AZ project

SCRIPTA VOLANT MISSTAKES MANENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 Introduction 3 Research 6 Idea generation 7 Analysis 14 Experimentation 18 Further development // part one 20 Further development // part two 24 Conclusion 25 References

Valentina Zagaglia ZAG11319921 AZ PROJECT Group 01 -Karl Y2 - FdA DGC

INTRODUCTION

This project started with the free choice of 4 different words from a long list. I tried to give a meaning for the choice and justify why they were selected.

I just started writing down some words and then I found some reasons why they could be chosen or linked. So I began with Calligraphy – something I am interesting – then with Quotes – something related – then Moire – something new – and Projecting – a way or a medium to show the project.

The main word around which all the project develop is Calligraphy and instead in focusing only in that, I wanted that the other words chosen could help the project to develop and have a shape instead of abandon them.

It is interesting to notice, flipping the first pages of my sketchbook, how different was the project at first, what it became at the end and the different shapes me, my colleagues at University and my tutors gave to it while doing it.

The unexpected direction and the final result surprised and enjoyed me during the execution and the different phases.

I hope you will enjoy as I did..

2 - Introduction

RESEARCH

Once I selected the words I started to research everything came up in my mind with each single word and then deeper about the meaning, the etymology, the history and the applications in the graphic design industry and finally I found some visuals of the words.

Calligraphy Origin: from the Greek Kallos “beauty” and graphe “writing , person who writes beautifully) .

Definition: the art of producing decorative handwriting or lettering with a pen or a brush.

It involves the correct formation of characters, the ordering of various parts, and the harmony of the proportions.

As soon as the writing existed, men tried to make it beautiful with illuminated, decorated and illustrated manuscripts. In the Islamic and Chinese cultures, calligraphy is as highly revered as painting and it influenced the Western world. In Europe in the 14th–16th century, two scripts developed that influenced all subsequent handwriting and printing: the roman and italic styles. With the invention of modern printing (1450) and movable type by Gutenberg (1398- 1498), calligraphy became increasingly bold and ornamental.

Distinction between lettering and calligraphy.

RESEARCH - 3

Moire Origin: from French, earlier mouaire, moire, a type of textile with a rippled or ‘wave’ appearance.

Definition: Moire Pattern is an interference pattern created when two grids are overlaid at an angle or when they have slightly different mesh sizes.

This pattern is often an undesired artifact of images produced by various digital imaging and computer graphics techniques for example when scanning a halftone picture or ray tracing a checkered plane.

More complex line moire patterns are created if the lines are curved or not exactly parallel.

Moire patterns are commonly seen on television screens directly when a erson is wearing a shirt or jacket oa a particular weave or pattern due to sampling problems in the television camera.

4 - RESEARCH

Quotes Origin: from Medieval Latin quotare, to assign a reference numbers to passage, divide into chapters and verses, from Latin quote, how many.

Definition: repeat or copy out (a group of words from a text or speech), typically with an indication that one is not the original author or speaker.

A quotation can refer to the repeated use of units of any other form of expression, especially parts of artistic works.

They are used for different reasons: to illuminate the meaning or to support the arguments, to pay homage to the original work of the author.

Diaries and calendars often include quotations for entertainment or inspirational purposes, and small, dedicated sections in newspapers and weekly magazines.

MISQUOTATIONS- Many quotations are incorrect or attributed to the wrong authors, and quotations from obscure or unknown writers are often attributed to far more famous writers.

Projection Origin: 1550s, originally cartographical, “drawing of a map or chart according to scale,� from M.Fr. projection, from L. proiectionem (nom. proiectio), from proicere (see project (n.)).

Definition: 1.The process of projecting an image onto a screen or other surface for viewing.

2. An image so projected.

3. Mathematics: The image of a geometric figure reproduced on a line, plane, or surface.

4. A system of intersecting lines, such as the grid of a map, on which part or all of the globe or another spherical surface is represented as a plane surface.

The meaning I wanted that projection assumed was the one of projecting an image on a surface through digital projection or manual skills.

Through the research on digital projection I discovered the word Projection Mapping that involves the uses of particular software and can cover the wrapping of an entire building.

