Reaching the public through type

Over recent years, and with the growth of typography as a discipline for communication, type has been used more and more as a 'stand-alone' way to send messages to the public. Words, it seems, can just as much impact, and in some cases an even greater impact, than the use of images in order to make a message reach the public. Type can be used to make bold statements in a clear-cut manner; getting straight to the point, something which images cannot always do in such a way.

The contemporary American artist, Jenny Holzer, uses typography in sites of public display to convey messages to a wide audience. In some of her early work, she used projections of text on large-scale buildings; with words from various poets, or some of her own work. These texts often had deep meaning to the artist, and aimed to make the reader think about the text. Her statements were often controversial and/or daring in some cases - which, in my opinion, is highlighted by her sole use of type standing alone as the display. Her later works involve the use of LED light displays, which adds a contemporary feel to the work, yet still allows the text to say everything it needs to.

This use of typography to reach a large audience demonstrates the power of words and type, and the impact it can have when applied correctly. Many advertising campaigns also focus on the sole use of type; as it is often a more powerful way of conveying a message; 'to-the-point' and harsher when it needs to be.

Paul Elliman - a world of typography

If you look carefully, you can find letterforms in everyday objects and environments. This is the approach that the typographer, Paul Elliman, took when designing his font entitled "Bits" (an ongoing piece of work). This 'font' is made up from a collection of simple, everyday items that Elliman sees as representing different letterforms by their shapes. It's an original take on typography, and emphasises the idea that it's everywhere, all around us, and affects everyone in one way or another. Communication is fundamental in human civilization and societies - and the symbols we use to communicate can be found everywhere.

Another example of Elliman's work that conveys this same concept of human relationship with language and type is his font 'Alphabet'; which involved him asking 26 friends to 'act out' a certain letter of the alphabet, using their bodies and within the limitations of the passport photobooth they were in. It's interesting to see how different people responded to these instructions, and how they interpreted their designated letter - showing how individuals' relationships with the alphabet differ greatly.

Start at the very beginning....

Typography; something that, in all honesty, I currently know very little about! Letters, words, and fonts are probably a few of the first, obvious words that spring to mind - but as a 'budding' graphic designer, I'm more interested in the underlying functions of typography within design.

As a starting point for my initial research into the typographic world, I decided to approach the all-knowing Google to see what it came up with. I found a lot more than I expected (considering that it's not a particularly widely-known discipline outside the field of design); ranging from the history of type, the creations of thousands of typefaces, uses of typography....and the list goes on!

http://ilovetypography.com/ is one of the first pages that Google produces on entering the search term "typography". This is a blog covering - what appears to be - ALL aspects of typography; and it combines both objective information about certain aspects, as well as a subjective viewpoint too. At this point in time, I am unsure as to which elements of typography capture my interest the most, and so I will continue my research on a wider-scale for the time being....