Punctuation as Meaning


The colon is used for the Collins brand identity.
The colon was chosen specifically because of it's meaning...
" The intention of the colon is to create relationships. Of all the marks, the colon is the most social. It introduces ideas, details and key story elements."

The simple, exaggerated colon is effective and thoughtful.


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Thinking more deeply about punctuation in not only it's form, but in it's functional use in written language, I've been thinking of a mark to symbolize my work. The question mark because it implies curiosity or doubt? Brackets, to separate out context but also to build relationships between what lies between? Or even the comma, as it differentiates items or symbolizes an omission?

For me (for now) I think the slash/solidus best represents my interests.
The slash builds on associations and alternate meanings. It represents a dividing line between concepts and ideas, it promotes duality...

I've always been compelled by the idea of duality, that ideas come in complementary pairs and that one thing exists because the complete opposite also exists.

lightness and weight
positive and negative
being and non-being

In this photographic series, I experiment with the idea of transience (vs. permanence). Trying to capture the impressions and steps I have taken throughout my life to tell a story of what was once there.










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This sugar packet caught my eye at the coffee shop. Plain white. Simple typography. Sugar. It was so refreshing to see this right next to all the pinks and yellows and blues and oranges of the other packets that were loaded with color, type, and "personality". Branding is all about building a personality, image, and feeling by adding design elements until a visual and emotional quality is achieved. But sometimes it becomes overwhelming or usual. By stripping away everything identifiable to the brand, it becomes an identity in itself. What I appreciate the most about the design is the marketing of the item (sugar) and not the brand (Diamond Crystal Brands). Although maybe not effective in getting it's name out, it's nice to get sugar as Sugar instead of sugar as Artificial Sweetner Brand Name or Raw Sugar Brand Name.

sweet infographic.
via ohcupcakes.

These photos bring me back to the time I was eight, and my dad took us on a long and taxing road trip to Yellowstone National Park. At eight, the last thing I wanted to do was sit in a car for 10 hours a day. And when we arrived, everything in sight looked like dead space. Everything still looks like dead space. But that was the beauty of it. Dead, expansive, and dull land, with secret pockets of water. Sometimes air or water would spew out, straight up in the air. The contrast between the stillness of the land with the energy escaping from below was worth the long car ride.

But it wasn't just the contrast of the geysers that made them so beautiful, it was the oddity of their existence. Occurrences happen in nature that we could never dream up. That's why synthetic chemists look to plants for answers to solve problems. Because plants synthesize compounds that man could never think to make. And that's why, whether ingrained from road trips like these, or growing up in a town in California that was hidden in the canyons, I often fall back to nature for inspiration. It exists, in its oddities and color and contrast.

photos via allthemountains.

Titled: Overheard on the Titanic
a newspaper article blacked out to emphasize its meaning
or to form new meaning
via swissmiss.
by Austin Kleon

brian stowell's vinyl collection.
via graphic-exchange
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