RESEARCH - 5

IDEA GENERATION

Starting from the word and the main research on Calligraphy I noticed how everything was related to beautiful writing in every period of the story especially in the Eastern cultures, from Islamic to Chinese and Japanese handwriting.

At the same time in Europe in the Middle Age before the printing all the manuscripts had to be beautiful and perfectly handwritten.

So just starting from how Calligraphy was perceived in the past I started to notice what it become now and how is people modern handwriting. I think that especially in the present and digital world we are loosing the time and the will to write in a nice and accurate way, we only write for fast necessity and everything is written in digital and has no longer the personal touch and the individual expression.

“We have surrendered our handwriting for something more mechanical, less distinctively human, less telling about ourselves and

6 - Idea generation

less present in our moments of the highest happiness and the deepest emotion.” Like Philip Hensher in his book “The missing ink: the lost art of handwriting, and why is still Matters” write.

The main idea was to produce a typeface based on people handwriting underlining the worst and the less beautiful characteristics, exactly the opposite of the etymology of the word itself.

From this starting point I could develop the limit of legibility of a letter, in which case it can produce mistakes in reading and understanding sometimes changing the meaning of the sentence or the word.

Maybe producing a typeface could be no more human and personal but I could research the mistakes that could produce a machine or an artificial weapon because not only the human being but also a machine can make mistakes.

And what happen in this case?

ANALYSIS

1

I researched into the area of typography and if and in which way it was related to calligraphy. At first I though that I was moving away from the original word and that I could loose the spontaneity of an handwritten form.

Anyway during my research I read in the book “Manual of typography”: “the connection between lettering (or calligraphy) and typography is fundamental. Typography is lettering adapted for a special purpose.

Lettering, or calligraphy, lies behind everything that a typographer does”. So I could finally not only “justify” the choice of drawing a typeface but also I learnt that behind the main important typographic works there is the hand of a calligrapher (like for example Edward Johnston works (photo 1), who was both a typographer and calligrapher and designed the famous typeface used for the Transport of London) and that the more calligraphy you can learn, the better is for your typographic works.

That was clearer during a recent exhibition I visited in London “Pencil to Pixel” where I had the possibility to see with my own eyes the drawings and the craftsmanship behind what we see on a print or on a screen and the development and sketches to build a typeface (photo 2 and 3).

2

3

At this point I research deeper about typography and the use within the design industry especially in the case of

ANALYSIS - 7

experimentation because at this stage of the project it was clear that the typeface should have a peculiar shape, or at least not so conventional or perfectly readable and legible. I wanted to go in deep about the limit of a letter to be read and understood, because very often is the context the only reason why we can understand it.

I read that something similar was treated by Eric Gill in his Essay on Typography where he pose the question of when a letter ceases to be itself and is no longer identifiable or is no longer a letter (photo 4).

So I started collecting from book sources and from the web some examples in which experimental typography could be justified or applied for some particular projects.

8 - ANALYSIS

4

ANALYSIS - 9

6

An interesting example of an experimental typeface is Gestalt (Hoefler, 1991), inspired

by Gestalt psychology and that suggest that no idea is comprehensible out of context (photo 5).

In the story of typography Dada, Futurism and Constructivism and Bauhaus were remarkable first examples of experimentation because of the deliberately use of mongrelized alphabet or the new approaches to structuring language and imagery mirroring the political and industrial themes of modern society like the speed, rhythm and tone of speech in order not only to read but to see the text (photo 6) 5

During one of our VCT session at University I discovered the book “The typographic experiment� where I found and collect several examples of experimentation done in the history of typography and I discovered new designers whose works are applied even to commercials, movies or projections (photo 7 and 8).

Remarkable and useful to my personal research are the works of Jonathan Barnbrook (photo 9) and the 90s wave, where the letterforms still represent language but also the possible meaning and interpretation of the text through fragmentation, hybridity, parody and play, carrying additional layers to meaning.

10 - ANALYSIS

7

8

9

10

Reading the quotes of some designers I found Nick Bell talking about experiment as a risk where unpredictable outcome can result. In the same book Fred Flade talk about Experimental typography as a “doodle”, an investigation into something, a nonsense communication.

