Basel 2011

Spinning Type into Gold 

The possibility that the design of jewellery and that of type are completely at odds lends a certain friction to Alexandra Jefford’s ‘O’ project. 

While jewellery thrives on being an un-abashed exercise in form for form’s sake, the design of letters tends to be about function and purpose. Imagine the world of type: at one side there might be a font made for reading at small sizes on poor quality paper and at the other the typographic identity of a maturing supermodel who’s making a bid to be a fashion designer. The projects would appear to have little in common, but uniting their designers is the longstanding quasi-ethical command that letters should only be created with a message in mind. In taking seven ‘o’s from as many fonts and using them as the basis for a collection of rings, Alexandra risks being accused of playing havoc with typographic lore. 

That said, there is a precedent for Alexandra’s formal games within the sources themselves. Although the ‘o’s that she has reworked into rings are all available in the latest digital formats, each one has its roots in a previous era. They were all created for a specific reason, but their survival in current technology is by virtue of their form. Designers such as Roger Excoffon and   A. M. Cassandre obviously took delight in shape, but more surprisingly so too did avowed ‘form-follows-function’ modernists such as Josef Albers and Wim Crouwel. Alex’s play on type turns out to be a three-dimensional extension of the two-dimensional flourishes of the original designers. 

While an ‘o’ on the page must fit with the letters around it, an ‘o’ on the finger must sit correctly and not interfere with the wearer’s movement. Jewellery might be a discipline that is all about appearance, but it is not without its own restraints. By drawing on a set of shapes not usually associated with the design of rings, Alexandra has arrived at an extremely distinctive set of forms. More or less explicit takes on their typographic origins, they make a beautifully surprising collection of jewellery.

Emily King