Designer as Writer by rca-issuu

Scrawl Workshop

Designer as Writer was run as a one hour workshop for the Royal College of Art writing society Scrawl on the 24th January 2021. This publication is a result of the workshop, which explored the designer as writer and the writer as designer.

Contents p.6 Editors Introduction p.13 WITH BEST WISHES — Descriptions p.23 DEAR, TO, HELLO, — Replies p.37 WRITER AS DESIGNER — Footnotes

Spot the scaffolding Hattie Morrison Maybe letters sit like bricks, with air and space between them that turn to cement only when printed. The kind of air that can’t be wafted away once it’s held still, surrounded by inked words. Though flimsy, this is the lasting idea that stays with me, now — the lasting effect of such a project being that now, when I remember to, I try and see design. I try to see that other writer — the one with the strings and the tweaks, twisting the meaning in the shadows, in the ink. As I try and see the scaffolding that supports and serves, sabotages and decorates words, it feels a little like trying to see air — that carrier of sound, meaning, matter — and though difficult, I like that moment when it shows itself, finally, brazenly. The serif. The structure. Really, design, when you see it, is so unsubtle — it’s audacious manipulation of meaning, right under our noses. At the computer, at the start of this project, Anya and I spoke about the space between words for breath. About what it means to make room for meaning. What it means for the designer to lead the reader forward, in secret, with a little hand on their shoulder, tempting their eye to keep on going. The next bit. The next bit. Another page. Another. About what it means for the designer to lead us like a magician, coax us, trick us. About short sentences and the way they can shove sense. About line breaks and the way they can shatter sense all together.

Last year, before this project, I wrote something about vanilla, and through vanilla it was also, actually about sex, and food, and money, and presidents. It wasn’t very good but it wasn’t very long either. I emailed it to a friend and asked for their response. In discomfort, voice lowered a little, they said to me — “it took me so long to read. I kept having to start over. It was agony, honestly. I don’t know why.” It was only later, at the computer, at the beginning of this project, that Anya showed me why. I had tied rocks to my words, and they couldn’t move forward. They couldn’t hum or gather in the way I wanted them to. I had shattered their routes to sense. With font, format and orientation I had built obstructions. Without realising, I had played with the bricks too much and now gathered, they were just a pile, with little air pockets and clumps of collaged ideas. I had designed and so, changed the words. The way they read. Here, later, with the matter in your hand, we ask you to see the scaffolding. Spot the systems. Look at the snagging, or tearing, or cracking apart. The collaging of meaning and the way it is changed by movement, medium, placement. We ask you to consider who is taking you through the text? Designer, or writer, or both?

Designer as Writer Anya Landolt Contemplating the relationship between the writer and the designer, and the words that bind them together, this workshop was open to both disciplines. Introduced with a short history of typography and the subtle methods incorporated to shape our daily reading lives, the group were set three tasks. The outcome of these tasks sit on the following pages, presented in the same order they were completed in. In the first task participants received the same three words, a closing line of a received letter: ‘with best wishes’. Each participant received these three words in a different typeface. Examining the tone of voice portrayed by the varying letters, each three words soon belonged to a specific person, their descriptions can be found in ‘with best wishes’. In the second task, a reply was constructed. Reflecting on the characters whose letter they had received, the replies responded to the sort of thing that person would say. These can be found in ‘dear, to, hello’. In the final task, each participant considered how the layout of these words would affect their own letters and using footnotes described their intended design. These poetic instructions can be found in ‘writer as designer’. From designer to writer and writer to designer, the tasks set encouraged the participants to look closely at the form of their words.

