WHat I did
- Played with how I can incorporate architectural features into my project
- Launched an Instagram account
- Researched London typographers, such as William Morris and Jean Louis Pouchée
What I plan to do
- Continue to market and build a following on Instagram
- Think about how I can display the large collection of images that I already have
TYPE design
Previous post/Next post. Walthamstow has a lot of industrial spaces that have roofs like this:
The sawtooth roof, with its glass panels facing away from the equator on the steeper side, blocks the light and heat of direct sun exposure and provides uniform, natural light over a large area. It was particularly useful in design factories and manufacturing buildings and can be seen in designs as early as the 1830’s (thanks Wikipedia).
The name reminds me of the angles used in half-tone printing The smoothness of the edges of the box changes as its angle relative to the halftone screen angle changes. The ragged appearance of edge of the last box is referred to as “sawtoothing”.
And I like the idea of incorporating the design into my final outcome. I’ll use the shape and position text around it:
I like both examples. One uses the outside of the shape and highlights the outline and feels lighter, whilst the right one forms the shape itself and feels blocky. I’m not sure which one feels appropriate yet, but I will experiment with this further.
Social Media
My project will have people getting involved, and so to promote the project I have an Instagram account. I’ve had it set up for a while, to nab the hashtag before anyone else, but haven’t posted because it felt too soon. Now, I have an idea where my project is going and I have spoken to local people about it, and thus it is time to establish myself. I might not be calling for volunteers yet, but a base of a couple of months and posts will instil a sense of trust from the community and maybe potential funders. It’ll be a way to promote to people and the design industry outside the area too.
Currently, my social media strategy has three types of post:
- Reflect on the lettering around us in Walthamstow and the circumstances in which it was made
- Engage the community and local design practitioners to discover how lettering affects our sense of community
- Create new lettering that speaks to us.
The language of us and our is intended to warm and draw people in. The three types of post give me a theme and structure rather than an random mix of posts and has given me interesting opportunities.
Social media tires me out when I do it constantly, so I am using later.com to set up the automatic posting for a few weeks. I can create posts in a bulk when I feel like it and then have them post, so I don’t have to be constantly thinking of new things, and I think it creates a sense of consistency in tone of voice and posting schedule too.
Going back to the interesting opportunities, when I’ve started writing posts under each of the three headings I’ve been able to link to a practitioner or part of the community to really champion them. For instance, I’ve included my recent letterpress workshop and included the studio, Paekakariki Press, a letter in a London Plane tree which was annotated my Rachel Summers in her tree chalk facts project. It’s grown in a few hours to be much more than here’s a pretty picture of typography in Walthamstow.
Excitingly, by using the right hashtags, the local archive Vestry House Museum featured me in their stories without me asking for it, so I hopefully will get more traffic from their followers. Building a solid base will give me more engagement in the community.
Of course, social media will only reach a certain portion of the community, and I need to look outside it, but I feel it’s a good start to promoting Stowe Framework. Maybe this week will be Marketing Week for me!
Anna Robinette 