School of Design

Sylexiad is a family of fonts that was designed and tested specifically for the needs of adult dyslexic readers. The typeface was developed through tests that measured the readability and legibility of numerous texts set as individual characters, words, sentences and paragraphs. The fonts used in the texts included Arial, Times New Roman and formative versions of Sylexiad set in different sizes.

TO-ING is an artist’s book about how the topography of the self is shaped by the repeated practice of particular activities. This process is visualised through the naming of twenty-four acts of doing which trace a journey through one such topography. These acts of doing represent a personal accretion of history, of going back over many years to a childhood place and the life story that has been formed by choices made. Photographs of a tree which stands in the local park provide a parallel narrative, one of being done unto rather than the decisive and determined act of doing, of being rooted to a certain spot and impervious to the cares and delights of toing and froing. A short text takes the form of a parable about the tree and the man. They both develop incrementally but, for the man, to do is to become. 

Rob Hillier created the design, photographs and the font used throughout the book. TO-ING visits the
relationship between print and digital, the interface between photography and design, the spectacle of the ordinary, the inner worlds of everyday life and the basic urge to do things. TO-ING is in the Tate Special Collections at Tate Britain, London.

T O-ING is an artist's book about how the topography of the self is shaped by the repeated practice of particular activities. This process is visualised through the naming of twenty-four acts of doing which trace a journey through one such topography. These acts of doing represent a personal accretion of history, of going back over many years to a childhood place and the life story that has been formed by choices made. Photographs of a tree which stands in the local park provide a parallel narrative, one of being done unto rather than the decisive and determined act of doing, of being rooted to a certain spot and impervious to the cares and delights of toing and froing. A short text takes the form of a parable about the tree and the man. They both develop incrementally but, for the man, to do is to become.

“Imago Images” is inspired by the butterflies I frequently observe in my Norwich garden. The work includes two distinct visual elements, a limited edition set of artist books and a self-generated animation produced by creative coding. The animation provides a companion counter-piece to the books. Viewed together, the books are fixed, static, direct and formative whereas the animation is indirect, constantly evolving, unlimited and summative. In explaining the creative process and the visual methodologies associated with Imago Images, ideas of unpredictability, ambiguity, visual change and altered states are explored. The contrast between the books and the animation can be likened to a butterfly’s transformation from the immobile and still chrysalis to the active and moveable adult or imago stage. The work shifts from representational images of particular single species to the construction of heterogeneous forms through observation and conjecture. In doing so, imaginary butterflies populate an imagined world. Imago Images is aimed at those interested in developing the interface between writing, drawing, typography and creative coding in order to make new and alternative connections through hybridised visual design practice.

“Imago Images” is inspired by the butterflies I frequently observe in my Norwich garden. The work includes two distinct visual elements, a limited edition set of artist books and a self-generated animation produced by creative coding. The animation provides a companion counter-piece to the books. Viewed together, the books are fixed, static, direct and formative whereas the animation is indirect, constantly evolving, unlimited and summative. In explaining the creative process and the visual methodologies associated with Imago Images, ideas of unpredictability, ambiguity, visual change and altered states are explored. The contrast between the books and the animation can be likened to a butterfly’s transformation from the immobile and still chrysalis to the active and moveable adult or imago stage. The work shifts from representational images of particular single species to the construction of heterogeneous forms through observation and conjecture. In doing so, imaginary butterflies populate an imagined world. Imago Images is aimed at those interested in developing the interface between writing, drawing, typography and creative coding in order to make new and alternative connections through hybridised visual design practice.