Stephen Banham

Stephen Banham is an Australian graphic designer, writer, and founder of Letterbox, a typographic studio.

Banham was born in Melbourne in 1968. He studied graphic design at RMIT University from 1986–88. In 2003 he completed a Master of Design in design research from RMIT.

In 1991 he printed the first small issue of "Qwerty", the first in a series of six experimental spiral-bound issues. His work on the "Qwerty" series (1991-95) was published in "Eye" magazine (no. 46, vol. 12, Winter 2002) along with an interview of Banham. [http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature.php?id=77&fid=442]

Here is a passage from that interview:

Banham has also been a contributor to, or featured in, countless design publications including ""Baseline" magazine, "Emigre", "Adbusters", "Face", "Typo", "Eye", "Monument", "Desktop", "Grafik", "Comma" amongst many others. Perhaps more importantly, Banham has brought discussion of the cultural and social aspects of typography to a wider public, arguing these points in daily broadsheets such as the "Age" and "The Australian" newspapers.

Professional Research

In 1996 he produced "Ampersand" the first of a five-part series by the same name. These featured extended texts on the social significance of typography not possible in the small A7 format of "Qwerty". This was then followed by "Rentfont" (1997) featuring an experimental typeface Futures, made entirely from logotypes. In 1998 Banham produced "Convoy", a comment on the commodification of graphic design. "Assembly" (1999) was an exploration of the visual memory of a child in relation to corporate identity. This involved the individual interviewing over 600 schoolchildren. "Grand" (2001) investigated the relationship between typefaces and socio-economic environments by noting and analysing every instance of typography across a 1000 metre area of the Melbourne central business district.

2004 saw the release of "Fancy", a collection of 12 stories based on typographic themes. Edited by Nick Gadd and featuring photography by David Sterry, "Fancy" explores the themes of fact and fiction in graphic design. Banham prefers not to indicate which stories are true and which are false, highlighting the creative possibilities and tensions fiction creates.

The "Character" forums, beginning in 2005, have been a live and very public extension of these earlier discussions. Issues discussed in these forums have included the style-guiding of cities, the role of accident in design, politics in graphic design and many more. Many of these events have been expanded with other activities such as type tours of Melbourne and two typographic film festivals, including the only Australian screening of "Helvetica" in 2007.

Typographic Design

Letterbox has produced many typefaces over the years including "Berber", "Terital" and "Kevlar" (with Wendy Ellerton), "Morice" (with Morice Kastoun) and the most recent "Bisque" (with Niels Oeltjen).

Articles

* "The Problem of Koala Sans", "Baseline" 25, edited by Mike Daines & Hans Dieter Reichert, Bradbourne Publishing, 1998.
* "After the Shouting – The Post-Grapus Generation", "Baseline" 29, edited by Mike Daines & Hans Dieter Reichert, Bradbourne Publishing, 1999.

External links

* [http://www.letterbox.net.au/ Letterbox Studio] - Official site
* [http://www.letterbox.net.au/about/abt_history.html List of articles] - A comprehensive and up-to-date list of articles on the letterbox site
* [http://www.character.rmit.edu.au/ Character Website] - A website about the series of typography events initiated by Stephen Banham

Notes