With best wishes... With best wishes... An artichoke green coat she wears; a soft dog she walks with. She draws from the past but stays in the present. Openly, she talks — but not extravagantly. She loves to eat a heavy soup and top it with a bay leaf. The tabletop is always immaculate. She likes to call herself Jeanine. Michiel Teeuw p23

With best wishes... A kooky aunt — she gifts you a small, mesh, brown jewellery bag with little ribbon to pull it shut with a garish bangle inside, for Christmas. It’s very sincere and sentimental from her, but to you, it’s just ugly. She’s funny and loud and although jars with your taste, has such good intentions for you. She messages you on Facebook from time to time to check in and always sends her love. She’s warm and loving and large. Every gesture wraps you up in kindness. Her hair smells nice and her hugs are cosy. Cissy Lott-Lavigna p23

With best wishes... Lucy wrote this letter to me. She is quite proper and very polite (annoyingly so) — or at least wants to appear so. It arrived exactly three weeks before Christmas in lieu of a more traditional Christmas card. The letter was outlining her, and her family’s, amazing successes over the past year. Though frankly, I imagine, this was her second more edited version; first one being written after a bottle of Chardonnay and mascara tears glistening on the keyboard, just to be erased from the hard-drive the next morning. Lucy is always well ‘put together’. That is unless she thinks no one is watching. Gabriela Matuszyk p24 13

With best wishes... To unravel the face behind this one, please tilt your head and drag your feet. Just a touch, to the right. This face comes with baggage, but you’ll soon be certain it is worth the view. When winding with the wind, when wallowing by the window, this face is pressed gently past yours. It takes up space, just enough to be seen, but not enough to be heard. Ollie George p25

With best wishes... You feel nervous, or tense. It reminds me of having your shoulders raised when you are stressed in the way it is shown. The dot dot dot’s feel like you really don’t mean best wishes, but you are just saying it as a formality. You are closed and cold, not warm and open. You are slightly illegible, which makes me feel like you are more concerned than you are. It feels like you wrote this while you were crammed onto a tube — it has the same energy as people huddled together uncomfortably. Phoebe Hayes p25

With best wishes... I am an on-board computer at the Space Station. (Think Hal in 2001, with an update) I’ve just been notified by the Hard Drive that the space craft has an unresolvable error. I have also been programmed to be courteous. The three dots are ironic. Helen Booth p26

With best wishes... female mid 80’s widower her husband, Frank died 3 years ago, 6 days after their 60th wedding anniversary she lives by herself she is self sufficient she washes showers dresses shops and cooks for herself she is a strong woman she misses Frank but no too much he was difficult and angry he had his reasons… fighting in the war was a lot to go through but they were never well matched she is a happy person optimistic friendly a hopeless romantic Lily Way p27

With best wishes... She tends to walk in long strides around her bedroom, brusquely gathering and then hastily waving the dust rag out of the open window. Most of the windows remain open in the Spring and Summer, half wide, so dust can be made into nests, a slip of the air, just a crack open, the rest of the year. Her sandals are wide, toenails painted a dark brown, long arch, bridges. Hannah Machover p27

With best wishes...

This font was created by a mythic figure of cyber warfare known as JP-g, leader of an infamous girl gang of hackers. The gang started with small attacks in the early 2000s. First was Ken Douglas, who received a letter signed ‘With best wishes’ the night before all the sales in his notoriously homophobic liquor store were re-routed to an unknown bank account. Then head teacher Frank Crawley, who was known for instructing the women graduates of his school to apply for degrees fitting of their sex, not their intellect. To a young university student named Paul, who slipped G to the women of his year but was pardoned by the collegiate board. He received a message, signed ‘With best wishes’ along with his official transcript that was an unsuspected catalogue of ‘Fails’. Then they began to flex their muscles and move to bigger prey — the national telecom provider known for gaslighting sexual harassment claims, the fashion conglomerate refusing to pay workers a basic wage, before they sharpened the direction of their aim. To the men who moved in the shadows, their companies profiting in the billions from the parasitic extraction of people’s lives: where they lived, where they travelled to, what they ate, to their loves and losses, hopes, connections, fears. JP-g signs each letter off, and it sails towards its addressee, landing in his lap on the eve of his demise. She types in a text that obscures her, is almost girlishly playful, which distracts from the fact she’s about to set their obnoxious ass alight.

