Guy Mongomery’s Guy Mont-Spelling Bee began as a lo-fi lockdown zoom gameshow in the early months of the 2020 pandemic.
Contestants from Aotearoa and the wider world would video in and compete in a comedic and at times chaotic rendition of the classic Spelling Bee format.
Post-lockdown the Mont-Spelling Bee evolved into stage play at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and finally the super-charged prime-time television series for TV three, airing in early 2023.
I had the dream job of designing the key visual elements of the physical set - the letter wall, the name cards, the title treatment for the show itself and the shows mascot and namesake; Monty the Bee. The icing on the cake was also getting to create the on-screen typography treatment.
David Correos correctly smells and spells Mayonnaise.
I wanted the on-screen typography to be large, legible and a pleasure to read. The soft pillowy letterforms of Rooney made words appear almost tasty.
The 4.8m wide contestant wall consists of the complete alphabet save for the letter X - nixed for being “too spooky.”
Note the disproportionately large letters G-U-Y.
