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Design credits: Onicé Mejia
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Discovery by design www.seriouswheels.com www.paulding.k12.ga.us/
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what is typography? www.oiprc.ox.ac.uk/images www.otal.umd.edu Graphic designers probably won’t read this…but, www.toddchapman.ca/twc/images
Article Credits: Discovery by design [Zuzana Licko] This article was first published in 1994 in Emigre 32.
What is Typography? [Peter Bilak] First published in Swedish in CAP & Design. Graphic designers probably won’t read this . . . but, [Mr. Keedy] This essay was first published in 1993 in the book Emigre: Graphic Design into the Digital Realm. Published 2007
Discovery by design Zuzana Licko
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What is typography? Peter Bil’ak
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Graphic designers probably won’t read this…but, Mr. Keedy
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discovery
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Although science and design are both based upon experimental investigation, the comparison is not altogether straightforward; science investigates naturally occurring phenomena, while design investigates culturally created phenomena. But if such a parallel is to be made, then we might replace a falling tree by a typographic possibility and thereby ask the question “Does a typographic phenomenon exist if no one recognizes it?” Potentially, if every graphic and typographic possibility already exists, and each is waiting to be discovered, then we need only create an appropriate context in order to bring life to any of them. For example, consider the 26 letters in our alphabet and how they are combined to form words. There is a finite number of combinations, or words, if we limit ourselves to words of a certain length; say, five letters. Then, for the ease of pronunciation, let’s omit all words that contain a string of three or more consecutive consonants. Even with these
“...Can new design - like new science - discover phenomena that already exist in the fabric of typographic possibility? If so, who owns discovery?”- Ellen Lupton, The 100 Show. The sixteenth Annual of the American Center for Design
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restraints to give some “meaning� within our understanding of words, there will be many words that will have no meaning to us. Does this mean that these are not words? Does a sequence of letters not form a word when we do not recognize its meaning?
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It is important to note here, that the meanings of words are not intrinsic to the words themselves; the meanings are arbitrary, since the same word may have different meanings in different languages. In fact, the entire concept of using 26 letters is an arbitrary one. We could just as well have used 20 letters, or 30 letters, or thousands of ideograms like the Oriental cultures. Although these systems of communication and meanings are arbitrary, once they are established, they serve as the foundation for the creation of new meanings, and therefore do not appear to be as arbitrary as they really are.
As another example, consider the grid of a computer video display, or that of a laser printer ; each point on the grid can be on or off; black or white. Given a fixed resolution, again, there is a finite number of combinations that these on/off sequences will compose. If a computer is programmed to run through all of the possible combinations, some will appear to us as pure gibberish, while others will be recognized as something that we already know or might be interested in getting to know better. Even though all these compositions are randomly generated, only those few that fit into our preconceived notions of context will have meaning. Therefore, it is the meaning, and not the form itself that has been created.
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New design is the creation of new meanings; that is, new contexts for typographic possibilities. However, must be linked to existing ones.
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become obsolete as they are consumed by our culture, and subsequently forgotten in favor of other ones. Yet what was obsolete years ago is often revived from obsolescence to be reassimilated or expanded upon as appropriate to fit into new cultural meanings. This process repeats itself again and again, making obsolescence a temporary state in the world of design possibilities.
This process of and adding or changing of meaning with each step creates an environment in our popular culture that is conducive to the assimilation of particular ideas. As this environment changes, it makes certain ideas ripe, or “ready to be liked.”
Because this ongoing change is affected by many different forces from numerous directions, it is impossible to predict what will happen next, or even how long-or short-lived any particular design idea might be. Since the life, or lives, of a design idea are dictated by its appropriateness for currently accepted ideas, it would be impossible to specifically plan the longevity of a design without also controlling these forces of style.