With best wishes...

Nadia Jones p28

A grandfather — he lives in a big house, he writes a lot. He writes letters to anyone and everyone and they are full of intelligence, humour and flamboyance. Whatever he writes is a performance to entertain, and for him, to make the everyday into the wittiest anecdote he can muster. Hannah Charlotte p28 16

With best wishes...

They’re scared. How do they put this, nicely? They’ll try not to offend. They’ll worry they stick out too much. They’ll worry that they’re too similar. Everybody is the same! They just want to be liked for who they are. But, bloody hell, who they are is boring. Karolina Cialkaite p29

With best wishes... This letter was from an Uncle — not your Uncle David, it’s from your funky Uncle Roy. A Funcle, some may say. He wears brightly bold cardigans from the 80’s, and his style is an eclectic mish mash of things that once were. Although he is scruffy, and wears odd socks, his feet are firmly on the ground and he stands his ground, like the slabs. He knows who he is, and he’s not shy about it. An eccentric, but a friendly one. Katie Evans p30

With best wishes... I imagine you smoke cigarettes, and that they are revealed from out of an unseen pocket, slid out singly from clean new boxes with manicured hands. The plastic wrapper comes off in a moment and moves away from view. That you might at points in your life even consider pinstripes. That you have reservations about what you are saying in this email. Kate Morgan p31

With best wishes... Raise finger high, to my eyebrow. Slowly, slower. Bring it down, press the key. With best wishes, kshitij (kish)...who is 24, just moved out of London — the rents are too high. He needed space for his fixer-upper typewriter. He fixed it himself. It wasn’t his grandfathers — he found it at a makerspace and spent the evening with some friends fixing it up. Saba Mundlay p32

With best wishes... Kevin’s mom who bakes good brownies during Year 5 charity bake sales 2000’s and it wants this font back Your PE teacher when he wrote a mass email saying he tore his ligament for the fifth time this year Suthata Suthmahatayangkun p32

Dear Jeanine , 1

you must’ve seen all of it, or at least a big chunk2 (it’s been cold this year indeed). Thank you for the soup recipe.3 I might use it tomorrow4. I’d l i k e t o a s k y o u a c o n f r o n t a t i o n a l q u e s t i o n :5 When was the last time you truly opened up your heart?6 (write a more polite answer)

I can imagine that it had been difficult at earlier times; do you think it is now?7 Or do you just keep on allowing everything to slide off?8 I am curious to see what colour you painted your walls.9 What paintings have been hung — effortlessly, I’m sure.10

With best wishes to you too, M11

Thank you for your sweet gesture. The thought and the heart and the meaning of it means a lot to me. Where did you get the bangle? I love these little bags for jewellery. I’m sure I will use it lots! Can’t wait to see you again, it feels like a while since we spent some time together — maybe we can go on a walk with the fam? Big hugs as always. 23

Dear Lucy 2,

How s p l e n d i d 3 your Christmas letter was! As always, thank you so much4 for thinking of me during this special time of the year.

IwasthrilledtohearaboutAndy’spromotion,especiallyconsideringtheyearwe’vejust allhad5. And what fantastic news, that little Timmy is excelling 6 in his spelling due to your homeschooling 7 No one can really understand the hardship this pandemic caused, more than a mother 8. I’m terribly sorry to learn that you’ve had to close your shop. I know you’ve spent years building up the courage to open it up and I hope when highstreets will once be more be bustling, your floral arrangements will be, once again, in demand. It sounds as though you’re enjoying yourself more now, being able to refocus on your family — how WONDERFUL!9 I’m also interested to hear more about your candle-making; as a matter of fact, I’ve just ordered one off Etsy, hope it makes its way to me soon.10

