Exhibition Monograph IV · Solent Tidal Datum
A wordmark that reads the tide
Datum is a brand identity filled by the sea. Water height, direction, weight and moon, all set by the tide.
Three variables and a moon
Height.
How much sea there is. The water inside the letters is the tide, measured from zero elevation datum.
Direction.
Which way the current runs. The waterline tilts up as it floods and down as it ebbs. At slack it is level.
Range.
How hard the celestial pull operates. At neap the letters are light. At spring syzygy they become heavy.
Moon.
A calibrated circle at the corner of the wordmark, lit precisely as the real moon shines tonight.
Move through time.
Drag the line. The wordmark follows the tide for the next fortnight, calculating bathymetry, lunar age, and gravimetric weight.
- Height
- 2.8 m
- Phase
- Flooding
- Range
- Neap · 25%
- Moon
- Waning crescent · day 24
- Weight
- 423
Computed via Solent harmonic coefficients. Not for navigation.
Campaign
Measured against the sea.
Datum establishes the zero-elevation reference. Everything else is water passing over the stone. The complete typographic monograph and archival folio are in preparation.