Writing and typographic design are very closely related disciplines. The problem is that sometimes they fail to talk to each other. The 26 Letters exhibition, however, shows that writers and typographic designers can not only talk to each other, but can also collaborate to create exceptional graphic messages.

THE INITIAL STEP
The original idea for the exhibition came out a series of conversations with the organizers of the 2004 London Design Festival, the International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD), and 26, a group of UK writers who got together to inspire a greater love of words in the business community. The ISTD had already expressed interest in mounting a typographic for the exhibition and the Festival organizers suggested that they collaborate with 26. The end result was not, however, your basic run-of-the-mill design exhibition.

Designers and writers would be paired to work on the individual posters. Freda Sack of the ISTD and principal of Foundry Type agreed to ask 26 graphic designers to participate. While Sack put together a “reserve” list, just in case her first choices came back negative, it proved unnecessary. “The designer wish list, with a brief overview of the project, went out late one Thursday evening. By the following day over half the designers came back with a ‘yes.’ And by early the following week all 26 designers were in.” At the same time, 26 had also come up with a list of writers.

The two lists were then put together so that the pairing of writer and designer was random. The first each writer or designer knew about their partner was when they received the project brief. “All designer/writer pairings and letter assignments were drawn out of a hat,” says Sack. “The chance factor played a big part in the final outcomes.”

She recalls, “One writer lamented, ‘A list of famous, revered, extraordinary designers, and I get the one I used to work with.’” Sack continues, “The pair ended up producing a huge edible poster for the letter k. They are also set to eat their own words, when the poster comes down at the end of the year.”

The project brief was deliberately kept open. No limits were set on the posters, other than a minimum size. It was also up to the pair to find a way to get their posters produced. In addition, each participant was asked to keep a diary about the project, which would later be incorporated into the catalog of the exhibition. The individual letter was the starting point—and the focus. The idea was that the letter might suggest a story, poem, or series of thoughts; and that these would be translated into images in a typographic poster. The organizers hoped that each partner of the pair would stray into the other’s thinking.