The difficulty of typography - Words by - Frenchfold
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Words by Brian Morgan
the
difficulty
of
typography
I. In 2017, in her presentation at A-B-Z-TXT,
designer Michèle Champagne made the
case for journalism that can wrap its head
around design.
While I agree with Michèle on almost all of the points she made,
both the sound and the sage, the making of a design-literate
journalist might be difficult. Some of these impediments are
embedded within the culture of the media (in which case some
positive change is possible), but others are philosophical
(in which case some sort of education is needed). An example
of the latter is how it is that an all-caps grotesque or gothic
came to “mean” honesty, in other than a randomly associative
manner?1
1.
An interesting question is how valence to tabloids, the other
the condensed sans means to Kinfolk-era fashion and
one thing, and the normal avant-garde culture: the
width sans means another. former is full of breathless
This distinction becomes clear urgency about the right-wing
when you line up Rob Ford’s triggers and the latest
materials against Hillary celebrity breakup (as well a
Clinton’s (Art Directed by sthe fun of bat babies and
designer Michael Bierut, using aliens having been elbowed
a version of Lucas Sharp’s aside by Infowars-type
Sharp Sans Display No.1, stories), the latter jumped
stripped of its more Lubal- from austere gallery ads in
in-esque features). The colour
schemes and geometries are
similar, but the big differ-
Parkett and clever Werkplaats
Typografie experiments, and
is now seeking a certain pure
• Rob Ford on the cam-
paign trail with Trade
Gothic (and Verdana) set in all
ence — apart from the copy experience of clean interiors
caps. Toronto, 2010.
writing and Bierut’s hand in and a subtle ingenuity in
the designs — is the type face. consumer goods.
It’s as if condensed faces
imply urgency, and regular
widths imply calmness, or as
Sharp suggests, “friendliness.”
One approach has a natural
009Photographs by Derek Shapton
2.
Note that the polity of
Of her sage points, two stand out. The first is that a typogra- Toronto was intentionally
phically-aware journalist, or media critic, might have seen Rob messed with as part of former
Ontario Premier Michael
Ford’s campaign for mayor of Toronto in 2010 as more sophis- Harris’s “Common Sense
ticated and more organized than it may have appeared on the Revolution,” which was none
of these things. The dense
surface, and would therefore not have regarded his subsequent City of Toronto was merged
win with shock. The second is that Ford was constantly pointing with its formerly autonomous
suburbs in 1998. A The
away from his deceptions, lies, and scandal to “a higher truth”. explanation was that this
This “truth” was Ford’s successful self-presentation as a work- would make the city more
efficient, but of course no
ing-class suburbanite, who shared the worries and aggravations savings were realized. The
of his neighbours, and honestly told it like it was — mixed into real motivation was to
gerrymander a conservative
the usual populist bullshit that only Ford could speak for the majority by lumping the
people, and that only he had solutions to the city’s challenges. politically right suburbs with
the politically left city centre.
The only part of this which was true was that Ford lived in Toron- This initially gave Toronto
to’s suburbs.2 So how could this “truth” have such purchase? Mayor Mel Lastman, and
latterly Rob Ford.
The outrage of the Riesling-sipping elites at Ford’s ignorance
and profanities only served to burnish his reputation, but in the
end those elites were correct: Ford imploded in 2013. Even the
Toronto Sun, a reliably right of right-wing newspaper, aban-
doned him, and Toronto City Council felt compelled to strip him of
his powers. Ford died in 2014, just before the next election.
The first point (typography) takes and builds on the second,
(“honesty”), and they intersect in Ford’s campaign materials. A. City of Toronto before 1998 in dark
tone. Amalgamated City of Toronto in
lighter tone. Map by SimonP. < https://
These leaned on condensed sans serifs, frequently (but not exclu- www.jacobinmag.com/2016/03/rob-
ford-toronto-canada-mayor-austerity/>
Accessed September 23, 2017.
sively) using Trade Gothic. But how did this binding of “honesty”
3.
to a particular typographic style happen? As Champagne showed,
there are strong parallels between Ford’s materials and the
business signs,3 telephone pole posters, and street flyers4 that
dominate the visual environment of Toronto’s suburbs. It’s import-
ant to note that the businesses in question are small: a painting
business with one pickup or a single-branch nail spa.
