Functional Typography on a Christian Dior Fahrenheit Perfume Package
Functional Typography on a Hegaon PurePlus Organic Orange Juice 245 ml Bottle
- 2006
- screen print
- 5 parts, 788 x 1,091 mm each
Functional Typography
Functional Typography is a series of posters that show the typographic codes abstracted from the surface of products and packages such as an orange juice bottle or the bottom of a Bic Lighter. The codified letters and numbers, often printed or inscribed in a small size, must be important for manufacturers and suppliers, but we as consumers would never know what they actually mean. What is interesting for us about these codes is not just that they are completely incomprehensible. It is also the fact that they seem very meaningful, yet there’s no way for us to know their meaning. They look very confident and determined, making it clear that they are not arbitrary signs. But their incomprehensibility provokes what the literary theorist Shawn Rosenheim calls “cryptographic imagination,” which is an attitude towards language that acknowledges its opaqueness and slipperiness, endlessly inquiring what actually is behind visible surfaces.
Functional Typography on a Crabtree & Evelyin Summer Hill Hydrating Body Mist Spray 100 ml Bottle
Functional Typography on a Power Supply Adapter for Macintosh G3 PowerBook
Functional Typography on a Bic Mini Gas Lighter
