www.leafsalon.co.nz / October 12, 2005

Talking the Walk

BY Kathy Hunter

Catherine Griffiths, a Wellington typographer and designer who has made her name globally using literature publicly in unusual ways, has just returned from showing her work at ATypI, a typography conference in Helsinki.

She’s presenting that show, modified slightly, this Friday at 12.10 at the City Gallery as part of the lunchtime series Designers Speak (a series that she created for Wellington on behalf of DINZ (Designers Institute of New Zealand), and which has become a ‘brand’ of its own, nationwide). I tracked Catherine down in her Wellington studio, Epitome Typography and Design, and asked her a few questions. But first, a bit of background …

Catherine (pictured in Tarantino mode, grrr) graduated in 1986 from the Wellington School of Design and by 1995 had established her own business so that she could take on the work she wanted to do. Since then she has gone from strength to strength, juggling teaching and judging with creating brilliant, original works such as the legend-in-its-own-lunchtime Wellington Writers Walk.

For the Walk, Catherine was approached by the Wellington Writers Walk Committee, formed out of the Wellington Branch of the New Zealand Society of Authors, who wanted a series of modest A4-sized bronze plaques that would include exerpts of poems and prose by some of Wellington’s best-known writers.

Her proposal in response to the brief turned them into 11 huge concrete text sculptures along Wellington’s waterfront which earned her a string of awards including, ahem, the Stringer award (New Zealand’s highest graphic design award) in 2002, a place in the 2003 British D&AD annual, and the undying adoration of a certain Billy Connolly, who couldn’t leave the damn things alone. The walk is a living project and in 2004, four more text sculptures were added.

Then there’s Ponatahi, the Architecture+ designed house which is literally ‘wrapped in literature’. The owners commissioned Jenny Bornholdt to write a poem, which Catherine then worked her typographic magic on before having it sandblasted onto 120 glass panels around the upper levels of the house. I’d quite like that myself.

She’s also worked words on to porcelain and ceramics with Raewyn Atkinson. She’s done a lot of award-winning book design, including much collaboration with her partner, photographer Bruce Connew, and is herself a damn fine photographer. Yep, she’s busy all right.

Catherine continues to do work coupling design with literature, but says what she does more frequently is ‘make typography in the landscape’. Now, I sometimes find that being enthusiastic about typography can make it easy to forget what it was invented for – words. It’s something I was guilty of in my own graphic design past, mad as I was for David Carson.

It’s all about function and form, of course: at its most basic, typography creates a clear, clean, functional reading tool, at its best, it becomes art and the choice of type enhances the word to become a kind of … typographical onomatopoeia – know what I mean? And at its worst, that can become a horrid cliché: picture the style of writing that is usually used for the word ‘Halloween’ for example … That’s why I love it when Catherine says

My response as a typographer and designer is shaped by a strong appreciation for content and meaning … I strive to have the design and letterform speak.

The Wellington Writers Walk was enthused about by Ben Weiner in Helsinki last month because, he said, despite the type Catherine chose not being the obvious choices of monumental lettering or book typefaces, the letterforms succeed simply by being the right ones to use. They look right: neither too monumental nor too close to seeming like large reproductions of book pages.

I fully agree. So my first question to Catherine (finally, yada yada) is this:

Are the design choices you make for your work with poetry/prose the result of long, hard study, or do you just put your head on one side and squint? Sometimes the latter! But seriously, the choices come out of the feeling I have when reading those particular words – how the poem reads, what it is saying – then I will respond by experimenting with typefaces, until the poem reads and feels ‘right’. That’s the beauty of two typographic designs in the Writers Walk for instance – the poem or prose leans one way or the other as much as it can, selecting it’s own typography style.

Now that you have ‘leapt off the page and into the landscape’ can you ever go back? Of course – I simply straddle the two!

The set-in-stone thing must be intoxicating, but you also enjoy that long-term angle in books. What is your favourite medium, or have you only just begun? Favourite medium – I’m open to working with whatever feels right for the project – the idea will shape this. Really, I am responsive in my work. I love the idea of things growing out of other things – where you facilitate the elements and allow them to work together. So … paper, steel, glass, porcelain, concrete, water even? Maybe I will work with water someday?

