- Typography helps the reader to navigate their way around a piece of text, it helps them to avoid reading by skimming the text and skipping to the information that they are looking for.
- Before print text was handwritten which meant that there were errors. Print meant that the text was finished and was unable to be edited by the reader; it meant the closure of the work making it a finished product. However online texts are downloadable, meaning the reader can now edit it, resulting in the typographer losing power over how the text is interpreted.
- Language, when it is spoken has a continuous flow with no audible gaps. In type spacing and punctuation is crucial to translate speech.
- Typography, acting as 'the crystal goblet' assumes the content of the text itself and changes it with each act of representation, being a mode of interpretation having huge power over the text. This means that how the text is used and presented is more important than what it means.
- 'We may play the text, but it is also playing us'- meaning that however we try and interpret the text, type and layout plays a massive role in how it is read.
- Typography, when made evident and ignoring the rules of 'the crystal goblet' illuminates the construction and identity of a page. When you can consciously see the rules and conventions of typography being broken it makes the reader realise the importance of them, and how much they influence the way we perceive a piece of text.
- Text on screen has allowed typography to rise up out of the ashes. Computer display is more hospitable to text than film or television because of its physical proximity user control. Screen based text allows the reader to jump to other pages through links, skimming through information quickly and to download text, making it possible for them to edit it themselves.
These images by David Carson are key examples of deconstructionist graphic design. In the first image different fonts are used, even within one single header and the text is fragmented and seems to be thrown carelessly across the page. This makes it harder to read and takes more time to interpret what the text says. I think that there are two reactions when viewing a piece of graphic design like this, you either embrace it or dismiss it. Either way it is powerful in the way that it brings to light how the rules and conventions of typography influence how we read a spread. Although it is hard to read and may take some time, it is legible, so it doesn't necessarily make it 'bad' graphic design.
I particularly like the quote in the second image, 'Don't mistake legibility for communication'.This quote is emphasised by the scattered type surrounding it, which is ultimately illegible. What I think Carson is trying to communicate with this image is that just because text is legible or readable in the typical sense, doesn't mean that it is communicating to the reader in its full power. It is easy to block text off, following typical rules of layout, but is it communicating to the reader in its full potential, or just manipulating them to perceive the text in a certain way?
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