MuirMcNeil — Paul McNeil, Hamish Muir — London, United Kingdom
“One of the greatest challenges in designing display fonts was summed up nicely by Michael Bierut when he said: ‘If typography is calling attention to itself it’s taking that attention away from what the words are saying’. In designing type for extended text, that’s vital but in display matter, the relationship between how words look and what they say can be more playful and flexible. In fact, it’s the sole reason that display type exists. Most MuirMcNeil designs are the results of carefully calibrated experiments where we are progressively pushing letterforms to the limits of legibility.”
Founded in 2009, MuirMcNeil is a collaborative design practice focussed on developing both commercial commissions and independent research projects. MuirMcNeil’s work explores the use of systematic methods in editorial design, brand identity, type design and moving image. In addition to their design practice, McNeil and Muir regularly deliver lectures, workshops and short courses to national and international institutions and audiences.