Melle Hammer’s definition of typography is interesting, she thinks it’s a living language with many dialects sometimes disturbing, accompanying or provoking.

Interesting sentence in relation to the development of my project.

Beautiful are the works of Ahn Sang Soo and his undecipherable hieroglyphs that no longer seem as letters or Suart Bailey various experiments (photo 10).

In this book I also found something that came out later during my tutorial with Karl and was the typography utilised to represent experimental writing in the theatre (like the Theatre of the Absurd) using a mixing of typefaces and graphic effects like the distortion, repetition, different weights and the variety (photo 11 and 12).

11

12

ANALYSIS - 11

13

14

Moreover is in this book that I discovered the “Emigre” one of the first “experimental graphic design journal” and platform of typographic debates founded by Suzana Licko and Rudy Vanderlaans in 1984 (photo 13) and “Fuse”, a typographic publication founded by Jon Wozencroft and Neville Brody.

In the book Calligraphy: The Art of Written Forms I read about the modern way we see letters today in animation, TV and photography and how they helped the quality of communication and the possibilities of distortion (photo 14).

I came across an interesting poster designed

by Melin and Osterlin in 1963 where letters where huddled together and then they assume their regular place necessary for their legibility, a problem that later my typeface in this project would face. But in this case the author critic reassure me arguing that it is useful sometimes to see letters in other than their normal position in order to discern their true shapes (photo 15).

15

McLuhan, a famous communication and media theory, was mentioned in the

12 - ANALYSIS

book “Graphic design reading” about the relationship between new information technologies and typography. He argued that the electronic age is not mechanical but organic and has little sympathy for the values achieved through typography, defining it a “mechanical way of writing”. In the same chapter the writer observe that in the 80s there was a decline of the idea of legibility starting to dissolve type and imagery in order to promote multiple readings and provoke the reader becoming an active participant in the construction of the message.

So because viewing is an act of consciousness Burnett introduces the concept of “projection” as a “meeting point of desires, meaning and interpretation”, a “space between the viewer and the viewed” where he can creatively interpret images. The projection was another part of the outcome 16

17

18

of my project and the relation with the subjectivity imagination and the typography in digital environment treated in this book were useful. Burnett suggest that when typography is treated as an imagery –so you push the limit of legibility- the result is an enhanced visual involvement from the viewer, words are not simply read bu understood within the context. This was really the key of the project, it really give a support to what I am explaining later.

About calligraphy the author suggests that being so expressive even if sometimes there is no readability it has the power to convey emotions and has an allusion to speech.

In the book “Lettering and type” I analysed convey as well to the acceptable level of legibility according to the context (especially if they pursue a visual style or idea rather than functionality) because they want the reader to be an active participant. Is in this book that I also found a nice development of the typeface Helvetica as a point of departure for different kind of fonts (photo 16), the Miss Universum (photo 17) and the Neon typeface (photo 18) designed by Hjarta Smarta both of them utilizing mismatched letters which give the typeface more uniqueness.

ANALYSIS - 13

EXPERIMENTATION

I started to collect people’s handwriting and notice the difference of the different sign of creating letters. Then I have stolen some betting slips of gamblers at work because I could really have different and nice examples of funny and personal way of writing.

In fact a part of my job is to scan the slips and translate what I see in the system and very often the customers are monitored and we can recognize them from their handwriting because it presents particular characteristics.

From here I wrote down in my sketchbook all the different way people use to write the words from a to z, uppercase and lowercase.

Was nice to see that everyone has a personal way to represent a letter.

With the tracing paper I started to sketch something that remind to the shape of the letter or that adopt a particular characteristic that gave the difficulty of legibility.

Then I scanned the tracing papers and with Illustrator I traced digitally these shapes. The result was not aesthetically at all. Was so awful that I decided to call it “Uglography” but when I composed a word with these type and I asked people what they read they made the same face as you are in front of a piece of paper with something really unreadable written with a bad handwriting. So was exactly what I wanted, to take some time to stare at the screen and meditate what it could be written on it, whether a word or another.

