00 wim crouwel and the search for perfect language
01 science ± poetry wim crouwel paul huf 1969 In considering the ways in which Wim Crouwel’s work has been an influence or inspiration, it’s natural to think of systems, grids and mathematics as the core principles of a worldview which his work seems to represent.
02 science ¹ poetry new alphabet wim crouwel 1967 The design of Crouwel’s New Alphabet and its implementation seem, in particular, to pefectly symbolise modernist ideas and modern ideals about rational systems, machine driven processes and grid structures.
03 science ¹ poetry ocr-a usasi 1961 The New Alphabet appears, at first, to fit a similar conceptual space as OCR-A, one of several space-age typefaces whose letterforms are differentiated so that they can be read and written by machines. But Crouwel’s font is far less practical and far more poetic than the machine typefaces.
04 science ± poetry the search for the perfect language umberto eco 1995 Crouwel’s New Alphabet can be seen a visual expression of an age old human quest which Umberto Eco described as ‘The Search for Perfect Language’, a quest which is as ancient as Babel itself and which has often found expression in the form of artificial ‘designed’ writing.
05 orthographic reform phonetic single alphabet jan tschichold 1932 Here are four possible contextual frameworks into which the New Alphabet might fit appropriately. First and closest, is orthographic reform, the slippery, idealistic but highly seductive notion that a living writing system can be modified artificially to provide a more accurate, simpler fit to a contemporary speech system.
06 orthographic reform phonetic single alphabet kurt schwitters 1927 Examples on pages 05 to 08, by Tschichold, Schwitters, Pitman and Stamm, use modified versions of existing letterforms to provide a decipherable basis for ostensibly accurate correspondences of phonemes to graphemes.
07 orthographic reform initial teaching alphabet james pitman 1960
08 orthographic reform german phonetic alphabet philipp stamm 1995
09 writing system design the shaw alphabet kingsley read 1959 The second, more radical conceptual approach is the found in the design of totally new writing systems, where entire signaries are originated for the first time. These function either as a very extreme approach to orthographic reform, such as the Shaw Alphabet, designed by Kingsley Reid and refined typographically by Monotype in 1959
10 writing system design algonqian cree script rev. james evans 1830s New writing systems have also been designed for the use of preliterate social groups. They are typically introduced by outsiders for imperialistic or evangelistic purposes. This page shows the script designed by the missionary James Evans for the Cree nation.
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chirographic design
chchirographic design writing system design irographic design maori alphabet yoshinobu ku 2009 Yoshi Ku has worked with an indigenous user group to design and test a system for the Maori people, combining both visual symbolic traditions and the language’s phonemic tropes
12 writing system design han’gul syllabary king sejong 1446 The Korean Han’gul system, designed to replace a traditional Chinese script, is an extraordinarily rational syllabary where mouth shapes are symbolised with elegance
13 universal language blissymbolics charles bliss 1942 At a yet more radical level, some people have attempted to design universally comprehensible visible languages, often using image in sequences. There is a common belief that images represent truth and that it’s possible to use them to transcend territorial language barriers. This is Blissymbolics designed by Charles Bliss
14 universal language locos yukio ota 1972 Yukio Ota’s LoCoS combines systematised images with a complex syntactical system
15 universal language real character john wilkins 1668
16 asemic writing and typography district 9 non-human script sony marketing 2007 The ultimate reconfiguration of the design of written form removes its semantic connection altogether so that it can relocate, drifting as a dangerously detached chain of potential signifiers. Asemic writing has been found in cultural traditions for millenia. Here it’s been executed imaginatively for non-humans in the movie District 9
17 asemic writing and typography untitled passage henri michaux 1963 Henri Michaux’s poetic writings were also drawings, often produced under the influence of mescalin
18 asemic writing and typography book from the sky xu bing 1987 Xu Bing’s Book from the Sky detaches typographic form from its linguistic connection. What appear to be Chinese logograms mean nothing
19 asemic writing and typography munjado letterwork ahn sang-soo 1991
20 asemic writing and typography the things norm 2002
Designed and written by Paul McNeil Š2012 p.mcneil@lcc.arts.ac.uk