For the Politeness brief I wanted to create a typeface that looked and was polite, but initially couldn’t settle on if it should be a Serif or a San Serif. From what I had learned from creating the ‘Please May I be Rude’, politeness had been weaponised and used as a tool by upper classes to counter the class mobility of the industrial revolution in the 18^th century. Politeness was not about being courteous, but rather a way of making it harder for people. I was going to make a typeface that could illustrate an overcomplicated nature of politeness, based on the 18^th century. However, I much preferred the focus of accessibility and inclusivity which would represent a more positive use of politeness, courteous of others.

Though I thought I was only going to make a Serif or a San Serif, I ended up creating both which would be used for different reasons. the San Serif was tailored towards accessibility and being inclusive, where as the Serif was far less shouty but still had clarity.

I found that the serif typeface looked quite apologetic, so I collected 35+ different accounts of small silly thing people were sorry for and may have not said out loud before. I printed them out of business cards, so they too were small, and called it ‘A small collection of apologies’. This was a great way to see the typeface in use and being used for the thing it was designed for.

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(awaiting more images)

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