Muuseum näitab keelt
Contributed by Margus Tamm on May 13th, 2018. Artwork published in
May 2010
.
Source: www.tammtamm.net License: All Rights Reserved.
Graphic identity, infographics and UI design for an exhibition about language in the Estonian National Museum.
In Estonian, the name of the exhibition is a wordplay based on that both language and tongue are marked with the same word. “Muuseum näitab keelt” could translate as “the museum presents language” or “the museum shows its tongue”.
The ASCII-art based design concept –– set in Courier New on all exhibition-related material –– evolved naturally from the fact that linguists use monospaced fonts for their profession.
Source: www.tammtamm.net License: All Rights Reserved.
Source: www.tammtamm.net License: All Rights Reserved.
Source: www.tammtamm.net License: All Rights Reserved.
Source: www.tammtamm.net License: All Rights Reserved.
Source: www.tammtamm.net License: All Rights Reserved.
1 Comment on “Muuseum näitab keelt”
The triple-struck effect for the title is a charming reference to the typewriter era. Typewriters had no true bold (let alone italic) styles. Apart from ALL CAPS, l e t t e r s p a c i n g and underscores, the only way to emphasize text was to emulate a bold style. This could either be done by hitting the key with force, or, more elegantly and better for your fingertips, by setting back the carriage and typing the character a second or third time. The backspacing usually wasn’t perfectly precise, causing a small offset between the layers.
Johan Winge embraced this makeshift and incorporated such double struck letters for the bold weight of his Cubiculum font family:
I believe that daisy-wheel printers, like the Diablo 630, supported a bold mode which worked by overstriking with a small offset. Sample (quite a poor one) on archive.org/details/creativ…
I have used a line-printer which did bold by overstriking with no offset, and that worked well with cheap ribbons and poor quality paper.