Graphic DNA
Graphic DNA is a long term project which aims to delineate and profile the graphic character of Birmingham through photographing, gathering, curating, cataloguing and describing the letterforms found in the city's urban and civic environment.
The Project is led by Type in conjunction with Plus Expo Ltd; it has been made possible with the support of Birmingham City Council.
WHY BIRMINGHAM?
Birmingham is in a state of metamorphosis, evolving from a city dominated by manufacturing to one led by the creative sector. Industrial Birmingham is being redeveloped and regenerated and a new city is emerging: letterforms that have been obscured for decades are being temporarily exposed before the developers move in, and new letterforms are being added daily. Further more, Birmingham is a hybrid city that for centuries has been home to immigrants from across the country and around the world. The history and evolution of Birmingham's immigrant populations are relvealed in the letterforms on its streets and the marks left by the city's multicultural society will be documented and curated by the project. The project is in part graphic rescue.
WHY LETTERING?
Street lettering is an artistic amalgam of letterforms mixed with substrate, language, placement, and proportion. Letterforms are excellent vehicles for demonstrating how the environment, human judgement, necessity, and repetition can add visual music to the streets. This project will capture, catalogue and curate images of letterforms culled from Birmingham's streets - both past and present - to show the city's unique graphic character.
THE BRIEF
The object of 'Graphic DNA' is to:
1) establish a method of recording, documenting and assessing a city's graphic character
2) demonstrate how letterforms help create a city's visual identity and sense of place.
3) transform an ad hoc way of seeing urban letterforms into a purposeful scanning of the streets.
4) trace the changes to the city's graphic DNA which have recently been brought about by regeneration and to record the evolving lettering landscape before the opportunity is lost for ever.
5) record and celebrate the contribution of the non-Latin letterforms in Birmingham's street scene and show how a city accommodates the various lettering cultures, languages and alphabets of its resident ethnic communities.
Graphic DNA 01, Matt Murtagh
Graphic DNA 02, Matt Murtagh
Graphic DNA 03, Matt Murtagh
Graphic DNA 04, Matt Murtagh
Graphic DNA 05, Matt Murtagh
Graphic DNA 06, Matt Murtagh
Graphic DNA 07, Matt Murtagh