The Asterisk

design Letterbox | client Victorian Law Reform Commission

For most of us, the asterisk is used in text to indicate a correction, a further point of clarification or the presence of additional information.

And that’s what makes the asterisk within the renewed identity for the Victorian Law Reform Commission so appropriate. Reflecting the commission’s three guiding principles – Inclusion, Independence and Innovation, the symbol represents outward listening (to community) and the inward act of law reform. Perhaps the clearest comment on the asterisk comes from St. Isidore of Saville who wrote in Etymologiae (c.560–636) ‘The asterisk is placed against [that which has been] omitted in order for what seems to be omitted may shine forth’.