Written Component 1

For a while, I have been interested in the way people communicate with each other. Especially how words contain hidden messages that only those perceptive enough grasp. Politics and media, particularly the so-called “fake news”, use this type of discourse to influence the masses and cover information in plain sight. Take the example George Orwell gives in his essay titled “Politics And The English Language”. He writes that political speech consists of defending the indefensible by using euphemisms to blur details from the public (Orwell, 1943, p.7). Furthermore, with the rise of social media, many political campaigns shifted to platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, making it easier for leaders to write their own “alternative realities” without a filter or editing. Given the ephemeral essence of these platforms, most written statements lack clarity and objectivity, which enables their owners to rephrase their opinions according to new contexts that emerge. As Orwell defends, those who rely on unclear words have private definitions of their own, leaving the ones who read to fend for themselves in the hunt for an interpretation (1943, p.6). As a designer, I believe communication should be universal. There should not exist any barrier between the true meaning of the discourse and the recipient. Only then can people make conscious decisions, for instance, when voting. 

With that in mind, while doing 100 screengrabs, I aimed to understand what is the role of communication design in this interaction. But also, how it could be a facilitator of clearness and hold people accountable for their words. There are already a few platforms that track unclear statements. For example, The Washington Post created a database of misleading or false claims President Donald Trump made since assuming office, counterpointing them with proven facts. However, I think that having a system that displays all dimensions of words in one shape would create immediate clearness, avoiding the receiver to be disturbed by doublespeak. As a result, the body of iterations produced for this exercise explores the visual aspect of this combination, using different font styles, materials and technologies.

During the first experiments, I worked with typography to blend two words in one typographic shape. I also experimented with different styles to combine both meanings, and introduced the scanner and programming, which resulted in unpredictable outcomes. For this last experiment, even though there was a reduction of legibility, it transformed the shapes into patterns or coded messages, alluding to previous iterations produced for Unit 1. In any case, I wanted to understand if typography was able to uncover doublespeak and contribute to more honest statements. According to George Orwell (1943), only then we achieve a clear language.

For the next four weeks, I propose to further study the representation of doublespeak. For that, I will be using graphic design to create a system that showcases all layers of meaning embedded in people’s statements. But first, I should find a context that allows this project to have a target. That means I must decide whether this body of work aims to expose different examples of unclear vocabulary or has its focus on a particular person or subject. Then, my goal is to find a universal system that represents all statements collected on the step before. At this stage, a good starting point would be some of the iterations achieved during the “100 screengrabs” exercise, particularly those that resulted from the usage of the scanner. This way, I could further explore the overlap of typography in the representation of the dimensions of meaning and iterate with other elements, such as images. Additionally, I feel like there is still room to study whether adding different techniques and materials, for instance, the lenticular printing suggested on the last group tutorial, would be beneficial for what I aim to achieve.

References

Kessler, G., Kelly, M., Rizzo, S., Ye Hee Lee, M. and Shapiro, L., 2017. The Fact Checker’S Ongoing Database Of The False Or Misleading Claims Made By President Trump Since Assuming Office.. [online] Fact Checker. Available at: <https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-claims-database/> [Accessed 24 April 2020].

Orwell, G., 1943. Politics And The English Language.