The Mannahatta Project

Lexicon is the world’s most expensive typeface. A fantastic achievement in type design and one of only two typefaces designed by the great Bram de Does (The other being Trinité, the second most expensive typeface in the world). But the family is priced based on the sheer quality, making its use extremely limited to high quality projects by extremely qualified typographers. This is one of few uses of the type family by Abbott Miller.

Pentagram on the design of the book:

Abbott Miller worked closely with Eric W. Sanderson on the design and development of the book and exhibition. Both document The Mannahatta Project, Sanderson’s decade-long research of Manhattan’s ecological history.

Mannahatta the book is serious science but is as readable as any historical blockbuster. Miller’s design for the book straddles the line between academic text and illustrated history, using a readerly format that makes the content engaging for a mainstream audience. During their research, Sanderson and his colleagues reconstructed the island at the scale of a city block using the latest techniques in computational geography, and the book contains stunning visualizations of pre-settlement Manhattan by Markley Boyer. In Miller’s design, these are presented in dramatic side-by-side comparisons with contemporary aerial shots of New York City.