We’ve all used a dictionary, maybe these days it’s more autocorrect or Google but the garret at 17 Gough Square is where the standardisation of the English language really began. The lexicographer, Dr Samuel Johnson, lived and worked at Gough Square in the years he was writing his famous dictionary. During this time the garret at the top of the house would have been a hive of activity, with Johnson working away with a small team to understand and standardise spelling and the meaning of words.
We were contacted by Dr Johnson’s small team to originally work on a fundraising publication. Based on the success of this partnership, they asked us to design an exhibition that explored new research into the ‘Deal’ desk that Dr Johnson is supposed to have sat at to write his dictionary. The desk was also going to be loaned to the museum for the display.
The exhibition, by its nature of being fairly academic and about words, contained mainly written content. To break this up we sourced relevant images of Dr Johnson, created silhouettes for known contributors towards the work (including Hodge the Cat that kept the mice at bay). We used a burgundy and gold palette to tie into the feel of a 18th century publication, using a traditional font for titles and quotes whilst maintaining a sans-serif font for body text for accessibility. We also added graphical features to help illustrate the interpretation (including a few mice) and decorated the space with pages from a reproduction of the original dictionary to add atmosphere and a sense of fun to the space. To help refresh the display cabinets we backed them with red fabric which helped highlight the contents.
To accompany the exhibition we also designed and printed a guide.
The Garret itself was a tricky space to work with, the windows that drew Dr Johnson to the house, limited wall space, as did the height of the eaves. We used a freestanding toblerone to create extra display space and created a false wall to hold a panel (this also created a tidy storage space behind!). And getting equipment and large boards up five flights of stairs kept our steps up!







