Using a bitmap grid I was given a quick fire series of letters to translate in my own style. The phrase “Hamberg font siv” is a printing term that is used because “It contains all essential forms in a Latin alphabet” making it easy to get a sense of the whole type face.
After sticking the results on the wall I quickly realised nobody considered, baselines. All the fonts were sans-serif as well. After this revelation we went back to work trying to push out more experimental letter forms and seeing the effect of this knowledge.
After putting them back onto the wall, we had one final stage of pushing type. I began to work with experimental letter forms. I took the word “illuminated” from the text, which jumped out at me. I was working with combining the individual letter forms into one combine typographic structure. I began to push my letter forms to see how far they could go whilst maintaining legibility. At the time the research from last night was in the back of my mind. I had previously looked at the original pamphlets of Kant’s works and other such publications at the time.
I’d also thought about Gutenberg’s revolutionary technology within typography – his invention of the letterpress and the hand drawn Gothic fonts that he sought to replace with his invention. I found it interesting how he copied the monks styles within his letter tiles. I found the standardisation involved in his machine a thought provoking concept. It initially liberated typography as something could now be so easily produced (and reproduced) but the letters were restricted by this physicality and had to be made in a certain way to adhere to heights and sizing.
(mine is the top) these experiments help to push and question what a letter is, and how far can it go whilst still being read as a letter. I’m beginning to pick up some of the Gothic style typography, also known as “Black Letter”. It’s interesting thinking about details in fonts and typefaces which give them a distinct feeling and styling. The Gothic type faces often had some ornateness to them, the serifs were extended, the line weight fluctuating from thick to thin, due also to the tools used in hand drawn lettering.
This exercise helped me formulate a basis for my idea. I loved the history of Gutenberg’s letterpress. In order to convince monks that his invention should be used, Gutenberg made iterations of each character, with slightly different details. He did this to replicate the handwritten individuality the monks had in their writings. This idea of an engineered individuality through font stuck with me. In response, I want to create a font in which I can engineer individuality within characters. I thought about creating a font from which I could set Kant’s text in. I wanted to have a way to engineer, randomness, different styles and human and printing error. In the digital age we are used to clean, pixel perfect, san serif fonts. I want to celebrate the character of the hand crafted in a digital format and whilst we were advised not to draw too much from the content of the text, I think it neatly fits into Kant’s views on the individual or perhaps diverts further into “immaturity”, either way there is a convenient engagement. We talked about parallax scrolling, often used by apple, where elements change and move as you scroll up and down and are semi animated, being controlled by you. This gives the opportunity for change and fluidity. I also related it to something being worn down over time. When I first began thinking about ideas I was drawn to typography in the urban landscape. Scrolling is like a journey in a sense. I thought about how yellow lines and other markings on the street become marked and scuffed and I was reminded of this artist who took a picture of all the bike lane marking graphics and animated them. I will need to find the name of the artist again, I think Steven Sagmeister highlighted the work on his instagram, but it might of since been removed.
I began developing this idea. The “Enlightened Text Generator” would be a web page where you could input text and it would be translated into my type face as well as having a series of randomised coded individual features and characteristics to it – “randomly engineered individuality”. It would invoke the errors of the printing press and celebrate the individuality of the words and letters. Type becomes humanised and part of the human condition. I related this back to the permanence of print – I’d make it so you’d have the freedom to print your text or copy it and do something with it. but after each new randomised generated text the conditions become randomised again and so you wouldn’t see the same character again, it is lost. I’m beginning to reinforce this idea with artist research. As I only have a short time on this project and won’t be able to go into the technicalities of coding, I could mock up and create some examples of the font.
I found this “creative coder” particularly influential, he’s opened my eyes to the possiblites of what type can do in the digital space.
Cameron Aitken Graphic Design 