Typography

28 November 2014 Unknown 0 Comments

First is typography.

I don't know exactly why I like typography; I'm no good at it, but it intrigues me. I know it started when I learned that Steve Jobs (one of my heroes) loved typography. It's just grown from there.

I love how typography is about the unwritten communication behind the written communication. It tries to add emotion or context to what is written. At its best, it tries to fade away and be invisible to the reader, but it can't. There is no way to write without writing in a style and so it implicitly sends unsaid information to the reader.

It's like body language. Whatever you are doing with your body as you speak—even if you are trying to do nothing—you are sending unspoken messages to your listeners. Maybe I like typography because I'm an introvert and I'm not proficient at body language so I'm trying to make up for it...

At any rate, it's easy to wander with typography. There's so many variables and so many choices for each. It's easy to try 100 fonts and still not decide on a good one. 

Maybe that's because I'm still learning the rules of typography. I use it for typesetting my self-published books which I'll talk more about later. I obsess over every detail of the text, but I don't know very well what effect I'm having on the reader because I'm new to the art.

This idea of wandering around to learn the rules is maybe the whole point of wandering, at least in the early stages of creativity. Maybe a veteran artist doesn't need to wander as much because she knows what effect she'll have on the audience. Maybe a veteran artist can see the end of her creation whereas to a novice there is no end (like in my picture a few posts ago). Maybe.

At any rate, for this blog I obsessed over the typography. Would someone who knows better give me some pointers in the comments because I'm not sure how good it actually looks and what effect I'm having on my one audience member.