26 Letters: Illuminating the Alphabet
30 September 2004 – 30 January 2005

Alan Fletcher and Jamie Jauncey, 2004

In 2004, the writing group 26 and the International Society of Typographic Designers joined forces to explore the DNA of language. Twenty-six business writers were randomly paired with twenty-six graphic designers, given one letter each and asked to create a collaborative work that celebrated, explored, questioned, elucidated or subverted that letter.

The resulting exhibition was displayed throughout the British Library as part of the London Design Festival, 2004.

We were asked to keep a diary 'as a written record of the process of creating the poster'. That’s a word-led request. So I’ve passed it on to my writer collaborator [Jamie Jauncey]. My diary is visual. A collection correspondence, notes, images and scribbles. A potential collage rather than a sequence of sentences. I send you some of this stuff. I don’t think in a step by step fashion, or string things together like sequential beads. I shuffle in backwards and look around.

By the way we send you two posters. If that’s a problem you pick one of them. AF

www.bl.uk
www.istd.org.uk

 

Exhibition year: 
2005