About (Type) Face

Read an article about Roger Excoffon and started thinking about the importance of font in the totality of design. Obviously the visual look of what we read imparts both a clear and subconscious element of influence, but it is still amazing to think about the power of Excoffon's work on contemporary French design.



It just looks like France. I suppose it depends on the designer as to whether they consciously put their own conceptions of what the design is representing, or if they are just trying to put an interesting face on a product or image. In the case of the former, I like the idea of the desinger as a filter in a symbiotic relationship between past and present-France represented something to Excoffon, he designed something new, and it fed back into what France was becoming. Here is one of his fonts-



Is there anything today that represents us in the same way? If the answer to that is comic sans we have probably reached the death of positive innovation. I want to pay more attention to the styles I see dominating the words and messages out there.

In the vein of exploring how graphic design works and the power it holds its clear that there really isn't an area which is untouched by the visual. (You can read Anna Karenina printed in Lucina Sans and get the same content, but you might get a bit flinchy in the process.) Plus, as we saw in the Nabokov post, the package informs the contents. I am committed to exploring things which are well conceived and designed in all areas-artwork which supports the message of the music, branding and logos representing their clients, tags and supplemental for clothes. Food can still taste good even if it looks like a mess, but if you're really trying to say something you need a fully realized creation. In the process of learning about this, I'm really excited to get this book.

Is the look of the modern world the result of an infinite mirror, only existing as a reflection of the past? Are we filtering the present and, knowingly, or unknowingly, influencing the future? If we are, I want to be aware of what design can do.