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thes o g iv ning” Even that design which “pushes the envelope” must build upon existing preconceptions. For unless a critical portion is understandable, the entire piece will be dismissed as complete nonsense. On the other hand, if no portion of the design is new, then it will appear so uninteresting that it might result in boredom and therefore be equally dismissed. Intriguinvg consumers with just the right amount of unrecognizable information spurs their interest. By initiating these changes of meaning, design educates the consumer to the changes in culture. Thus, design is a vet powerful component in controlling our collective consciousness. However, design is also a subconscious process, and it is therefore nearly impossible for a designer to intentionally alter a specific cultural concept.
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In this manner, meanings change, and over time great shifts take place. Since the creation of new meanings usually results in the replacement, displacement or change of older meanings, we may also wonder if some meanings become obsolete. We may ask, “Does obsolescence exist in design, and can we plan obsolescence?” It is possible to engineer the components of a car or refrigerator to break down after a certain duration of use, thereby defining the product’s obsolescence. But is it possible to do this with a design style, typeface, or typographic form? Unlike industrial products that have a physical life, the lifespan of a typographic possibility is purely conceptual. Designs
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For example, if it costs millions to change the signage in an airport or subway system, then a timeless design is appropriate. However, if a design can be changed every time it appears on, say, an interactive television platform, and especially if such change will stimulate interest and add levels of meaning to the audience, then a timely design would be appropriate. However, more often than not, it is timelessness that is seen as most valuable. Timeless creations are seen as the result of the process of refinement, and give us the impression that we are always working towards an ultimate goal of perfection, independent of the whims of fashion. This may appear so because history is told as a logical and progressive development. However, histories are composed in hindsight; actual events do not occur with such 20/20 vision. For example, once we identify a design idea as being fully developed, historians then work to explain its development by referring to the appropriate chain of events. However, this process also involves the
filtering out of inappropriate events; events that nonetheless occupy the same time line. The inevitability of design ideas is therefore never so apparent when we’re standing on the other end of the time line. Although each development can be explained as an outcome of any number of preceding factors, this does not mean that any particular course of development is therefore inevitable. The sometimes arbitrary choices that are made along every step subsequently become a foundation for future developments, but there are usually many parallel, equally viable paths not taken. So, who owns these design discoveries, if we are facilitating their existence through the appropriate contexts? It may be true that all designs exist in the fabric of typographic possibility. However, since not all possibilities can exist at the same time, there must be
some way to intelligently choose possibilities that will have meaning; that intelligent force comes from designers. The discovery of a design possibility is therefore largely a matter of the designer being in the right place at the right time. However, it is the designer’s ability to recognize the opportunity, the talent to apply the idea to a specific creative work, the willingness to sometimes go out on a limb, and the perseverance to convince others that the idea has validity, that deserves claim to ownership. Because, in the end, it is the expertise to communicate new ideas to others that gives credibility to the designer’s existence.
By Zuzana Licko This article was first published in 1994 in Emigre 32.
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This evolution of meanings is also unpredictable over time. Some meanings change very quickly, like the second hand on a stopwatch; others change so slowly that we don’t even see them change, like the hour hand on a grandfather clock. These slow changing ideas are seen as timeless, while those that change quickly are perceived as being timely. The words “timeless” and “timely” often have very strong negative or positive connotations, although neither is good nor bad, per se. The value of either of these qualities lies in the appropriateness of use, and appropriateness is usually a question of efficient use of design resources, or financial viability.
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That is of course problem of definitions, which are not as flexible as the activities which they define. In the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague, where I teach part time, most useful definition of typography comes from the long term teacher Gerrit Noordzij, saying that ‘typography is writing with prefabricated letters’. Unlike the dictionary definitions,
this one is deliberately avoiding connecting typography to any specific medium, as they tend to change, yet the discipline continues evolving. Noordzij’s definition also implies a complete distinction from lettering, handwriting or graffiti, which are also concerned with creating lettershapes, but don’t offer a repeatable system of setting these letters.
