Lizzie Wa Design

This weeks lecture focused on Typography, its history and use in design. Ways of reproduction and creating type have developed incomprehensibly from their origins. Starting with monks hand writing copies of the bible, now typography and the creation of text is at everyones fingertips. 

Typography has lost its craft status and is so easily accessible in todays society. Does this mean it’s lost some of its power? Or simply that type designers have to evolve alongside these changes?

The process of laying out type on a letterpress machine is one that still captures people attention today, despite technological advances making it no longer a necessary process. The craft of selecting type, choosing spaces and pressing the design is a much slower and hands on process than simply typing something out on a screen. This greater connection with the work you are creating is something that many designers are attracted to. Each decision is more careful and considered. Moreover the output is often opened up to irregularities. When you print with ink you can never be sure exactly how it will behave, where it will bleed and where it may miss a section. I think this also adds to the interest of using more traditional techniques.

Anthony Burrill mentioned this as well in his lecture. He thinks the collaborative process that come with using more traditional print methods is very important. The human relationships that come along with this deeply impact his work. He believes that things are more relatable when they are handmade and not perfect. Maybe this is because as people we are also full of imperfections so relate better to work that reflects this?

He also thinks that the limitations and restrictions that come with traditional print methods can add to the final design and force you to think more creatively. 

Kristoffer Soelling explained how the next jump in technology from the printing press was prototype, which allowed more flexibility in type size and made typography more accessible again. 

The design of type is also very important. Once type was easier to use it could become more elaborate and individual. Type was used, like most other forms of design and art, to push boundaries and try new things. Kicking back against the established order and making a point. Designers kept pushing the ways type could be used, played with making it unreadable and redirecting the readers attention. 

One of the movement that does this very clearly was Dadaism. They used type in a very free and playful way. The liberated it from its linear beginnings, placing it at angles, randomly and without meaning. 

The Bauhaus also had interesting ideas about the classist nature of upper case and lower case letters. 

These new experimentations were only available due to the new technical capabilities.  

How type affects meaning 

“It is a crucial tool in expressing identity and meaning in a contemporary globalised world”

(Kubel and Williams 2015)

Understanding the technical and aesthetic qualities of type is important. Once you understand the importance of leading and paragraph structures you can exploit these to show your meaning. 

“it is about understanding the relationship between typography and the experience of reading – and applying it in an open way”  

(Kubel and Williams 2015)

Type can have certain contextual meaning behind it, or it can simply have a feel to it due to its thickness, how curved it is etc. This can have a lot of impact on how viewers see your design. 

Typography is more than just the type, its the colour the texture and the space. The way that type is treated might be more influential than the typeface used. (Kubel and Williams 2015)

A really interesting example of the meaning that can be embed in and drawn from typefaces is in this new project by award winning Lebanese type designer Dr. Nadine Chahine. 

“To show support and solidarity for the people of Beirut, the international type design community has come together to create a typeface that would raise funds to support the victims of the blast and the reconstruction efforts. Curated by Chahine herself the typeface Li Beirut, which means “For Beirut” in Arabic, has more than 300 glyphs drawn by 160 designers from all around the world.” 

(TypeRoom 2020)

The project is design to inspire hope and show solidarity for the people of Beirut and also all the creatives that are struggling to survive with a pandemic, economic crisis and now a devastating blast. 

“It symbolises unity in diversity.” 

(TypeRoom 2020)

She is pushing boundaries by creating a font that has been designed by so many different people and in so many different styles. This creates a typeface that is incredibly emotional and filled full of meaning itself. This meaning will endure in anything that the font is used for. (TypeRoom 2020)

TR: So, eventually, will type save the day?

NC: Not really. I love type with every cell in me, but type is a tool for communication and can be used for the good and the bad. Just think of the brilliant designs of Nazi Germany to see that good design might not necessarily serve a good purpose. And it is in the recognition of that, that we designers can choose to engage in initiatives that support the good in our communities. 

Doing good via design is a conscious choice, and not something intrinsic to the field. But we as humans also posses the duality of good and evil in our being, and visual communication is part of that. (TypeRoom 2020)

I am very interested in the idea of people using other things to create type. Craig Ward created the cover for the 2009 Creative Review Annual in collaboration with immunologist Frank Conrad. The letter A was grown in a laboratory using a variety of types of cell and photographed under a microscope. (Ward 2009)

Stefan Sagmiester does some incredibly inspiring things with type. 

In this one he creates beautiful type that is only visible from above and actually made out of thousands of pennies.(Sagmeister Inc 2008)

While here he lines up everyday objects, and used shadows to create type. This allows him to embed extra meaning within simple words by his choice of object to create them out of. The design is simple, readable but incredibly intriguing. (Sagmeister Inc 2020)

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Sagmiester also experiments with where he puts his type, often writing directing onto peoples faces and bodies. The idea of where the type is being more meaningful than the font and/or the content is an interesting one to explore.  (Sagmeister Inc 2019)

“I am interested in creating an emotional connection to an audience.”

(Sagmesiter Inc n.d.)

When talking about his typographical work Sagaimester said:

“The message is always very clear and straightforward, the typography much more ambiguous and open for interpretation. I found that by utilizing an open typographic approach combined with the clear message many viewers have an easier time relating their own experience. We do employ various typographic strategies from one project to another (within the series). Some are influenced by the environment they take place in, some by an outside person, some by personal experiences.”

