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Interrobang β€” 99% Invisible
99% Invisible

Interrobang

32m 5sEp. 314
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Show Notes

In the spring of 1962, an ad man named Martin Speckter was thinking about advertising when he realized something: many ads asked questions, but not just any questions -- excited and exclamatory questions -- a trend not unique to his time. Got milk?! Where's the beef?! Can you hear me now?! So he asked himself: could there be a mark that made it clear (visually on a page) that something is both a question and an exclamation?!

Speckter was also the editor of the typography magazineΒ *TYPEtalks, *soΒ  in March of 1962, in an article for the magazine titled β€œMaking a New Point, Or How About That…”,Β Speckter proposed the first new mark of English language punctuation in 300 years: the interrobang.

Plus, we revisit the story of another special character, the octothorpe.

Interrobang

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99% Invisible
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