experimental type reading

1.) Bil'ak's Experimental Typography. Whatever that means took the initiative to separate experiment and typography. He reflects on how the crucial the designer's process is and how our experimenting belongs is different that what a scientists would call an experiment. Process verses the end result, is it fair to ask what is more important?

A scientist comes up with an idea, researches, evaluates and creates a question: thus hypothesis. When testing the question there are variables that impact the experiment. Designer's make a similar occurrence of events. First there is an audience that we research, and base our concepts around. Then we brainstorm ways to communicate in a visual way. Our variables are the aesthetic qualities.

One particular thought I had while reading was our resources, as people and designers. Bil'ak's discusses the alphabet and its progression into simplified letters, and optical corrections made to give clearance to the typeface. Even as children we are structured to be centered by letterforms, they help us engage in the world. Just like a child, when taking Typography I we learn the "basics" of examples: letterforms/ grids/ hierarchy. From this time we are constantly experimenting with how type works with a composition. Learning what does work and what does not.

However in "experimental type" Bil'ak implies that there should not be a preconceived notion of what the end result is. Experimenting Type should be a "method of working" with a production. When completing the experiments, I hope to keep this in mind. That is to be in the middle, with a narrowed approach, but producing a vast amount of things. Not for a quantity sake, but to be more engaged than contemplating what the solution should be.

2.) Reading the Radical Type chapter on experimental typography Triggs makes some really unique points. He discusses how the process to experimenting with type, is one of the most important values. As time has gone on, we understand the value of process, to see our work grow. With this project the process will be a little different because it is undetermined what the "final" result will be.

"Type design is not only about the way in which the individual letterforms are constructed, it also involves the systematic application"

I thought this quote was really interesting, because it introduces the idea of taking a direction to go with, and pulls away from the design standard letterforms. With our experiments we can take a direction to go with and from those questions, and ideas construct the letterforms; and focuses less on the medium were using. This allows the process to really expand.

"Also about exploring the arrangement of type"

This was a really interesting point to me, because with first thinking about experimental type my thought was hand made letterforms. It is another concept to question what the relationship of word/letterform is to the space around it.

Triggs also discusses the Times New Roman and how that was meant to push boundaries as far as confortable reading was. Today many people would say that Times was not an "experiment", but any typeface was created through series of trials. I like this point because it highlights how designers are always experimenting, we push the boundaries to give a new way of "seeing".