Typographic Nuance

Typographic Nuance


obama typographic speech by martin pyper

'a typographic interpretation of obama's inauguration speech, made for dutch magazine 'creatie' the only rule was no images allowed... i decided to analyse the intonation by watching it on 'you tube' and breaking it down in terms of recurring words and emphasis...'

It is nice to finally see a more creative typographic approach to visualising obama's speeches. Looking at what i like to term typographic nuance, examining the use of alphabet & numbers paradigms.

It really delves into the literature from Post-structuralism, deconstruction (jacques derrida) & barthes, with authorship issues as the meaning (semantics of language) is determined by interpretation on part of the viewer, and so as barthes described this as being the death of the author who is unable to construct meaning.

‘The spoken word is, generally, less formal. Dialogues involve interaction (speaker and listener) are notoriously difficult to ‘control’. This, of course, is also their value; offering the creative, thinking process in its improvised form’ (david jury/about face pg 134).

Of course interpreation takes you into semiotics (the study of signs) with structuraliism french literary theory Ferdinand de Saussure who quite rightly 'posited that signs, rather than being isolated elements with self-contained meanings, are culturally independent parts of an overall network whose meaning is derived from the relationship between the parts’ (Dliteracy, heller/pomeroy, p149).

This cultural independancy is partly the reason that communication has these "open" interpretations of meanings that is where the wonderful (graphic design orientated blogger here) Cranbrook academy and Katerine McCoy, see French Currents of the Letter from 1978 which this work really reminds me of (r.poynor, p66) and jeff keedy & ed fella, then Cranbrook themes continued in David Carson & Neville Brody.

‘Reading requires that we use our intellect, but deconstructed typography further encourages a “shifting movement from awareness to knowledge, to desire and its negation”. The eye roams, looking into the printed page or glowing screen, where meaning is revealed through an evaluation of the entire space. Deconstruction has not simply addressed the look of design but a way of looking at the design’ (GD&R, gunnar swanson ed/zelman, p59).

This type and space led my research onto Stephane Mallarme with 'les coup de des' 1897. Mallarme states, ‘the poem “does not everywhere break with tradition; in its presentation I have in many ways not pushed it far enough forward to shock, yet far enough to open people’s eyes”’. This idea of engaging our intellect and making us interpret this space, typographic deconstruction (GD Concise History, hollis, p37).

Also not forgetting Guillaume Apollinaire with 'Calligrammes' 1918 leading off to concrete poetry and this fine design is continued with John Furnival & more recent mississippi, functioning ferdinand, 389-type, 3d-calligram, typographic-city-child and probably more.

This coninues quite rightly with word as image as the conversation does not need image as Creatia said no image. Lovely to see Infographics blended together with concrete poetry, I know it is monochrome but does it really need colour? wonderful work.

I explored typographic techniques with examples in my work, just leave comments or sign up to visualthinkmap.ning.com and message visualthinkmap i can share my findings back then.







Great project. Try the word links as there is a lot of good stuff i tried to link through to.

Thanks martin pyper

from: http://www.behance.net/Gallery/obamas-speech-a-typographic-interpretation/209583


found: http://infothesis.yanamitchell.com/post/95935291/obamas-speech-a-typographic-interpretation-on


check out:


type2 nuance a4 sec2 - 2005

by visual think map



type nuance a4 sec1 - 2005

poynor reference is from the book No More Rules, (cranbrook link looks inside the book).

Published on 2009/04/17 10:00 am.
Filed under: aesthetic, apollinaire, brockmann, calligram, clean, clear, communication, interpret, kriwet, mallarme, narrative, obama, poetry, semiotic, size, spatial, text, thoughts, typographic, white space

389 Type

389 Type


389 final - jess bachman - wall stats

I created the initial concept of this poster on the night of November 4th.
Inspired by Barack Obama's victory and struck with a sense of awe when realizing
the amount of hard fought progress that has been achieved in this country,
Iwanted to pay homage to this centuries long journey. The original graphic which
can be seen here, became very popular and spread all over the internet. Many people loved it and ask me to make a print.


