Ch. 1, 3, & 6 Reflection

The Evolution of Typography

It was strange to think that writing was invented 5,000 years ago. Relatively speaking, 5,000 years is not that long considering how long humans have been alive. In several thousand years, writing has evolved dramatically, but it was interesting to see some repeated themes through the years. Roman rustic writing  from 100-600 (figure 16) resembles the condensed embellished typefaces from the 1890s (figure 115). It was helpful that the timeline included historical events to give the evolution of type a context. It was very clear that, for example, World War I launched the Dada movement, which protested conventional art and the war.

Syntax and Communication

Figure 15, the staggered dialogue between a store owner and customer caught my attention right away. I thought that it was a very creative way to communicate a conversation only by manipulating line spacing and intervals. Though the conversation is written on a page, it came to life because of its design and I could even imagine different voices for the two characters.

The Typographic Message

I've seen a lot of "type as image" in advertising lately, and when done well I think it is extremely effective. It not only communicates a message through letter combinations, but through other visual meanings. For example, this is a poster that I saw recently and has stayed in the back of my head because of its simplicity and effectiveness. I think that if a second visual element adds to the typographic message, then it should absolutely be used. However, if more meanings are added only for the sake of "complexity," then the message may not be as effective. Ultimately, typography meant to communicate a message should be easy to understand, and that might be made difficult with too many added elements.