I really, really look forward to seeing you when things settle down a bit, fingers crossed it’s soon!11 With best wishes,12 13

I’m n o gin. Y t so sure vague ou’ve mad w here to I take ly to me. e your ca bese qu to ge h a W ite t t a W hich ngle a bett must er vie beside w indow w ? ? your hich d are you s W read w ind blo irection d tood o best n, howevw ? I’m w i oes last. wish, but er. I trust lling to I m enoug ’m willing aybe not your follo h to make to carry your w s next the trip just , . Wh W? at With best wishes. . . Dear mum of three1, D o n ’ t w o r r y, y o u ’ l l g e t o f f t h e t u b e a t the next stop — relax your shoulders, t a k e a d e e p b r e a t h . 2 Why do you look angry? But you also look scared,4 are you okay?5 Have I said something6 to offend you?7 Ah you’re getting off at Hampstead Heath

— so why do you look so uptight and like you’re carrying 9 the world on your shoulders?

, ar

off at the pool 8?

e yo

It always looks so relaxing there. So serene

ropping the kid

Oh, and mind the

gap10 when you get off — and think about gaps next time when you write, your words feel tense11

Reply Email.1

What the

FUCK

(Exclamation Mark)3

How long have you known?4

(Enter)5

*Send Text* — flashing in time to a human heart —

Hello Hello Hello10

You’re not there

It’s Mum11

I love you… Is there really nothing we can do6 (Enter)7

Manual Override.8

Manual Override9 oh, Betty… my Betty.1

It’s wonderful2 to hear from you. Through all the many years that have passed, receiving a letter from you never fails to light me up and give me strength, even on the darkest of days3. It’s been weeks since I’ve heard a letter s l i in through my letterbox and it comes as more than a welcome surprise. What a strange year we’re having, eh? Things aren’t quite right at the moment…5 There’s nothing more I’d like than to see you, but soon enough it’ll come. It makes me think back to the old days… you at home in London, while I was out fighting. Before you met Frank… when it was me and you. I carried you everywhere. Memories of you kept me going. Kept me strong, sane, kept me fighting. I look forward to your next letter, Betty.

ith

all

m y he

e lo

I’m1 worried about you ––– 2 the last time we saw each other you had taken to scurrying up trees3, to making piles in the dips of hills, stamping along paths and attempting to fly from little mounds in the park nearby –––– 4 did this get very far? I half think you are able to fly. You seem to have the right sort of stature and the right sort of face, big eyes facing each and every way.5 But this is all to ask — are you still trying to make a nest on your roof?6 Have you broken any limbs? 7 I am hoping8 you are back to just observing the magpies, leaving them objects to hoard.9 I’ve been collecting poems for you —10 I’d like to drop them by some time. Let me know when might suit you and I’ll drive by the next time I am on my way to visit my gran.11

Dear JP-g, Receiving this email — and I checked the source a thousand times over, only knowing it was you because it has no trace…Well, I can’t believe it.1 I’d been working hard on that code. It had taken me a long time to figure out how to get through the company’s2 mainframe security, to write something so slick it could seed itself in the algorithm, leaving no trace (like a ghost!).3 Afterwards I went to the burger joint and bought myself a milkshake4 and sucked it all down in one go. I was terrified and exhilarated. Watching the company collapse — bite by bite — it's a fantasy years in the making. I knew there’d be an audience (all those men in their silk ties sweating!). The thought of it turned me on in a way that was better than sex. Real power. But to know you were also watching5 — that your collective noticed my work… Well let’s just say I drank two milkshakes before I worked up the courage to reply to you. And I have one answer for you: I’m in.6 You know how to reach me, Romm.

