Project 1 → Hortus Siccus
BRIEF
ISTD, Not Just Fleurons: consider plants in their broadest sense to develop an eye-catching, informative outcome that celebrates plants and the concept of the garden.
CONCEPT
A Herbarium is a collection of pressed, dried plants. Hortus Siccus is the Latin name, translating to dry garden. My outcome approaches the theme of gardens through this unconventional lens, focussing on the Herbarium at Kew Gardens. Through an interview with Kew taxonomist and researcher, Dr. David Goyder, Hortus Siccus explores Kew’s Herbarium from its complex past to its current research, and the way it hopes to navigate the future.
SOLUTION
The publication’s format mimics a plant press, which are used to dry specimens. Kew has a high volume of type specimens, which are the original record and formal description of any species of plant. Playing on this link between the language of botany and typography, I created a series of type specimens: plants from the Herbarium brought to life with words. They represent the wildness of plants; lines of text intertwine and bend, traversing the grid without restriction. Following each type specimen, the same interview text is then set legibly. These neat, angular layouts create order which reflects the rigidity and hierarchy of plant taxonomy.
A small green booklet sits wihtin the main pages, symbolising a verdant plant at the beginning of the drying process, before losing its colour. This booklet provides a taxonomic breakdown of each of the specimens illustrated in the main publication.