Contents Introduction Style How type influences Semiotics Interpretation of meaning Vernacular type Context Lack of personality Eclecticism Conclusion Bibliography
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Introduction
You wouldn’t wear a clown’s outfit to a funeral, would you? Or go for a prestigious job interview in a jogging suit. Of course not. It wouldn’t be appropriate. It would convey the wrong message. There are accepted styles for all kinds of situations – not just what we wear. The style of something says a lot about who we are – from our fashion taste, to our choice of motor vehicle, even to the kind of newspaper we read. It constitutes part of our personality. Style (or lack of it) can be an overriding factor when choosing clothing for ourselves. We think of the practicalities of an item, then we look at the aesthetic values and whether they fit in with our lifestyle. Sometimes we choose things which just
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feel right. Overall, we want to look good in our clothes and we want them to say something about us. We also wear certain items either to ‘fit in’ or to ‘stand out’. This gives a clue to our personality. Fitting in might make us look invisible in a crowd and standing out will help us to fight off the competition. Imagine then, typefaces as little people. Type has personality. It wants to fit in and quite often, it wants to stand out. Type styles have history, they conform to certain fashion genres. Some are fussy, others plain. Some shout while others take a back seat. Why? Because they were created for a purpose. Type has a voice. As Max Kisman, principal of MKDSGN puts it, “They (typefaces) are historical, they are ‘old’; sometimes they are ‘classic’ because
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of how they were (originally) produced. Sometimes they are modern because of the way production has changed. The styles of letter reproduction tell us they want to look different than the others. They say whether they are sophisticated, angry, obnoxious or gracious. They say ‘use me for a purpose’” (Kisman, 2004, p.115).
Style
Silly thought? Not necessarily. Typefaces are categorised in terms of style. This is done for a reason. The reason is so that the subliminal messages which are conveyed partly by the design of the typeface, are conveyed in the correct context. In a recent Radio 4 interview with Ian Peacock, Neville Brody pointed out “Type is very manipulative.
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The choice of font will tell you pretty much how you will react emotionally to the information before you’ve even read anything. There are levels of typography that work beyond the sheer statement of information” (Peacock, 11.2.05). It could even be said that the visual appearance of the typeface will dictate the tone of voice we read the message in. This in turn gives us an emotional experience. Capital letters, for instance, are authoritative and sometimes even make you want to shout what’s being said. If you think of someone who has sent you an e-mail and maybe put a sentence in capital letters, you know you’ve come in for an ear bashing! The fact that the text is bland and probably in Arial or Verdana still gives you a sense of someone displaying some emotion.
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When we’re reading body text, we don’t usually notice which typeface it is set in. That’s because the typeface is chosen for its readability (the ability to comprehend what’s being read) and legibility (the ease with which we are able to recognise the shapes on the page as words). Back in 1955, Beatrice Ward, an American writer and typographer, wrote a series of 16 essays, collectively entitled ‘The Crystal Goblet’ where she commented on typographic style, or ‘printing’ as she referred to it, saying that good printing should be invisible (Loxley, 2004, p.135). This comment is far too generic to hold any argument across all the different disciplines for which typography is an integral element. I realise that the term ‘invisible’ should be interpreted as ‘unnoticed’ but even then, surely only elements such as body text should be referred to as such. Headings and captions, for instance, would need to be
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clarified and set in hierarchy. Certainly, advertisements would want to emphasise different words typographically in order to attract an audience. However, it is the ‘attraction’ which can be misconstrued. Not only are the words important in these headings, captions and advertisements, but the style which is conveyed alongside the word must claim the same level of attention. If the style sends a coded message to the audience which was unintended, the consequences for the designer could become a bit uncomfortable. There have been professional studies on the perceived personality of typefaces. One study conducted by the Office of Research Administration at Wichita State University, USA (Chaparro, Fox,
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Sahikh, 2006), set out to determine whether or not participants consistently attributed personality traits to a variety of fonts presented on-screen and whether or not they associated them to particular uses. Personality traits such as ‘practical’, ‘rebellious’, ‘sad’, ‘cuddly’ and ‘dull’ were given in a list and participants were invited to categorise a list of on-screen fonts accordingly. The results were interesting – sans serif fonts did not score high or low in any particular category; serif fonts scored highest in the more ‘sensible’ categories such as ‘practical’, ‘mature’ and ‘formal’. Fonts categorised as ‘script’ or ‘funny’ scored highest in such traits as ‘youthful’, ‘happy’ ‘casual’ or ‘cuddly’ whilst the modern display fonts were deemed to be ‘masculine’, ‘assertive’ or ‘rude’! Poor old monospaced fonts such as Courier were described as ‘dull’, ‘plain’ and ‘unimaginative’.
