2
CONTENT
Threadbare – Type in Decay
3
5
HELLO READER
7
THANK YOU
9
PUBLICATION OVERVIEW
10
ELEMENTS OF TYPOGRAPHIC STYLE
14
LETTERS & CITIES
Threadbare – Type in Decay
4
Threadbare – Type in Decay
5
HELLO
Threadbare – Type in Decay
4
OLLEH
Threadbare – Type in Decay
5
Threadbare – Type in Decay
4
Threadbare – Type in Decay
5
Threadbare – Type in Decay
6
Threadbare – Type in Decay
7
THANKS FOR OPENING COAST MAG
Threadbare – Type in Decay
9
TYPOGRAPHY IN DECAY The word “threadbare” is defined as something becoming thin and tattered with age, or more so, when something is used so often that it is no longer effective. Coast Magazine’s, “Threadbare –Typography in Decay” publication is a graphic investigation into the ways that ones interpretation and reading of content can be challenged or enhanced when text is in a state
of decay or distortion. Inspired by an archive of images that have been placed throughout this publication that documents typography on suburban stickers in states of decay and deterioration, this publication issue operates further as a means of garnering these commonly experienced typographic states on public labels.
Threadbare – Type in Decay
YACED
9
TYPOGRAPHY IN The word “threadbare” is defined as something becoming thin and tattered with age, or more so, when something is used so often that it is no longer effective. Coast Magazine’s, “Threadbare –Typography in Decay” publication is a graphic investigation into the ways that ones interpretation and reading of content can be challenged or enhanced when text is in a state
of decay or distortion. Inspired by an archive of images that have been placed throughout this publication that documents typography on suburban stickers in states of decay and deterioration, this publication issue operates further as a means of garnering these commonly experienced typographic states on public labels.
Threadbare – Type in Decay
10
Robert Bringhurst
From part 2 of Benjamin’s essay on Karl Kraus, in Illuminationen, (Frankfurt, 1955). There is an English translation in Walter Benjamin, Reflections, ed. Peter Demetz (New York, 1978). 1
Excerpts from Bringhurst, R. 2001. The Elements of Typographic Style (pg 11, 17–20) Hartley & Marks, Canada
Threadbare – Type in Decay
11
1.1.1 TYPOGRAPHY EXISTS TO HONOUR CONTENT
Like oratory, music, dance, calligraphy – like anything that lends its grace to language – typography is an art that can be deliberately misused. It is a craft by which the meanings of a text (or its absence of meaning) can be clarified, honoured and shared, or, knowingly disguised.
One of the principles of durable typography is always legibility; another is something more than legibility: some earned or unearned interest that gives its living energy to the page. It takes various forms and goes by various names, including serenity, liveliness, laughter, grace and joy. These principles apply, in different ways, to the typography of business cards, instruction sheets and postage stamps, as well as to editions of religious scriptures, literary classics and other books that aspire to join their ranks. Within limits, the same principles apply even to stock market reports, airline schedules, milk cartons, classified ads. But laughter, grace and joy, like legibility itself, all feed on meaning, which the writer, the words and the subject, not the typographer, must provide.
FO STNEMELE CIHPA RGOPYT – ELYTS
In a world rife with unsolicited messages, typography must draw attention to itself before it will be read. Yet in order to be read, it must relinquish the attention it has drawn. Typography with anything to say therefore aspires to a kind of statuesque transparency. Its other traditional goal is durability: not immunity to change, but a clear superiority fashion. Typography at its best is a visual form of language linking timelessness and time.
