Georgia-based photographer Ellen Susan has proposed a new punctuation mark that is cross between a period and an exclamation point.
Called an ‘ElRey Mark’, it looks similar to the exclamation point, but it has a tapered middle with a second dot below it.
Designed by Susan herself, she said that there was an “underlying problem” with the “overuse of the traditional exclamation mark in the email/social network era” and the symbol has been “severely undermined”.
“Consider a non-exclamation-point version of my correspondent’s message: “You are too kind.” That reads dry, chilly, possible even sarcastic,” said Susan. “Which suggests how the function of the exclamation mark has changed: It no longer connotes remarkable enthusiasm; it just signals a sort of general friendliness and baseline cheer, the equivalent of saying “Howyadoin?” in a chipper voice.”
“We need a new punctuation mark that resides in the emotional range between the just-the-facts period and the whoop-to-do excitability of the exclamation point,” she added. “While the new mark would clearly signal positivity, it would save us from communicating with the unhinged emotionality of a note slipped between junior-high students.”
Would you use Susan’s proposed ‘ElRey Mark’?
[via Design Observer]