The Proposal
What is beauty in typography and what makes a beautiful type?
One question that every designer, whether a professional
that’s been in the industry for years, or whether it’s a design student that
has only really started designing, needs to ask themselves what makes a
typeface good or beautiful. With having over 45,000 fonts on the Internet with
more still being produced and developed, then we must learn where to use fonts,
why to use certain fonts, and what makes a typeface worth using.
In all aspects
of design, it is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. For centuries,
artist have strived for ultimate beauty, and all had theories. For example in
the renaissance period it was said that design that had the ‘S-shape’ in it,
was beautiful. Even to this day, designers have ideas on beauty. Despite people
claiming and striving for individuality, all aim to look aesthetically
pleasing, and during a new season retailers churn out the same style garments,
changing societies perceptions on beauty, and this creates the modern day
theory of attractiveness. So what is the modern day example for people working
in fields such as Graphic Design and Web Design. That is based on many things,
but one of the major factors would be the Typography. Typography is the garment
that words wear, so designers want their words to wear this season or certainly
want it to wear something beautiful for it’s particular purpose. This essay
will explore perceptions of beauty in type and whether there is such a thing as
an ‘ugly typeface’. It will also discover what designers should look for in a
typeface when trying to communicate a certain message.
“Clever
graphic designers love to use typography to explore the interaction between the
look of type and what type actually says. In communicating a message, a balance
has to be achieved between the visual and the verbal aspects of a design.”
Typography is used to create a reaction from the
viewer/reader. We are all comfortable with signs being written in ‘Helvetica’
due to its balance and legibility, yet is that the make up to create a
beautiful typeface? Could it be considered that this well known font is boring,
and not beautiful at all? Moreover, this study will investigate whether there
is a certain set of rules in creating a typeface that designers can learn to
make sure they are using the correct typeface. This field will look into the
anatomy of letterforms.
Another consideration for this essay is whether typography
can change a message due to it’s aesthetic looks. Can the look of the font
completely change the message that is being conveyed. It is suggested that a
typeface creates a personality, a character and a tone of voice. Potentially,
we could characterise a family of fonts as a certain type of person that would
help designers determine what typeface should be used in projects, to make sure
they are using the most beautiful font for the task in hand.