namuh gniwodne fo tfarc eht si yhpargopyT
htiw sLETTERS uht dna ,mrof elbarud a HAVE htiw egaugnal 1.1.2 s i d o o w t r a e h s ’ t I . e c n e t s i x e t n ednepedni na A LIFE AND DIGNITY f o , e g a t s y n i t a n o , e c n a d e h t – ,yhpargillac OF THEIR OWN hcaer stoor sti dna – dnah gnikaeps ,gnivil eht eb yam sehcnarb sti hguoht ,lios gnivil otni gnol oS .senihcam wen htiw raey hcae gnuh ecruos a sniamer yhpargopyt ,sevil toor eht sa .esirprus eurt ,egdelwonk eurt ,thgiled eurt fo nommoc gnol a serahs yhpargopyt ,tfarc a sA htiforms w snrethat cnochonour nommand oc yelucidate nam dna ywhat radnuob Letter h t i w d n a e d i s e n o e h t n o g n i t i d e d n a gnitirw humans see and say deserve to be honoured y h p a r g o p y t t e y : r e h t o e h t n o n g i s e d c ihparg in their turn. Well-chosen words deserve well. r e h t i e n o t s g n o l e b chosen letters; these in their turn deserve toflesti be set with affection, intelligence, knowledge and skill. Typography is a link and it ought, as a matter of honour, courtesy and pure delight, to be as strong as the others in the chain. Writing begins with the making of footprints, the leaving of signs. Like speaking, it is a perfectly natural
act which humans have carried to complex extremes. The typographer’s task has always been to add a somewhat unnatural edge, protective shell of artificial order, to the power of the writing hand. The tools have altered over the centuries, and the exact degree of unnaturalness desired has varied from place to place and time to time, but the character of the essential transform between manuscript and type has scarcely changed.
Threadbare – Type in Decay
10
ELEMENTS OF TYPOGRAPHIC STYLE – Robert Bringhurst
From part 2 of Benjamin’s essay on Karl Kraus, in Illuminationen, (Frankfurt, 1955). There is an English translation in Walter Benjamin, Reflections, ed. Peter Demetz (New York, 1978). 1
Excerpts from Bringhurst, R. 2001. The Elements of Typographic Style (pg 11, 17–20) Hartley & Marks, Canada
Threadbare – Type in Decay
Typography is the craft of endowing human language with a durable form, and thus with an independent existence. It’s heartwood is calligraphy, – the dance, on a tiny stage, of the living, speaking hand – and its roots reach into living soil, though its branches may be hung each year with new machines. So long as the root lives, typography remains a source of true delight, true knowledge, true surprise. As a craft, typography shares a long common boundary and many common concerns with writing and editing on the one side and with graphic design on the other: yet typography itself belongs to neither.
11
1.1.1 TYPOGRAPHY EXISTS TO HONOUR CONTENT
Like oratory, music, dance, calligraphy – like anything that lends its grace to language – typography is an art that can be deliberately misused. It is a craft by which the meanings of a text (or its absence of meaning) can be clarified, honoured and shared, or, knowingly disguised. In a world rife with unsolicited messages, typography must draw attention to itself before it will be read. Yet in order to be read, it must relinquish the attention it has drawn. Typography with anything to say therefore aspires to a kind of statuesque transparency. Its other traditional goal is durability: not immunity to change, but a clear superiority fashion. Typography at its best is a visual form of language linking timelessness and time.
One of the principles of durable typography is always legibility; another is something more than legibility: some earned or unearned interest that gives its living energy to the page. It takes various forms and goes by various names, including serenity, liveliness, laughter, grace and joy. These principles apply, in different ways, to the typography of business cards, instruction sheets and postage stamps, as well as to editions of religious scriptures, literary classics and other books that aspire to join their ranks. Within limits, the same principles apply even to stock market reports, airline schedules, milk cartons, classified ads. But laughter, grace and joy, like legibility itself, all feed on meaning, which the writer, the words and the subject, not the typographer, must provide.
1.1.2 LETTERS HAVE A LIFE AND DIGNITY OF THEIR OWN
Letter forms that honour and elucidate what humans see and say deserve to be honoured in their turn. Well-chosen words deserve wellchosen letters; these in their turn deserve to be set with affection, intelligence, knowledge and skill. Typography is a link and it ought, as a matter of honour, courtesy and pure delight, to be as strong as the others in the chain. Writing begins with the making of footprints, the leaving of signs. Like speaking, it is a perfectly natural
act which humans have carried to complex extremes. The typographer’s task has always been to add a somewhat unnatural edge, protective shell of artificial order, to the power of the writing hand. The tools have altered over the centuries, and the exact degree of unnaturalness desired has varied from place to place and time to time, but the character of the essential transform between manuscript and type has scarcely changed.
Threadbare – Type in Decay
12
Threadbare – Type in Decay
13
The original purpose of type was simply copying. The job of the typographer was to imitate the scribal hand in a form that exact and fast replication. Dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of copies were printed in less time than a scribe would need to finish one. This excuse for setting texts in type has disappeared. In the age of photo lithography, digital scanning and offset printing it is as easy to print directly from handwritten copy as from text that is typographically composed. Yet the typographer’s task is little changed. It is still to give the illusion of superhuman speed and precision – to the writing hand. Typography is just that: idealised writing. Writers themselves now rarely have the calligraphic skill of earlier scribes, but they evoke countless versions of ideal script by varying voices and literary styles.
