Project 1: The visual word

Typography uses both written and visual languages, which makes it such a powerful tool for
graphic designers. It creates meaning by presenting us with words that we can read and
understand the meaning of, and by being able to make typography bigger, smaller, more
ornate, colourful or elaborate we can also read it visually. Typography speaks to us in two
fundamentally different but connected ways, allowing us to create double meanings, literal
meanings and subtle meanings.

In the example above the typography has been presented as a solid object in a landscape
with a physical presence that is creating shadows and a sense of perspective that stretches
off into the distance. A visual reading of this might suggest its solidness, its realness for
being in the world and its scale; all of which would be positive messages for a savings bank.

Typography can be used to reinforce or direct the written meaning of a word by adding visual elements. If somebody says the word ‘dog’ we will probably all visualise a different type of dog depending on what sort of dogs we like or can instantly recall. If, however, the word dog is written or printed we can be influenced by the font in which it is set to visualise a more specific dog. For example a script font might suggest an elegant dog, a large block font a big dog or perhaps a mongrel if more that one typeface has been used.

Experimentation with typography is a relatively modern phenomenon although Aldus Manutius who was working in Venice in 1508 produced the title page of the Adages of Erasmus, a collection of proverbs and sayings from classical Greek and Latin authors to create a visual sense of its content.

Exercise: Playing with words

Using the following words create typographical representations that present both the
word and a suggestion of its meaning:

• Sad
• Safe
• Sardonic
• Saucy
• Scholarly
• Serious
• Shadow
• Shattered
• Shy
• Short
• Silly
• Sinking
• Skimpy
• Sleek
• Smart
• Snowy
• Sodden
• Soothing
• Sordid
• Sophisticated
• Speed
• Squat
• Squeeze
• Stiff
• Stodgy
• Stoned
• Style
• Supine
• Swagger
• Sweet

Start this exercise by working on A4 sheets of paper. Set the words in 48pt Helvetica
Bold, print and cut out the words and then arrange them and stick them to a sheet of
paper trying to capture the meaning of the word visually. Think about the composition,
using the white space of the page to help you construct your meanings.

Then work digitally using any of the software you have available. Explore how you can
set text at a slant, at different sizes, in different colours and fonts. Try using filters in your
software for other effects.

Make notes as you work explaining your choice of representations and which ones you
feel that you were most successful with.

Exercise Response

Cut-outs

Oops! Misspelt Scholarly…

Besides that, I found this exercise to be fun, as much as it was fiddly, and feel that my typographical representations fit well with, and relate to the intended meaning of each word.

Below are the digital versions.

Designs

Summary

Overall, the exercise was fun and useful in the sense that it was good to try a new way of building ideas with paper and developing them further in the software. It gets you thinking more in depth about positioning, size, colour and so on.

My personal favourites and those I believe were most successful are:

Shattered – This was definitely the most time consuming, but an effect I had wanted to try previously, so it was great to be able to incorporate this in to some study. I feel it represents it’s meaning well, as ‘shattered glass’ would be something most people would consider first, and was my first thought when working with paper. I could have taken a different route by using the word ‘shattered’ to represent the ‘tired’ meaning, however I felt that the route I chose has clearer meaning. I did this by cutting the word out of an image of broken glass, cutting pieces out of the cracks of the glass until I was left with a fully dissected word, that could then be arranged in a scattered position to imply shattered glass.

Sinking – I chose to display all of my typographic representations as tiles, just so they would look uniform-ish. I have added an ocean to this which I do feel has contributed to the success of the overall image, but I feel that even without it, it is still the best way to imply it is sinking. To make the letters fall more gradually, I slanted the letters backwards, as well as moved their position as if each letter is falling from the last.

Silly – I really don’t like this representation in terms of it’s style, that said, it does represent ‘silly’ well. With it’s bright and fun colours, and cartoon / children’s style font. It achieves what it needs to achieve.

Stoned – This is my favourite! I loved how the paper version looked so I was keen to keep it that way. The ‘d’ looks to have fallen off it’s chair, and the blur implies how you’d feel if you were stoned. It’s simple, but it works.

Sodden – Well, this was an easy one. It just needed to look wet! I’d already gone for highlights for the ‘saucy’ representation and wanted to try a more simple approach to something ‘wet’. The font is actually a horror font but I thought it would work well in a blue colour. When I think of sodden, I think about getting wet in the rain. In addition to that, I get that the background / tile has nothing to do with the exercise itself, but I love the colour combination regardless.

Shadow – An obvious effect / approach to this word, but it’s one of the most successful for me because it achieves what it needs to, and because I like the positioning.