s decision:
״Yanek Iontef presents a tremendous body of work in the field of design, preservation, restoration, and research of the Hebrew script. He is a brilliant typographer who acts as a creator, researcher, and conservator and, in so doing, preserves, rejuvenates and shapes the local visual culture.
His presence in the local design arena is prominent and constitutes a clear marker of quality in the field of typographic design in Hebrew. His unique and rigorous lifetime achievement will persist in the local visual culture for the decades to come, as well as in the distant future, and will be recorded as an important chapter in the history of Hebrew typography. With uncompromising depth and meticulousness, in continuous and astute work, Iontef creates new expression for the Hebrew letter, preserves ancient typographic traditions, revives typographic classics, and explores early and contemporary visual representations of the Hebrew letter.His presence is especially noteworthy when examined in relation to its influence on and contribution to the work of other designers. His studies allow for new uses and design interpretations in multiple voices and different arenas, to which the general public is exposed in every encounter with the written language.
In recognition of his outstanding and significant contribution to the local visual culture, the jury panel named Yanek Iontef as winner in the Senior Designer category of the 2020 Edmond de Rothschild Design Award in the field of Visual Communication״.
Typographer and letter designer Yanek Iontef was born in 1963 and graduated from the Visual Communication department at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in 1989. His work combines historic type research with a continuous dialogue with contemporary design values, designing and developing original Hebrew and Latin fonts. Over a series of typographic projects, he collected rare materials from different periods in the evolution of the Hebrew script, letterpress printing and typesetting catalogues, research books from Israel and abroad about the Hebrew script.
Iontef is a recipient of the 2022 Edmond de Rothschild Design Award for Established Visual Communication Designers.
The jury panel’s decision:
״Yanek Iontef presents a tremendous body of work in the field of design, preservation, restoration, and research of the Hebrew script. He is a brilliant typographer who acts as a creator, researcher, and conservator and, in so doing, preserves, rejuvenates and shapes the local visual culture.
His presence in the local design arena is prominent and constitutes a clear marker of quality in the field of typographic design in Hebrew. His unique and rigorous lifetime achievement will persist in the local visual culture for the decades to come, as well as in the distant future, and will be recorded as an important chapter in the history of Hebrew typography. With uncompromising depth and meticulousness, in continuous and astute work, Iontef creates new expression for the Hebrew letter, preserves ancient typographic traditions, revives typographic classics, and explores early and contemporary visual representations of the Hebrew letter.His presence is especially noteworthy when examined in relation to its influence on and contribution to the work of other designers. His studies allow for new uses and design interpretations in multiple voices and different arenas, to which the general public is exposed in every encounter with the written language.
In recognition of his outstanding and significant contribution to the local visual culture, the jury panel named Yanek Iontef as winner in the Senior Designer category of the 2020 Edmond de Rothschild Design Award in the field of Visual Communication״.