Sarah ChangeziArchitecture · Bombay

Sheet 08.3IdentityBlue ballpoint, felt tipAt the scale of a stamp

Seven

One word, written over and over. Its V keeps turning into a snake: wrapped round the word, forming the letter, crowning a Medusa, and at the end winding round a numeral 7.

Pages
3, in blue ballpoint, with pink and teal felt tip
On the page
SEVEN, and only SEVEN
Ways to write it
Four letterings, three snake-wound 7s
Four ways to letter SEVEN in blue ballpoint, one with a pink V and a teal e, beside three snake-wrapped numeral 7s.
01The last page: four letterings and three serpent 7s.

A snake finds the V.

The first page starts with snakes on their own, long and loose, then puts one to work: coiled round the whole word, then wrapped round a tall V, then round a 7. The lettering on the right of the page is tried open, framed and as a script.

Blue ballpoint serpent studies: three long snakes and a snake’s head.
02Serpents, before the word.
A snake coiled round the word SEVEN, in blue ballpoint.
03Round the word.
A snake wrapped round a tall V, in blue ballpoint.
04Round the V.
SEVEN lettered three ways in blue ballpoint: open capitals, framed capitals, and a script.
05Open, framed, written.

Hair of snakes, a collar shaped like a V.

The second page gives the snakes a face. Medusa heads, one set in a V-shaped collar, and lockups where two snakes rise to form the V of SEVEN over her head. In the corner the word is tried small, four times, a snake standing in for the V each time.

Blue ballpoint page of Medusa heads with snake hair, one in a V-shaped collar, and SEVEN lockups where snakes form the V.
06The Medusa page.

Four ways to write it.

On the last page the snake steps back and the word is lettered four ways: shaded serif capitals; lower case with the V picked out in pink and an e in teal; outlined, mixing cases; and outlined serif capitals.

  1. aSEVEN in shaded serif capitals.
  2. bseVen in lower case, the V pink and the second e teal.
  3. cSeVen in outlined letters.
  4. dSEVEN in outlined serif capitals.

A snake wound round the seven.

Beside the letterings, the word becomes a number: a 7 with a serpent wound round it, three times over, the coil getting simpler each time.

A numeral 7 with a snake wound loosely round its stem, in blue ballpoint.
A numeral 7 with a snake knotted round it, its head raised, in blue ballpoint.
A numeral 7 with a snake lying along its top bar and coiling down the stem, in blue ballpoint.

01 / 04

Identity study, undated.