type iv:: baskerville liquid video

siphoning off the extra ink.


I began this project considering:

1.) How can hand rendered typography be affected by the surface(s) it exists on?
2.) How can it be controlled via the medium used?
3.) "             " transcend the page?
4.) "             "  reflect the designer's unique process?
5.) "             "  have a limited lifespan?

type iv - explorations

typeiv - hand rendered type objectives

questions:

• how can hand rendered typography be temporary?
• what happens when you apply it to a grid system?
• how can it raise environmental awareness?
  

through the study of different examples of hand-rendered typography, I chose to study in particular liquid typography. I was particularly inspired after looking at works/exhibits such as "Typotonic", from a German studio. Water/liquids are a free-form substance. So what happens when you apply it to a gridded system? But the selected medium here is in itself quite temporary - which addresses one of my aforementioned questions.

secondly, i am interested in the numerous ad campaigns around which seek to raise one's awareness of the situation our environment is in. these are almost always predominantly image-focused. which leads me to my third question: how can it raise environmental awareness? namely, how could hand generated typography be just as impactful as an image?

How can hand rendered typography...

1. bring depth to print?
2. have more legibility than digital typefaces?
3. reflect rhetorical devices?
4. extend the letterform?
5. reflect an artist's unique process?
6. have a limited lifespan?
7. transcend the page?
8. raise awareness of environmental issues?

hand rendered typography

Is handmade the new modern? I sure hope so.

The increasingly digital sphere we inhabit is filled with ever-increasing amounts of computer-generated graphics and typography - but hopefully, there are artists whom still don't mind working a bit harder when it comes to letterforms. After going through various blogs and design websites, I encountered numerous examples of hand rendered typography in today's graphic landscape. There's definitely a certain aesthetic to these handmade artifacts - something that can't always necessarily duplicated through digital means. But that doesn't mean we can't combine the digital with the more tactile qualities of handmade elements. Hand rendered type is fairly ubiquitous, and can be found in numerous places; whether it be posters, cd covers, album art, websites, titles, etc. Some of the artists I have found working in this field include Stefan Sagmeister, Ray Fenwick, Mike Perry (author of "Hand Job: a catalog of type."), Hjarta Smarta (did some works with sewn type), and Peter Blake.

Among Sagmeister's work, I was particularly attracted to his recent environmental "Urban Play" piece, which featured type which was made from thousands of euro pennies. While he could have easily made this on the computer, it puts itself onto a new level by being hand-rendered.

Whether or not the audiences we design for realize it, typography conveys mood, information, style, etc. While much of this can be conveyed through digital works, there are definitely numerous nuances that the handmade keeps in itself. Hand-drawn work is entirely shaped by their artist's unique process - tempered by things such as accidents, line, color or craft.

Wurman - POV reading

question: How did this reading effect your view point on the project readings?

One of the first things that Wurman's reading called to mind was the concept of selective incorporation in my high school politics class. We all have our own set of biases in regards to what we see and understand. Perhaps this is our own way of outlining information in our minds, just as we outline text with bullet points and numbers in a word processor.

That being said, we place emphasis on the points in a story that we feel is important; but that in itself can be a very subjective process.

As far as effecting my point of view on the project readings - I looked over my outlines again, this time analyzing what I thought was important. If Vignelli or McCoy were to make outlines of these, would they have emphasized the same points and quotes?