The use of digital media to broadcast an archaeological language may raise more than one eyebrow, but for Laurent Bourcellier, it’s a perfect combination. Born with a pencil in his hand, he knew early on that his future lay in the arts. At school, he wavered between drawing, oil painting and architecture before settling into the applied arts, even leaving Bar-le-duc to study at a boarding school in Nancy. Accepted into the Ecole Nationale Supérieure Duperré in Paris, he continued to be fascinated by graphics but soon discovered "the revelation of typography". At Ecole Estiennes, he started working on what he describes as "an important, interesting and relevant [research subject] firmly rooted in the present". Surprisingly, it was Ancient Egypt that would capture his imagination after seeing a translated Coptic script published by National Geographic. "After searching through the ancient texts, I realised that scientists did not have any universal typography to use in translations", he adds. Drawing on his graphic abilities, he created a digital Coptic font flexible enough to be adapted to any style, medium (including wood and pottery) or changes in the language. He may already have drawn 370 characters, but the italic and bold types still need to be crafted - a mammoth task that will keep him occupied for eight months before the font can be used by the scientific community. "Without this grant, everything would have stayed locked away in a drawer", he says. Now that he’s caught the bug, he hopes to uncover other rarely translated dialects and relive the experience all over again…

Age: 23 I Passions: Graphics, typography, design I Philosophy in life: Make your life a dream and your dream a reality I Goals: To continue working with the same passion I Favourite sites: www.typographe.com; www.peterb.sk; www.jeremytankard.com.  I Favourite typographers: Adrian Frutiger, Fred Smeijers, Peter Bilak and Jeremy Tankard.