21 Sep 09

The Role of Authorship in Typographic Design

Designers often talk about the ‘vocabulary’ of a project. During the research phase of a project, we don’t design. We just try to build the ‘vocabulary’ of the project, each sketch or idea embodying a new ‘word’. The richer the words, the more elegant the sentences we can speak.

Today everyone is an author.

With current developments in online and mobile information distribution systems (e.g. blogs, Twitter, community news services, etc), there has been a new focus amongst several creative industries on the expanding role of authorship. For the Typographic Designer, this might even more imperative since information and especially language are some of the most influential tools designers have in their arsenal of communication. Simply, the role of language in modern typography is evermore central.

This changing role of the designer from maker to author; and the affects current technology has on stable and unstable media, and language and communication have made it more requisite that the contemporary Typographic Designer have a firm grasp on these emerging methodologies. Concepts such as generative linguistics, syntactic structure, meta-language, tonal character can be just as effective as font choice, lay-out and format.

Although many conceptual artists of the 1970’s who work with language and typography have explored many of the same ideas comprehensively, the mere appropriation of these past forms is not enough to reflect the currently evolving design morphology. It is by way of thorough exploration of the nuances of modern language and communication that will free contemporary typographic design from past aesthetics into a new form.

The goal of this Graphic Design Minor about the Typographic Voice is to take advantage of this evolution and attempt to exploit it as a personal and unique critical tool for the Typographic Designer.

The Typographic Voice
Graphic Design Minor in Typography and Typographic Design

ArtEZ Arnhem Academy of Arts
Graphic Design 3vt
2009-2010

Advisors:
Thomas Castro (LUST)
Joris Maltha (Catalogtree)

External Advisors:
Onomatopee (Remco van Bladel & Freek Lomme)

Workshops/Lectures:
Akiem Helmling (Underware)
Harmen Liemburg
Karel Martens