A third-year Bachelor of Communication Design student at The Vega School at Emeris Pretoria, Danica Sher, recently celebrated a major milestone alongside her team after winning a Silver Loerie in the Student Integrated Campaigns category at the 48th annual Loeries Awards in Cape Town.

For Sher, creativity has always been about creating work that makes a difference.

App rethinks literacy for Gen Z

Their project, an app called typd, set out to rethink how a generation accustomed to digital platforms experiences reading, with personalisation at the heart of the concept.

The project was developed by Sher, Robyn Leila Stopforth, Mikael van Eeden, Violeta Perez Zaldivar and Jean Beumer, bringing together students from Communication Design and Experience Design.

Led by Sher, the team worked toward a shared goal: making reading more accessible and engaging for Gen Z.

”Typd was created as a response to the literacy crisis that we as a generation are facing in the world,” said Sher. “It came about as a way to get Gen Z engaged with the medium of writing and storytelling in a way that they are already familiar with, such as scrolling on a social media platform.”

The concept also considered the different ways people interact with written content, recognising that conventional reading formats do not necessarily accommodate everyone.

The app was designed to support users with dyslexia and other reading disabilities, while also giving readers greater control over their experience.

Focus on customisation and user control

Personalisation became one of the defining features of the app typd. Rather than presenting readers with a fixed interface, the platform allows them to adjust elements of their reading experience according to their preferences and accessibility requirements.

Users can customise fonts, colours, backgrounds and reading speeds, creating an environment that works for them.

”I would say the ultimate customisation is what makes our app different,” said Sher.

She points to the ability to select a neutral background, use dyslexia-friendly fonts or activate a words-per-minute reading mode as examples of how the platform gives readers more control.

These features were central to the team’s approach, ensuring that the concept extended beyond the appearance of an app to consider how people engage with reading itself.

Developing the project required the team to balance functionality with a straightforward user experience.

According to Sher, one of the biggest challenges was maintaining the depth of customisation while keeping the interface clean and easy to navigate.

Communicating the concept was another consideration, as the team needed to establish what distinguished the app typd and why a new user would want to try it.

Behind the creative development, Sher’s contribution extended into strategy, co-ordination and keeping the group focused throughout the process.

The guidance of their lecturers, Marijke Ooms and Tlholo Modiba, also played a significant role in the project’s development. Sher describes their feedback as detailed and constructive.

”They constantly saw the potential in our idea, which pushed us to want to develop it more and more until it was award-winning worthy,” said Sher.

Recognition marks meaningful creative milestone

For Sher, the recognition was initially difficult to comprehend. Having started her degree without imagining that such an achievement was possible, receiving a Loerie marked a particularly meaningful moment in her creative journey.

”Initially, it felt unreal because this is not something I even thought I was capable of when I started my degree,” said Sher. ”I know we put our whole hearts into this campaign, and we were so excited about it. So winning a Loerie was such an honour and also meant a lot to us because we know the work that we put in.”

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