Makela designed this typeface in the period in which digital processes were becoming accepted as mainstream tools for graphic and communication designers. The past, especially in typography, is often an inspiration for contemporary designers; not so for Makela, whose design deemed it "dead." According to him, Dead History "personifies a new attitude in type creation . . . the result of the computer's capabilities to function as the perfect assembling tool," Makela has said. He began his design for Dead History by mashing together two existing digital fonts—Linotype's Centennial and Adobe's V.A.G. Rounded—to create something entirely new and unexpected. Makela used Dead History in a variety of his own designs.
Gallery label from Standard Deviations, 2011.