26 DECEMBER 2004INDIAN OCEAN TSUNAMI

MEMORIAL

Tsunami Support UK 2012

these british family members were amongst more than @@%,))) lives lost

june abeyratna · lincoln abraham · robert adamson john andrews · tracy andrews · trish anthony · simon atleevalerie awcock · julian ayer · ross baker · kevin barnett

sofia barona · leonard barratt · catherine mullan · robert bellsarah bent · michael bowen · teresa bowen · nicolas brewsterchristina bülow · kevin brickel · chung choi · isis choi · jon choipaul clarke · alice claypoole · melanie clough · leanne cox

anthony crossman · yvette dreher · joan elias · carole fairbairncolin fairbairn · thomas fairbairn · samantha archer-fayet ruby-rose fayet · roy fitzsimmons · susan ford · terence fordkevin forkan · sandra forkan · tracy fourès · christian fourèsalexander fourès · dinah fryer · deborah garlick · heather gill

ilse gotthiener · iain haggart · carol hall · michael hall roger hankinson · peter harrison · claire hickman

david hickman · yolanda ho · annie hofton · john hofton audrey holland · jane holland · lucy holland · john hoy

robert hoy · david hoy · kate hoy · jonathan hughes james hurren · clare jackson · rebecca johnston · lisa jones

charlotte jones · connor keightley · susan kennedy robert kennedy · chi kwan · alan lai · cynthia lam · veronica lam

kin lam · marco lam · justin ledingham · eileen lee dominic stephenson · keith lester · amanda britton · adrian lester

michele leung · sai leung · john levett · mary-pat levett nikhil lissenburgh · vikram lissenburgh · stephen lissenburghrobert little · barry lloyd-jones · michael long · chi lo · yam loamanda lowe · colleen macdonald · sally macgill · alice macgillnicholas mackenzie-charrington · stephen magson · lisa maykevin m*carthy · matthew m*comish · christopher m*glynn

carmela m*gowan · millie m*gowan · tia m*gowan barbara m*taggart · andrew m*leish · natalie m*leish · nova mills

loretta morin · robin needham · philip nicholas · david pagetaylor howard · mason howard · isabella peatfield · hannah perry

luke puddy · hannah pyatt · pauline pyke · rachel quinn peter rage · pippa rea · holly riddle · parvin rieu

robert rowbottom · michael scott · stuart shields kithmini silva · piers simon · charlie smith-o’reilly jennifer solomons · craig stanley · simon stannard

jeremy stephens · steve stubbs · joyce sunderland · seán sweetmanhong tan · sharleen tan · barry tims · michael trickett

david watson · benjamin watts · ian webster · peter weston robert whymant · louise willgrass · jane williams

Beginning with the site 1514 Carmody Groarke

Originalpresentationsketch by CarmodyGroarke illustratingopportunities forthe site within thegrounds of theNatural HistoryMuseum.

Making final cutsto the block. Theframe straddlingthe block wasassembledespecially formaking thediagonal wire-sawn face to takethe maininscription of thememorial.

Lettering: Working in the shadows 43

carver would have to work facing upwards againstgravity, in a very hard rock, with debris falling ontothem rather than harmlessly away. This orientationwas also creating problems for the transporters, as itmeant that the block would have to be supportedduring transit and a decision was taken that thestone should be cut upside down meaning that theinscription could now be cut with the aid of gravity,albeit upside down. Because of the schedule thestone contractors selected two French carvers to cutthe inscriptions at the quarry from my drawings. The names’ slab was cut a little over-size in the

quarry but transported separately to the block. It was

sandblasted before being brought to the site where itbecame the final part of the installation process justtwo days before unveiling. The final lettering for the memorial, both in

design and in technique, is a response to theparticular architectural form of the memorial itself,and to the chosen material. While it was not anecessary part of the brief to create unique letteringfor the job, as work progressed this seemed tosuggest itself as the correct approach from apractical point of view, and appropriate thearchitects’ and project board’s wider aims for thememorial itself.

IN MEMORIN MEMOin memor

Evolution of thenames’ slablettering. 1 URW Grotesk,used for initiallayout purposes.2 the letteringdesigned for themain inscriptionwas a little tooheavy for the slab;3 the lighter finalversion of lettersused for names.

1

2

3

42 Phil Baines

methods were going to be necessary and sand -blasting suggested itself. For this process a stencil iscut from artwork and sand is blasted through: thiscreates a rough form of incised letter. Over time thedirt accumulates in, and darkens the incisions andthis helps readability. I knew two examples in Londonwhere this technique had been used successfully andthese were photographed and measured to helpguide final size and weight decisions. The sanserif font used to test initial layouts –

URW Grotesk – had appeared a little heavy whensetting the draft names text for the full-size mock-up, and it became clear that, although perfect for the

main inscription, the memorial lettering was a littletoo heavy for the names. The only solution was todraw a lighter version for this purpose. A question still unresolved in January was that

of the overhang, and to a lesser degree, where thecarving would actually take place, in the quarry or atthe Natural History Museum once installed. Carversusually work on vertical surfaces with the area to becarved at around chest height. Where necessary, theywill use platforms to maintain their position relativeto the work. It was originally thought that the stonecould be cut in the quarry the same way up as it nowstands, with an overhang. But this meant that any

Two examples ofsand-blastedlettering anddesign in Londonhelped informwhat could beacheived bysandblasting.

aboveThe Shakespearesundial by thesouth end of St Margaret’sWestminster(Incisive Letter -work 2000). leftThe Bali BombingsMemorial on HorseGuards Road (GaryBreeze with MartinCook 2006).

Caption

Conclusion 8584 Carmody Groarke