week 4 – 11 May
This week I wanted to understand what value typography adds to the meaning of a message. So I started with a simple exercise of visualizing a word in different typefaces.
However, there are always other factors that could influence the way people interpret something written, such as the context in which it is implemented or the person saying/writing it.
Therefore, I decided to create a program which allows people to play with these variables. The idea is to put them in the designer’s shoes on the process of deciding which typeface to use. I believe that, while making decisions themselves, they will become more aware of the potentialities typography has in adding meaning to the message or, on the contrary, in creating deceiving visuals.
(having problems uploading this)
https://catarinasrneves.github.io/typography-study/
To further develop:
– Add images to background
– Allow people to input a word of their choice
– Add more typefaces
I find the idea of the audience interpreting typefaces stylistically in different ways very interesting. We recognize certain typefaces right away whether its from a famous ad campaign or a poster. Maybe it could be useful to explore these well-known type styles since the messaging and word choices you picked are very impactful. For example: Shepard Fairey’s Obama Hope poster, Barbara Kruger’s collages, Greta Thunberg’s climate change signage, etc. These typefaces are all extremely recognizable and I wonder if your audience could utilize that to create a different context/story? Just a thought, hope it helps!
Really like that you’ve made a program that kind-of reverses the way we normally approach word-processing softwares and pushes visual style over written matter – at interesting experiment might be to remove the ‘meaning’ of the words completely (perhaps by using made up words?) and relying solely on the typography to give it sense?
I find the program you designed for your audience to interact and interpret the types in their own ways a very intriguing platform and I think it is working. Just a though, have you though of the reverse application where the audience is able to create “bad type settings”? Because you said you wanted to understand what value typography adds to the meaning of a message, so I wonder if allowing both “good type setting” and “bad type setting” to be possible on your program would be beneficial to express your ideas. Hope it helps!