The idea for the publisher’s name is taken from Phlebas, a Phoenician character in The Waste Land by T. S. Elliot. The brand (and the character) represents a continuum of art and culture from humankind’s earliest civilisation to modernity.
The ālep, the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet, underlies most subsequent alphabets and evolved into the modern A. The ālep is said to have evolved from the ox symbol of the proto-Sinaitic script from the border of ancient Egypt, which is in part derived from hieroglyphs.
Our design shows that lineage from hieroglyph to modernity – represented by the full stop of this moment in time, which is also the ox eye. So, the brandmark fuses past and present and represents civilisation through the evolution of the alphabet’s first letter.
Shop front concept
