Type, Image Message: A Graphic Design Layout Workshop

SKO WED LOS ELL& TYPE, IMAGE, MESSAGE A GRAPHIC DESIGN LAYOUT WORKSHOP RICKY FRANKLIN

TYPE, IMAGE, MESSAGE A Graphic Design Layout Workshop

I

We experience them, imagine them, see them in our sleep, and consider them simultaneously. They never operate outside of a context and their meaning is never fully realized until they are put into play. Often they are assigned a “format” within which to interact.

They can be visualized with common textures, shapes, and colors, and unified with light or shadow, but even in the realm of our greatest imagination, they remain uniquely discernible as type or image.

As in any successful partnership, type and image work best when The viewer depends on type and image they complement each other—when to five form and meaning to many they finish each other’s sentences. For messages and ideas. Both contain room graphic designers, a photograph isn’t for interpretation by the audience and finished with a click of the shutter. extend the role of the graphic designer That is just the beginning of the from form giver to mediator and guide. creative process, as an image becomes Through form, designers construct and a part of a piece of graphic design. In create an organized system for content, fact, the image must be “incomplete” emphasizing some concepts and so there is something left for the deemphasizing others, providing ways type to do. into, around, and out of each work.

In the conceptual phase of a project, designers often begin working with type and image intuitively, in a mind space where the two are more like substances than entities.

While much has been written about typography and photography, surprisingly little has been written about how the two work together.

Many times while in the final throes of

1 | TYPE, IMAGE, MESSAGE

t has often been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. More recently in a lecture at the Rhode Island School of Design, multimedia designer Mikon van Gastel offered, “One perfectly chosen word is worth thirty minutes of footage.” Value judgments aside, one thing is clear: graphic designers are both blessed and cursed for working with two very distinct modes of communication, the word and the image.

completing a project that employs both type and image, designers will confess, “I’m just no good with type.” The reality is that nobody is naturally good at combining type and image. Even though words and images are familiar ways of expressing human experience, the two forms of communication are inherently difficult to reconcile. This book is intended to begin to fill that

gap. We call it a “graphic design layout workshop.” because it originates from a place of making as much as analyzing.

Pioneering, innovative graphic designers and photographers from around the world have contributed their extraordinary designs to this endeavor, and it is their inspiration within these pages that serves as the backbone of this discussion and possible reconciliation. nancy skolos

+

thomas wedell

TYPE, IMAGE, MESSAGE | 2

Space and Point(s) of Entry “Reading” a photograph is very different from reading a text. For example, in Western culture, a conventional hierarchy is well established, dictating a left-toright, top-to-bottom approach. Letters make up words, words make up sentences, and sentences make up concepts. It is a primarily linear construction that cannot be easily rearranged without affecting meaning.

Photographs are representations of the physical world possessing a threedimensional sense of time and space. Photographs of landscapes feature a horizon, while photographs of architecture have perspective and a vanishing point. Portraits contain unique human features of eyes, nose, and mouth. Each of these elements and scenarios commands a different point of entry into a picture.

Unlike objects rendered in photographic space, letters and their forms do not customarily exist in three-dimensional space. Letterforms themselves have no intrinsic third dimension. Jan Tschichold, renowned typographer and designer, wrote a wonderful metaphorical essay about working with type called “Clay in the Potter’s Hand.” But type is less like clay and more like Legos. It is a prefabricated kit of parts, a closed system, with typefaces whose inner harmonies make them complete in the and of themselves.

Contrast, Color, Texture While images render the world in a complete tonal range, tonal shifts generally interfere with, more than contribute to, the clear reading of text. Type is therefore an inherently high-contrast medium. Dieter Feseke of the Berlin-based studio umbra-dor observes, “The type is more geometry, more digital and clean. The image is patchy, spotted, more analog, natural, and dirty.” As the viewer looks at

and discovers a work that is formed of both entities, the flow of experience is varied, with each medium dictating its own point of entry and rate of comprehension.

