Kemistry Gallery: Roger That!

While in London, I also nipped across to Shoreditch to Kemistry Gallery. I'd heard about a typographic exhibition that was being held there, titled "Roger That!", based upon the phonetic spelling alphabet, developed by The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). The work had been created by EatSleepWork/Play, Inventory Studio and Julia. It seemed such an intriguing concept to me; I am very much interested in experimental and exploratory typography, so I was really looking forward to it. 


After getting lost for a while I discovered the gallery, which was a tiny unit down a lovely little cobbled street. I was a little disappointed that it was so small, but the exhibition itself was so charming that I soon overcame my disappointment. Spread across 3 of the walls was a narrative, broken up by the letters of the alphabet, printed on A3 sheets in 2 colours only. Each of the posters portrayed the phonetic spelling of each letter, some in an obvious way, some in more abstract ways. It was a really lovely representation, and certainly brought a smile to my face. It was a great approach to marry a narrative with the phonetic spellings, as it made the experience more interesting and I loved the witty and imaginative tone to their work. It has definitely given me the desire to create work that has more character and fun to it. Here are a coupleof my favourite letters:

C - Charlie > Charlie Chaplin. 

E - Echo > The story of Echo the Greek nymph