Some questions we might ask are:
i. What do the sign makers and jobbing printers who are using
this typographic language think they’re doing in adopting it? Business signs: “Immigration
And what did the designers working for Ford think they were Services”, “Law Office”,
“Driving School”, “Walk-In
doing? (My wife Lisa, an anthropologist and sociologist, asked Medical Centre”, “Randhawa
these.) Jewellery”, and “Yes! Educa-
tion”. Albion Road and
We sense they are reacting uncritically to their surroundings, Islington Avenue. Toronto,
but they can express their influences and attitudes, however 2016. Photo by Alex
Bozikovich.
vaguely — they might say, ‘this is a template, it’s cheap and will
sell well’ or a little closer, ‘this speaks the loudest,” or “it’s the 4.
strongest.’ On the Ford side of the equation, it’s worth nothing that
Richard Ciano, a highly experienced conservative political opera-
tive who also runs a market research firm, worked on Ford’s
campaign.
• The Rob Ford team on
the campaign trail.
Toronto, 2010.
Telephone pole posters and
flyers on the side of a news-
paper dispencer: “Power
Wash & Seal”, “Interlock
Decks Concrete”, and “TV Wall
Mounting”. Highway 7 and
Weston Road. Vaughan, just
north of Toronto, 2011. Photo
by Michèle Champagne.
010Words by Brian Morgan
5.
A cursory search suggests the
cover of the Toronto Sun, the
ii. How did this typographic language come to Toronto?
organ of the populist right in A search of the ads in a good newspaper morgue, or of street
Toronto, went from having a
conventional mess of news-
scenes showing storefronts in the CP or Toronto Star archive,
paper types in the 1970s, might yield some insights, in terms of dating.5 Were publications
when it started, to a style that
emphasized condensed sans
such as the Enquirer and the World Weekly News partially respon-
serifs, starting around 1980. sible? 6 And if so, the question is when would this jump have hap-
pened, and when did the positive linkage between these types of
media and a commercial message (power-washing decks, TV wall
mounting) emerge? Because this linkage could also flow the other
way: publications such as the Enquirer are effectively lying, con-
stantly, and that could have rubed off on people adopting their
visual language.
The Toronto Sun adopts its first
condensed gothic, 1980.
iii. Do the historical roots of this typographic language shed
any light on the rhetorical role it’s asked to play?
By rhetorical I mean that a typeface has tone (in the sense that
Beatrice Warde initiated7) or better provides elocutio (style, in a
purely rhetorical sense) to the words it sets. How are messages like
“authentic,” “the little guy,” and “honest,” reinforced (or under-
mined) by a typeface? I suspect that type and typography doesn’t
so much provide an ethos but a way of communicating ethos, in a
The Toronto Sun hates Rob Ford, 2013.
way analogous to the way that elocutio works in speech.8
Papers like the Toronto Daily
Bold faces are not just akin to speech, but speech with volume.
Star used all-cap Gothics Michael Twyman, pointed out that “bold-looking” styles, like fat face,
since the 1930s but have
used them for “streamers
first made their appearance in the 1820s in advertising, noting,
heads,” some even above the “the more printed matter there was around, the greater the load
paper’s nameplate, but
reserving them for the major
on the reader; the more critical an issue, the more important the
page-one story, or for really information was presented clearly; the more competitive the
big news (e.g. “Kennedy
Shot”).
markets, the more advertising had to shout its message.”9 In our
contemporary context it’s as if this shouting is equated with both
passion, importance, and the positive aspects of commercial
struggle — the merits of hard work, for example.10
II. Some cultural impediments to seeing
design issues as worthy of attention:
The Toronto Daily Star, 1930.
iv. One cultural issue is the lack of education and interest in
issues of design, on the part of journalists and media critics. Even
with the relative increase in the visibility of “design” in North
The Toronto Daily Star, 1963.