The reading gets even more intricate when the piece contains multiple images and text elements. Complexity adds to the time needed to investigate and interpret a work, regulated by each viewer’s level of experience. For intricacy to transcend entanglement, designers must embrace the creative potential of photo-typographic space. These strategies should guide the viewer beyond what Rick Poynor, in his book No More Rules: Graphic Design and Postmodernism, calls “fully postmodern representational space, where all that is solid often melts into an intoxicating, semiabstract blur.”

Meaning As containers for meaning and expressions of human experience, type and image have different properties—but they also operate on different levels of cognition.

When type meets image, there is automatically a dialogue between them and each can pull the other in many different directions. The text can support or contradict the image just as the image can illustrate or refute the written message.

Each may also contain independent meanings that may react with or against the overall message in the work. To compound the interpretation further, additional relationships can spring up from the viewers’ backgrounds and personal points of view.

In his essay “The Photographic Message, Roland Barthes said of the interaction of text and image: “It is true that there is never a real incorporation since the substances of the tow structures graphic and iconic are irreducible, but there are more most likely degrees of amalgamation.”

During the process of analyzing the photo-typographic works contained in these pages, the difficulty of teasing out the visual from the verbal brought the struggle between the two forms of communication to the forefront. It is impossible to construct an authentic written description of the type/image relationship at work in a piece of visual communication. For, in order to measure that dynamic completely, one has to go to a place in the mind that doesn’t speak or explain, but rather absorbs. These examples are rare because they take you there.

3 | TYPE, IMAGE, MESSAGE

Images open the door to multiple interpretations through varied experiences and memories. These connections make photography a more complex, and more visceral form of communication. Unlike images, words are essentially shapes that have learned, recognized meanings. Willi Kunz describes this phenomenon in Typography: Macro–and Microaesthetics: “Every word is comprised of a particular set of letters, whose sequence and form makes each word semantically and syntactically unique.”

Type, Image, Message:

Love Gallery

An Homage to Nancy Skolos

Point Loma Nazarene University

& Tom Wedell

Mon–Fri 9am–5pm

Photo/Typographic Works

4.16–4.20.2018

By bringing reason and subjective emotions

together on a picture plane,

that’s what we hope happens—

TYPE, IMAGE, MESSAGE An Homage to Nancy Skolos and Tom Wedell Photo/Typographic Works Point Loma Nazarene University LOVE Gallery Mon–Fri 4 16–4 20 2018 9 am–5 pm

that people will E X P A N D T H E I R P O I N T O F V I E W .

By bringing reason and subjective emotions together on a picture plane, that’s what we hope happens— that people will EXPAND

We don’t depend on the trend of reaction.

THEIR POINT OF

We allow people to discover themselves through the piece.

V I E W. We don’t depend on the trend of reaction.

We allow people to discover themselves through the piece.

That’s the humanity of it—meeting other people.

That’s the humanity of it— meeting other people.

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TYPE, IMAGE, MESSAGE An Homage to Nancy Skolos & Tom Wedell

Photo/Typographic Works

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Mon–Fri 9 am–5 pm

Point Loma Nazarene University LOVE Gallery

Nancy Skolos/ Tom Wedell

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subjective emotions

Type, Image, Message

—Skolos/Wedell

We allow people to

Skolos + Wedell

alignment studies

Prompt: Design 8 different 8"x 8" 9 pt. type alignment compositions on 3,4,5, and 6-column modular grids using various line or word tracking. Focus on type alignment, compositional balance, placement, and positive and negative space.

p e o p l e .

TYPE, IMAGE, MESSAGE

An Homage to Nancy Skolos + Tom Wedell Photo//Typographic Works

o t h e r

Point Loma Nazarene University LOVE Gallery Mon–Fri 4//16–4//20//2018 9 am–5 pm

themselves through the piece.

That’s the humanity of it: meeting other people.

