The Concepts of Zero – ISTD Brief
A collection of essays, journals, and mathematical theorems about the number zero.
This year, ISTD posted out a brief titled 'numbers,' intending to get people more interested in mathematics. One of my initial ideas was working with zero; despite its representation of nothing, it is a fundamental part of any counting system, and has a deeply interesting history and origin. To go with this idea, I started thinking of a way to represent 'nothing,' as it were. After a few different tries, I ended up with a book that featured holes cut out of various pages, to show, quite literally, a lack of something.
The design of this book proved to be a challange at first. I wanted to balance intentionally subtle treatment with larger, bolder areas to keep it engaging. I eventually found a good balance, with use of holes, large quote pages with specific graphics; and consistently even examples of negative space.
Mathematic formulae and expressions themselves are fascinating to look at, without even having full understanding. Some fonts manage to show of some of the shapes and curves used in fantastic ways, and it was important to show some of these off, in a way. The body text was set in Garamond Classico, which was extended to the large-print formulae examples (the above example shows some logarithmic expressions).
The copy was compiled together from various journals, articles, transcripts from videos and other sources that seemed fitting and on-topic. They also featured additional notes (which could be followed up for further reading), and it seemed part of the texts would be missing if not included. This how the grid structure was formed: with a larger, middle columns for primary copy, and the outer sections for these sidenotes, image captions; and page information in the top left-hand corner.
The holes were designed to format themselves with the grid, and consequently are different sizes. On some pages, there is a natural breathing space in the text, and small circles were used to signify this gap; larger circles were made as features, sometimes being the only thing on a page, to emphasise a new layout one might make by flicking through the pages.
(Unfortunately, due to the COVID–19 pandemic, I was unable to print out the book and work with real cut holes, so I have to work with mockups for the moment.)