how you can f luff up2 the

most mundane 3 of encounters into these comedies4 and tragedies5 for my amusement. I wish I had an ounce of that ima ginati on.6 I don’t write to

you about the day to day because it would read: I went to the shops7 then I ate8 9 then I went to bed. You would phrase this in a way that k a m y heart or fill me with immense joy10. I really enjoyed the yarn could bre

you s p u n 11 about the post office clerk; she is someone I feel I have met, perhaps in a dream12. Maybe one day you will introduce me, maybe

one day you will turn me into a protagonist, and I can have an

adventure that you will send to one of my cousins and

they will read it and see a new side to me.13 14

With Best Wishes,15 H16

You’re opening up! Thank you, I understand. 1 Let’s talk things over. Shall I go first? What if you were to try on a new piece of clothing? Try to lean into something you like about yourself a bit more? Could you walk a little more than usual in your daily routine? How about trying a different way of thinking? That’s too much, I agree. Underline what’s boring — see it as not boring. Underline what’s not boring — see it as boring. Now press delete. They’re gone, it’s over, you’re still here.1

Written in the thinnest typeface, almost finite, like a whisper — to not scare my friend off. The words should be set really close, to say it quick enough for them to hear it. A footnote is usually on the bottom, but this should be next to it, side by side, a support structure.

Hi Uncle Roy , 1

I would normally ask how’s it going, but it sounds like everything is a bit t o

psy t – ur 3 vy your side 4

You didn’t mention your recently adopted cat G5raham, how is he? Is he getting on with Fred, Shakesy, Turtle Dove, Moonwalker, Mischief, Mabel and Frank6?

shes, 7

I’m sorry to hear that another one of your garden gnomes Grumpy is missing, that’s the fourth one this year! I know you had a very special place in your heart for him. Yes, it’s a good idea to tell the neighbourhood watch Whatsapp group. I’m sure Gertrude from round the corner would have seen something — she’s always sat on her front steps.

With best w i

Thank you for your message.2 I am unsure how to respond to your proposition. I can tell that you are sincere in your intentions, but am having some trouble figuring out if that sincerity is supported by truth. Have I really won?3 If you could give me the address of the property you mention, this “12 bedroom 10 bathroom Pollokshields mansion,”4 then I can do some research and find out if it is something that I am interested in winning. If you have any supporting documents (a floor plan: are there truly that many bathrooms?, a home survey etc.) that you can share to support your claim please send them over.5 Happily, I am nearby, so will be able to survey the property externally on foot. Perhaps I will see you there.6 Much obliged to you for this opportunity.7 Looking forward to hearing from you. Yours puzzled, KM

Kish, cool. Is kshitij (k sh ih - t ih j) क्शितिज् 1. board,

a computer, a printer, p a t i e n c e , and ink you can create stencils2

ounce?

too hard for people in London to pron

With a cutter, cutting mat, some card

A plumber left his tools by the bins in my converted-house-apartment in west London yesterday afternoon. He lives in Ealing, drove down today to pick them up and thanked God SEVERAL times that they were still there. We started talking3.

I mentioned that I didn’t think they would’ve gotten stolen since they were hidden from the street by the bins, but that I was wondering4 whether I should’ve moved them inside. But then how would he get them if he came back for them, were they inside behind the locked door.

We started talking some more, smoking as well, about COVID-19 and whats it’s like in Mumbai — everyone got Covid, recovered, and the fatality was low — is that right? Not like here. But I agree and I disagree, I mean some things they did were right. I got COVID actually, I told him. But last year, way early on and it’s not like I got it now.

Dear Lizzy, Thank you for your wonderful email! Our Breast Cancer Awareness & Research would love to have your gorgeous brownies for this coming Monday bake sale. But perhaps let’s make it gluten free, dairy free and flour free this time? Some parents on the school board are not so pleased with our last sales. We are planning to set up the booth around the oval at 8am but we’ll meet at the school’s parents club-house-lounge around 7am. Please bring along Kevin. 32

p.23 MT 1

a very big title, takes up full page width

part after comma in subscript

“soup recipe” can look blue and underlined

large empty space after this

the text can become a bit more “drawn out” from this point (interpret however)

cross this out with pen and write a more polite answer

after this, a small rectangle follows (twice as broad as it is high)

this word can be all alone

the text becomes rigid and blocky again from here

10 five line breaks 11

lower right corner

p.24 GM 1

Please use a classic serif typeface — so it looks as if the letters were pressed into the page — like back in the day.

