A Dictionary Story

In 'A Dictionary Story', typography extraordinaire Sam Winston created a story that "illustrates the balance between a world that’s safe but boring and a high risk universe full of creative possibilities."

"Like people, the alphabetically constrained words yearn to release their individual potential. They want to escape the dictionary’s regimentation and come together to tell a story. But when the words break free, so do their letters. They scatter and tumble across the page, reflecting meaning through visual representation. For a time it’s wild and exciting but when things look to be getting out of hand the Alphabet arrives to remind everyone of their responsibilities. Order returns… but the world and it’s words will never be quite the same again."

"It’s a illustrated story in which words from the dictionary come to life, take on human characteristics and cause a whole world of trouble on the page. It’s a playful book – full of images – to celebrate our language."

"When it comes to typography language always comes first. This might seem like a fairly obvious statement to make but to find this harmony between content and form is incredible hard. There is a need to achieve legibility but also have a strong visual aesthetic. I don’t think they are exclusive but at times they can be at odds."

"Initially the project started as a short narrative in which certain words from the dictionary became living characters that met each other – “Springs next victim was Lawless who was rejoicing in being knocked away from such a boring neighbour as Lawful. Lawless landed straight on top of Lawn which suddenly became very unruly. After some time Lawn was no longer and in its place sat Jungle, happily spreading its creepers across the page.” "

"From exploring the meaning in writing it was then applied it to its design. As I came to set the type I realised, by creating two columns, you could have the story running in one whilst the definitions of the words ran in the other.

This project hopefully goes some way to explaining some of my thoughts around language and design."