Ulysses, a novel;
Century Odyssey, a typeface
an interactive typeface for Joyce’s Ulysses
2021 | 492 pages | 200mm x 250mm x 30mm | softcover, perfect bound (à la 1922 edition)
Century Odyssey is a body typeface designed for James Joyce’s Ulysses. Drawn on the basis of Century Old Style, Century Odyssey is an experimental typeface, with a library of contextual glyphs that weave through and subtly puncture the text; the typeface becoming a narrative in itself.
It works by setting the typefaces’ alternates and ligatures to linguistic, rather than graphic contexts, which then reveal themselves in specific phrases and words.
The typeface is showcased as a new edition of Ulysses. The edition features an introduction to the typeface attached to the front cover, becoming part exhaustive type specimen, part new edition of Ulysses.
(type below to test me out)
“glancing eyes a lattice hid for her lover to kiss the iron and the wineshops half open at night and the castanets and the night we missed the boat at Algeciras the watchman going about serene with his lamp and O that awful deepdown torrent O and the sea the sea crimson sometimes like fire and the glorious sunsets and the figtrees in the Alameda gardens yes and all the queer little streets and pink and blue and yellow houses and the rosegardens and the jessamine and geraniums and cactuses and Gibraltar as a girl where I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down Jo me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.”
(type above to test me out)