REDRUM
WHEN : 2020
WHO : LEEDS ARTS UNIVERSITY
WHY : UNIVERSITY PROJECT
WHAT : TYPOGRAPHY
My first university project focussing on typography. I was asked to design a typeface inspired by a micro-genre of music.
My micro-genre was Hauntology (a concept which refers to the return or persistence of elements from the past, as in the manner of a ghost.) After research, my key inspiration became the 1980 Stanley Kubrick film, The Shining.
Throughout the module we worked on different elements and ways of type design; modular designs, using a grid, using imagery.
My final typeface, Redrum, was inspired by the haunting, winding corridors of the Overlook Hotel featured in The Shining.
Redrum is a stable, Hauntology-inspired typeface. With heavy influence from The Shining and the Overlook Hotel, this rigid sans-serif typeface stands blocky and strong on the page. It’s the Overlook’s long, confusing corridors and doors that lead to nowhere which were a starting point for Redrum. There’s no escape but plenty of hiding spaces in these letters as they stand as solid shapes with no counters, but have little nooks and crannies. Redrum is daunting and intimidating; whilst still holding classic shapes, the letterforms are broken and confusing; it coerces readers to get lost within words. Just as in the iconic Kubrick film, the letters spelling R E D R U M are shown reflected in this typeface as to lose a reader even more.
