RESEARCH TRENDS PART DEUX
in class: in a quick session of one hour or less, we will review everyone’s area(s) of interest as a group.
narrow things down to one large interest area, “architectural typography” or “sign painting” or “utilitiarian type” for example. spend time organizing your collection of stuff into appropriate categories. if you can give it a loose descriptive title like above, it’s probably an appropriately sized chunk of the type world. before the end of class, make something visual that represents your collection/interest area. it can take any form and include all of your (2nd) collection, just a few bits, or be something entirely new. just respond visually -- no pressure. we will look at everyone’s creations the last five minutes of class.
homework: outside of class, meet up with other classmates working on similar themes. share findings, observations, and just generally get a feel for what others are doing.
write a page or so (not including images) about this recurring typographic tendency or larger trend you observe from your research. how would you describe it? what are its traits? where did it begin? where does it appear? who’s doing it? why is it important?
writing is another mode of expression and creation apart from visual making. it can help you think, analyze, categorize, and clarify to yourself what it is you’re working with.
make a visual organization of your 2nd collection, or some edited version of your collection. put it into some visual form according to appropriate subcategories, gradients, or other organizational strategy. we’ll look at these in the next class session.
ideally your interest area is something more lasting than the industry’s year-long obsession with a particular script typeface, but is a emerging undercurrent of typographic practice. feel free to go back and add example images after you write.
read: triggs chapter openers, pp 20-25, 54-57
5 comments:
20-57 reading chunks:
light is just light until it's bent into the shape of a word. "then it's a medium." Interesting, and true. I don't think of my lamp as being something to inform people with unless i alter it in a format beyond the bulb. A grid based on the concept of the content is also interesting and it's something I should think about and rarely seem to do. I enjoy that post-modern ideals got rid of the grid completely. That cracks me up. It's an ideal I can live by.
In the other chunk there... fonts designed to bridge typographic form and the culture they represent... this is a weird idea. I kind of feel like type already does that to a certain extent. Not just typographic form but the words the form makes up. Fonts like Rosewood (in our classes context anyway) represent our playful nature as a culture. If we were war riddled there would be less room for silly, trifle stupidities I think.
One part of this first reading that stuck out to me is how mathematical and technical typography can be. But it has been based and created around a formula and equations. The article also states that words and type are just a receptacle for the meaning to be contained it. But was the post modernist believe image can successfully do that as well. I think sometimes the thoughtfulness of the meaning is over looked, such as the neon sign. All you see is the notice is what is says not "hey wow look that is a word out of light." It is just simply away to get the viewer to pay attention. I also thought that it was unusual that he called those post modernist designer theories a "punk aesthetic" showing a sign of rebellion to the commonly used grid system. I can also respect how design strategies come full circle because after the radical postmodernism free for all design now with the growth of the internet web designers are going back to the grid for clarity and understanding. I also found the quote "Deconstruction is a process and act of questioning to be quite interesting as well.
The second part of the reading had an interesting first sentence " writing moves words from the sound world to the visual space", so should we design how we talk? I also like how Bonsieoe called graphic designers the interpreter of text. We as graphic designers have alot of power in society as well our voice can be heard louder cause we know the tactics to get people to listen. Since the typography is meant to carry a message to its viewer then the typeface is a aspect that can be alter to facilitate the carrying of that message even greater. Each change you can make in typography says something or changes it in some way. So it is important to be mindful of your choices cause it can change the levels in which your intended message is received.
I liked the 'hot media' and 'cool media' idea, that was mentioned during the first page description of Marshall McLuhan, in the first portion of the reading.
I also really liked the quote from British designer Anthony Froshaug, "...'for each text to be translated into typographic terms, determine not just how the text appears, but what it means to say." /// Which I think is something that students often overlook. They don't read text while they are designing it to check it's readability and functionality.
I also thought this was extremely interesting:
"Type historian Robin Kinross argues that the Swiss typographer's with the grid was the result of a 'frequent need to publish text with illustrations in two or three languages; thus the development of the multi-column, square-format book."
The definition of typography is a term that restricts the meaning of todays discussions on the topic. First of all, I don't really know where the typography happens in a computer. Typography is a magical code in the form of an image that spatially translates spoken words in specific ways. Type is in print, motion graphics, and even text edit whether we admit it or not.
Through the type iv reading assignments it is clear that information is a popular thing. Lately trendsetters of typography often question the obvious, enjoy problem solving, organizing data, and experimentation. Everywhere there must be check and balance systems because design is subjective in comparison to other sciences.
In a lot of ways it seems like the design world just shifts back and forth over many spectrums. This is why I am interested in the composing of kinetic typography. At first I wanted to conduct an experiment that would lead to utter chaos. . . how much is too much? Well I think I've tested that one out in several spots and it often has lead to frustration and regret for even trying. By now it is late and I've decided to concentrate on testing out new ways to present kinetic typography. To do this I will set up trials with simple variables in timing, exposure time to words and the deletion or addition to necessary words. My inspiration for this is a long list on youtube that has its own trends set in stone. . . kinetic type done by a scribe. There are playful experiments
For this project I would like to take authorship, alter texts and screenplays, and show the audience my experiment through both a film and some sort of printed documentation of the exploration.
Hopefully I can do more research and get a thorough plan for testing these waters but for now my goal is to break trends and set a foundation of questioning. I believe that typography and all language has close relations with music. Music is something that everything kind a gets jealous of, but typography is patient.
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