Sociotype Journal Issue #1 – The Gesture

Sociotype Journal is a new platform for thoughts on culture and society, that also happens to be a type specimen.
We believe type should start conversations and spread new ideas. Above all, it must communicate. So rather than create our specimens with the customary pangrams or pithy dummy copy, we’ve founded Sociotype Journal; a type specimen, but so much more besides.
Each issue we invite some interesting people to help us explore a single theme, inspired by (and typeset in) a particular type family from Sociotype. We believe type only really comes alive when it’s engaged with culture, so our contributors are largely from outside the world of type design. Typography may be our bread and butter, but the Journal is only about type insofar as that’s how we tell our stories. The rest is up for grabs.

Issue #1 is typeset in our very own serif superfamily, Gestura. Appropriately enough, our theme is “The Gesture”.

When words fail, our hands do the talking. Join us as we investigate raised fists, flicked Vs and power grips, VR mitts and cable knits with NASA, secret signs of the illuminati, street gangs and flight attendants, sign language poetry, greasy fingers, strap hangers, and discover the meaning of the word “thist”.

Issue #1 features ten essays, seven image-led articles, and a twenty eight page technical type specimen.