An ongoing research project that imagines what the latin alphabet would look like if it were forced to begin again in modern Britain, making the journey from pictures to letters.
Part thought experiment, part constructed script, and part investigation into the way tools shape letterforms, transforming and simpliying them over a period of time.
Tracing the 26 latin letters back to their pictorial roots revealed fundamental ideas and objects to be described: Water, shelter, security, people, tools, transport. With the addition of modern technological and social trends - digital technology, coffee, drones, mass surveillance - a vision of the nation in objects emerged.
From basic chalk scratchings influenced by North American hobo markings, through ink, brush and penwork, the pictorial aspects became simplified, angles became curves, strokes were omitted. With a system of numerals based on the medieval tally stick system, the resultant letterforms underwent a final stage of re-digitisation.