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This study proves to me that, given the capacity to think about what they are doing, people will make the right choices. However, given a massive choice of typefaces and no overt reason to think about the impact they will have on the sub-conscious minds of the receiving audience, there are a few instances where people can make really bad choices.
How type influences When we communicate, we recognise by a set of audio or visual signals what someone else is saying to us. This is of course a learned process and if we don’t communicate, then we won’t learn anything about the use and meaning of these words and visual signals, and consequently we will have no
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reference materials in our minds to allude to (Kisman, 2004, p.114). However, the word ‘meaning’ is very subjective. How and where we were raised and educated – our cultural background – will give us a certain definition for what is communicated to us. These cultural references can be misconstrued by others from a different culture. When looking at type styles, their ‘meaning’ needs to be taken into consideration. It is therefore highly important that research into who we are communicating to is undertaken before we communicate our message. In an essay by Peter Bil’ak entitled ‘In search of a comprehensive type design theory’ (Bil’ak, 2005), he quotes the French type designer Jean-Francois Porchez as saying “a good typeface fits the need of
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the subject”. How true – but Bil’ak goes on to point out that unless the designer knows what the subject is, how can he design a typeface in the first place? Bil’ak has portrayed this scenario as a bit of a chicken and egg situation. The need for a type design is borne by the need to express a piece of written text in a particular way and often to a particular audience. Bil’ak states that type design relies on the gesture of the designer and his ability to express it formally. He further qualifies his opinion by saying that new typefaces are like blank sheets of paper, and it is not until they are used in the public domain that a meaning becomes attached to them. I would disagree with this to some extent – at least in the case of display type. Although Bil’ak thought that Porchez’s statement regarding the type fitting
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the subject was ambiguous, surely the chicken and egg scenario is solved – display type was and is created for a purpose. The original purpose is the one which would be contextually correct – it would have the intended mood and suggestions built into its construction and it would have communicated its message in a particular way to a specific audience. It is only once it is released into the public arena as a design commodity that its use can become indiscriminate.
Semiotics
Semiotics – the visual language of signs, or a symbol which represents something else, relates directly to typography as much as any visual message which we interpret. Semiotics can take the form of words, images, sounds, gestures and
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objects (Chandler, 2005). The structuralist semiotician (broad definition of structuralism in this context: an approach which looks at, amongst other things, relationships of elements such as references found in culture and social interaction and how those references are interpreted by a person or culture) looks at the relationships of elements within any of these forms. Ferdinand de Saussure, a linguist and structuralist semiotician set out his theory by differentiating language from speech. He defined language as a system of rules and conventions which we learn to speak within our particular culture, and speech as how we employ those rules and conventions. Saussure’s theories focused on how we interpret the system of rules used in language and how these
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rules relate to one another. He theorised that the signals within language comprised two parts – the signifier (what a word sounds like to us) and the signified (what we understand the word to mean). The meaning of the word is only truly understood when it is generated from other signs around it. This is the structure of language. When looking at typefaces and how to employ them, the same logic applies. It’s not just the word we read (the signifier) but how that word is interpreted by us (the signified). The interpretation of the word may be enhanced or reinforced by the style of type which it is written in. However, this logic can only really apply when we understand the personality of the typeface. As type is employed to convey messages, there are other traits in its personality which need to be looked at. Just as a
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person with a persuasive personality would be employed to, say, sell a product, type would do the same. If a person is known to be a dependable sort, you would trust his or her integrity in selling you that product. If you recognise a good, sturdy typeface, would you not go along with what it says? Its power of persuasion could act in the same persuasive way as the aforementioned sales rep.
