One year after Sans Forgetica – a typeface that could help people remember more of what they read - was released into the world, the RMIT trio behind the project reflect on the wild ride that ensued.
RMIT's Stephen Banham, Dr Janneke Blijlevens and Dr Jo Peryman worked together to develop, design and test the font, which inspired songs and a Wikipedia entry, received global media attention and connected them with academic peers and the public from around the world.
It also claimed the top award in Communication Design and the Patron's Australian Design Award at the 61st annual Good Design Awards.
Sans Forgetica is believed to be the world's first typeface specifically designed to help people retain information and remember more of typed study notes.
Despite working in different fields, the trio agreed the font highlighted the power of academics to engage with everyone through hooking into a fascination and conversation around memory, recall, design and psychology.
They also agreed Sans Forgetica was still in its infancy. They are working on papers for publication in scientific and design journals, as well as following up on opportunities to test it in different settings.
Senior Lecturer Marketing (Experimental Methods & Design Thinking) and Behavioural Business Lab chair Dr Janneke Blijlevens said Sans Forgetica had ignited a "fire within" to focus on work that benefited society and was meaningful to people.
"Being a bit of a nerd, I was humbled to read a
