The Tales of Five Thousand Five Hundred Years – ISTD Awards Winner
–
The brief for the International Society of Typographical Designers (ISTD) asked for an original interpretation of the concept of ‘fakery.’ I depicted this by telling the story of the evolution of typography through the ages, and how it has faked its way from the origin of the hieroglyph through to modern society.
The book was inspired by the tales of One Thousand and One Nights, a collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian stories and folk tales. These tales are told by Queen Scheherazade as a way to defer her looming execution. She tells the grief-filled Persian King an incomplete story each evening and he keeps her alive for a further 1001 nights in eagerness to hear the tale’s conclusion.
To me fakery represented evolution, in this case the evolution of typography from the ancient Egyptian Hieroglyph through to modern day typefaces. The book is an ode to how the fictional Typeface Queen faked her way through the ages so as to stay relevant in each new era. Each spread represents a different point in time with a specific tie in history
with regards to typography.
with regards to typography.
The front spreads of the Japanese bound book features a hand illuminated gold letter, representing a specific typeface style through the ages. Each page with a diagonal stitch running through it and stitched closed on either side. All of the gold letters, when read together, spell out the word Queen. The back of the book pages patterning spell out the word Typeface – in modern patterns developed through the use of one letter per page – and reveal the true story of what happened in the form of a timeline, contrasting the fake stories in the front of the book.
–
Craft – Art Direction, Design, Illustration, Patterning and Copywriting
Project – Vega School Third Year Typographic Project
Awards – ISTD, International Society of Typographic Designers Award, London
