When it comes to typography language always comes first. This might seem like a fairly obvious statement to make but to find this harmony between content and form is incredible hard.

It was the first problem I came across when I started making books and it stemmed from being both author and designer. There is a need to achieve legibility but also have a strong visual aesthetic. I don’t think they are exclusive but at times they can be at odds.

An example of exploring this balance came about in a project called a ‘dictionary story’. Initially the project started as a short narrative in which certain words from the dictionary became living characters that met each other –

“Springs next victim was Lawless who was rejoicing in being knocked away from such a boring neighbour as Lawful. Lawless landed straight on top of Lawn which suddenly became very unruly. After some time Lawn was no longer and in its place sat Jungle, happily spreading its creepers across the page.”

From exploring the meaning in writing it was then applied it to its design. As I came to set the type I realised, by creating two columns, you could have the story running in one whilst the definitions of the words ran in the other.

The final element to ‘a dictionary story’ was the typographic illustrations. Here I used the definitions to illustrate what was happening in the narrative.

This project hopefully goes some way to explaining some of my thoughts around language and design.