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Graphic Design: Top talents' typographic pieces for Jessica Walsh and Tim Goodman's dating experiment

Date
11 July 2013

In more ambitious moments I sometimes fantasise about launching a dating service for creatives, like Uniform Dating but with designers and illustrators instead of firemen and nurses. The long hours, obsessive nature of the work and achingly aesthetic sensibilities may not be conducive to forming meaningful attachments, which is where my grand plan comes in. Over in New York, Jessica Walsh of Sagmeister & Walsh and Tim Goodman have come up against this familiar roadblock to romance and decided to take action.

For 40 days they entered into a relationship – going on dates, attending couples’ therapy and having a weekend break –and they documented the entire process via daily questionnaires and videos. They also did some special projects like spending a day exploring their past failed romances through drawings, and holding hands for eight hours straight.

As part of the project, Jessica and Tim called on their many friends in the art and design world to create a typographic piece to run alongside each blog post – so the likes of Paula Scher, Eike Konig, Debbie Millman, Mario Hugo, Siggi Eggertson, Christoph Niemann and Jessica Hische have also contributed to this intriguing project.

They say: “Tim is afraid of commitment, often dating many girls at once, losing sight of what a healthy relationship means. Jessica is a hopeless romantic, always looking to find “the one.” It’s been said that it takes 40 days to change a bad habit.”

The results will be rolled out over the coming weeks at the 40 Days of Dating website and we’re looking forward to seeing it develop – and finding out how it ends.

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Anthony Burill: 40 Days of Dating

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Eike Konig: 40 Days of Dating

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Darrwen Both: 40 Days of Dating

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Keetra Dean Dixon: 40 Days of Dating

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Mario Hugo: 40 Days of Dating

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Paula Scher: 40 Days of Dating

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Siggi Eggertson: 40 Days of Dating

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Jessica Walsh/Tim Goodman: 40 Days of Dating

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Jessica Walsh/Tim Goodman: 40 Days of Dating

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Jessica Walsh/Tim Goodman: 40 Days of Dating

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Jessica Walsh/Tim Goodman: 40 Days of Dating

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About the Author

Rob Alderson

Rob Alderson is a freelance writer, editor and strategist. He was previously editor-in-chief of It’s Nice That and WePresent, and editor of Design Week. He publishes the newsletter Undo, which tries to make sense of how AI is changing design work, the design process and the design industry.

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