The world's even bigger Hambergefonts

Abstract

Donaldson attended the ATypI conference in Prague 2004 to continue his research experiment and investigations into his theory: Writing in the mind's eye. This is done by the production of big writing; letters so large that they cannot be formed using the muscles and joints of the arm, they must be formed by the whole body. Because the area the writing fills and the size of the letters are so large, it is impossible to get even an overview of the current letter as the stroke being made will finish somewhere behind the writer. These exercises can only usually be performed when the opportunity is provided by a sensitive sponsor. The title of the theory: Writing in the mind's eye, suggests that a large part of writing, and in a related manner, drawing, takes place in the mind. The tool used is specially constructed for each performance. About an hour to two hours are needed to prepare, depending on overall size but the actual writing time is very short, somewhere in the region of 3 minutes. The performances often take the form of a challenge to fit a given text into a given space exactly. This also tests the theory and makes the performance more challenging for the writer and more stimulating for the observer. These performances have had a broad and international effect on the graphic design community; although only a few people actually witness the performances, the subsequent dissemination via documentation placed on the internet, as listed above URL, is helping to fulfil of one of its goals, i.e. awareness of the importance of the written letter