To these blind and often invisible visions, the typographer must respond in visible terms. In a badly designed book, the letters mill and stand like starving horses in a field. In a book designed by rote, they sit like stale bread and mutton on the page. In a well-made book, where designer, compositor and printer have all done their jobs no matter how many thousands of lines and pages, the letters are alive. They dance in their seats. Sometimes they rise and dance in the margins and aisles. Simple as it may sound, the task of creative non-interference with letters is a rewarding and difficult calling. In ideal conditions, it is all that typographers are really asked to do and it is enough.
YHPA RGOPYT ERUTARETIL OT SI LACISUM SA EISC 1.1.3 THERE A NAMROFREP STYLE :NOBEYOND ITISOPMOC OT SI STYLE TCA LAITNESSE NA ,NOITATERPRETNI FO SSELDNE FO LLUF S E I T I N U TR O P P O THGISNI ROF .S S E N E S U T B O R O Literary style, says Walter Benjamin, “is the power to move freely in the length and breadth of linguistic thinking without slipping into banality.” 1Typographic style, in this large and intelligent sense of the word, does not mean any particular style – my style or your style, Neo classical or Baroque style – but the power to move freely through the whole domain of typography and to function at every step in a way that is graceful and vital instead of banal. It means typography can walk familiar ground without sliding into platitudes, typography that responds to new conditions with innovative solutions, and typography that does not vex the reader with its own originality in a selfconscious search for praise. Typography is to literature as musical performance is to composition: an essential act of interpretation, full of endless opportunities for insight or obtuseness.
Much typography is far removed from literature, for language has many uses, including packaging. Like music it can be used to manipulate behaviour and emotions. But this is not where typographers, musicians, or other human beings show us their finest side. Typography at its best is a slow performing art, worthy of the same informed appreciation that we sometimes give to musical performances, and capable of giving similar nourishment and pleasure in return. The same alphabets and page designs can be used for a biography of Mohandas Gandhi and for a manual on the use and deployment of biological weapons. Writing can be used both for love letters and for hate mail, and love letters themselves can be used for manipulation and extortion as well as to bring delight to body and soul. Evidently there is nothing inherently noble and trustworthy in the written or printed word. Yet generations of men and women have turned to writing and printing to house and share their deepest hopes, perceptions, dreams and fears.
Threadbare – Type in Decay
12
TYPOGRAPHY IS TO LITERATURE AS MUSICAL PERFORMANCE IS TO COMPOSITION: AN ESSENTIAL ACT OF INTERPRETATION, FULL OF ENDLESS OPPORTUNITIES FOR INSIGHT OR OBTUSENESS.
Threadbare – Type in Decay
13
The original purpose of type was simply copying. The job of the typographer was to imitate the scribal hand in a form that exact and fast replication. Dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of copies were printed in less time than a scribe would need to finish one. This excuse for setting texts in type has disappeared. In the age of photo lithography, digital scanning and offset printing it is as easy to print directly from handwritten copy as from text that is typographically composed. Yet the typographer’s task is little changed. It is still to give the illusion of superhuman speed and precision – to the writing hand. Typography is just that: idealised writing. Writers themselves now rarely have the calligraphic skill of earlier scribes, but they evoke countless versions of ideal script by varying voices and literary styles.
To these blind and often invisible visions, the typographer must respond in visible terms. In a badly designed book, the letters mill and stand like starving horses in a field. In a book designed by rote, they sit like stale bread and mutton on the page. In a well-made book, where designer, compositor and printer have all done their jobs no matter how many thousands of lines and pages, the letters are alive. They dance in their seats. Sometimes they rise and dance in the margins and aisles. Simple as it may sound, the task of creative non-interference with letters is a rewarding and difficult calling. In ideal conditions, it is all that typographers are really asked to do and it is enough.