Interpretation of mean Interpretation of the meaning of text is fundamental to any reading experience. A typographer needs to ensure that the correct interpretation is given. The use of layout, hierarchy and font choice all serve to ensure that the correct meaning of the words is attainable. The way that language is manipulated so
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that it makes sense to the reader is called semantics and, although it is up to the writer to make the correct word choices, it falls to the typographer to employ a creative meaning to a text (Jury, 2006, p.76-78). This becomes particularly prudent with single words such as shop signage or short, one sentence notices. We’re back to the art of persuasion through language again or, to give it its proper term, rhetoric. It is the duty of the typographer to question the purpose and function of text before a decision is made of which typeface to use. Another little trait of type is in the implication of its message. To display a serious message in a jokey typeface spells disaster if you’re trying to be serious. Similarly, a joke may fall flat on its wicked little face if your font has no personality. This gem is known as connotation and acts as the delivery system when
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choosing a font. Misuse can lead to isinterpretation. A prime example of this misinterpretation can be traced back to 1973 with Kiss, the notorious American rock group. The gothic style, comic bookinspired lettering in their logo bore the ‘SS’ runes of the Third Reich. The AIGA Journal of Graphic Design (Vol 14, No.2) received a letter from a fan who said “The stylised S’s in the logo were never intended,
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nor do they have anything whatsoever to do with, the Schutzstaffel. The logo was created by the original guitarist, Paul ‘Ace’ Frehley, who has said time and again that the Nazi reference was never intended” (Heller, 1996, p.202). Frehley’s ‘ignorance’ in the connotations of the design obviously gave out plenty of wrong messages, otherwise there would be no need to defend the logo so strongly. Was this inappropriate use or was it deliberate? I personally think it was a way of asserting a proposed world domination – and they achieved it, both financially and with a massive worldwide cult following. However, it must be noted that, although phenomenal success in the music world is probably harmless and the message of ‘world domination’ doesn’t have such serious consequences here, the fact is that the Schutzstaffel’s take on ‘world domination’ was quite different and it is these dark
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connotations in the Kiss logo which would have more than upset quite a few people. Furthermore, there are also those who would have been excited by this reference and would have found it a major attraction to belong to a cult following. This example really underlines the fact that there are many faces to connotation and sensitivity to use of such symbolic ‘hot potatoes’ is of paramount importance. Having seen how connotation in typefaces can evoke a mood or time in history or other event which sparks a thought in one’s imagination, a less fiery but nonetheless functional example of the application of connotation to typefaces has been described by Malcolm Barnard in ‘Graphic Design as Communication’ (p.37) where he refers to Morgan & Welton’s book on visual communication ‘See What I Mean’ (1986). The words ‘Cream Teas’ and
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‘Computer Aided Design’ have been cast in type which is inappropriate. The style of the ‘Cream Teas’ has been applied to the ‘Computer Aided Design’ text and vice versa, i.e. ‘Cream Teas’ is cast in a technical, modern type and ‘Computer Aided Design’ in Old English blackletter. The notion of ‘Cream Teas’ in a ‘techie’ font would be highly implausible to a British person who associates cream teas with quaint village shops. Similarly, the old fashioned English village portrayal of ‘Computer Aided Design’ totally obscures the view of technology from the reader. Swap these type styles over, and suddenly everything is as it should be. Hang on a minute … “as it should be” according to whom? Well, according to me. That is my opinion. Some people may think that the aforementioned example looks a bit odd, but they wouldn’t really
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take much notice other than that, simply because they can still read the words. There are many designers and typographers who believe this doesn’t matter – type is to be read and as long as the legibility element functions correctly, then the message is effectively delivered. Some also believe that the world can function on just a few carefully chosen typefaces. In 1991, Massimo Vignelli designed a poster for his ‘Masters Series’ exhibition. On the poster, he announced “In the new computer age, the proliferation of typefaces and type manipulations represents a new level of visual pollution threatening our culture. Out of thousands of typefaces, all we need are a few basic ones, and trash the rest.” How modernist! We are now given such a plethora of choice in every aspect of our lives, why not in type style? But, as type designer Jeffrey Keedy pointed out in an article originally