Nancy Skolos To m W e d e l l

Photo/Typographic Works Point Loma Nazarene University An Homage to Nancy Skolos & Tom Wedell

N A N C Y S K O L O S / / TO M W E D E L L

AN HOMAGE TO NANCY SKOLOS + TOM WEDELL

Photo/Typographic Works Point Loma Nazarene University LOVE Gallery

LOVE Gallery Mon–Fri 9 am–5 pm

4.16–4.20.2018

TYPE, IMAGE, MESSAGE P h o t o a n d Ty p o g r a p h i c W o r k s

AN HOMAGE TO

NANCY SKOLOS & TOM WEDELL Point Loma Nazarene University LOVE Gallery Monday–Friday

APRIL 4 th –20 th 9am–5pm “By

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piece. That’s the humanity of it—meeting other people.”

“By bringing reason and subjective emotions together on a picture plane, that’s what we hope happens—that people will expand their point of view.

We don’t depend on the trend of reaction. We allow people to discover themselves through the piece. That’s the humanity of it— meeting other people.”

N A N C Y S KO L O S / TO M W E D E L L

N A N CY S KO LO S & TO M W E D E L L

hierarchy studies

Prompt: Design 8 different 8"x 8" compositions on 3,4,5, and 6-column modular grids utilizing visual hierarchy: bold, caps, italics, line spacing, letter spacing, contrast, and scale.

5 | TYPE, IMAGE, MESSAGE

TYPE, IMAGE, MESSAGE. MON– 4/16– 9am– FRI 4/20 5pm

discover TYPE, IMAGE, MESSAGE

m e e t i n g

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By bringing reason and subjective emotions together on a picture plane, that’s what we hope happens: that people will expand their point of view.

We don’t depend on the trend of reaction. We allow people to

Type, Image, Message: An Homage to Nancy Skolos & Tom Wedell

Point Loma Nazarene University LOVE Gallery

Monday–Friday 4/16–4/20/2018 9 am–5 pm

By bringing reason and subjective emotions together on a picture plane, that’s what we hope happens—that people will expand their point of view.

We don’t depend on the trend of reaction.

We allow people to discover themselves through the piece.

That’s the humanity of it—meeting other people.

skolos+ wedell

“

P h o t o / Typ o g r a p h i c Wo r ks Po i n t Lo m a Na z a r e n e U n i ve r s i t y LOV E G a l l e r y M o n –F r i 4 16 –4 2 0 2 0 18 9 a m –5 p m

By bringing REASON a nd subje ctive EMOTIONS

toge the r on a picture pla ne, tha t’s wha t we hope ha ppe ns—tha t pe ople will expa nd the ir

”

POI N T O F V I E W Tha t’s the huma nity of it—

me e ting othe r pe ople.

SKOLOS + WEDELL

subjective emotions together on a picture plane, that’s what we hope happens—that people will expand their

MESSAGE

trend of reaction. We plane, that’s what we hope

A n Ho m a g e t o Na n c y S ko l o s a n d To m We d e l l

by bringing reason and

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–Nancy Skolos & Tom Wedell themselves through the

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humanity of it—

allow people to discover

happens—that people will

expand their point of view.

LOVE Gallery Point Loma Nazarene University Photo/Typographic Works

together on a picture

April 16–20 2018

subjective emotions

TYPE, IMAGE, MESSAGE | 6

Monday–Friday 9 am–5 pm

“By bringing reason and

An Homage to Nancy Skolos & Tom Wedell

meeting other people.”

TYPE

Photo / Typographic Works

TYPE, IMAGE, MESSAGE

Prompt: Design 8 different 8"x 8" compositions on 3,4,5, and 6-column modular grids utilizing extreme scale, emphasizing a single element, word, or phrase.

“that’s the humanity of it– meeting other people.” point of view.

we don’t depend on the trend of reaction. we

allow people to discover themselves through the piece.

type, image, message: an Homage to nancy sKolos + tom wedell

pHoto/typograpHic worKs point loma naZarene UniVersity | loVe gallery monday–friday 4/16–20/2018 | 9 am–5 pm

nancy skolos + tom wedell

extreme scale studies

FOUR CRITICAL RELATIONSHIPS 7 | TYPE, IMAGE, MESSAGE

When type and image coexist, each remains a distinguishable entity, occupying its own space and time to greater and/or lesser degrees, while continuously interacting in distinct ways. Through the combinations of permutations of type and image are infinite, the integration of these media can be delineated according to the following criteria:

TYPE, IMAGE, MESSAGE | 8

SEPARATION The principle of separation forces text and image retain clear autonomy; the designer allows the text to react with, against, or independently from the image.