1.1.3 THERE IS A STYLE BEYOND STYLE
Literary style, says Walter Benjamin, “is the power to move freely in the length and breadth of linguistic thinking without slipping into banality.” 1Typographic style, in this large and intelligent sense of the word, does not mean any particular style – my style or your style, Neo classical or Baroque style – but the power to move freely through the whole domain of typography and to function at every step in a way that is graceful and vital instead of banal. It means typography can walk familiar ground without sliding into platitudes, typography that responds to new conditions with innovative solutions, and typography that does not vex the reader with its own originality in a selfconscious search for praise. Typography is to literature as musical performance is to composition: an essential act of interpretation, full of endless opportunities for insight or obtuseness.
Much typography is far removed from literature, for language has many uses, including packaging. Like music it can be used to manipulate behaviour and emotions. But this is not where typographers, musicians, or other human beings show us their finest side. Typography at its best is a slow performing art, worthy of the same informed appreciation that we sometimes give to musical performances, and capable of giving similar nourishment and pleasure in return. The same alphabets and page designs can be used for a biography of Mohandas Gandhi and for a manual on the use and deployment of biological weapons. Writing can be used both for love letters and for hate mail, and love letters themselves can be used for manipulation and extortion as well as to bring delight to body and soul. Evidently there is nothing inherently noble and trustworthy in the written or printed word. Yet generations of men and women have turned to writing and printing to house and share their deepest hopes, perceptions, dreams and fears.
Threadbare – Type in Decay
14
Reading the urban environment with the help of perception theories.
Anna Paula Silva Gouveia, Priscila Lena Farias, Patricia Souza Gatto
Threadbare – Type in Decay
15
READING THE CITY
In The Image of the City, Lynch investigates the quality of the visual environment, introducing new research procedures and new concepts such as wayfinding and mental maps. He examines the legibility of the city structure from the point of view of user–dwellers and their use of mental maps, pointing out the relevance of urban landmarks, and the dweller’s mental image of the city. In Townscape, which is considered an important treatise on urban aesthetics, Cullen suggests that environments we consider pleasant did not just happen by chance. The author records and systematizes urban interventions, making an investigative use of drawing and photography. The conic perspective, from the user-pedestrian’s point of view, is applied as a tool for checking the
quality of the urban environment. In his drawings, Cullen uses optical effects, by means of lines and reticles, to highlight features of a particular place and its specific meaning, in a psychological approach to the urban landscape. According to these authors, the image of the environment is based on people’s interactions with their surroundings–interactions that help them to make sense, code and evaluate their environment and then take appropriate action. In this context, a mental image can be seen as the final stage of the perceptive process. Such an image, therefore, is not solely a visual but a synesthetic product.
S R E T TE L – SEITIC DNA
WAYFINDING + INFORMATION DESIGN
Many of these theories, particularly Lynch’s wayfinding, were revived and reevaluated in 1999 in Robert Jacobson’s Information Design, which can be described as a collection of the main theories and methods in use in information design in the late 20th and early 21st century. Of particular note are the chapters by architect Romedi Passini, who discusses the contributions of architecture and wayfinding to information
design, and by communication theoretician Brenda Dervin who puts forward a new methodology for information systems called sense-making. Passini is also the author and co-author of two other books that are of great relevance in this line of studies: Wayfinding in Architecture (1984) and Wayfinding: People, Signs, and Architecture (Arthur and Passini, 1992).
Threadbare – Type in Decay
14
LETTERS AND CITIES – Reading the urban environment with the help of perception theories.
Anna Paula Silva Gouveia, Priscila Lena Farias, Patricia Souza Gatto
Threadbare – Type in Decay
15
READING THE CITY
In The Image of the City, Lynch investigates the quality of the visual environment, introducing new research procedures and new concepts such as wayfinding and mental maps. He examines the legibility of the city structure from the point of view of user–dwellers and their use of mental maps, pointing out the relevance of urban landmarks, and the dweller’s mental image of the city. In Townscape, which is considered an important treatise on urban aesthetics, Cullen suggests that environments we consider pleasant did not just happen by chance. The author records and systematizes urban interventions, making an investigative use of drawing and photography. The conic perspective, from the user-pedestrian’s point of view, is applied as a tool for checking the
quality of the urban environment. In his drawings, Cullen uses optical effects, by means of lines and reticles, to highlight features of a particular place and its specific meaning, in a psychological approach to the urban landscape. According to these authors, the image of the environment is based on people’s interactions with their surroundings–interactions that help them to make sense, code and evaluate their environment and then take appropriate action. In this context, a mental image can be seen as the final stage of the perceptive process. Such an image, therefore, is not solely a visual but a synesthetic product.