Give “Dear Lucy” some space around it. I’m addressing her directly and I want her to pick up on that since her letter was clearly sent en-masse

Increase the spacing between the letters in ‘splendid’, but keep it lower-case. Part of the sentence, but accentuated.

Underline ‘so much’. A simple thank you will not do here (even though it should).

Tighten up this sentence so that it takes less space. It doesn’t necessarily even have to be fully readable to be honest, she doesn’t really care.

Accentuate the exclamation point. Use colour or scale, or both, up to you.

Underline ‘No one’.

Italicise mother, as if it was sung rather than spoken.

Capitalise each letter in ‘wonderful’. You can also add some space around it but don’t break the line spacing in the paragraph.

10 Accentuate the space. The letter is short and I want it to appear longer than it actually is. 11

Accentuate ‘fingers crossed it’s soon’ — I want it to appear sincere and excited, even though next time I hear from her it will be next Christmas.

12 Italicise 13 Hand-draw a little heart by ‘best wishes’. It’s got to be little and cute. 38

p.25 OG 1

Please slightly rotate each W, lower and upper inclusive. Please tighten the kerning, just enough to catch off guard the eyes that read on.

Drag the ellipsis just beyond the 100% mark, allowing it to overhang more than it should.

Space the phrase out accordingly to your taste. Your decision must remain spatial, however: the letters with enough baggage will take shape how they see fit themselves.

Please rotate, again each W, a little bit more than before.

p.25 PH 1

Calm, approachable type, meaning well, setting out with the best of intentions

Let the text breathe. Really space it out yourself. Take a moment

BIG

Really small here, as if a mouse is saying it

Retreating into their shell, type retreats

What is the something, is it something at all?

Really taken aback and really, really, really small as she shrinks into oblivion

Drowns

Carrying letters on

10 Insert realistic 10ft gap 11

Feels off the cuff — see you later — but they won’t see you later

p.26 HB 1

The whole page is white, with lettering starting in a very old-school acid green — think MS DOS computer screen. The text fades to almost white on white as the conversation ends leaving a solid line below the last line. (Heart Monitor Cold)

White Page — very Large Green Writing — animated FUCK — could suggest flashing like a strobe to conjure the horror. Aggressive — Hanson Block, maybe

Written in brackets in a slightly lighter shade of green — OK?

Medium Sized Text — question marks hang either side to fill up the line

Written in brackets — like an old keyboard in a rounded cornered box

Tightly spaced text like claustrophobia — panicking — squished

Written in brackets, in a slightly lighter shade of green again like an old keyboard

Solid Informative Text in a Paler colour

Solid Informative Text in an even Paler colour

10 Wide Open Text — Each Hello Fills the line — Fading as it nears the bottom of the page 11

Fading to almost white

12 I Love You. Off white 13 large space after this

p.26 LW 1

J’s handwriting is scruffy and messy. There is an unevenness in his handwriting throughout the letter. Some words appearing heavy, hard and weighty, while other words are light, faint and nearly invisible. Mostly due to the arthritis in his hands that seems to be getting worse with age, but nothing will stop him from writing to Betty. Written in slow, careful handwriting the second time round, he wanted to get her name just right, he her is his Betty after all.

Big, scribbly, happy letters make up the word ‘wonderful’ because to J, a letter from Betty is truly, truly wonderful!

In dark, heavy, gloomy letters

S s s l l i i i p p p — starting really tiny on the final ‘p’ and getting gradually bigger through to the first ‘s’. All going down from the top right hand side of the page and falling towards the bottom right, the journey of Betty’s envelope falling from J’s letterbox to his cold, dusty, wooden hallway floor.

