EDITED BY KATY MANE
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AUTHORS NOTE CONCEPT / EYEJACK 5
THE ELEMENTS OF TYPOGRAPHIC STYLE ROBERT BRINGHURST 9
LETTERS AND CITIES: READING THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT WITH THE HELP OF PERCEPTION THEORIES SILVA GOUVEIA, A. P., LENA FARIAS, P., & SOUZA GATTO, P. 14
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AUTHORS NOTE Graffiti tags have become a part of our everyday urban landscape, making it a powerful medium for observing the city in new ways. Graffiti imposes its own social geography onto the landscape through disruption of permanent signage, altering our conceived idea of our environment. It challenges authoritative spatial orderings to tell of a relationship between graffiti and formal type. The issue looks at graffiti and its ability to interrupt a world of authority. My publication reveals graffiti as a disruptive force to the formality of type. By engaging with mark making, structured grids and experimental typesetting, this work delivers a playful and bold interaction of mark making and formal type.
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AUTHORS NOTE
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THE ELEMENTS OF TYPOGRAPHIC STYLE by robert bringhurst
Typography is the craft of endowing human human language with a durable durable form form, and thus with an independent existence. Its 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. 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. neither
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FIRST PRINCIPLES TYPOGAPHY 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, honored and shared, or, knowingly disguised. In a world rife with unsolicited messages, typography must draw attention . itypography rnittffggTypography must drawatattention its best is to ait-self ghbefo before re it will it will d be beread readattention as a co to attention itself it will to itself styhpograpto before it will andbeitread will be attention read as typogrthello to iseltf before typograpcan it can be be read read drawing as a drawing attention attention it has drawn it hastotoi to itself before it will be read. Yet in order to be read, it must 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 a change, but a clear superiority to fashion. Typography at it’s best is a visual form of language linking timelesness 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. These principles apply, in different ways, to the typography of business cards, instruction sheets and ovmeddt postage stamps, Business ascards well as postage to editions stamps of religious and wu scriptures, and other books literary thatclassics aspire toand joinother their books ranks. Within that aspire limits, to thejoin same their principles ranks. Within apply even limits, to thestock same principles market reports, apply even airlineto schedules, stock market milk cartons, reports, ddclassff airline schedules, classified milnmilk milk cartons, cartionsclassified such as bliasn 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. 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.
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LETTERS HAVE A LIFE AND DIGNITY OF THEIR OWN.
Letterforms that honour and elucidate what humans see and say deserve to be honoured in their turn. Well-chosen words deserve well-chosen 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 complex extremes. The typographer’s task has always been snfispographers atteredge, of honour, and add a typog unnatural a protective content of its written fothe and pureofdun shell of artificial order, to power the naturalhand han to add a somewhat unnatural writing edge, a protective shell of 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 transformation between manuscript and type has scarcely changed. The original purpose of type was simply copying. The job of the typographer was to imitate the scribal hand in a form that permitted exact and fast replication. Dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of copies were printed in less time than a would need to finish one. This excuse for setting texts in type has disappeared. In the age of photolithography, digital scanning and offset printing it is as easy to print directly from handwritten copy as from text that typographically composed. Yet the typographer’s task is little changed. It is still to give the illusion of superhuman speed and stamina – and of superhuman and precision – to the writing hand. Typography is just that: idealized writing. Writers themselves now rarely have the calligraphic skill of scribes, but have they evoke the calligraphic countlessskill versions of scribes, of ideal but they evoke countless versions of ideal script by their varying voices and literary styles. To these blind and often invisible visions, the typographer must respond in visible terms.
THE ELEMENTS OF TYPOGRAPHIC STYLE
In a badly designed book, the letters mill and stand like starving horses in a field. starving like starving horses horses in ainfield a fianfismucti In a fieldo In a book designed by rote, they sit like stale bread and mutton on the page. In a wellmade 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 noninterference 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.
‘‘ Typography is to literature as musical performance is to composition: an essential act of interpretation, full of endless opportunities for insight or obtuseness’’
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.”1 Typographic style, in this large and intelligent sense of the word, does not mean any particular style – my style or your style, Neo classical or laswith style, in this innovative large and intelligent solutions, sense and of the word, does typography that notdoes mean not any particular vex the style – my reader with style its or own youroriginality style,writeinNeo a classical or Baroque style – but the power self-consk 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 composition: an essential performance is full composition: an essential of interpretation, of endless opportunities hello of interpretation, my mother dearest full act of interpretation, full of endless opportunities for insight or obtuseness. Much of typography is far removed from literature, for language has many uses, including packaging and propaganda. Like music, it can be used to manipulate behavior and emotions. This is not where typographers, musicians, other human beings show us their finest side.
Typography at its best is a slow performing art, worthy of the same informed appreciation But Typography this is notatwhere its best typographers, is a slow performing musicians,art, ofthe worthy r other of thehuman same informed beidm appreciation n beidhelloi 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 be interpretation, of used for manipulation full and and feeding feeding him himtoto 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, and hellofears bab interpret perceptions, dreams and fears. It is to them, not to the extortionist – nor to the opportunist of the profiteer – that the typographer must answer. 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). Excerpts from Bringhurst, R. 2001. The Elements of Typographic Style (pg 11, 17–20) Hartley & Marks, Canada
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ROBERT BRINGHURST
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LETTERS AND CITIES Reading the urban environment with the help of perception theories Anna Paula Silva Gouveia, Priscila Lena Farias, Patricia Souza Gatto
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 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. highlight features of a particular place and its specific meaning, in a psychological According to these authors, image of the environment can 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 AND 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). Passini and Arthur describe
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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 Passini and Arthur describe wayfinding as a process that involves the elaboration and implementation of action 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 the 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). According to the author, an efficient architectonic structure might not even need further information about destinations and routes. TYPOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPES: READING LETTERS AND 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.
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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. 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: 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 Funerary inscriptions found in restricted urban spaces, such as gravestones found in churches and cemeteries
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4 REGISTERED TYPOGRAPHY trade Trade inscriptions, inscriptions, by by public public or or private private companies, such as telephone and sewage service providers, usually located in gratings and manholes
6 NORMATIVE TYPOGRAPHY Inscriptions that are part of regulatory and information systems for city traffic, such as road and directional signs
Artistic lettering designed on commission, such as paintings and sculptures using letters and numbers
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.
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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 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 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).
Excerpts from Silva Gouveia, A, and Farias, P and Gatto, P. 2009. Visual Communication Journal, 8 (3) Letters and cities: reading the urban environment with the help of perception theories (p 339–348) Sage Publications
If, on the one hand, studies in the field of graphic design are likely to favour the analysis and appreciation of typographic forms, studies in the field of epigraphy, on the other hand, are likely to focus on the content of written messages and their meanings for society and culture. 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 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 and facilitate the comparison of examples that occur at different places and from different times.
Silva Gouveia, A. P., Lena Farias, P., & Souza Gatto, P.
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