The Obscurities Project

Have you ever thought about what words might feel like? What might they sound like beyond their pronunciation? And how might these additional sensory layers shape memory and understanding?

Obscurities is more than just a book. It is an ongoing research and design project exploring how humour and multiple sensory experiences can influence memorability, understanding and engagement.

What began as a few funny illustrations of strange English words has grown into a dissertation project on how visual humour affects memorability, an illustrated dictionary, and now continues as an exploration of learning, accessibility, inclusivity and communication, asking how we might create playful experiences that do not rely solely on vision.

The project challenges a design industry in which much of what we create is primarily made for the eyes. By introducing sound, touch and the element of surprise alongside visual communication, the Obscurities Project explores how information might become more memorable, engaging and accessible to people with different sensory and cognitive needs, including people with dyslexia and ADHD. It asks how we can create experiences that accommodate different ways of processing, focusing and engaging with information without sacrificing playfulness or creativity.

The implications extend far beyond the original book. I am interested in how these ideas could be applied to education, exhibitions and other experiences, product design, advertising and wider forms of communication.

And beyond my noble ambitions, there is another, playful goal: I want to get strange and interesting words back into everyday conversations. In fact, let's go further! I want to pull the daggers from the obsolete words in the Oxford English Dictionary!

Because there are far too many wonderful words hiding in the English language.