1896 Environmental type design project

Combining unused typographic designs for Fedrigoni 366 Calendar with an old personal design project – BLK LTR – interesting styles began to emerge for a new, typographic experiment.

I wanted the typographic designs for the numbers to be used to convey something meaningful. So sustainability development – an issue I feel strongly about – would be my subject matter of choice. During the research, I was shocked to discover that the potential effects on climate as a consequence of human activity were first predicted by Swedish scientist, Svante Arrhenius, in 1896! Yet to date we have still failed to fully tackle the issue with all the resources available at our disposal.

With this in mind, I wanted the typographic design to feel extreme in form to reflect the drastic nature of the situation. Exaggeration is a useful tool to gain emphasis and impact. It was also essential for the bespoke typography to be versatile, so the numbers were developed in two separate styles. One would exaggerate the width, the second would do the same for the height.

With both a vertically or horizontally extending creative solution in place, it should be practical regardless of the aspect ratio of the container. When combined with the keyline design details it led to dramatic results. In addition to the typography, an unused melting egg timer from a previous design project, provided the perfect marque. Finally, the colour red was employed throughout to convey a sense of urgency.

To test the design flexibility of the typographic designs, simple animations, and editorial mock-ups were created.