American culture,11 it carries more associations with fashion or
Stanley Morison complained
interior design than with method. In spite of the Dean of the best
of the “extreme Americanism” MBA program in the country championing design thinking,12 as
in London Daily Express’s use
of 36-point De Vinnie all-
A-B-Z-TXT participant Sam Dal Monte pointed out after
caps — in 1901.A
taken up extensive use of a species of a larger set of society, 15, 1; and of course
all-caps gothics was Look, problems identified by Gray’s excellent book, Gray, N.
which was pretty junky.C figures like Jacques Derrida, (1976) Nineteenth century
London Daily Express, September, 1901.
A. Morison, S. (1932). The English with regards to meaning.E Of ornamented types and title
newspaper, 1622–1932. Cambridge, UK:
It seems like a pretty tame Cambridge University Press, 305. course, that doesn’t mean we pages. London: Faber & Faber.
B. American Type Founders Company. (1923).
usage by the standards of the Specimen book and catalogue. Jersey shouldn’t try to pin some of
City, NJ: ATF, 459ff.
1940s Daily Mirror. C. Lebeck, R. (2001). Kiosk: Eine Geschichte these elements down. 10.
der Fotoreportage/A history of
photojournalism. Köln: Museum Ludwig/ D. Corbett, E.P.J. (1990). Classical rhetoric Weber, M. (2001/1930). The
Agfa Foto-Historama, and Göttingen: for the modern student, 3rd ed. New York:
Steidl Verlag, 194. Oxford University Press, 405. Protestant Ethic and Spirit of
E. Derrida, J. (1978). Writing and difference.
The National Enquirer, 1959. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Capitalism. London: Rout-
Press, 278–93. Charles Saunders Peirce
6. also touched on this with his notion of ledge, 105.
infinite semiosis. (A useful discussion of
Because of time constraints, 7. problems of reading the world, through
the lens of reading the actions of others,
Champagne left out a large Warde, B. (1956/1930). The can be found in Bell, C. (1992/2002). 11.
Ritual theory, ritual practice. Oxford, UK:
part of her research (into book, crystal goblet: sixteen Oxford University Press, ebook, ch. 4.) One can think, for example, of
The Daily Mirror adopts its first magazine, and newspaper essays on typography, edited the rise of Apple.
condensed gothic, 1980.
design, on- and off-line) from by Henry Jacob. Cleveland, 9.
The American Type Foundry the talk, but her work links the OH: World Publishing, 137. Twyman, M. (1993). “The bold 12.
offered a range of condensed “urgent” or “higher truth” idea: The use of bold-looking The Dean in question is Roger
gothics for newspaper work in meanings a condensed sans 8. types in the nineteenth Martin, of the University of
its 1923 catalogue,B and serif typeface can emit in the Rhetorics offer a useful lens century”. Journal of the Toronto’s Rotman School of
these seem to have been in context of British tabloids like for speaking about typogra- printing historical society, 22, Management. Martin, R.
full use in New York by the the National Enquirer. phy, they also contain a 111. A further genealogy of (2009). The Design of Busi-
1920s, particularly at the Post caveat, “There are a number bold-looking types can be ness: Why Design Thinking is
(of course the Times looks the of incalculable features of found in Gray, N. (1981). the Next Competitive Advan-
Times). Amongst the photo style about which we might “Slab-serif type design in tage. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
magazines, the first non-pro- never be able to secure England 1815–1845.” Journal University Press.