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published in ‘Eye’ magazine in 1993, “Everything should be permitted, as long as context is rigorously and critically scrutinised”. He further stated that “Rejection or ignorance of the rich and varied history and traditions of typography are inexcusable; however, adherence to traditional concepts without regard to contemporary context is intellectually lazy and a threat to typography today” (Keedy, 1993, p.30) We e e e e w!!! I couldn’t agree more. Variety is the spice of life, but we have to be careful how we use our spices! With so much reference going on, it is not difficult to see how different typefaces evoke different moods or messages to people from different age groups and cultures. In his book ‘About Face’ (2004, p.144), David Jury speaks of “a mutual understanding between all involved of the social
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values of the project and to who, as precisely as possible, it is directed and why”. Research into who a message is aimed at is of vital importance. The previous example of ‘Cream Teas’ might only be appropriate for people over a certain age. For younger people, ‘Cream Teas’ in a modern typeface would indicate a trendy café. The product sold could still be the same, but the attraction of a younger audience might be what is desired by the café owner. Jury further emphasises this by stating “if the form loses contact with the message then that form will degenerate into decoration.” It is the practice of ‘decoration’ in signage that causes my blood to boil on occasion and which could give rise to inappropriate messages being cast out into the public domain. Let me reiterate the title of Morgan & Welton’s book on visual
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communication: ‘See What I Mean’. If something is reduced to decoration, the meaning won’t be seen, it will be obscured by inappropriate choice. The elements of typography primarily sit in the dynamic use of text through layout which includes leading, kerning, choice of size and style. Text style, or choice of typeface, often seems to be shoved to the bottom of the thought pile.
Vernacular type
Vernacular type tends to sit at the lower end of the type spectrum because of its references in packaging design and adverts, or what is sometimes termed ‘commercial’ art. These commercial typestyles are of course aimed at a specific group of
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consumer – maybe children, housewives, pub frequenters – perceived by some as the ‘lower’ classes in society. As the definition of vernacular is deemed the common language of a particular group, culture or society (Heller, 2000, p.16), it is easy to see why ‘commercial’ typefaces have often been labelled ‘low’ culture. The eclectic postmodernist approach given to typography had led to these schools of thought labelling vernacular influences as ‘low’ culture and more classically designed, historical or historically influenced typefaces as ‘high’ culture.
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However, low culture doesn’t have to be necessarily deemed poor design. Take a look around you. If you go down to the shops today, you’re in for a big surprise. If you go down to the shops today, you’ll hardly believe your eyes! The vernacular
typography that abounds can, on occasions, be spectacularly wrong or superbly precise. When you start to analyse signage, it makes you think about all the other areas where type is used inappropriately to convey a message and all of the aforementioned criteria come into play. Display type, by its nature, is probably only fashionable for a short period of time and is designed to be highly visible (the opposite to body text type). From the early 19 th century the use of display type became more popular because of the increased demand in commercial competitiveness. The Industrial Revolution sparked a greater need for business owners to increase sales of their product over their competitors and as a response to this, more imposing typefaces were designed. These Fat Faces, Groteseques and Egyptian slab serifs spilled out into communities and became the accepted gawdy, bawdy language of advertising – a language
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understood by local people and known today as vernacular typography. Vernacular typography is an honest account of the local agenda. Tibor Kalman, a highly innovative and influential designer and the onetime editor of Colors magazine, reflected its worth by saying that he admired its ‘invisible’ quality and the fact that it represented a visual form of slang, plus the observation that it seemed to be from another time. Indeed, the references to another time are often the most appropriate part of the vernacular. As Rick Poynor pointed out in No More Rules (p.84-85), the spirit in which vernacular references are appropriated and revived are very important in judging how they will be received by their audience. He further qualified his view by saying that vernacular was at its most convincing when used in
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more open cultural contexts. An example of this cultural reference could be attributed to Kalman’s company, M&Co’s ‘Design without Designers’ leaflet produced for AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts, USA) in 1986 where it had been intentionally designed to look ‘wrong’ in typographic terms. The visual concept of the leaflet took the professional eye through ‘low culture’ references, i.e. the design choices of ‘non-designers’ and presented them to a set of ‘high culture’ or professional audience of designers. The mocking use of script fonts in all capitals and other such type-crimes plus the cringeworthy layout blunders would have been a joy to the recipients who would have understood it had been designed to purposely highlight the ignorance of someone who didn’t know the rules of good design.