WAYFINDING + INFORMATION DESIGN
Many of these theories, particularly Lynch’s wayfinding, were revived and reevaluated in 1999 in Robert Jacobson’s Information Design, which can be described as a collection of the main theories and methods in use in information design in the late 20th and early 21st century. Of particular note are the chapters by architect Romedi Passini, who discusses the contributions of architecture and wayfinding to information
design, and by communication theoretician Brenda Dervin who puts forward a new methodology for information systems called sense-making. Passini is also the author and co-author of two other books that are of great relevance in this line of studies: Wayfinding in Architecture (1984) and Wayfinding: People, Signs, and Architecture (Arthur and Passini, 1992).
Threadbare – Type in Decay
14
LETTERS AND CITIES – Reading the urban environment with the help of perception theories.
Anna Paula Silva Gouveia, Priscila Lena Farias, Patricia Souza Gatto
Threadbare – Type in Decay
15
READING THE CITY
In The Image of the City, Lynch investigates the quality of the visual environment, introducing new research procedures and new concepts such as wayfinding and mental maps. He examines the legibility of the city structure from the point of view of user–dwellers and their use of mental maps, pointing out the relevance of urban landmarks, and the dweller’s mental image of the city. In Townscape, which is considered an important treatise on urban aesthetics, Cullen suggests that environments we consider pleasant did not just happen by chance. The author records and systematizes urban interventions, making an investigative use of drawing and photography. The conic perspective, from the user-pedestrian’s point of view, is applied as a tool for checking the
quality of the urban environment. In his drawings, Cullen uses optical effects, by means of lines and reticles, to highlight features of a particular place and its specific meaning, in a psychological approach to the urban landscape. According to these authors, the image of the environment is based on people’s interactions with their surroundings–interactions that help them to make sense, code and evaluate their environment and then take appropriate action. In this context, a mental image can be seen as the final stage of the perceptive process. Such an image, therefore, is not solely a visual but a synesthetic product.
WAYFINDING + INFORMATION DESIGN
Many of these theories, particularly Lynch’s wayfinding, were revived and reevaluated in 1999 in Robert Jacobson’s Information Design, which can be described as a collection of the main theories and methods in use in information design in the late 20th and early 21st century. Of particular note are the chapters by architect Romedi Passini, who discusses the contributions of architecture and wayfinding to information
design, and by communication theoretician Brenda Dervin who puts forward a new methodology for information systems called sense-making. Passini is also the author and co-author of two other books that are of great relevance in this line of studies: Wayfinding in Architecture (1984) and Wayfinding: People, Signs, and Architecture (Arthur and Passini, 1992).
Threadbare – Type in Decay
INFORMATION DESIGN MAY HELP AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT.
NGISED GNIDNATSREDNU .TNEMNORIVNE
INFORMATION MAY HELP AN OF THE BUILT
18
Passini and Arthur describe wayfinding as a process that involves the elaboration and implementation of plans related to moving around in environments that are not necessarily familiar. According to the authors, understanding this kind of process should be the primary concern of architects and graphic designers engaged in planning such environments. They argue that wayfinding may be affected by space organization and architecture as well as by information provided by graphic, auditory and tactile elements. In addition, they discuss strategies that may be applied in configuring environments that
facilitate users’ spatial orientation. In Visual Function (1997), designer Paul Mijksenaar discusses a number of cases in which information design may help an understanding of the built environment, and points out some restrictions imposed by the architectonic conception of some buildings. Mijksenaar criticizes modern and post-modern buildings where main entrance, whether accidentally or not, is concealed in the facade (pp. 8–10). According to the author, an efficient architectonic structure might not even need further information about destinations and routes (p. 10).
TYPOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPES: READING LETTERS + NUMBERS IN THE CITY
Based on Lynch’s (1997: 9) discussion, it could be argued that the visual, aesthetic and cultural identity of the city is made up of, amongst other things, its graphic elements. These elements can act as indicators of urban flows (wayfinding) or as landmarks that identify and name city locations and therefore contribute to defining the city’s informational structure. Letters and numbers in the urban environment can thus be studied as part of the city’s identity and communicative efforts, and understood as a kind of discourse. What we call typographic landscape is the landscape formed by a subset of graphic elements in the urban environment: characters that form words, dates and other messages composed of letters and numbers.