paganda magazine to have general agreement...” D This is of the printing historical
011Photographs by Derek Shapton
Champagne’s talk, design, in the Toronto media, is largely confined
to luxury marketing. This ghettoizes design as a species of fine art “It’s
(meaning elitist) or fashion (meaning vapid). Of course these read- as
ings are highly problematic. if
But what never gets talked about — except in the context of
spectacular design failures like the Florida butterfly ballot — for
is the quotidian work design does.13 When the city got new street- journalists,
cars did anyone interview the design team? When the city cooks design
up new “neighbourhood” identities, buys new street furniture, or
commissions new parking systems14 are the results reviewed? Are is
there essays about the subway ads, or the look of the city’s news- so
papers? And as we designers know, the everyday work design in
does is not trivial.15 Anyone who has traveled as an adult knows
that all of these things effect the character of a city. It’s as if for the
journalists, even some design journalists, design is so in the background
background of our lives as to be beneath notice; the sexy parts of
of the interface are all that’s worth paying attention to.
This is surprising because it’s like a vintner being indifferent to our
the barrels, the bottles, and the corks. The words a reporter writes, lives
or an editor commissions, have to be held by something — and as
that something invariably has a typographic form. And due to the
relentless cost-cutting that has been the norm at newspapers and to
magazines for the last 20 years, many editors design their own be
pages. Whether they use LayoutChamp or InDesign, they have beneath
become the paste-up department.
v. There’s a larger cultural factor here, too. Journalists work in notice;
a relentlessly Darwinian environment. Even in the glory days of the the
early 1900s most reporters were not paid well, but things are sexy
particularly bleak now.16 In this environment, what are journalists
rewarded for? Getting the facts right and connecting the dots for parts
one, and turning in clean prose for another. If they know what of
interests the public they get to keep their heads. And if they have the
an eye for human character, skill at painting a scene, and what the
Russian Formalists termed “narratology”, they will thrive. Theory interface
doesn’t come into it. are
I have been impressed with the courage, sagacity, and skill all
of the journalists I have worked with. But journalists are human,
and can be as “superficial, sensationalist, unfair, defensive or that’s
diverted by shiny objects” 17 as the rest of us. As a result, big-pic- worth
ture issues can be lost. Look at science and economic reporting. paying
And in political reporting, too, as the last American election showed.
In the case of typography, a negative feedback effect is at attention
work, where a lack of education (or self-education) leads to to.”
13. 14. 16. 17.
Within the concept of embed- A case of Father John Culkin’s Canada’s major newspaper Kristof, N. (2017, August 24).
ded cognition there’s the observation (misattributed to chain, CanWest, has under- “We’re Journalists, Mr. Trump,
notion that we offload Marshall McLuhan) that “We gone repeated rounds of Not the Enemy”. The New York
cognitive work onto our shape our tools and then our “asset stripping,” where the Times. < https://www.nytimes.
environment, and particularly tools shape us,”F or the effect owners “squeeze the goose” H com/2017/08/24/opinion/
our man-made one. In this of André Leroi-Gourhan’s without a view to long-term trump-journalists-enemy.html
sense, typography would fall “rideau d’objects” between business health. The paper is > Accessed August 24, 2017.
victim to this as well: we use them and the world.G then sold to a group who buy
the character of a layout or a F. Culkin, J.M. (1967, March 18). it with debt (which is tied to 18.
“Aschoolman’s guide to Marshall McLuhan”.
typeface as tags or short- Saturday Review, 51–53, 71–72. the paper). The goose is “Because you have spent little
G. Leroi-Gourhan, A. (1945/1973). Evolution
hands for cultural meanings, et techniques, no. 2: Milieu et techniques. squeezed again, the valuable or no time analyzing prose*
Paris: Éditions Albin Michel, Sciences
but they stay very much in the d’aujourd’hui, no. 2., ebook, ch. VIII, §. assets disposed, and the style ... you are almost
•
Économie technique.
background until we call on cycle renews as the paper is tongue-tied when asked to
The Rob Ford team
them. If this is correct, it sold again. CanWest has point out what it is you
15. manning the BBQ pits
makes sense that typography endured this three times. particularly admire about [a
Nelson, H.G. & Stolterman, E. during the campaign trail.
would be used to buttress and Market conditions are difficult, writer’s] style.” I *or in this
(2012.) The Design Way: Toronto, 2010.
transmit authority, as de- but this stripping has turned a case a design.
