The title of this brief is a quote from William Shakespeare's Hamlet - the 'Undiscovered Country'. It is a metaphorical reference to death. This oration questions our fear of death and how that fear makes cowards of us all. For this brief I had to design a publication that 'visits death'. This work will inform and stimulate ones intellect and please the typographic designer's eye. Before determining my approach, I had to consider international, societal, scientific, religious, historical, statistical, cultural, literary and poetic touch-points within my research.

 

My refined concept is based on the 7 Stages of Grief. After a loved one had passed away, one would typically experience grief in this order: Shock, Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Testing and Acceptance. Simplon BP mono, the typeface of my choice, depicts each of these stages. The reader will be informed with insightful information about these stages and also be visually simulated by way the type depicts each stage. The type starts off as glitched and disordered, depicting the first stages; later toward the end stages it becomes more readable and ordered.