The Arts & Culture Journal

‘Mummerset’ is a typographic project into the phonetics of the West Country twang. Originally used as a slang term by actors, ‘Mummerset’ is a teaching aid for the pronunciation of an accent that pre-dates even the Queen’s English.

By developing a pre-existing font, Nia presents familiarity with a new conceptual framework layered-up from within. The results are striking.

“Didot was a typeface that stood out for me because it is a classic serif font. A font with serifs can appear academic; the whole idea of ‘Mummerset’ is that the sound of the accent is seen as quite common, so I felt that mixing two ideas like this would be very interesting.”

Nia’s project is a personal exploration and her choice of typeface is reflected in this. The rounded soft sounding tones of her own accent are mimicked in the aesthetic of Didot and bridge the gap between designer and audience. An advanced stylistic method with simplistic goals.

Abstract in design, the typeface is made accessible and engaging by the amusing sayings and its decorative appearance. ‘Mummerset’ is not only an enjoyable lesson but a strangely addictive one, which invokes a series of understandings in regard to both the meaning of language and the type itself.