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So, back to my local, or anybody’s local for that matter. Take a look - it’s fascinating to see how people interpret language and communication in terms of type. There is a local business whose choice of type for its signage is a real howler. The nature of the business is a breaker’s yard. This conjures up typographic images of masculinity - sans serif or slab serif faces giving a blocky, industrial style. Maybe the use of all capital letters would be prudent – giving typical loud ‘bloke’ appeal or maybe some deconstructed text giving an impression of chaos and dirt within. Not a bit of it! This company have gone for ‘Amazone’, a delicate
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class of type, displaying an italicised handwriting style decorated with flourishes - commonly used for wedding invitations. What were they thinking of? Waiter-served spark plugs? Glass of wine while you rip the engine out? Maybe they see themselves as the connoisseurs of engine breaking. The style of type totally belies the nature of the business. Along the road and round the bend is another ‘industrial’ type shop which sells and fits towbars onto cars. The typography IS blocky and sans serif but it has an added graphic which turns the text into
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a logotype. It has the no nonsense, ‘our product is reliable’ connotations which are unmistakable and so befitting of the nature of the business -and it is unique which, in my opinion,shows that this company cares about how it portrays itself in the marketplace. It sends the right message to its potential clientele.It is a lovely example of confidencebuilding in a commercial environment. Taking another look at the local entrepreneurs’ perceptions with regard to the ‘high end’ vernacular and what do we find? Well, we see an ironmonger who chooses to portray his business in Monotype Corsiva, an italic handwriting typeface. This very industrial business
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of forging iron is probably not best depicted by a type which portrays a delicate style akin to handwritten invitations and personal letters and made in the style of Italian writing master, Ludovico degli Arrighi in the 16 th century (www.itcfonts.com). Not only that, they have committed the heinous crime of using all capitals! This doesn’t work on any level. You don’t do joined up handwriting all in caps and surely the most heathen amongst us must see that. The only thing can think of for this choice is perhaps the depiction
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of delicate wrought iron work but surely they could have thought of something a bit more appropriate, even if it were upper and lower case Monotype Corsiva. Unfortunately, the image this lack of sensitivity has conjoured up in my mind is one of carelessness and I wouldn’t give this company my custom. By contrast, the fish and chip shop a few miles away shows an old English style typeface. At first glance, it might be construed that these shopkeepers have ideas above their station – after all, they are only selling fried potatoes and a bit of battered cod, real working class fodder. However, what they want to convey to their clientele is a business based on
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traditional values and personal service, using quality produce. Here, the vernacular works very well because of the connotations associated with tradition and the context of those connotations which help to fix its meaning.
Context
Context is a strange beast, particularly in terms of typography. Fashion styles evoking a period in time often seem not to come from the period suggested. It depends when you were born and which culture you’re from. Fashion styles have a tendency to
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repeat themselves. What might evoke a memory from the 1970s for one person, gives way to a recollection from the 1950s for another. With type, the period can extend back further into history. A good example of this was cited by Steven Brower, the creative director for Print magazine who asked one of his pupils why he’d used Clarendon for a selfpromotional piece when (for Brower) it was seen as having 1950s connotations as he’d remembered it on Reid Miles’ designs of the Blue Note album covers. The pupil replied “because I thought it was cool”. In exasperation, Brower relayed this conversation to Seymour Schwast of Pushpin Studios who corrected the connotative reference as actually being from the Victorian era. Schwast’s take on why such a typeface was revived in the 1950s was “Because we thought it was cool“ (Brower, 2004, p.121).