Intentional Change in an
signer Chris Lee pointed out in sector where the ROI was I. Corbett, op cit., 405.
Unpredictable World, 2nd ed.
his A-B-Z-TXT talk, since that 20-40% to one where it’s
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,
work in the background would 6-7%. “Never has an industry
ch. 1; Fry, T. (2012). Becoming
only serve to make the gone out of its way to chase
human by design. London:
exercise of power appear its customers away like the
Berg, ebook, preface; Bratton,
more “natural.” newspapers,” as one of my
B. H. (2016) The Stack: On
bosses used to say.
Software and Sovereignty.
H. Philip Meyer, 2009. The Vanishing
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, Newspaper: Saving Journalism in the
Information Age (2nd ed.). Columbia, MI:
ebook, introduction. University of Missouri Press, ebook, ch. 2.
012Words by Brian Morgan
19.
“From the perspective of
anthropology, we are not the
invisibility, because the journalists don’t have a vocabulary with
masters of our images, but which to speak about design issues with.18
rather in a sense at their
mercy; they colonize our
I don’t mean to let those journalists and critics off the hook.
bodies (our brains), so that But they ignore design just like they generally ignore the com-
even if it seems that we are in
charge of generating them,
plexities of useful or newsworthy fields like sociology or biology.
and even though society Although this is clearly due to the limitations of space, time, and
attempts unceasingly to
control them, it is in fact the
storytelling, one sometimes gets the feeling that Canadian jour-
images that are in control.” J nalists and critics (unlike the folks at WNYC’s On The Media or
J. Belting, Hans. (2001/2011).
An Anthropology of Images: Picture,
Medium, Body. Thomas Dunlap,
KALW public radio’s 99% Invisible) haven’t read Marshall McLu-
translator. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 9. han, much less Richard Ohmann, Alexander Galloway, or Benja-
20.
min H. Bratton. And they behave as if there aren’t any larger
Some arguments contra a structures to human social experience, other than (deontological)
solely associative under-
standing of typographic
ethical ones. Media criticism in particular, as it’s currently prac-
meaning: How is it that new ticed here, is a species of journalism, which presents a method-
uses for the same faces can
be found? And once found,
ological paradox.
how can they seize the
zeitgeist and “feel” right
aesthetically, such as Peter
Saville’s re-purposing of
Modernism in the late 70s?
III. In (§ii) the examples I’ve pointed to, to the
And, if associative meanings
be imposed, why do we then
tradesmen and the tabloid press, and the
need to put new typefaces in
circulation? Can’t we just
methods I tied them together, were associative.
re-purpose what we already
have? Like representations of
Christ changing over the
Perhaps this shows what a seductive explanation it is.
course of history,K in some But some larger points will open this up more, or at least point to
sense the design of a type-
face communicates some-
a place where structure might be found:
thing to us. The face of Christ vi. Because typefaces are in part visual objects, conversa-
changed because each
change accomplished a
tions about them are limited by the ability of critics to under-
purpose. The form change so stand, and critique, images. This is a less common ability than
that the message could.
Maybe every new, successful
one might hope, and when one swims in an ocean of words, like
typeface just presents a an editor does, it can be hard to see images as anything but
better adhesive to the cultural
world, but it’s hard to say that
slippery fish. Or, more commonly, to imagine that definitive, com-
there isn’t something within plete statements can be easily applied to them.19 Print, for all the
the face that limits and
inspires certain readings.L But
gifts it has given the world, might be one of the culprits here.
if so, what are these limits, Perhaps I am wrong, but I suspect that there are fundamental
and how are they established?