Threadbare – Type in Decay
Typography is here understood in a broad sense, including reference to alphabetic and para-alphabetic characters obtained from processes that would be better described as lettering (painting, engraving, casting,etc.) and not only from automatic or mechanic processes that characterize typography in a more restricted sense. Such landscapes are formed by a number of insertions: historical evidences that last over different periods of time and that can be divided into eight major groups:
19
1
ARCHITECTONIC TYPOGRAPHY
Permanent inscriptions, such as a building name or number, which are usually designed and built at the same time as the building.
2
HONORARY TYPOGRAPHY
Inscriptions designed to honour historical characters or events, such as those found on most public monuments.
3
MEMORIAL TYPOGRAPHY
5
Funerary inscriptions found in restricted urban spaces, such as gravestones found in churches and cemeteries.
4
REGISTERED TYPOGRAPHY
ARTISTIC TYPOGRAPHY
Artistic lettering designed on commission, such as paintings and sculptures using letters and numbers.
6
Trade inscriptions, by public or private companies, such as telephone and sewage services providers, usually located in gratings and manholes.
NORMATIVE TYPOGRAPHY
Inscriptions that are part of regulatory and information systems for city traffic, such as road and directional signs
7
COMMERCIAL TYPOGRAPHY
Lettering found on temporary signs, such as those on shop fascias, attached to a building after its construction and, in most cases, replaced by other signs from time to time.
8
ACCIDENTAL TYPOGRAPHY
Unofficial, unauthorized inscriptions, such as graffiti and tags, usually not planned, and inscribed without the permission of architects, construction companies, developers and owners.
Threadbare – Type in Decay
18
Passini and Arthur describe wayfinding as a process that involves the elaboration and implementation of plans related to moving around in environments that are not necessarily familiar. According to the authors, understanding this kind of process should be the primary concern of architects and graphic designers engaged in planning such environments. They argue that wayfinding may be affected by space organization and architecture as well as by information provided by graphic, auditory and tactile elements. In addition, they discuss strategies that may be applied in configuring environments that
facilitate users’ spatial orientation. In Visual Function (1997), designer Paul Mijksenaar discusses a number of cases in which information design may help an understanding of the built environment, and points out some restrictions imposed by the architectonic conception of some buildings. Mijksenaar criticizes modern and post-modern buildings where main entrance, whether accidentally or not, is concealed in the facade (pp. 8–10). According to the author, an efficient architectonic structure might not even need further information about destinations and routes (p. 10).
TYPOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPES: READING LETTERS + NUMBERS IN THE CITY
Based on Lynch’s (1997: 9) discussion, it could be argued that the visual, aesthetic and cultural identity of the city is made up of, amongst other things, its graphic elements. These elements can act as indicators of urban flows (wayfinding) or as landmarks that identify and name city locations and therefore contribute to defining the city’s informational structure. Letters and numbers in the urban environment can thus be studied as part of the city’s identity and communicative efforts, and understood as a kind of discourse. What we call typographic landscape is the landscape formed by a subset of graphic elements in the urban environment: characters that form words, dates and other messages composed of letters and numbers.
Threadbare – Type in Decay
Typography is here understood in a broad sense, including reference to alphabetic and para-alphabetic characters obtained from processes that would be better described as lettering (painting, engraving, casting,etc.) and not only from automatic or mechanic processes that characterize typography in a more restricted sense. Such landscapes are formed by a number of insertions: historical evidences that last over different periods of time and that can be divided into eight major groups:
19
1
ARCHITECTONIC TYPOGRAPHY
Permanent inscriptions, such as a building name or number, which are usually designed and built at the same time as the building.
2
HONORARY TYPOGRAPHY
Inscriptions designed to honour historical characters or events, such as those found on most public monuments.
3
MEMORIAL TYPOGRAPHY
5
Funerary inscriptions found in restricted urban spaces, such as gravestones found in churches and cemeteries.
4
REGISTERED TYPOGRAPHY
ARTISTIC TYPOGRAPHY
Artistic lettering designed on commission, such as paintings and sculptures using letters and numbers.
6
Trade inscriptions, by public or private companies, such as telephone and sewage services providers, usually located in gratings and manholes.
