Type is such a normal thing we all
encounter in our everyday life not as designers but as people. But as designers
we understand type at a different level than most. We have gotten pretty good
at traditional rule of typography. But rules can be broken and it’s our turn to
break them. Experimental typography is nothing new typographers have been
pushing the boundaries for ages they did thing that were experimental then that
are now common in out time. In our time we have much more resource to
experiment with; the ideas are endless.
We
all have those friends that think type is just choosing fonts and doesn’t
understand the importance of things like kerning and leading. I’ve always
wondered how I can get these people to understand that these things matter. I instantly
thought of how we encounter type in the real worlds: roads signs, billboards,
ads, store signs, and more. What if there was a way to find one of these and
create an exaggerated a typographical error, an error that can really change
the communication of the sign or billboard and see document what happens. I’ve
realized that it may require a bit of vandalizing so I took some steps back on
this idea to try to envision other ways to explore this concept.
One direction I had was maybe thru
photo manipulation; find a place that has a crucial piece of type and
bastardize the type with some photo manipulation and see how some normal non
design folk react to the image. I’m not sure what kind of result I’ll get but
it may be interesting.
Another direction for this concept
maybe to create instructions for some moderately difficult tasks something that
may need good and direct communication and release it to a few “average”
subjects. The instructions will be covered in typographic errors (bad
hierarchy, bad hyphenating, so on) and see how this effects the readers ability
to complete the task. There will be a lot of info to record: Did the subject
complete the task? Did they complete it correctly? How long did it take?
However I decide to peruse this
concert I just want the statement to be that type matters! As designers we know
that but I want the rest of the world to hear it.
Another idea I wanted to explore
was food. Food is a big deal to people eating is a religious thing to many of
us it’s a really intimate activity. For use designer typography can be quite
intimate also especially when working with movable type. But movable type is
something precise, clean, and uniform. Food isn’t always any of that; in fact
food can be pretty sloppy sometimes. Playing with food as a kid is fun but as
an adult it’s probably looked down upon and may feel uncomfortable to do. So
what if I can do that with type. I had the idea of type on gum. The un-chewed
gum may be fun but how will it be working with gum that’s been a bit chewed.
The letterform get all warped, the parts are sticky, and difficult to even out.
What kind of outcomes will there be? And how about exploring where they end up?
I see old gum in the sidewalks all the time what if you encounter stepped on
gum that is communicating something will you still ignore it? I have not really
got into what else I can do with gum but I would like to explore this one more.
My final idea hasn’t been as
thought out as the others but still worth looking into. I have a previous
degree in sound engineering and I was really into Sound Synthesis. Sound
Synthesis is basically the process of creating sounds thru the manipulation and
layering of waveforms. These basic waveforms are made of basic shapes Sine (circle),
square, triangle, and saw tooth (sort of a right triangle). Letterforms are
made from a few basic shapes mixed together maybe creating synthesized
waveforms that mimic the letterforms to make a sort of “sound font” (the term
sound font already exist as files that are a sound or instrument that can be
used by certain music software). It’s a simple idea but I think there’s a lot
that can come from it.
Last
class you presented the question “Who the hell cares?” I’m not sure if any of
my ideas will invoke care in anyone but I’m sure I can build that into whichever
direction I choose.