A thin, graceful gesture seems
difficulties in adequately explaining just how typefaces commu-
to imply something different nicate, and what they communicate. If the means by which
from a blocky gesture
(Chiswick Serif (Commercial)
“meaning” or “voice” is acquired by a given face are not ran-
vs FF Karbid (FontFont)). domly associative 20 (Helvetica is used by Coke,21 therefore Hel-
Affordance theory might
be useful here, but to map
vetica is corporate), then all sorts problems arise. They’re knotty
and establish the limits problems, but they’re good.
certain readings, while still
making room for the possibil-
Good because they reveal typefaces to be rich and interesting,
ity of genealogies of associa- to have as much going on inside of them as in their coronas.
tions. In 1979, J.J. Gibson
proposed that objects,
Typefaces are “difficult objects,” neither fish nor fowl. They carry
environment offer “affor-
dance” to certain actions by a
human, or an animal agent, to
provide a grounding for his
theory of vision.M Affordance
was later taken up by those
studying human–computer unobtrusively specifying what individuals. A Didot that The former sense represents Whatever John Baskerville
interactions (HCI) after the to do and where to do it.”P seems like the height of the possibilities afforded us, or Zuzana Licko might have
term was adapted, and its There is a useful path be- authority in one context might and the latter the shifting been thinking when they’re
scope narrowed, by Donald tween these two notions that seem like pomposity in cultural frame within which working on a given set of
Norman in 1988. For Gibson, parses the complexities of another. A parallel might be we can read those cues. punches or computer type-
affordances are the opportu- typographic tone. made with clothes: at one While Norman treats a faces, the world that they will
nities (and dangers) the A typeface, and its use in a moment Lavoisier’s silk well-designed door as one release their work into will
environment and objects layout, is a much more culottes give him authority, which specifies, through create new and varied
present for action, something complex cultural object than and at another they damn him design “what to do and where meanings. In a strong sense
that, “implies the comple- a panic bar, but in a similar to execution. The breeches to do it,” this specification these will be limited by the
mentarity of the animal and manner, the face offers haven’t changed, but have has an inescapable cultural forms that Baskerville and
the environment.”N A shelf at readers a set of possibilities, the affordances? In the dimension. An adult from 21st Licko make. This is not strictly
the right height could be a outside its function as a Gibsonian sense they have century Western Europe will deterministic. Shakespeare’s
seat, or “[a]n elongated carrier of meaning. A typeface not, since silk culottes will have different reaction to Hamlet will never be about
object, especially if weighted presents clues about how a never be good to wear when what the door is communicat- spawning salmon, nor the
at one end and graspable at text is to be treated: Is what one is building a stone wall. ing than will an adult from the Noh play Dōjōji about solar
the other, affords hammer- you are reading an academic The space between the highlands of pre-contact neutrino flux, but both involve
ing.” O For Norman, affor- text, a novel, or a set of two definitions, that of Papua New Guinea. What you spirits (Hamlet’s father and
dances offer clues and limits instructions? Typefaces allow Gibson, which stresses the see here is the giggle Kiyohime): there will never be
to use. Speaking of the panic certain readings. opportunity to the user between the various types of an end to possible readings,
bars on fire doors, Norman Reading is intensely — and opportunities can be relative affordance (Norman), but there are limits.
observed that, “The best push cultural. The context in which missed, can be misleading which sit on top of an K. Bacci, M. (2014). The many faces of Christ:
Portraying the holy in the East and West,
bars offer both visible reading — the reading of — and that Norman, which absolute affordance (Gibson). 300 To 1300. Islington, UK: Reaktion Books.
L. The formation, maintenance, and change
affordances that act as forms — takes place is stresses the limits that an There is space, possibly even of social meaning like this is of course
tied to the organization and regulation
physical constraints on the subject to change, both object can place on possible generative space, for ingenu- of social practices (Hall, S. 1997).