Digital technologies stimulated unprecedented possibilities which blur even most open definitions of typography. If repetition of shapes was the central concept of typography, many designers are working in ways that challenge this concept. OpenType fonts can include random features, which can simulate unpredictable behavior of handwriting, or simply present seemingly incoherent library shapes. For the past year, I’ve been working with dancers from Netherlands Dance Theatre in The Hague on creating a tool which translates text into simple choreographies. User types a word in a typesetting-like application which plays back this word as an uninterrupted dance sequence where dancer’s body temporarily makes positions recognizable as letters. Is this typography? Project like this, as many others using existing digital
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Before starting any discussion or argument it is useful to define the terminology and to make sure that the words which are used are generally understood. Typography as a craft has been practiced since the Gutenberg’s invention of the movable type. According to the latest Encyclopedia Britannica core definition of typography is that ‘typography is concerned with the determination of the appearance of the printed page’. Other dictionaries, such as Collins English Dictionary from 2004 define the typography as ‘the art, craft or process of composing type and printing from it’. Understood this way, no typography was made before mid-15 century, as it is strictly linked to the invention of the printing type. Understood this way, digitally created letters that appear on an electronic screen also escapes this definition.
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possibilities seems not much worried about it, but use typographic principles to create autonomous work which cross boundaries of various disciplines. It seems that typography itself matured into a new creative discipline in which majority of typographers work in a way which is guided by historical understanding of the word, yet there is room for experimentation which explores the boundaries of the profession.In other disciplines, such debate is in fact a sign of new self-consciousness. Novelist Milan Kundera argues that a
contemporary novel is no longer defined as a fictional narrative in prose, but can include various forms of writing: poetry, shortstory, or interview. Kundera’s books include parts which are philosophical, political, comical, while still being firmly part of a novel. The ability to absorb these various forms is Kundera’s definition of novel. Similarly, larger understanding of typography, which is no longer defined by technology, but evolves with it, may open this discipline to new create endeavors.
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First published in Swedish in CAP & Design
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true that designers don’t read, it’s just that they don’t read about design. Most design essays stink (I hope this is an exception). Design essays are usually written by some hack who wrote about lawn care products last week, or designers who haven’t worked in so many years that they can’t remember where they put their waxers, press-type, and T-squares. Emigre is written for, by, and about graphic designers, like a mirror that presents designers in their own words, “warts and all.” Unlike most design magazines with slick production values that frame designers in glamorous and uncritical fashion, Emigre has never had the luxury of beautifully printed, full-color reproductions and professional journalists and editors. What the magazine lacks in refinement, it makes up for in being relevant. This is due to Rudy VanderLans’s genuine passion for new and interesting developments in design. Rudy’s point of view is not the only factor in the editorial and curatorial bias of the magazine. There are whole issues and many sections of the magazine that are determined by a guest editor/designer. This guarantees that the design and content fully embrace the subject. Rudy often functions as an editor/art director, carefully orchestrating the talents of many different designers (why don’t other design magazines try this?). Speaking as one of the many contributors to Emigre, I think
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y How do you write about a magazine that has had a tremendous impact on graphic design, but very few graphic designers have actually read it? When designers ask if you have seen the latest issue of Emigre, that’s exactly what they mean, have you seen it. When asked if they have read Emigre, the response is usually “I haven’t had time to get to it yet,” (how long does it take?), or “It’s too hard to read” - a curious excuse coming from someone who is presumably “visually literate.” The illiterate graphic designer has become an unfortunate stereotype (like wearing all black and being overworked and under-valued [stop whining]). I don’t think it’s
appears “wild” in the context of the mostly vapid design magazines that preceded it. The exaggerated claims of “wildness” marginalize its important role as an outlet for exciting new ideas. Ideas that are routinely ignored or completely misunderstood by the mainstream design press. The fact is, the most original ideas and intelligent work in graphic design today first appear in Emigre. One thing that most clearly established Emigre as an “original” was its typefaces. New computer software like Fontographer made it possible for anyone (with a lot of time and patience) to create a typeface. Zuzana Licko, Rudy’s wife and partner, designed typefaces like Oakland, Modula
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and Matrix that put Emigre at the forefront of the new “independent” font companies. At a time when most type designers were put off by the limitations of the computer and its inability to exactly replicate existing technology, Zuzana was intrigued and inspired by the digital environment, working within limitations as if they were assets.
