Experimental typographic poster with every piece of information I could find on Ponte 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 mm
Project developed in the typography module of the Master in Visual Design at Elisava.