(Sagmesiter Inc n.d.)

Workshop challenge.

For this weeks workshop I decided to focus on the poem by Wendy Cope, titled The Orange. When looking for some text to use it jumped out to me straight away as the perfect poem to use. The words were so evocative and welcoming, perfectly summing up the brilliance of the overwhelming feeling of joy that can come from enjoying something simple. 

I started off by reading the poem through a few times and thinking about how it made me feel and what kind of things it bought to mind. 

I decided it was happy, joyful, positive, warm, childlike, welcoming, colourful, soft, relaxed, fun, flowing, simple. 

I wanted to make sure this simple, childlike joy came across in my design, as well as the friendly squashy idea of a giant orange.

I started to sketch down some ideas, ways I could use the word orange and different ways of drawing the letter O and how different ways of showing it had a different feel. 

As I played around with the colour, structure and font it became clear just how much these things affected the look and feel of the poem. I tried out harsher fonts and big soft squishy fonts. The combinations of bringing different fonts together and how that effected the mood of the design. 

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I wanted to capture the colour of the orange. I think the bright colourful nature of an orange adds to the joy in this poem so needs to be incorporated. 

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I played around with making the letters of the word orange so big that they looked to be crammed onto the page, this seems to signify the size of the ‘huge orange’ and also the swelling feeling of joy.

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I was unsure about how I had separated the lines of the poem out. I think the way a poem is written, where lines are broken and where they are not, is so vital to the feel and meaning of the poem that I should try to disrupt this flow as little as possible. 

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I also tried to make the letter o into a shape itself as the shape of an o can look like an orange. 

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I made the o look as if it was falling down the page which I think added to the fun and movement of the poem. However, something about the design looked a little too sophisticated for a childish joyful poem like this one. I also struggled to find a place for the last line of text that didn’t draw too much attention away from the rest of the poem. I think its a beautiful and important line that wants extra attention, but needs to be read at the end of the poem for its full impact.

I went back to the big curvy font and crammed in text from before and combined that with the falling orange. 

I also had to move the text around quite a bit to make sure the poem read in the correct order, and to make sure parts of the image were not drawing too much of the viewers attention. 

After posting my second draft on the ideas I got some feedback, and decided to try out Charles idea about changing the colours of the word orange slightly so it didn’t bleed together so much. I think it added a nice bit of depth to the image.

Reflection

Typography has such an important, and often overlooked, role to play in design and the sharing of information. It plays such a large part in our lives from the website we read, to the brands we trust and the newspapers we buy. In some cases the content is the important part, so the typography is almost invisible. However, at other times the typography can take control and adds a lot to the design.

Working on this weeks workshop challenge allowed me to experience the impact different fonts, colours and layouts can have on the same piece of text, allowing it to have a completely different feel. I think the balance you have to strike to allow your typography design to be eye-catching and pushing boundaries, yet still true to the meaning of the text and easily readable is a very fine one.

I think my project this week looks welcoming, fun and childlike just like the poem suggests. I decided to push the word orange around and focus on that while leaving the structure of the poem simply laid out and intact enough to make it readable. I think the big curvy font I selected really invokes the idea of a big happy orange and I hope the poem laid out in this way will bring a smile to the viewers face. I would like to be able to try and present this design by printing the type using a traditional print press method. I think the texture that would come with printing the large letters would evoke the texture of an orange and the imperfections would also add to the childlike and accessible look of the design.

Reference list

Abstract: The Art of Design Jonathan Hoefler: Typeface Design [TV series episode]. 2019. Netflix, 2019.

BAINES, Phil and Andrew HASLAM. 2005. Type & Typography. London: Laurence King Publishing, Cop.

KUBEL, Henrik and Scott WILLIAMS. 2015. New Perspectives in Typography. London: Laurence King Publishing.

SAGMEISTER INC. 2008. “Obsessions Make My Life Worse But My Work Better – Sagmeister Inc.” sagmeister.com [online]. Available at: https://sagmeister.com/work/obsessions-make-my-life-worse-but-my-work-better/ [accessed 27 Nov 2020].

SAGMEISTER INC. 2019. “Lou Reed Poster – Sagmeister Inc.” sagmeister.com [online]. Available at: https://sagmeister.com/work/lou-reed-poster/ [accessed 27 Nov 2020].

SAGMEISTER INC. 2020. “Having Guts Always Works Out For Me – Sagmeister Inc.” sagmeister.com [online]. Available at: https://sagmeister.com/work/having-guts-always-works-out-for-me/ [accessed 27 Nov 2020].

SAGMESITER INC. n.d. “Answers – Sagmeister Inc.” sagmeister.com [online]. Available at: https://sagmeister.com/answers/.

TYPEROOM. 2020. “Font Li Beirut: Support Dr. Nadine Chahine’s Design Collective for a City Ravaged – TypeRoom.” http://www.typeroom.eu [online]. Available at: https://www.typeroom.eu/font-li-beirut-nadine-chahine-indiegogo-spiekerman-mamoun-sakkal [accessed 27 Nov 2020].

WARD, Craig. 2009. “CRAIG WARD.” CRAIG WARD [online]. Available at: http://wordsarepictures.co.uk/#/creativereview/ [accessed 27 Nov 2020].

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