Type High Design

View Original

Swansea Jack Typeface

On a lockdown walk, I saw a gravestone marked as a tribute to a dog that saved the lives of 27 people along the coast of Swansea.


I thought this was incredible and admittedly was slightly sceptical. After arriving home and a quick Google search, I was shocked to find the story was true.

I decided to do my own tribute to Swansea Jack, using the geometric shapes from the gravestone that could be pieced together to create a unique typeface.

I moved on to building a grid structure out of my created shapes. I tried to keep multiple possibilities open within the grid; this way, I would not overly restrict myself.

The design is style is heavily influenced by one of my favourite designers Wim Crouwel and his grid-style construction typography.


The typeface still needs some letters changed and fine-tuning before release.