Often the designer inserts additional graphic elements that further mediate or separate the type and image.

Formal Qualities layering: The type is superimposed on the image but remains distinct from the image. border or frame: A border or frame contains the type and sets the stage for the photograph. compartments or windows: The picture plane is divided into type spaces and image spaces.

Applications To play the type against the image To create a series To provide clarity

9 | TYPE, IMAGE, MESSAGE

When type and image operate independently

TYPE, IMAGE, MESSAGE | 10

FUSION The principle of fusion, uses a unifying force to synthesize the type and image.

The alliance of form and meaning presents itself in a strong visual coherence—a “cause and effect.” Some images and text are optically altered, and others are circumstantial through motion or juxtaposition, they are all the result of deliberate, holistic choices made by the designer.

Formal Qualities optical effect: perspective, lens, or filter Shared surface or texture: Type and image are woven into a texture of , or adhered to, a unifying surface—either the picture plane or other homogeneous field(s) in space. motion or gesture: Type and image are acted on by a common force, or affected by the implied motion of a human or mechanical gesture. metaphor: Type and image are fused by a calculated visual metaphor that operates through mutual dependency of the verbal and pictorial elements.

Applications To blend two or more things that aren’t customarily related to make a strong association To strengthen an existing conceptual connection through harmony and integration in order to present a galvanized point of view To create an altered reality that challenges the viewer to reexamine a particular subject from an unexpected perspective

11 | TYPE, IMAGE, MESSAGE

When type and image blend to create unity of form

TYPE, IMAGE, MESSAGE | 12

FRAGMENTATION The principle of fragmentation occurs when type and image disturb or disrupt one another, usually with one providing the impetus for activation the state of flux.

There is an unsettled nature of a design with fragmentation, the interrelationships have the potential form interweaving multiple meanings and a high degree of decoding.

Formal Qualities irregularities: Elements are torn, divided, or unevenly dispersed.

Displacement: The composition appears as an individual frame that has been extracted from an animated film interruption: The type or image intrude on one another or punctuate or disconnect the message. exaggeration: Actions are amplified through scale, color, and complication

Applications To animate and energize To imply the passing of time To construct a complex message with multiple meanings To create a surreal scenario To privilege one idea over another

13 | TYPE, IMAGE, MESSAGE

When the type and image disturb or disrupt each other

TYPE, IMAGE, MESSAGE | 14

INVERSION The principle of inversion is a specific category of fusion, in which type and image fuse by exchanging roles. When type is portrayed as part of an image, or when an image is built from type, it captures our imagination and transports us beyond the potential communicative properties of type or image alone and into an elevated sense of discovery.

Formal Qualities hyper-realism: The type is physically photographed or rendered through other hyper-realistic means. building blocks: The letterforms appear within the picture plane as the building blocks from which the image is constructed. frames: The letters create frames for preexisting photographic images.

Applications To reveal a potential or unrealized connection among elements and ideas To create harmony and integration among different or related texts by blending them into visual union To generate visual or verbal puns, or both To invent fictional narratives between words and letterforms become characters To create the strongest possible connection between the word and the image

15 | TYPE, IMAGE, MESSAGE

A form of fusion wherein the type and image trade places and the type takes on pictorial properties or the image takes on typographic qualities

T

his workshop is focused primarily on poster design as a form because posters transcend and propel layout into a realm where type and image can combine seamlessly. In poster design, words and pictures step out of the compositional boundaries and workaday responsibilities that often distance them in conventional page layout.

TYPE, IMAGE, MESSAGE | 16

All four interactions—separation, fusion, fragmentation, and inversion—manifest themselves both formally and pragmatically. Designers can use them for many purposes as well as to create a range of visual effects. The practical applications reviewed here include: to present and clarify facts, to tell a story to persuade, and to express emotion, or to create an atmosphere.