Degree Show 2024
Arthur Bell
BA Graphic and Communication Design
As a designer, I am interested in Typography, and this project was an opportunity to research, and respond to, scripts different to my own. The work is inspired by the different-ness of the Xemahoa tribe from Ian Watson’s Sci-Fi novel ‘The Embedding’ published in 1973.
![](https://www.schoolofdesignleeds.com/ds24/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/arthur-bell-01_Arthur-Bell.jpg)
Here is my proposed Xemahoa alphabet, inspired by the smoke swirls that would be present, rising from the fire in a Xemahoa ritual. The Xemahoa People use a psychedelic drug to be able to fully articulate their language.
![](https://www.schoolofdesignleeds.com/ds24/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/arthur-bell-02_Arthur-Bell.jpg)
This shows a Xemahoa sentence, which shows the concept of the Xemahoa having no sense of linear time in a Xemahoa drug ritual. Note that the sentence can be read from any point in the loop, repeated until all the words have been completed, mimicing the idea of a ritual chant.
![](https://www.schoolofdesignleeds.com/ds24/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/arthur-bell-03-redone.jpg)
Here is a proposed poster for if the writing system were to be displayed in a gallery exhibition, where some of the mind warping imagery is used to illustrate some of the more evocative lines in Watson’s novel.