Sila Deniz Goktas

MA Graphic Design and Typography

While technological developments push humanity forward, it is a fact that they damage our planet in the process. Day by day people try to stop or decrease these effects that our civilisation has caused through their actions. Thus, nowadays the term ‘sustainability’ has gained importance since it is seen as the future. Cambridge Dictionary (n.d.) defines sustainability as “the idea that goods and services should be produced in ways that do not use resources that cannot be replaced and that do not damage the environment”. Moreover, the term includes the method of recycling which symbolises a constant transformation inside. For that reason the inspiration for this project is the technique of going back to your inner self and through that to nature. The goal of the project is to be used in campaigns and projects connected to sustainability, recycling, nature, environment and ecology and strengthen the meaning of the terms by using less ink. The idea of strokes smooth as liquid as water and crossbars, that cut the letter and run over from the main shape, refers to the method of reusing and the essence of recycling. The name ‘Gaeaminus’ comes from the combination of Gaea, Greek goddess of environment and the Latin word of ‘geminus’ which means double as the double lines used in the project.

The idea of creating a sustainable typeface came to Deniz when she saw some branding projects designed with non-sustainable typefaces. They were visually appealing, but the typeface choice was not connected to the aim of the projects; they were too mechanic and did not serve the aim of the product, which is to create a sustainable environment. In other words, using regular retail, industrial typefaces was not matching with the semantics; they were promoting sustainable products with typefaces that were created without a focus on sustainability and mostly using much more ink than a sustainable one would use.

Deniz is a Turkish graphic designer and typographer with an undergraduate degree in Advertising. Apart from voluntary environmental works that she has done, she always wanted to do something to combine environmental concerns with her design practice. Gaeaminus is her first attempt on solving an environmental issue from a designer’s point of view.