Several years ago a documentary called Helvetica made the rounds through indie cinemas, film festivals, etc. If "Helvetica" sounds familiar, that's because it's one of the most prevelant fonts (or typefaces) in use today. Look around wherever you go today; I bet you'll see some Helvetica.
Anyway, in the film, Modernist designer Wim Crouwel says that Helvetica is "the most neutral typeface."
He says that he loved using the typeface because "it was a little more 'machines'," suggesting perhaps that the neutrality of the font allowed for accompanying images to really draw attention rather than the text itself.
Meaning (and semantics, for our class' discussions of language) often depends to some extent on context. Situation, audience, etc. often influence the meaning of a "text," regardless of an author's intention. But typefaces often carry with them a sort of visual semantics, a sense of emotion perhaps that helps create that context. That's one reason that we have to be very, very careful not only deciding what words we use to convey meaning, but also with what our presentation (text, images, whatever) might also "say" to an audience.
While on the topic of typeface, you might also check out this awesome video featuring European Design Hall of Famer (no, I'm not kidding) Eric Spiekermann. That opening song is about to become my iPod's "Most Played."
When designing a piece we have to take into consideration not only the words, colors, and graphics, but also the fonts used. A font or type face provides meanings to the reader.
ReplyDeleteA font can be “YELLING” at you or it can be “Romancing*” you. In other words, a font can have a personality or rather a perceive personality to the audience.
As writers we have to take in consideration the written text and the design of the letters, both need to be in conjunction. Technical manuals, romantic letters, and professional documents have different expectations in terms of the design. Not following the expectations can confused the reader or even worse, lose the attention of the reader and stop reading.
* I used a "romantic" font but the blog is not allowing me to copy and paste here.