Experimental typographic poster with every piece of information I could find onPonte City Apartments.The challenge was to create an A0 poster packed with information about only one topic using mainly typography. I dove into the world of Africa’s tallest residential building – a massive cylindrical structure from 1975 in Johannesburg, full of mystery and historical significance, that I wanted to convey through type.Designed with a dual purpose, the poster works both as a physical reference, letting you read everything about the building – from its social and cultural significance to its role as a symbol of resilience – and as an immersive experience, placing you at the center of the “hole.” Divided into 30 topics under a single type weight, the text forms the shape of the façade as if seen from the inside, with context and key information at the center, maximizing the large format and creating a sense of depth.By carefully working with the text partitions, I developed a deliberate sense of false symmetry. The left, center, and right sections follow different alignments, creating subtle quirks that keep the composition dynamic, while the jagged edges of the text echo the building’s raw concrete texture and sense of decay. This approach reinforces the structure’s character, turning the dense typographic layout into an extension of the architecture itself, where precision and irregularity coexist to reflect both its monumental presence and its worn, lived-in history.785 sentences, 13,994 words, 86,694 characters, 841×1,189 mmProject developed in the typography module of the Master in Visual Design at Elisava.
This typography communicates architectural monumentality with scholarly precision—the kind of restrained, systematic energy found in academic research presentations or architectural documentation. ABC Monument Grotesk's geometric consistency and neutral authority mirrors the cylindrical building's brutalist character while maintaining the analytical distance of investigative journalism.
ABC Monument Grotesk's geometric construction and uniform weight perfectly echoes Ponte City's cylindrical brutalist architecture, creating literal formal harmony between type and subject. The font's wide character set and excellent readability at small sizes enables the dense information architecture, while its neutral, institutional character reinforces the academic/documentary approach without competing with the conceptual layout strategy.
Using a single typeface family creates unity that mirrors the building's monolithic presence, while variations in size, spacing, and alignment generate all necessary hierarchy. This restraint forces the conceptual layout—text forming the building's façade shape—to carry the expressive load, making the typography subservient to the brilliant spatial concept rather than fighting for attention.