Third-Year University Project, 2014
Awarded ISTD Membership
The brief:
Choose one thing, object, word, term – whatever you wish. The more specific, the more you can zoom in and go into details, the better. Observe it, analyse it, take it to pieces, deconstruct it. Include and mention every detail that, in your opinion, makes it complete. Look at it from perspectives you haven’t considered before, discover it in different ways. Work specifically, accurately and keep very much to the point.
The response:
The everything about one thing focused on is the mystery behind the naming of the # symbol. It has turned up in many different names and uses in its development. Specifically, its ‘original’ ‘typographical’ name is silently fought over; a debate in a cross between the typographic and technological worlds. Therefore my series of the four biggest theories on the name, and a fifth introductory booklet, sets up the reader with everything they need to know on the topic. It is an unbiased experience, with any personal commentary coming from the stance of the # itself, as if it is finding out about its own complicated history.
Work featured in the Massey University School of Design Typography Exhibition, running 17-27 March in Level C Gallery on campus.