While I was sketching on the tracing paper I once draw to the final part of a letter as a serif, just as an experiment in order to

14 - EXPERIMENTATION

make them look like closely to a typeface and give an element repeated in each letter. Then I tried digitally to cut a serif from Century typeface and paste it in my ugly font sometimes changing the size of the serif bigger in proportion to the letter as a distortion. It sounds really blasphemous and profane for typographers I think, but the result was interesting so I decided to apply this rule randomly for every letter in order to give continuity. It does not follow any rule of typography, there is no ascender or descender because I think that when we write we don’t pay too much attention on typographic rules.

EXPERIMENTATION - 15

16 - EXPERIMENTATION

EXPERIMENTATION - 17

FURTHER DEVELOPMENT //PART ONE

I was quite happy with the result but in a second time I started to think about the problem of the readability of this typeface if it should be read from a distance or in a smaller size because I didn’t want to diminish its functionality.

The problem of legibility and readability is treated in every book of typography and maybe if I wanted my font to be used I should develop a bit the legibility of the letters giving a straight rule to each one.

Basically readability refers to the easy a text can be read, the visibility and the fatigue in reading. It refers to entire words or sentences and paragraphs and is influenced by leading, length, justification and kerning.

On the contrary legibility refers to individual letters and is the degree to which glyphs in text are understandable or recognizable based on appearance a sort of deciphering and that depends on the formation of letters.

It means that legibility decreases when letters are not distinguishable and look much like other. It includes factors as x-height, character shapes, stroke contrast and weight.

Regarding legibility Zuzana Licko of “Émigré” said that often typefaces are not intrinsically legible but it’s the reader’s familiarity that accounts for their legibility and typestyles that we perceived as illegible today may well become tomorrow’s classic choices.

Because I found that “Uglography” had an interesting look after the mix with the serif (that give also more legibility) I thought to go on with that peculiarity but maybe simplifying the strokes.

18 - FURTHER DEVELOPMENT//1

So I cut some photocopied parts of the Century typeface in small sizes and I continued to draw in a smaller scale.

Then I tried also with the dry transfer Letraset because I could more clearly separate strokes and drawing without the glue sticked in my pen.

Then I photocopied what I did in different sizes to check the readability and legibility and finally I digitalized and vectorialised everything.

FURTHER DEVELOPMENT//1 - 19

FURTHER DEVELOPMENT //PART TWO

One of the problems I face in my job is to read clearly what people write and sometimes I translate wrongly in the system what people want to bet because I can confuse an “m” with a “n” for example and the result can be that the bet is lost instead of a winner (and the customer get really upset!).

That can happen because I simply type and press a wrong button or because I read something in a wrong way and sometimes the result is funny.

So I started to do a visual research about funny spelling mistakes and in which way we produce mistakes and typographical errors.

Typographical mistakes are made in the typing process of printed material.

Historically this referred to mistakes in manual typesetting.

Often they are due to mechanical failure or slips of the hand or finger apart from ignorance and spelling. That of hitting adiacent buttons or striking an incorrect key on a keyboard is called “fat finger syndrome” and if the word is spelled correctly, the spellchecker can’t find the mistake.

Sometimes we can find typographical error in the newspaper and that can make the news funny changing the meaning. In the case it involves a single letter the mistake is called “atomic typo” and the result is to write something different than the one intended (like prostate instead of prostrate or dog instead of fog or nuclear and unclear or bite instead of byte). Is called atomic

20 - FURTHER DEVELOPMENT//2

because the mistake is very small, just one or two letters are in the wrong place or order but ends up making a big difference in the meaning.

So because sometimes you can misread and then misunderstand the meaning of a sentence especially when it’s handwritten I thought that this ugly typeface could be easily misunderstood and maybe could generate some funny mistakes too.

Here come in help the other three words I choose at the beginning of the project.

Quotes could help to develop sentences and because of the nature of the topic I researched some quotes about mistakes.

In a book I received recently as a present I found a lot of nice examples of typography mixed with quotes and in this case could be applied the same to my project.