“Introduction.” Representation: Cultural
action, and also a visible between ages, regions, and readings, offers us a tool for ity, but also, of course, Representations and Signifying Practices.
London, UK: Sage, 3.), but at this level
signifier, thereby cultures, but also between handling cultural complexity. misunderstanding. it almost seems too crude. What would
013Photographs by Derek Shapton
from have useful connotations
meaning from the substrate to the brain, but they aren’t the text or does Rudolph Koch’s Kabel
itself. They are sculpted forms (to use the engravers’ term), and in (Critton’s inspiration) have
good associations right now
this sense visual objects, but also linguistic ones. In both cases (history, historical memory)?
the values assigned to them seem entirely arbitrary, in the semi-
otic sense.22 And yet they can gently put English on a text.23 How
can they do this?
vii. Their difficulties go one step deeper, as reading is a wildly
strange beast.24 We didn’t evolve to convert squiggles into words
(like mudskippers evolving to breathe air), we built a clever sys-
tem that is essentially parasitic. If the neurologist Mark Changizi is Benjamin Critton, Raisonné (Colophon,
2010)
right, writing, and by extension typefaces, take advantage of
our ability to analyze the position of objects based on edge
detection 25 (something we are hard-wired for).26 Like synesthesia’s
joining of music and colour, reading joins two regions are not
necessarily related, akin to a rupture or tunnel under one of
Deleuze’s folds.27
Another step: If a given font is legible, the design features are Rudolph Koch, Kabel (Klingspor, 1927)
stripped away by the brain when reading.28 We really do get to the Or do the overtly mechanical
means that Raisonné is made
“crystal goblet” 29 moment, but it happens over a wider range with suggest experimentation
of circumstances than perhaps Warde thought. At the same time, (psychology, art history)? In
which case, does this type of
no text can exist independent of its typographic (or manual) car- experimentation make people
rier and the shapes of a glyph do effect our judgement.30 think of the Bauhaus (psy-
chology, historical memory)?
viii. We as designers know this, but it’s hard to explain to Does that imply a yearning for
journalists (and clients), because it’s bound up in all the implicit Utopian future, a moment
when the left was ascendant,
knowledge we gain through practice. Like a longtime cab driver or a feeling of intra-war
whose peripheral vision and reactions are particularly well-de- confusion (politics)? T And
those are just a few random
veloped, we, as typographically-aware designers, know a lot, and associations, which might be
feel a lot, but underestimate the complexity of the internalized standing proxy for something
else, some more elemental
calculations we make.31 discussion about the way that
And design and typography may be more complex than form evokes emotion. There
are also all of the familiar
perhaps we think. Like cooking a five-course meal, a lot of com- technical concerns about how
plex things — such as biochemistry and cultural forms — are tightly the side-bearings are
set, how well-kerned the face
glossed over by craftlore. We undergo a lot of training to acquire is, or how much whitespace it
our craftlore, but to help our journalist sisters and brothers we might need. And there is of
course a whole other level of
would have to pass on the assumptions behind this knowledge, as calculation, having to do with
well as the knowledge itself. Because exposing the assumptions paying for type.
allows for their grounds to be questioned — and built upon when S. Latour, B. (1993/1991). We have never
been modern. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, p.4. The designer in
these prove sound. Which is not to say journalists and critics this sense resembles Michel Callon’s
engineer-sociologists in: Callon, M.
(2012/1987). “Society in the making:
— or ourselves — shouldn’t try,32 but maybe we shouldn’t be The study of technology as a tool
•
for sociological analysis.” The social
construction of technological systems,
surprised when they (and we) don’t. Wiebe E. Bijker, et al, editors. Cambridge,
MA: MIT press, 2012. It could be argued
that the journalists and editors are doing
this sort of multi-level analysis, too, in
their search for the perfect story.
