Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton, 2004
Some inspiring highlights:
-words originated as gestures of the body
-there is a continual tension between the hand and the machine, the organic and the geometric, the human body and the "system"
-typography is the visual manifestation of language; text gathers into words, words build into sentences
-typography helps readers navigate the flow of content
-printing converted word into a visual object precisely located in space
-Derrida - alphabets cannot function without silent marks and spaces
-Barthes - text is a network of ideas which is impossible to contain
-language functions as a database, an archive of elements from which people assemble linear utterances of speech - writing/text occupies space and time, breaking this linearity
-typography has changed from a stable body of objects to a flexible system of attributes
-type as discourse: typography is a mode of interpretation
-the Author no longer controls significance; the Reader controls and creates meaning
-typography can illuminate the construction and identity of a page, screen, place or product
-contrary to what one might expect, the computer has revived the power and prevalence of writing
-a grid breaks time or space into regular units - grids control through order
-Derrida - the Frame is a form that seems to be separate from the work yet is necessary for marking difference from its surroundings - a Frame elevates the work from ordinary to extraordinary
some of Ellen Lupton's "Free Advice":
-think more, design less
-say more, write less
-spend more, buy less
-make the shoe fit, not the foot
-design is the art of situations
-no job is too small
-read, white and talk about your work
-listen.
