it means little

That letter A

has been designed then cut by laser into a steel hydrant booster box. And degraded by the elements associated with time. That letter is one of many. That form languages. Constructed to record and express our experience. Robert Bringhurst in his authoritative book on typography, ‘The Elements of Typographic Style’ says, “typography is the craft of endowing human language with a durable visual form”. But our durability has always been in question. The typeface and engraving is, in the words of the guys running the typographic design and lettering website, ‘Friends of Type’, “a unique visual rendering of a piece of language”. True. But the rust is what makes it beautiful. That letter will not last. Nature began taking it back the moment we created it. A stark but often ignored reminder of our impermanence, our desperate self-centred fight against it, and our disassociation with the cycle of life. When we go the Earth will slowly reclaim what is hers. And we should find both freedom and respect in the knowledge that to her, our world of overvalued selves and importance

means little.