Ezrat Gvarim/1000 Shkiot by Alma Hanegbi

Published April 15, 2025

עזרת גברים / 1000 שקיות, or Ezrat Gvarim/1000 Shkiot (“Men’s Sector/1000 Bags”). On the Spectacle of Bags in the Haredi Male Sector of Jerusalem as a Combination of Compulsion and Deliberate Differentiation is the title of Alma Hanegbi’s final project at the Department of Visual and Material Culture, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design.

The book examines the phenomenon of bags as an alternative to briefcases among the Haredi male population in Jerusalem. What began as a casual wander and the photographing of examples evolved into in-depth research that encompasses quotations on Haredi fashion, the wandering and walking habits of the community, the history of briefcases and bags, internet screenshots, literary excerpts, diary entries, and a plethora of photographs by the editor.

The book was designed to render its complex material accessible – even as it incorporates footnotes, quotations, interviews, and images. It emphasizes the plasticity and the ‘cheap’ and ‘undignified’ character of the bags, contrasting them with the dignified and serious nature of Haredi dress and culture.

To create this effect, Maor Freedman’s design employs Narkiss Tam Narrow in red (skewed with a mechanical tilt!) for the headlines, evoking an atmosphere reminiscent of supermarket signage and the typography found on store bags. The informative text is also set in Narkiss Tam, underscoring the supposed ‘coolness’ and objectivity of such texts while establishing a distance between the conveyed knowledge and the lived experience on the Haredi street.

The project was supervised by Prof. Ory Bartal, Galit Gaon, and Dr. Tal Frenkel Alroy.

Diary excerpts, interviews, and literary quotations are rendered in Hadassah—a classic font with heritage and a dignified, warmer quality than Narkiss Tam, serving as a secular alternative to the fonts typically seen in Haredi-religious literature (such as Frank-Rühl, Dragolin, Vilna, and their kin).

The informative footnotes are set in Narkiss Block Mono, a font with a technical character and a structured, monospaced rhythm that evokes archival materials produced by a typewriter.

Apart from the colors found in the images, the color scheme is limited to black and red—an allusion to the printing style of ancient sacred books, which were often printed in black with red headlines (thanks to Banya Mar for the stunning reference to this world). The grid itself recalls that of Talmudic texts, featuring a central body of text with surrounding notes that “break” into it, contrary to conventional layouts. However, due to the complexity of the material, a more intricate grid was required. In contrast to the symmetric grids typical of sacred books, the layout on the double-page spread consistently employs a right-aligned block on both the right and left pages. This deliberate asymmetry offers a secular interpretation—a meeting between worlds: the spiritual and the everyday, the sacred and the past, intertwined with the expressions of contemporary life.

This post was originally published at Fonts In Use

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