Stories Told: Reforming and Projecting New Futures in Type Design

This lecture focuses on how typography can be used to communicate identity, place and narrative, particularly when designers are working across history, language and culture. A recurring theme is that type design is never neutral: it carries social, political and cultural meaning, whether it is intentional or not.

The conversation with Colophon Foundry highlights the importance of research-led design, especially when working with national or multilingual identities. Their work for the Welsh Government demonstrates how typography can act as a cultural tool rather than just a visual one. Instead of relying on clichés of “Welshness”, Colophon began by researching the structure of the Welsh language itself. This included understanding digraphs (letter pairs treated as single characters), historical references, and the absence of Welsh-specific typefaces prior to the project. This shows how language, history and form are inseparable, and how careful research can uncover under-discussed narratives embedded within everyday systems like alphabets.

A key insight from this project is the idea of distillation. Rather than copying historical styles, Colophon identified small but meaningful typographic features — such as the “harp-like” hooks in certain letterforms — and refined them into subtle details. These micro-details allow the typeface to communicate national identity without becoming decorative or overbearing. This balance between expression and usability reflects LO4 (Distil) and LO8 (Design), showing how a strategic idea can be carried through form, function and scale.

The lecture then expands to larger identity systems, such as British Airways and the Mexico 1968 Olympics, to show how graphic design can operate at a societal level. The British Airways case study reveals how national identity can become problematic when it is either too rigid or too diluted. Attempts to modernise or globalise the brand led to backlash, demonstrating that identity design is politically charged and can expose tensions between heritage, commerce and public perception.

Lance Wyman’s work for the Mexico 1968 Olympics provides a contrasting example, where design acts as a unifying language. By drawing on indigenous visual systems, geometry and glyphs, Wyman created an identity that avoided stereotypes while still being deeply rooted in place. Importantly, the system reduced reliance on written language, using symbols and patterns to communicate across cultures. This highlights how graphic design can function as an inclusive, future-facing tool while remaining grounded in historical context.

Overall, this lecture reinforces that graphic design has the power to reshape narratives, especially when designers engage critically with history, place and language. For my project, this suggests that meaningful design outcomes may come from examining overlooked or everyday systems (such as vernacular typography, signage, or linguistic structures) and re-framing them to reveal cultural, social or political stories that are often invisible.

Why this lecture matters for

your

project

Quietly embedded in this lecture are strong prompts for your direction:

• Under-discussed narratives can live inside language systems, signage, transport, or everyday typography
• You don’t need a “big topic” — you need a carefully researched lens
• Your mobility (being a backpacker) could actually strengthen this: comparing how identity is expressed typographically across places is very relevant here