It took Hurley a total of four months to develop Sadie. The process began with preliminary hand-drawn sketches, which were eventually scanned and then redrawn on the computer. Next, she painstakingly adjusted each symbol – capital and lowercase letters, numerals, and punctuation – and then worked to perfect the spacing between each letter.
"The reason I started making Sadie in the first place was because while I was designing, I would search for the perfect font that I wanted to use and I'd often come up with ones that were almost perfect but not quite," said Hurley. "So I decided to take all of the things I wanted to change in preexisting fonts and make one myself."
Darling Hall provided an ideal venue for the show, allowing for more foot traffic than most of the other gallery spaces. This was good news for Hurley, who was glad that artists and non-artists alike could see her work and have the opportunity to talk to her. "Besides designers, most people don't think about where fonts actually come from," she said. "I enjoyed making one myself, as a way to practice the things I've learned about design and to make the general public more aware of how they are impacted by it."
Paul Hurley, the artist's father, also valued this aspect of the show, admiring the fact that it was both instructive and creative. "I have a greater appreciation for typefaces and the creativity that's necessary to create them," he said. "It's a nice validation of her college experience, and it's great to see her friends and teachers support her."
English major Jared Christenson '08 had a different perspective and a different reason to appreciate Sadie. "As a writer, I am interested in words primarily for the meaning they convey," he said. "To see the work of someone who appreciates them for their aesthetic value brings an interesting perspective."
The curator of the show, Art major Laura Hoppe '08, was impressed with Hurley's accomplishment. "She succeeded as a graphic designer by creating something both beautiful and technically flawless."