Stowe Framework (ongoing)

The final project for my MA revolves around vernacular typography and its role in placemaking. Walthamstow has been recognised as a hub for hundreds of years and has a fascinating history of diverse trades and crafts that people from around the world introduce and develop when they settle here. I am focussing on typography, in particular vernacular typography, because it is a powerful marker of regional identity and has a remarkable ability to capture the character of a specific time and place. My project aims to engage the Walthamstow community in their typographic environment and to have a discussion about how type influences how we feel about the content it displays. I aim to highlight the uniformity of corporate advertising, which ignores and subverts local history and tradition, and to collect and document examples of the vanishing symbols of local art and culture. The following images are work in progress pictures and mock-ups from a formative submission for the course.