There have been so many different and conflicting opinions expressed in Emigre, that if you think the work is homogeneous you are not looking very closely or reading at all. There are some common concerns,
Past contributors have been from America, Great Britain, Holland, Switzerland, and Germany and have included design schools and educators (something American design magazines have little interest in). Most of the contributors are not “rebellious kids” right out of design school but are more typically mid-career professionals struggling to sustain an interesting practice. Critics and proponents of Emigre often cite the “wildness” or lack of restraint in the magazine, but Emigre only
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Because her early bitmapped fonts were of low resolution, and Zuzana likes to design within very strict parameters, her work could be misread as simplistic or crude. Zuzana’s typefaces are, on close inspection, anything but crude. Wether she is working within strict confines of technically inspired forms, like Modula, Citizen or Matrix, or within an equally restrictive conceptual framework like Totally Gothic or Journal, Zuzana’s mastery of a limited pallet is quite elegant. To consider Zuzana Licko’s type design as crude or illegible (non-functional), weird or radical, would be incredible shortsighted and historically ignorant. Her preference for reductivist strategies in form and her expressions of form that follows the functioning of the computer, put her in the category of “classic modernist,” not radical reactionary.
it’s Rudy’s contagious enthusiasm for others that compels one to go beyond pure egoism and try to do something of relevance for your fellow Emigre readers, I mean lookers.
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characteristics and even weaknesses that some of the Emigre contributors share, but to lump them all into one “style” is overly simplistic and superficial.
Graphic designers are the “scouts” of visual culture, looking ahead of the rest of the pack. Eventually “scouting” can wear you out. That’s why some designers collapse into a “timeless” stasis or retreat back into nostalgia. In this state of exhaustion, we often oversimplify or overlook the obvious. In my varied career as a designer I have been labeled as working in the “New Wave, Cranbrook, Deconstructivist, Computer, Emigre, and CalArts,” styles. I don’t object to the labeling and categorizing; a vocabulary has to be established to have a meaningful dialogue. What I don’t like is the lack of a critical criteria or context for these “styles” to be discussed with any validity. What you get instead is an uninformed opinion - “I don’t know much about that kind of design (because I don’t bother to read or find out), but I know what I like, and I don’t like that. It is significant that Emigre magazine is not located in New York city, which has always had a stranglehold on the design press in America. Much of the redundancy and provincialism in design magazines in America is due to the fact that they are all geographically and ideologically located in New York’s modernist dogma. Since the émigré’s from
Europe first came to New York and started dictating their modernist ideology to America, New York has proclaimed itself the center of American design. The very idea of a “design capitol” is even more antiquated than an “art capitol” in these post industrial, post modern times. There have been several efforts on the part of “the powers that be,” or perhaps it would be more accurate to say “the powers that were,” to belittle the little magazine with big ideas. Time marches on; their time is past. Emigre’s time is now.
Located on the “other coast” Emigre looks outward and forward, a magazine that ignores boundaries, while other’s vainly try to claim territory. Founded in Berkeley, and later moved to Sacramento,
Emigre is more an attitude than the product of a place and could have been located anywhere (except New York). Although Rudy is by nature an “outsider” or émigré himself (emigrating to the U.S. in 1981 from Holland), he has never been actively involved in any of the many design organizations (he even declined an opportunity to join Alliance Graphique International). However, through his magazine, he has established a sizable network of dedicated individuals with diverse ideologies. Emigre is the only truly progressive and pluralistic graphic design magazine that is a locus for a decentralized discourse on design. It is an international meeting place
for people interested in exploring and expanding the borders of design practice and theory. The only prerequisite is an interest in new design and an open mind. Intolerance for different ideas is the biggest obstacle in these proscribed and dogmatic times. With the mind-numbingly dull 1970s and 80s behind us, designers are waking up and starting the next millennium. Emigre is documenting where graphic design is going. And it’s going to be interesting.
By Mr. Keedy
This essay was first published in 1993 in the book Emigre: Graphic Design into the Digital Realm.
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