Web Research

Leah Maldonado’s expressionist Glyphworld maps typefaces to landscapes and emotions

https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/leah-maldonado-glyphworld-graphic-design-251119

• "The idea that the shapes of a typeface can be associated with feelings, objects and artistic movements is certainly not new. But as a major component in communicating ideas and information, their expressionist possibilities often take a back seat to legibility. Among the few graphic designers to flip this hierarchy is Leah Maldonado,"

The role of a type designer/designer - hierarchy - role of the graphic designer

• " “Legibility isn’t always a goal, use cases don’t really matter and monetary return doesn’t dictate design choices,” she adds, talking about the movement that she calls expressionist type design. " 

Post-modernist views - view that legibility isn't most important

• “These choices are like a slang, like a language that’s just easier to speak,” she says.

Idea that expressive/bespoke type design is like slang - understanding of it can change/ it might not be understood OR that it's easier to speak - easier for a designer?

• "Letters can elicit emotional responses independent of their message."
• "Airland, the first, is meant to be an invisible typeface, combining system default fonts whose existence as a letterform goes unnoticed. "
• the regal and dry Desert was informed by uncial calligraphy and Wasteland is “based on finding plastic or man-made objects in nature spaces”, created to be the least legible font.

Pushing the boundaries of type design/rules on purpose. Legibility and illegibility can be used to communicate a story. Using type design in place of image or text as it becomes the message.

“Expressionism but in typography”: Kenneth Vanoverbeke on his recent experiments

https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/kenneth-vanoverbeke-baskylisk-graphic-design-typography-231118

•  Titled Basylisk, that typeface has now materialised, stating Kenneth’s intentions to explore type design in a speculative, yet considered way.

Practical? - Using type design as an investigative tool 

• “The type always starts from a base font and is modified into something else. Sort of like expressionism but in typography and not painting,” he adds.

Described as expressionism again - Research this movement*

• In order to channel Doré, he began by drawing the typeface’s “A”. A geometric shape, it features a vertical right stem, and a curved left stem which thins near its base. It was from this shape that all the other letters emerged, in an exercise of designing with restrictions, and to precise stylistic guidelines.  “I used that shape to represent the uniqueness that romantic art wanted and wants to be,” Kenneth tells It’s Nice That

Describing how expressionist type can represent the story/inspiration/message and how it still has rules.

•  “We don’t see this very much in contemporary design but typography can be so much more than a letter on a page meant to be read. I want typography to be a form of art – abstract shapes inspired by the image that is next to them.”

Though gothic typeface FH Fraktur may not be legible, it certainly is fun

https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/fatih-hardal-fh-fraktur-graphic-design-220119

The geometric letterforms are highly influenced by old architectural structures, drawing upon its “strong and elegant” characteristics that form the foundations of a successful building; which are similar to constructing a successful typeface.

• “I wanted to create a modern character, inspired by the writings of the past,” Hardal tells It’s Nice That. “When the letters come together, they form a strong structure and the connected tails protect the whole letterform.” Though FH Fraktur is hardly functional with its challenging readability, it is nonetheless a rather beautiful alphabet. Its letterforms seemingly tessellate together to create a larger, architectural composition that could just as well be a repeating textiles pattern as much as a typeface.

Even without being able to read, the use of the font will suggest its meaning/story - its architectural and goth inspirations. However how understood this message is is dependant on the reader as with image.

• He describes the historic and calligraphic hand of Fraktur as “compatible with Helvetica” 

The story behind a typeface as standardised and default as Helvetica is being compared to to this expressive type due to its process.

• arguing that these often make a lasting impression through form over function. 

Form over function

• Despite his proclivity for conceptual type design, the tradition of the medium is not lost of Hardal. When asked about any plans to create something more legible, he reveals that his ultimate goal is to design a typeface to be used across Turkey’s signposts nationwide, which will hopefully take the form of some sort of sans serif.

Hardal is aware that his expressive typefaces cannot take as large of a function in communicating as a standardised or legible font would.