While I initially created it rather spur of the moment and with no desire to
sell it as a poster, the graphic needed to be completelyoverhauled in order to
make it practical for printing. The original would have been 12 feet long. So I
took the opportunity to really refine the design and create a lasting piece.
There were also many additions to the time line that people suggested. This
poster is not a tally of African American achievements, rather it is a record of
progress and setbacks. While Obama's election is not the endgame of equality, it
is a magnificent example of what is truly possible.

I hope you enjoy it and that it reminds you of the shoulders we all stand upon
and the stained greatness of this nation and its people who have indeed,
overcome.

jess states further 'It's not a typical visualization, as its all type and NOT a
word cloud but it is conveying information and special attention was paid to the
type weight, size, and placement to convey subtext.'

can appreciate that would have been delicate and kind to the look of the type as
i'm sure there was some altering of tracking, leading etc.

but it is good to see an informative design that isnt just a word cloud that is
more often that not aloud to arrange itself. words in this have been placed,
arrranged, hierachy, no doubt edited with 'selective omission' as quentin newark
states in what is graphic design' (been reading recently for quotes to define
design)

from: http://www.wallstats.com/389yearsago/#about

cheers

jess

Published on 2009/01/28 4:26 pm.
Filed under: apollinaire, art, black, concrete, conflict, evolution, information, innovative, literature, narrative, shape, text, thoughts, time, typographic

Animated Face

People have fallen in love with word clouds that make pictures. Zoom in and you see a bunch of individual words. Zoom out and you see a famousperson's face, seen so many Obama '08 - vote for hope faces.

It is a dictionary or a portrait? Mystical. TBWA/Chiat/Day,an advertising agency in Nashville, Tennessee of all places, brings the concept to promotion for the 2009 Grammy Awards - in animated form. Float through thecloud of songs and lo and behold, it's Stevie Wonder.

great stuff

from: http://flowingdata.com/2009/01/19/fun-with-words-that-collectively-make-pictures/

Published on 2009/01/28 12:32 am.
Filed under: animation, apollinaire, clean, concrete, creative, drawing, figure, map, music, poetry, text, visualisation, white space, words

Mississippi Type Visual

Mississippi Type Visual


mississippi river type map by andy proehl

I love this. real triumph to concrete poetry. mallarme or apollinaire would really applaud this visualisation, clean, informative design/map. I agree it works well as a free form poem, (as a western reading, its in english) top left to bottom right with how its composed. I love using type to represent space. type/typography as image. still a sketch... looks good.

'This is the latest map in my "Typography of Place" series... a map of the cities and towns that lie along the Mississippi River. The last two maps I did in this series (Silk Road and the Aleutian Islands) were very horizontal. So I wanted to try one with a vertical format.One of the things I am trying to achieve in these maps is to have the words that make up the map read as a sort of free-form poem.

In this one, I think that comes across particularly strong since you can "read" it from the river's source in the top left to the mouth in the bottom right.I have not color coded the place names on this map as I did in the Aleutian Islands Map but the same theme is present with many towns having Native American names (in addition to the river itself).

French names are also quite present as you travel down the river. Then there is the intriguing sequence of Egyptian-inspired names that includes Memphis, Thebes, Angola, and Cairo.This is still a sketch but I assembled the base map by drawing the river and placing the cities on the appropriate side of the river to try and stay geographically accurate. But I knew as I was building it that I was going to center the towns on the middle of the river to emphasize the meandering path the river takes as it starts in northern Minnesota and works its way all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. '

found here: http://flickr.com/photos/amapple/2546733739/in/set-72157602275753358/

check his blog: http://randomaxis.blogspot.com/2008/06/mississippi-river-typemap-this-is.html

Published on 2008/10/30 12:14 am.
Filed under: abstract, apollinaire, carto, clean, concrete, design, familiar, geographic, graphic, illustration, information, mallarme, territory, topographic, typographic, visual maps, visualisation, white space