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So what criteria should be employed when choosing a typeface for a particular message? In ‘Type and Typography’, Phil Baines attributed specific terms used in type design pertaining to the assembly of a typeface. These were construction, shape, proportions, modelling, weight, terminations, key characteristics and decoration (Baines, 2002, p.50). These elements give form to type design. But what about the real individualism which says “I’m taking your mind back to 1930s elegance” or “remember me on the comic books of the 1960s”. Perhaps there might be an element of “I’m a tyrant of World War II” in a typeface or some sort of whacky teenage swirly girly magazine influence which would evoke a giggly mood. It’s actually interesting for the history and culture of a typeface to be explored before making a
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decision on whether to use it or not and I think that it is essential for the composition of a display. It cements the design and gives confidence to the designer that they have made the right choice.
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Although history is part of the make-up of type, lack of history doesn’t mean that there is no depth or personality to a new typeface. Contemporary type has a massive role to play. Julian Morey, a London based designer of Club Twenty-One fonts took his inspiration from a crude form of the vernacular – lettering on stationery delivery notes. These references were worked up into full alphabets (King, 2004, p.158). There has been little thought about how these letterforms will work in typographic context but they convey a ready-made typographic mood that suggests a use which reflects our consumer-led, throw-away attitude in a modern living environment.
Lack of personality Lack of personality in type design must be attributed to the modernist attitude, notably the teachings of the Bauhaus and particularly the beliefs of Herbert Bayer. Bayer advocated a system of using lower case lettering instead of the conventional upper and lower case. He would use only capital letters for display work such as posters and tickets and for body text, he used only lower case. He argued that printers would only need to make up one set of letters to cover all jobs, thereby saving time and money. After all, according to modernist architect, Adolf Loos, “one cannot speak a capital letter” (Hefland, 2001). The philosophy of the Bauhaus school ‘form follows function’ was truly enforced and endorsed here.
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The Swiss International Style grew from the seeds of the Bauhaus and developed into a major influence during the mid decades of the 20 th century. It set strict boundaries for typography and led one of its major exponents, Josef Muller-Brockmann to lay down laws proposing ‘objective design’. This, he claimed would free designers from making subjective expressions and inflicting personal taste in their work, allowing for purely functional communication. He advocated the use of sans serif type, which avoided the ‘decorative’ contrast of stroke and weight, plus the ‘ornament’ of the serif (Blackwell, 2001, p.88). Muller-Brockmann’s work is undeniably beautiful and functions perfectly as a communication tool. The restricted use of sans serif type and, indeed, employing only one type family per design, made for some spectacular layouts within these parameters. I think it’s a shame that
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Muller-Brockmann had such strict rules for type. His dynamic use of photography and photomontage gave huge clarity to his designs. I believe that he could have added so much more depth to typography by bending his own rules and, whilst I understand that his intentions were to take any depth out of his messages and to see them at face value, I can’t help thinking that his superior knowledge of layout would have performed the function of conveying the correct message, but with a greater richness and conviction.
Eclecticism
Postmodernist design attitudes, on the other hand, see the opposite to this very strict order of displaying messages. The favour here falls on the
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side of eclecticism, layering different meanings into different parts of a piece of communication and that could mean using a variety of typefaces which might be considered inappropriate for use for a particular message. But the inappropriateness of the choice might be what the designer has deliberately chosen to use, purely because of the reaction which it invokes. Jonathan Barnbrook is a type designer who is very passionate about historic references in type. He was interviewed for inclusion in a recent article published by Computer Arts (Penfold, 2006), where he stated that he could never accept the Modernist notion of a typographer being just a communicator of the client’s message. He further commented that “everybody brings their own universe of experience to the perception of a piece of work�. This is
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something which I feel is very important. There is depth in typography which can be displayed positively or negatively and the choices we make as designers instil our knowledge and understanding of what a message is intended to say. The message is further reinforced by our ‘universe of experience’ and this personal element can portray all sorts of subtle nuances to the receiver. The postmodern practice of appropriation (borrowing from the past and giving new meaning) means that revivals of typestyles are an accepted part of design and indeed type ‘sampling’, where several different typefaces have been combined is a more recent development (Baines, 2002, p.69). The poststructuralist element in the use of ‘sampled’ typefaces can really blur the meaning of the message. Jonathan Barnbrook’s ‘Prototype’ was
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designed in 1997 and used both upper and lower case elements from several other typefaces. The Virus Fonts website (accessed via www.barnbrook.net) suggests that ‘Prototype’ is a universal alphabet … “is it old, new, uppercase, lowercase, serif or sans?” It also suggests that ‘Prototype’ tries to be all things to all people! Is there an attempt here at that old cherry, world domination? On this occasion, it hasn’t worked at all. The attempt to combine everything is an honourable gesture but the style is too ambiguous and leaves me wondering if there is a context to place this typeface into. But of course, that is the intention. However, does this ambiguity slot into many different contexts? Of course, the answer to this has to be “yes and no”! As Barnbrook puts it, Prototype has “a very 20th/21st century identity crisis.”
