Articulating Un-freedom

Many of us work hard on our own behalf, or on behalf of our clients, to make sure we get found. Google’s highly protected algorithms claim to make it difficult to pay for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). They want to keep search results fair and organic. That doesn’t stop companies from spending tons of time and money trying to rise to the top of search lists and chase that holy grail.But what about the other side of the fence? What if you don’t want to be found, either in a Google search—or by anyone else, including the US National Security Agency. This past year there has been much debate about the NSA’s secret surveillance programs, in particular PRISM. While the NSA and the FBI have always been known for such practices, the level of invasiveness into private data through servers has never been higher. Many people feel it’s a violation of their privacy and a form of censorship.Graphic designer Sang Mun decided to create a typeface that speaks to this issue. While working as a special intelligence personnel for the NSA, Mun learned how to gather information scanning text for national security and defense purposes. Mun questions whether or not things have gone too far. Should text scanning be used for overseeing American citizens without their permission? He has become dedicated to researching ways to “articulate our unfreedom.”One result of Mun's research was the creation of the unreadable typeface ZXX. The typeface’s name was inspired by Library of Congress’ listing of three-letter codes denoting which language a book is written in. ZXX is used when there is no linguistic content.Mun offered ZXX as a free download hoping many would use it. More importantly, it was a call to action—created to raise questions about privacy and censorship. Mun asks us to look at the omnipresent way our personal information is harvested, and not be afraid to question the intrusions. Mun reminds us that as graphic designers we have the power—and a responsibility—to use our craft to ask these questions.Sources:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/25/nsa-font-sang-mun_n_3490903.htmlhttp://blogs.walkerart.org/design/2013/06/20/sang-mun-defiant-typeface-nsa-privacy/http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/code_list.phphttp://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-intelligence-mining-data-from-nine-us-internet-companies-in-broad-secret-program/2013/06/06/3a0c0da8-cebf-11e2-8845-d970ccb04497_story.htmlhttp://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/nsa-phone-records-verizon-court-order