Mouthpiece

MOUTHPIECE

SPOKEN WORD & LIVE MUSIC

MANCHESTER

Identity system · self-initiated

A spoken word festival has no object to photograph. The work is people talking, so the identity is made entirely of words. Every line is set to fill the sheet exactly, which means the size of a word is decided by how long it is, not by how important someone thinks it is.

Client: Fictional, self-initiated
Sector: Festival, spoken word
Scope: Mark, system, print, screen, merch
Method: After Paula Scher, Public Theater
Built: CSS and one variable font

The mark

There is no logo to place. The name set to the full measure of whatever it sits on is the mark, and it changes size on every item it appears on.

MOUTHPIECE

One name, three widths, all set to the same measure. Red lines mark the trim.

Clear space: None. The mark touches the trim on both sides. A margin around it is the one thing that stops it being the mark.
Minimum size: No minimum. It is set to the measure, so on a wristband it is small and on a hoarding it is enormous.
Width: Expanded for headline use, condensed when the line has to carry more words, regular for body settings.
Never: Never set the name twice at two sizes on the same sheet. It is one voice, so it speaks once per surface.

The rule

Every line fills the measure. Type size is calculated from the number of characters, so a short word is huge and a long one is small. Nobody picks a point size, ever.

SHOUT

Type a word

Fixed: The measure, the margins, and the family. All three are the same on every item.
Calculated: Type size. It is the measure divided by the width of the word at a reference size.
Chosen: The words themselves, the width of each line, and which two colours the sheet uses.
Consequence: Long names get quiet and short names get loud. The system has an opinion, and the client has to live with it.

Colour

Black, chalk, and three shouts. Exactly two shouts per surface, never three, which gives the season three combinations and keeps any single poster from turning into a paint chart.

Ink#101010 Rules, bands and most type. Always 3 pt or heavier.

Chalk#F4F1E8 The ground. Never pure white in print.

Vermilion#C7331B Shout one. Carries the loudest line on the sheet.

Cobalt#1B3FE0 Shout two. Wayfinding and anything outdoors.

Acid#C6F52A Shout three. Only ever under black type.

Pair A · Vermilion + Cobalt

Pair B · Vermilion + Acid

Pair C · Cobalt + Acid

Three legal pairs. A fourth combination does not exist.

Typography

One family and no second typeface. The width axis does the work a second family usually does, which is why the system holds together when it is shouting.

Condensed
62 · Black MANCHESTER

Regular
100 · Semibold MANCHESTER

Expanded
125 · Black MANCHESTER

Family: Archivo variable, width 62 to 125, weight 400 to 900. Nothing else is licensed for the festival.
Running text: Regular width, 400, 16 on 24. The only setting in the system that is not uppercase.
Rhythm: Adjacent bands never share a width. A stack in one width is a list, not a poster.
Case: Uppercase for every fitted line. Lowercase letters change height word by word and break the fit.

The stack

There is no column grid because nothing sits in a column. The sheet is divided into horizontal bands, each one line deep, each ruled off in black.

Band 1 · name Band 2 · the loud word Band 3 · what it is Band 4 · place Band 5 · dates Band 6 · the small print

Bands: Five to seven per sheet. Fewer reads as a sign, more reads as a timetable.
Rules: 3 pt black between every band, and around the sheet. The rule is structural, not decorative.
Depth: Band depth follows its type size, so the loudest word owns the most paper.
Margins: Six millimetres left and right on print. Nothing at the top or bottom. The stack bleeds.

Poster series

Three nights from one festival, one colour pair each. Same bands, same rules, same family. The only thing that changes is the words, and the words change everything.

MOUTHPIECE

YAWP

A NIGHT OF NEW SPOKEN WORD

NORA IDE

THU 8 JULY · 19.30 · THE WAREHOUSE

MOUTHPIECE

LOUD

SIX POETS AND A DRUM KIT

HALL & CO

FRI 9 JULY · 20.00 · ALBERT ROOMS

MOUTHPIECE

HUSH

QUIET READINGS AFTER MIDNIGHT

SAM OKORO

SAT 10 JULY · 23.45 · THE VAULTS

Pair A, Pair B, Pair C. The short words take the most paper without anyone deciding they should.

Applications

The stack is the only layout there is. On a sign it has two bands, on a wristband it has one, and on a programme it holds a listing without changing a single rule.

MOUTHPIECE

2027

FOUR NIGHTS · ELEVEN VOICES

MANCHESTER

The programme · 8 to 11 July

THU 8Nora Ide Yawp12
FRI 9Hall & Co Loud14
SAT 10Sam Okoro Hush10
SAT 10Open floor AnyoneFree
SUN 11The Long Room Closing16

Programme spread, A4 landscape

Mouthpiece

FOUR NIGHTS OF TALKING

JULY

TICKETS FROM TEN POUNDS

Manchester 20278–11 July

Website hero, the same stack at screen proportions

MOUTHPIECE

SAY IT

MANCHESTER 2027

Tote, 380 × 420 mm

Stage
Two Doors 19.00 · Standing

Wayfinding, cobalt with the acid arrow

MOUTHPIECE8–11 JULYMOUTHPIECE8–11 JULY

Wristband, 250 × 20 mm

What breaks it

A loud system fails quietly. These are the four ways it happens, and all four look like reasonable requests when somebody asks for them.

MOUTHPIECE

Do not add a margin Floating the name in the middle of the sheet turns a system into a logo. The type has to reach the trim.

YAWP

LOUD

HUSH

Do not use one width Three bands in the same width is a list. The width change is what makes the stack read as a voice rising and falling.

YAWP

LOUD

HUSH

Do not use three shouts Two colours make a decision. Three make a compromise, and the sheet stops having a loudest thing on it.

MOUTHPIECE MANCHESTER 2027

Do not centre anything Centred type cannot fill a measure. The moment a line is centred the rule that generates the whole system is gone.