Was not so easy, not being an English native speaker but I tried to change letters in words that could change their meaning and in this way the meaning of the sentences too and I wrote them with “Uglography”.

Then using the software Flash I tried to create a short animation that could reproduce the third word I choose: Moire.

Through the movement and the intersection of the lines, dots and waves behind the Uglography typeface I tried to give it a pattern.

Finally I projected (as the forth word chosen) both the animations and the quotes on

FURTHER DEVELOPMENT//2 - 21

the wall or on different surfaces trying to find angles that could cut the words and generate more confusion.

Anyway even if I enjoyed with the animation and was nice to see the result moving on the wall the projector didn’t help me a lot maybe because it’s too professional and sort of “static”. If the projection was bigger and the contest was an installation or a projection mapping maybe the result would have been different and more interesting.

The animated projection are in my Vimeo account and you can see them by visiting: https://vimeo.com/user11296144 I preferred to cut a thin plastic surface and try with a light to enlighten it from the back and distort the letters playing more with the effect on the surfaces and the link between what we read and the context in which the word is placed. The aim was to evoke meaning through not immediate

22 - FURTHER DEVELOPMENT//2

mental associations of context and words, produce confusion between context and text and participation to the construction of the meaning and the translation of the words.

I was quite happy with everything but I needed to see something more tangible as a result of what I did apart from the printout of the final outcome so I cut some letters on wood with the lasercut. I felt really emotional when I saw them taking form and at this point I could really declared myself satisfied.

FURTHER DEVELOPMENT//2 - 23

CONCLUSION

and regularity.

Or I appreciate their exaggerations, their executions, their reinterpretations and peculiarity.

“Uglography” does not want to follow any rules, for the moment it only pretend to be a typeface like the others but it has been an interesting way to start to document myself about typography because I had no knowledge at all of this subject and I was always interested in it but I never tried to start a project before.

Being a first attempt to explore the area of typography I can be quite happy with the result reached but I am aware that this is only the beginning of a very wide field. I was lucky to have chosen a playful and enjoying brief so that I had not to follow all the rules that has a normal typeface and I was free to experiment with various shapes without any strict restriction.

Anyway I feel that even if my final typeface is a little bit odd and freaky, this can be a small step to a deeper understanding of typography at least because I had to research in this field in order to have a basic understanding of the rules to have the power to brake them. Moreover I find myself now analysing and giving more attention to the letters, their whites and blacks, their shapes

24 - CONCLUSION

Unfortunately the close deadline prevent me to work more to the readability that I think can be developed again even if I can see a remarkable change from the starting point.

The only problem is that is ugly no more, from there it starts to be nicer!

Furthermore If I had time I would have liked to print my wooden letters with the letterpress that could be really interesting and another tactile proof of my work.

I can anyway develop this project in various way later, “Uglography” can become even uglier because we can find many examples of bad handwriting and this typeface can be never ending, anyone can be our source of inspiration.

In fact one of the thing I like the most it is that every letter reminds me someone and apart from the customer at Paddy Power, some reminds me my friends and people that are sharing their lives with me now.

BIBLIOGRAPHY + REFERENCES

//Calligraphy: The Art of Written Forms Donald m. Anderson 1992 Dover Publishing /Manual of typography , Ruari McLean Thames&Hudson 1980 //Graphic design reading: explorations of an uneasy relationship Gunnar Swanson publishing, 2000 //Lettering&type, creating letters & designing typefaces. Bruce Willen. Nolen Strals, 2009 Princeton Architectural Press NY //The typographic experiment: radical innovation in contemporary type design. Teal triggs, 2003 Thames & Hudson //Graphic design reading: explorations of an uneasy relationship Edited by Gunnar Swanson, 2000 //Hot designers make cool fonts, Allan Haley Rockport Publishers, 1999 //Quoteskine, Lee Crutchley, Carpet bombin Culture //http://www.rawtype.co.uk/ //http://ilovetypography.com/2012/11/01/newprints-from-seb-leste/ //http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/ oct/18/missing-ink-philip-hensher-review //http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/ oct/07/missing-ink-handwriting-art-hensherextract //http://atomictypo.blogspot.tw/

CONCLUSION- 25