I’m sure you have imagined bigger, better … any dreams of Cristo proportions for type and/or poetry? Yes! I designed an enormous and very fine circle for Wellington’s gateway sculpture project – but it didn’t make the cut for the final round. I loved the idea because while being giant, it was gentle, and an erect reference to all the circular elements so strong in our city – the harbour, the hills, the Beehive, the Basin Reserve, the stadium (some not truly circular, but close), even the tunnels we travel through. Not to mention it also being a large typographic letterform! And of course, the letter ‘O’ speaks, doesn’t it?

I loved the book design work you did for the little pocket essays published by Four Winds Press. I’ve got ‘em all. The colours, black and white images and of course the type were all just perfect. Just nifty for that retro purse. Have you heard if any more of these will be happening? I hope they will continue to come out. I designed the first two sets for Four Winds Press, and Airplane have continued the look of them ever since – they’ve been really successful and are lovely little gems.

Your design for Bruce’s book Muttonbirds – part of a story and your corporate identity for Stevens Lawson Architects are clean, simple but very sophisticated letterpictures that are perfectly suited to their subjects. (I have to admit, both of these examples give me gorgeousness goosebumps.) Were you influenced by other typographers on this type of work? What other book designers do you rate in NZ? We rather love Sarah Maxey here at LeafSalon, as Chris said in an article he did a while ago for the Listener. Yes, I love Sarah too – we have intense typographic/book design conversations every now and then, and I always look forward to her next piece of work in the bookshops. Other typographers? Alexey Brodovitch, Eric Gill, to name two. Artists – yes — Matisse, for the cover of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s ‘Decisive Moment’ is a superb example.

Tell us about John Galliano, and whether you’ve had a chance to continue your Dressing Room project. Sorry, I can’t tell you more. But I did make two more pictures – in Kenzo… and in Dolce+Gabanna.

And he’s used the same typeface for, what, 17 years? What does this say to you about how people bond with type? Well, he’s been very faithful to Blackletter – a particular style that you’ll see his name rendered in, along with a collection, the newspaper range. This is not uncommon at all in other disciplines – in fact in fashion it turns up regularly, where designers will use typography in their fabrics – Moschino, Louis Vuitton etc.
How people bond with type? I guess it’s about the desire to express themselves, or their product, or whatever it is, and how they do that is over to their appreciation of the finer points of typography. Everyone engages with type. We can’t really avoid it in our day-to-day living.

What about your love of Face and Eye (my personal favourite in the world) magazines – I hear you have the full set of Eye? The Face was very influential through the ’80s especially, and got people other than designers talking about design and typography, as did Peter Saville’s record covers, Barbara Kruger’s messages, and of course Eye is a fabulous resource when you look back over its 15 years.

So what should we expect in your talk/show on Friday? Why did you change the title from ‘I live at the edge of the universe’ (after the Bill Manhire plaque on the Writers Walk) when you gave it in Helsinki, to ‘Passion, Disappointment and Hope’ here in NZ?Each time I present it, it has a different title because this is the nature of my show – mywork is always moving on. Bill Manhire generously let me use his words for the Helsinki version, which I chose because the theme at ATypI was ‘Type on the Edge’, and my show is about exactly this. Now the current title reflects where I’m at, where some of the work is at, and it’s for Wellington.

So what else is in the immediate future? Is the Waitangi wind screen project going ahead? I’m unsure about this at the moment – perhaps we will be able to move this one forward in the near future.

Is it true you’re thinking of moving to France? This is true in that I have been thinking of doing this ever since I was eight years old. And the idea again, would be to straddle the two – New Zealand and France …

Now for a spot of controversy to finish off: we hear that the current and very small Writers Walk committee say that the new set of four poems which are about to go up will be a different design to the existing text sculptures. I understand the resulting furore has involved some rather bitter words from an extraordinary number of people. I think, having read Michael Kopps’ recent article in the Hutt News that Bill Manhire said it best: It’s sad to see it changed … It’s like attaching a haiku to a sonnet.

Shouldn’t those in power listen to the people? Do you feel a petition coming on?
Well, Wellingtonians do have a strong sense of ownership with the Writers Walk – they have embraced it, it has captured the imagination, not only here but all around the world. I figure, there is a responsibility to Wellingtonians in particular, to ensure the integrity of the walk, the writers chosen, and its design are protected and nurtured for the right reasons.

There you go. Post your comments about the Wellington Writers Walk. A LeafSalon readers’ poll: If it ain’t broke, should we fix it?
And thanks Catherine – for putting Wellington on the map and for taking the time to talk to LeafSalon. We look forward to your next piece of off-the-wall art. Exceptional website too, by the way.

END / 12 Oct 05 / Filed by Kathy