Typography is forever
Waters will cease. Day and night will end. But typography…
Every day, the classroom load increases by one material. Day 1 had fourmaterials. I remember vividly because I had four tabs open that day. Day 3 has six and they think I won’t notice. If tomorrow’s class has seven things to read, I fee just vex.
Alternate history time…
The moment man discovered that he could transmit messages via signals. That is he could store memory in things that were outside of, that did not need his energy to be expressed, it was a great day for man. While transmitting messages through songs are great an all, the UX of that is very dependent on the platform that presents the message (and God save you they have a bias). Man found out that symbols were as objective as any messenger man could have in this life because when etched, they were permanent. What man needed to do was to agree with the rest of his kind that each of these symbols could mean something original, and thus writing was born.
Writing started from drawing and the messenger compressed and compressed until a few strokes could present a message more clearly than care brush or finger strokes done over hours could do. Writing with symbols was a hit! Today, I argue with the proponents of Ebooks that the printed book is the final evolution of symbolic and iconographic communication because it uses the least energy to produce and needs only natural energies to interprete. In the event of a global disaster, books will be what we would go back to. So let us make and protect them.
At the core of design, is words and writing is the mastery over words. Basically, design is a system of organized communication that work to aid consciousness to change or cause change. The first system was probably designed with a lot of words.
And yes, I am really thinking about the Earth. In Genesis 1:3, John 1:1. It does make a drum of sense.
Words are possible the most integral part of design and that is why the first element of design we have been taught is Typography. Typography is the study of writing form. Writing as a physical thing, na typography get am.
This is amazing for me because;
First, it would mean that I am getting double value for my course with Stutern because these guys are about to make me a better writer.
Then, learning more about typography completely evolves everything I thought design was.
“A story, or a song, is a bunch of words designed to achieve a goal; pass meaning across or evoke emotion.”
Hence stories are designed. And if Stutern is teaching me about design. Well…Thank God.
Words are possibly the most unambiguous method of communication. This is why our communication at the office is not drawn. And also why we send emails to each other. 7000+ emails a month? Guys, C’mon.
Words balance unambiguity and the condensation of knowledge better than any physical form of communication. A picture might say a thousand words but you will fail at trivia every time.
Meaning comes to you when you see words.
Today’s typography class taught us how to identify different kinds of fonts used in design and gave us the best practices for how to shape writing.
I think our instructors are holding back at this point. Because there is so much more to typography than just web and app design.
We learned that some fonts are best for headings, we are familiar with the bold serifs used for newspaper headlines. Yeah, that is not going to change anytime soon. Times New Roman is here to stay for a long time.
We learned some fonts were created to shout at you from afar and can only be use on signs and posters. Once upon a time, a budding product designer tried to us for body text. Word is, he hasn’t finished that design until this day.
We also learned that with each line of text you read, your mind takes note of a finite number of characters before the line becomes too long to read.
Thus, I discovered the big secret.
Every designer is out to manipulate you and take you for everything you own because they have hacked your brain.
Fight the system. Don’t give into their tips and tricks they created from studying your brain. Politicians are bad but designers are the biggest manipulators of all. Let that sink in!
You jest, but I am pretty serious. They want you to have such a good time that you do not mind how muchof your attention they steal. And if there is anything we know about this digital age, it is that, attention is gold, bitcoin is silver and gold is an everlasting metal that we only ascribe value to.
I’m really not going to eat gold during a famine. Gold’s value depends on society staying the way it currently is (recall the Jocopo tribe in Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth Series). Post world famine, rice will be the new tender. I’m serious. I have seen the uniting power of rice.
It is pretty late at night and I haven’t slept and I might be running crazy. But I will leave you with this deep insight about typography in design.
Use your words.
Build everything around them. That is what the master designer did when he made this big bad world. It was when mankind learned words that they started to transcend time with the most efficient of documentation. The Epic of Gilgamesh transcended ages, civilizations and multiple cultures and centuries to get down here to us. All through the power of typography. Other forms of communication remain powerful but text is the true and solid invention borne from the human spirit and it is the closest thing to home. Wherever or whenever it was written, we will always understand it.
I am going to sleep.
2:20 AM WAT, 3rd March 2021
The UI Spirit is an open journal of Shammah Godoz, a student of UI/UX Class at Stutern Nigeria. Feel free to reach him via email at hello@shammahgodoz.com. In fact, he insists.
