The designing type

2161

The number of colours in the Pantone Colour Matching System, as of 2019. Manufacturers in different locations can use the system to ensure standardised colours.

14 200

The size in square metres of the Lideto Mercato mall in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Its perforated façade is based on the use of fractals and it was named the world’s best shopping mall by the Prix Versailles in 2019.

1045

The year movable type was invented by bi sheng, a chinese alchemist who used wood and then clay to make type.

782

The average number of people who will sit on a couch during its lifespan. It will also fall victim to an average of 1 663 spills.

1948

The year the Dassler brothers, Adi and Rudi, shut their shoe-manufacturing company after a bitter feud and opened two rival companies in the same town: Puma and Adidas.

1996

The year the Dakar Biennale (Dak’Art) was launched. It is Africa’s longest-running grand-scale art event and is devoted to contemporary African art.

1439

The year a european — Johannes Gutenberg — first used moveable type, this time cast metal

70 000-100 000

The age of the oldest pieces of graphic design found thus far — the symbolic geometric designs on ochre rock discovered in blombos cave in the Western Cape.

1509

The year in which Michelangelo wrote a poem complaining about how hard it was to paint the Sistine Chapel. One line read, “I’ve already grown a goitre from this torture.”