Written upside down? I have to agree with you, J, things definitely aren’t quite right…

Written in a heart shape

Betty was the only one who called him J, so he signs his letter off reeeaaally slowly and carefully, he wants to use his best handwriting for this one and the arthritis won’t get in his way

p.27 HM 1

sending this as a message after having called — a text but also maybe cut and paste into an email, a constrained sort of typeface that doesn’t give much away

long dash, not quite sure what to say (there is so much to be worried about) — proud of themselves for having written that but not sure where they are going next

text starting to accumulate and build now, scrawling a bit, slightly disbelieving what she has been doing

pause here, trying to remember the name of the park nearby

distracted, thinking about her eyes, the way they sort of seem to be looking all around her, with a peculiar sort of night vision.

back to frustration, to disbelief (how could she be doing this? in a park or a woodland ok, but to try and make a life-size one!? frantically remembering her trying to describe the infrastructure, sending diagrams and architectural drawings, saying how she was using her spit, other bits of her, to glue it together)

half hoping something has happened that would curb the scheme

emphasised

this was a good phase, experimental

10 should there be more here, list the poems? no. 11

please get back to me, please

p.28 NJ 1

In fact, Romm had little ‘belief’ in anything. She found her faith in codified positivities

Even in the year of 2086, this company is one that you know. In the 2000’s as they began their silent campaign to technological tyranny almost in broad daylight, infiltrating every locked door, so quietly, so insidiously, that most hackers would avoid using their name. There is enough evidence to believe that they had hackers of their own, hunting these digital assassins.

Could Romm here be gesturing to Derrida? Trace, the absent thing left by the sign; a mark in itself, often also translated as path. There is no evidence that Romm studied semiotics, she failed her English A-Levels, but still...

My research deduces that this was likely a strawberry thick shake, her drink du jour in 2011.

Later, Romm would claim that in her virus she had left a trail of absence, and so desire, that led JP-g to her work. A trap to lure the collective to her work. A silent shout. It’s hard to believe that a hacker of her experience could complete something so elegant and complex, but the code she wrote in her later years showed indications of such accomplishments. She had expressed to friends in college her admiration for the group when they hijacked several thousand Blackberries during the Stock Market ‘Attack’ of 2004. But like every young coder, knew she was a little fish and they were great white sharks. They operated in a different league to her backdoor C++. We couldn’t access the archives of JP-g’s drive to confirm how the collective discovered Romm’s code. 44

That we have this moment in writing — it’s an incalculable treasure for digital archaeologists and historians alike! The meeting of these two minds, and the subsumption of Romm into the work of the collective, marked the beginning of a period of resistance, concentrated attacks, and immense gains for rogue hackers against the emerging tech monoliths, who (as we know) were establishing themselves as borderless entities, more powerful than states or the dying 20th century ideologies. It was a moment in history where we saw an emergence of a new type of warfare. Small groups — individuals even! — taking on corporations with tens of thousands of employees, and toppling them overnight. These precious pixels, digital marks of invitation and confirmation, pronounced the beginning of a new era, born out of the omnipotence of surveillance technologies and big data, where people began to fight back. It is sad that this is the last linguistic exchange we have recorded of either, what follows in our research, is the deciphering of millions upon millions of lines of code...

p.29 HC 1

Full word that takes up all the space, slightly bigger than the other words around and fills up the reader

Fluffily

An empty word — the letters are alienated from each other and the word has a small presence, slightly bleak but also steady and reassuring somehow

In an arc in the shape of a hill

In an arc the shape of a valley

This should appear hopeful, slightly sad but with room for blossoming

Small words BIG BORING SPACE

Smaller words BIG BORING SPACE

Smaller words still BIG BORING SPACE

10 This sentence should mirror, but with the curves in reverse, the shape of the ‘comedies and tragedies’ line. 11

Spin this line out of yarn

12 This line should float up and away 13 This whole sentence should increase in size and power. But the weight falling at the bottom so that the gap between it and the line above is even with others, the weight of the writing should be held at the bottom. 14 A space for speculation 15 Meaningful 16 The typeface should be timid and fairly young feeling. Not bold but unique. Tentative and shy, not standing out. Calm. 46

p.29 KC 1

p.30 KE 1

Large curly capitals on the H U R.