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In 2001, the magazine ‘Adbusters’ issued its ‘Design Anarchy’ edition and seized upon some graphic design rhetoric from other published texts on design, highlighting the subtle semiotic nature of composition: “meaning is arbitrary and without foundation; to impose a unitary text on readers is authoritarian and oppressive” (Poyner, 2003, p.169). Barnbrook rose to the occasion by creating a text spread which contained a number of different typefaces, notable among them a blackletter Germanic face depicting the line “to impose a single text on readers is authoritarian and oppressive.” Perfect context! The blackletter evokes the dark days of Nazi concentration and the words ‘authoritarian’ and ‘oppressive’ give overall clarity to why this typeface was used to depict this sentence. Another part used Times New Roman to say “making texts visually ambiguous and difficult to
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fathom is a way of respecting our readers”. This harks back to Beatrice Ward’s comment about good printing being invisible, as it smacks of blanket text treatment in novels and newspapers. A third rhetorical outburst is the line “Let’s Face It! Meaning Is Arbitrary, And Without Foundation”. All text here is in a beautiful script face, each word beginning with a capital letter. The choice of typeface plus the use of capital letters really does make the context of the sentence nonsense. Barnbrook’s sense of irony shines through here and so does his sensitivity to contextual knowledge. His opinions have always been overtly political and his answer to this is that printed words are a form of propaganda (Barnbrook, 2006). His ‘feel’ for typeface choice and for type design is derived from his observations on what’s going on in the world –
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a sense of awareness which leads to educated contextual referencing. The Prototype font design is summed up as design which has “never been seen before, yet offers the irritating familiarity of a played to death pop song�. I think the same can be said of his Adbusters spread. This reinforces my point about historical and contextual referencing evoking memories and mood in messages, whether that referencing is false and leads to a sense of irony or whether it is true and leads us to believe the message at its face value.
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Conclusion
In conclusion, the humble alphabet, when designed in different typestyles, can create a multitude of scenarios for a whole variety of audiences. The message being spelt out can change without an interference of the words, merely by changing the style of the typeface. The letters themselves are signals and built within those signals are further references. Those references can evoke moods, eras in history, plus all sorts of other remembered experiences. Getting the subliminal message right, I believe, is part and parcel of making a design look good. But am I right? Well, it’s a very subjective issue and not one which is worthy of much thought in the eyes of many. Certainly, the general public wouldn’t give it a second thought, so long as it’s legible.
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Some designers believe it’s of little importance, preferring to use layout and composition as their mapping systems to inform and relegating typestyle to the realms of ‘anything that looks okay’. Giving a design intelligence is worthwhile and setting typographic elements in context will give the audience subtle nuances which may not operate on an ‘in yer face’ level, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that the designer has afforded the best possible chance that the audience carries away with them more than just words – and this takes some grafting on the part of the designer. It can be done very effectively but it requires thought, research – not only into type origins and evocation but also into audience perception. The old adage ‘size matters’ is prudent – the bigger the text
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in relation to other text, the louder the voice – check your layout is saying what you want it to say and in the tone of voice you want others to hear it in. Another saying springs to mind – ‘it ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it’ – a good piece of advice. Contextual referencing is of paramount importance to bring out the subtle connotative meanings of written text and seeing your work from the viewer’s perspective will enable you to enrich your message in ways which go way beyond mere words.
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Bibliography
Baines, P. (2002), Type and Typography, London:
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