Visual Language: Week Four - Typography Experiments

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 18th Oct - Typography Experiments

As a response to my research on Typography, I decided to create a series of fonts based on a quote from the anime feature length film "Ghost in the Shell" by Mamoru Oshii (1995). The quote I chose was "the importance of being human", as in my opinion this can relate to the theme of error in an ambiguous yet insightful way. It brings into question the relativity of the human mind in a society that heavily relies on artificial enhancements to improve physicality, which I personally feel is omni-present in our current environment (i.e. the ongoing development of artificial intelligence and its impact on a variety of working fields and industries).

I started by selecting what I believe was the most substantial word in the quote, "human", and started creating fonts to reflect the meaning of this word. With each different font, I adjusted the scale of the lettering, the spacing between the letters, and the width and length of specific letters in the word. I also experimented with serif vs sans serif, line weight variations, and character positioning to further exaggerate the context of the word and create an ambiance that I felt resonated with the full quote and the futuristic, dystopian setting that the film takes place in.

I then further experimented with text by using a selection of materials (ink and foam boards of varied thickness) to achieve multiple textures and gradation in values to create a more erratic and disturbed shape for the remaining words of the quote. This helped to disrupt the harmony between each of the words when placed amongst each other to form the whole quote, and thus further helped to depict the dystopian nature that I was aiming for.

This culminated in me creating two poster designs, one of which I printed on a RISO printer (my next post will discuss the trials and tribulations of my experience RISO printing).
In my first poster, I experimented with colours for the background. I settled on a deep purple tone that I felt resonated with the variety of fonts as well as the futuristic atmosphere of the original source of the quote. The second poster was made using only red and black in RGB on Photoshop so that the RISO printer could read the design. This leant itself to a much more stripped back, ambiguous final design. I feel this design had a more aggressive and brutalist atmosphere that again resonated with the text itself, but created a more urban, almost graffiti aesthetic as well.

Ultimately, I feel the final results capture the mood that I was looking to portray very accurately and clearly. However, I do think the ink printed fonts could have been made to be more legible and easier on the eye for the audience. In one way, this mistake accentuates the dystopian nature of the quote. On the other hand, I feel it distracts the viewer from the overall meaning behind the quote.

I plan on continuing to play around with typography in my future work where I usually would have used an online font generator. For example, whenever I next create a narrative work - I plan on creating the logo for the title myself. I also want to further experiment with type when using word bubbles for specific characters in any future comics.



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