T. Or maybe Raisonné means something
else? Many of the faces of inter-war
German foundries seem to aspire to a
union of classical grace and modern
efficiency, with an emphasis on the former.
If Critton says that Raisonné was inspired
by Koch, we can just move from Kabel to
Koch-Antiqua to see this. A face like that
is a compromise with Capitalism. Like
the neoclassical courthouses and banks
that dot the North American landscape, it
summons an impossible position between
Classically-clad aristocratic Greeks
listening to a lyre player, and a well-oiled
machine turning out shell casings. We’ve
grown inured to this visual language, but
maybe it’s a compromise that needs to be
called. Maybe Raisonné’s seeming naïveté
23. 26. 29. is a strategy to jab the lyre player in the
eyes?
the difference between ITC Baskerville
italic and Simoncini Garamond italic
Errol Morris on the impact of Changizi, M. (2009). The Warde, B. (1956/1930). Op.
“regulate”? We have, in an instance like Baskerville on readers’ trust. vision revolution: How the cit., 11.
this, something akin to the Wilson Cloud 32.
Chamber, where something fundamental Morris, E. (2012, August 12). latest research overturns
can be seen though a sensitive apparatus. In this context, it’s worthwhile
M. Gibson, J.J. (1986/1979). The Ecological “Hear, All Ye People; Hearken, everything we thought we 30.
Approach to Visual Perception. Hove, UK: asking four sets of basic
Psychology Press, ebook, ch.8. O Earth (Part 1)”. The New knew about human vision. Morris, E. (2012, August 12).
N. Norman, D. (2013). The design of everyday questions about a typeface: 1.
things, revised and expanded edition. New York Times. < https://opinion- Dallas, TX: BenBella Books, Op. cit.
York: Basic Books, ebook, ch. 4, “Applying Expression: how the font is
affordances, signifiers, and constraints to ator.blogs.nytimes. 163–209. Changizi suggests
everyday objects.” printed or displayed (on a
O. Gibson, J.J. (1986/1979). Op. cit. com/2012/08/08/hear-all- that the logic of glyphs is 31.
P. Norman, D. (2013). Op. cit. substrate). 2. Construction:
ye-people-hearken-o- related to the way that we see Say we are considering a
how the font is put together.
earth/?mcubz=0 > Accessed objects and their edges. geometric sans serif. It’s a bit
21. 3. Reference: how the drawing
August 24, 2017. older (2010), but let’s use
Quote from designer Michael and metrics (or the punches
27. Benjamin Critton’s Raisonné
Bierut in the fim Helvetica.q and justification) relate to a
24. Deleuze, G. (1988). Foucault. (Colophon). When we think of
Q. Hustwit, G. (Producer & Director). visual logic either within or
Helvetica. UK: Veer & Swiss Dots. Dehaene, S. (2009). Reading Minneapolis, MN: University of a face we ask ourselves all
external to the font. 4.
in the Brain: The New Minnesota Press, 109. sorts of questions we don’t
Memory: in Peircian terms the
22. Science of How We Read. necessarily verbalize, ques-
dynamic interpretant and the
Arbitrary both in the sense of New York: Penguin. 28. tions that pull in, like a
final interpretant.
Saussure’s and Peirce’s Dehaene, S. (2009). Op. cit.. species of Actor–Network
semiotics; the latter’s more 25. Theory,S all sort of non-typo-
precise term would say a Marr, D. (2010). Vision: A graphic questions. How do
legisign or better still a computational investigation people feel about geometrics
sinsign, but with more than into the human representa- now (mass psychology,
one legisign ‘above’ them, tion and processing of visual anthropology)? Are they
governing their meaning.R information. Cambridge, MA: starting to feel like tiny
R. Jappy, T. (2013). Introduction to Peircean MIT Press. succulents in faceted white
Visual Semiotics. London, UK: Bloomsbury
Academic, 30–31, 67–69 pots (marketing, fashion)?
Does the age that a face came
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