Cluster

BACKGROUND Typography is commonly taken to be concerned with the visible. 'Typo-cartography' inverts this convention by mapping the unseen. It combines the rigours of both typography and cartography and explores the possibilities of overlapping these two disciplines in order to establish a common graphic language. Related to the more established field of 'Typo-archaeology', it seeks to peel back the geohistorical layers of urban environments and asks the question: what hidden narratives about our cities can such patterns offer us - and how can this be publicly communicated as a form of cultural storytelling? CONTRIBUTION The Cluster project offers a typo-cartographic insight into the legibility of a city - ways of reading urban spaces and systems. This project extends my PhD research into how typography offers a cultural voice throughout the cities and suburbs. The first incarnation of this project was the Cluster exhibition (2013) commissioned by the City of Melbourne's City Gallery. This explored a plethora of suburban sites across greater Melbourne, uncovering the meanings of street namings as a larger system of aspiration and branding. These topographic maps were then given form through implying a series of typographic glyph-like forms. In 2015 the Melbourne Festival awarded the opportunity to expand the Cluster idea onto a tram, boldly recontextualising the project directly within the streets themselves. SIGNIFICANCE Both opportunities within the Cluster Project (City Gallery Exhibition and Tram Award) were a result of a peer review process. It has presented a wider cultural use of graphic design and typography in the service of public storytelling. Having the Cluster project displayed across 46 metres of moving vehicle day and night offered an unprecedentedly public arena for the research proposition and the creative outcome. Amongst other traditional and social media coverage, the project was given a substantial feature in the publication RMIT Stories.