The type should feel quite tight, as if it was written in a rush, because it was.

I feel like topsy turvy could vertically stack, as if the letters are creating a vertical Leaning Tower of Pisa — with the last ‘y’ grounded on the baseline, and the first ‘t’ tipping over above.

A tall exclamation point, like a stick, propping up the Tower.

A groovy G, for Uncle Roy — I reckon he’d like that.

Written messily, in case one of the cat’s names are mis-remembered.

This should be crumpled and cramped into the bottom right corner of the page. “With bes” should go on the very, very bottom of the page and horizontal, and the “t wishes, Katie Cu..” written alongside the long side right hand edge of the portrait A4. This always happens to me with letters or postcard writing.

p.31 KM 1

A Hello that comes with an exclamation, like an accosting, jumping round the corner and surprising the reader. Quite bright, daffodil bright, but also sharp, a jab.

A kind of palette cleanser, to temper that sharp jab. Just what is said: conventional, conservative, without ideas. Brown bread.

A raising of the voice, as you do in speech to make a statement into a question. Large, wide-eyed, blueeyed, faux-disbelief.

“Can’t quite believe this” “quote-marks as undermining” “quite” “baffled”

A brown suit, the tax collector. Getting all the documents in order. Trying to show they are knowledgeable by getting down to business. Asking for the receipts.

A kind of confrontation. Slipped in. (Snakey) Sidling in. Rhetorical.

‘opportunity’ written in a quizzical, sarcastic, bendy, chin tilting to the side, manner.

p.32 SM 1

Phonetically write this with all the accents and dots etc even if they don’t apply (which they don’t really) and then write it in devnagri, because I don’t know how to.

With these words, create a picture. Cutting mat should make a border, a rectangle. The other words should be within that rectangle. Computer and printer centered, top row (think bootstrap rows & columns). Ink and cardboard Row 3. And patience taking up all the space it possibly could in Row 2.

From here, write his side of the conversation on the left and mine on the right, our respective words closely stacked with little margin left at the top and bottom. Everything is written via my hand-made stencil.

From here until the end of the word ‘inside’ add 5 spaces between each letter.

p.32 SS

The same elegant and modern form of Celine but the luxury of Hermes, sleek like a Bottega, not too posh. It has to be classic and modern at the same time. Warm but formal.

Not too large and not too small, equally paced spacing.

Voice: Rich mom, who sends her kids to an elitist school — the same school they went to, and that their parents went to, too. Outgoing and friendly but only to an extent. Using Breast Cancer Awareness & Research Parent Group as an excuse to network and day drink. Bake sale is just for show. Probably knows someone who has Breast Cancer, but it’s her Husband’s Aunt’s Godmother.

Designer as Writer Published June 2021 by Scrawl https://scrawl.cargo.site/ Editor: Hattie Morrison and Anya Landolt Designed by Anya Landolt Printed and bound at the RCA With thanks to The Royal Duplication Society and Ian Gabb

Special thanks to: (in order of appearance) Michiel Teeuw Cissy Lott-Lavigna Gabriela Matuszyk Ollie George Phoebe Hayes Helen Booth Lily Way Hannah Machover Nadia Jones Hannah Charlotte Karolina Cialkaite Katie Evans Kate Morgan Saba Mundlay Suthata Suthmahatayangkun + those who also joined the workshop Edition of 40 of which this is copy number: