Abstract:
This article contextualises the typographic project, chronicles the type design
process and offers some observations and comments on the design outcome. To this end it briefly
considers the thinking underpinning the notion of Constitution Hill and the Constitutional Court. It
goes on to track the design of the typeface from inception to application and relates both the
design process and the typeface to broader streams of typographic thinking and activity. The article
draws heavily from conversations with the designer Garth Walker and from Walker's personal notes,
his photographic documentation of the Constitution Hill precinct, and the working drafts that mark
the development of the final type design. The underlying intention of the article is to make a
contribution to initiatives that endeavour to compile a local archive that serves as an historical
record of South African design and, at the same time, provides a means for reflection on current
design practice in the country.
