ABSTRACT
Developing the Yoruba alphabet as a typographic font style for application on computer graphic design for Yoruba audience, emerged from observations on incessant adoption of English alphabetic symbols as typographic font styles for encoding text elements of graphic design for Yoruba audience through graphic design software such as CorelDraw. Five objectives with five research questions and four hypotheses were formulated. The study examined the usage of typographic font styles in some selected Yoruba movie posters and investigated the effectiveness of the font software used in encoding their text elements. It also examined the codes/signs adopted as typographic font styles in some selected Yoruba movie posters and investigated the effectiveness of the literal language interpretation in relation to orthographic Yoruba language. The study developed orthographic Yoruba typographic font style for application on digital graphic design for Yoruba audience, and evaluated the efficacy of the newly created orthographic Yoruba font style on Yoruba movie posters in terms of readability in literal Yoruba language. Survey and Experimental methods were adopted for the study. The population sample was determined by purposive sampling and census population of 28 graphic designer and 34 Yoruba Movie Producers from the chief host of the population of the study such as Lagos in north-west Yoruba (NWY) were used for the sample size. Five point Likert scale designers' and Yoruba Movie Producers' questionnaire with close-ended statements (in items 1-9), (1-6), (1-6) and (1-10) respectively were adopted. The result was observed and analyzed from mean and standard deviation of respondents. The four null hypotheses were tested using student's t-test statistics at (0.05) alpha level of significance. The findings revealed that letters of orthographic Yoruba alphabet are not trendy as typographic font styles in encoding captions of Yoruba movie posters and the graphic design software used in encoding captions of Yoruba movie posters were found unsuitable in encoding text elements of graphic design for Yoruba audience through graphic design software such as CorelDraw. Based on the findings, it was concluded that the codes/signs used as typographic font styles in encoding captions of Yoruba movie posters cannot adequately interpret literal meaning of orthographic Yoruba language. The orthographic letters of Yoruba alphabet was developed into Yoruba typographic font and the efficacies (success) of the newly created Yoruba typographic font style used to encode the captions of the new Yoruba movie poster were accepted. The study recommends that graphic designs for Yoruba audience's text elements to be encoded in letters of orthographic Yoruba alphabet through an enlightenment campaign. Yoruba media producers should adopt the use of appropriate font styles to encode captions and other text elements of graphic designs for Yoruba audience; and the governments of Nigeria's Yoruba speaking states, Teachers of Yoruba language and Yoruba media producers should promote the adoption of orthographic Yoruba alphabet to encode captions and other text elements of graphic designs for Yoruba audience through public service campaigns, workshops, and seminars.