Will Ћ Be the Next Typographic Character?

In a world where people spend 2-4 hours a day on social media and many of our conversations are capped at 140 characters, abbreviations have become increasingly useful.

Australian restaurateur, Paul Mathis, recognized this need and created a new symbol that shortens the word “the” to a single character by combining the letters “t” and “h” resulting in “Ћ.” His video promoting the symbol begs the question why the fifth most used word in the English language “and” has the ampersand, but the most commonly used word “the” is left symbol-less.

“Ћ” would undoubtedly help in reducing characters for Twitter (there’s nothing worse than composing the perfect 142 character tweet). And though Mathis argues that “Ћ” increases efficiency, many are skeptical of the character’s relevance and potential to catch on. Apple even rejected Mathis’s proposal to include his app “Symbol App,” which allows users to download a new keyboard containing the symbol. But Mathis isn’t phased – he’s invested over $75,000 AUD in his venture and is hopeful that one day “Ћ” will be as common as “&.”

So what would this mean for us in typography terms? Watch “Ћ’s” promotional video, and learn more about getting “Symbol App” at www.thethe.co.