The Gopher Hole is a project space in Hoxton, London, situating under the diner El Paso. ‘Gopher hole’ is an US military slang in the area. It stands for the spontaneous, self-made smuggling tunnels that are used to transport illicit materials beneath this fortified international boundary. In the same vein, The Gopher Hole aims to scratch below the surface of popular culture, investigating subject matter that often lies below the radar.

Twelve created the bespoke typeface ‘The Gopher’. For the regular cut, it blends the road sign typefaces from Europe and America, creating a hybrid reference to the utilitarian aesthetics. Taken the ideas of defined/undefined territorial boundaries which the gallery space is confronted with, a pattern cut is designed in the form of warning signs and fencing pattern. In essence, building the visual identity based on a typeface enables the creation of design materials to be spontaneous and instinctive.