NORMATIVE TYPOGRAPHY
Inscriptions that are part of regulatory and information systems for city traffic, such as road and directional signs
7
COMMERCIAL TYPOGRAPHY
Lettering found on temporary signs, such as those on shop fascias, attached to a building after its construction and, in most cases, replaced by other signs from time to time.
8
ACCIDENTAL TYPOGRAPHY
Unofficial, unauthorized inscriptions, such as graffiti and tags, usually not planned, and inscribed without the permission of architects, construction companies, developers and owners.
Threadbare – Type in Decay
20
Threadbare – Type in Decay
ohw ,seradallaV odarP od laviralC nairotsih ad odutse mu :lisarB od airómeM etorw :lizarB fo yromeM( ralupop e atidure afiargipe ,yhpargipE ralupoP dna tneicnA fo ydutS A ,)582:5002( resoM ot gnidroccA .)6791 latnemnorivne ni depoleved seigolodohtem larutluc fo tnuocca ekat tsum ygolohcysp eseht fo noitacfiitnedi eht dna seiticfiiceps yb deveihca eb ylno nac seiticfiiceps larutluc tcaf eht fo weiv nI .serutluc tnereffid gnirapmoc edulcnoc ew ,tnaveler era snrecnoc htob taht ot hcaorppa lacigolodohtem laedi na taht tsum sepacsdnal cihpargopyt gnitagitsevni atad rof slocotorp suoiciduj edulcni ylirassecen dnuos sa llew sa ,noitazitametsys dna gnirehtag .noitaterpretni dna sisylana rof serudecorp larutluc yfitnedi ot pleh tsum derehtag atad ehT fo nosirapmoc eht etatilicaf dna seiticfiiceps dna secalp tnereffid ta rucco taht selpmaxe .semit tnereffid morf
otni snoitagitsevni rof stnedecerp dnfi eW taht hcraeser eht ni sepacsdnal cihpargopyt ngised dna yhpargopyt yb tuo deirrac neeb sah ,)6891 ,0691( yarG etelociN sa hcus sralohcs lihP ,)0891( rienniK kcoJ ,)5791( martraB nalA .)3002( noxiD enirehtaC dna seniaB eht ni ylralucitrap erom dna ,ygoloeahcra nI gnidnatsgnol a dnfi ew ,yhpargipe fo dlefi cilbup ni dnuof sgnitirw fo seiduts fo noitidart keerG eht yb decudorp esoht ylniam ,secaps tnaveler emoS .snoitazilivic namoR dna era seiduts eseht ot secnerefer yraropmetnoc yb ,enoizatneserppar e aigoloedi :aruttircs aL :ecnedivE cihpargipE ,)6891( iccurteP odnamrA ,ledoB( snoitpircsnI morf yrotsiH tneicnA enoizacinumoc al :anamor afiargipE dna )1002 tnatropmi nA .)2002 ,itanoD( àtihcitna’llen tra si lizarB ni seiduts hcus fo rennurerof
20
We find precedents for investigations into typographic landscapes in the research that has been carried out by typography and design scholars such as Nicolete Gray (1960, 1986), Alan Bartram (1975), Jock Kinneir (1980), Phil Baines and Catherine Dixon (2003). In archaeology, and more particularly in the field of epigraphy, we find a longstanding tradition of studies of writings found in public spaces, mainly those produced by the Greek and Roman civilizations. Some relevant contemporary references to these studies are La scrittura: ideologia e rappresentazione, by Armando Petrucci (1986), Epigraphic Evidence: Ancient History from Inscriptions (Bodel, 2001) and Epigrafia romana: la comunicazione nell’antichità (Donati, 2002). An important forerunner of such studies in Brazil is art
Threadbare – Type in Decay
historian Clarival do Prado Valladares, who wrote Memória do Brasil: um estudo da epigrafia erudita e popular (Memory of Brazil: A Study of Ancient and Popular Epigraphy, 1976). According to Moser (2005:285), methodologies developed in environmental psychology must take account of cultural specificities and the identification of these cultural specificities can only be achieved by comparing different cultures. In view of the fact that both concerns are relevant, we conclude that an ideal methodological approach to investigating typographic landscapes must necessarily include judicious protocols for data gathering and systematization, as well as sound procedures for analysis and interpretation. The data gathered must help to identify cultural specificities and facilitate the comparison of examples that occur at different places and from different times.