Lighting Meets Type Design

Crossing Granary Square in King’s Cross last night, I was immediately drawn to this vibrant piece of type. By having each letter occupy a window in the building, the type has great presence and consistent spacing, both of which allow it to be legible at quite a distance.

Tom Dixon, Kings Cross

I have to assume that many of the people who walk by it will have never heard of Tom Dixon. I will admit it, the name rang a bell for me but I’d have been stumped if not for Google. Perhaps that is the very point in the choice to feature their name in this way; to generate attention around the brand. As a company that specialises in lighting design, creating the letterforms out of these warm white lights provides an appropriate link to their products, and compliments the industrial style of the building.

The thing that intrigues me the most about this medium is its reusability. The lights could be rearranged into new letterforms, or the bulbs could be selectively switched off to display new messages. Whilst this wouldn’t exactly be considered sustainable given that the lights require a constant power source, I think there is a place for this method when it comes to reducing consumption. Rather than manufacturing new signage at a huge cost to the business and the environment, these luminous letterforms could be dismantled and rearranged to create something new. Much like pixels on a screen, the addition of more lights would allow the creation of more complex forms, and reducing the number of lights would strip the letterforms back to their most essential elements.

There are certainly many limitations to presenting type in this way, but I feel that creative approaches like this encourage us to reflect on the ways in which we communicate. In a world where inclusivity and our impact on the environment are at the forefront of any design project, could we be yet to discover new approaches to communication that assist in reaching a more diverse audience without negatively impacting the planet?