The Affect of Typography

This is probably my favorite class topic yet. As a person who is interested in the affect of aesthetics typography is such an interesting medium to think through how someone is experiencing an interface and what is says about the site as well as the designer.Ellen Lupton’s Thinking with Type is insightful,artful and cheeky.The combination of historical background on typography, “how to” attitude and the examples embedded within the visual/reading experience Thinking with Type forges a genre space to discuss the intersections of design technology and visual history.

From my praise of the text above I hope it is visible that my reading experience was delightful. I had the opportunity to both leaf through the text as well as scroll through on the online version. Although at times the text fell into a lull (I am not sure if there is any particular reason behind this sentiment), overall I found it to be an interesting way to become acquainted with typography. In particular,I am most excited to explore with the mixing of typefaces, especially multiple-family mixes. Multiple- family mixes seems to be a cool way to create a signature design or aesthetic that is both unique, classic and effective.

On another note the “how to” tutorial on font and typeface was also a very comfortable read. Although I think I understand most of the reading in chapter 6 I have yet to put it in practice. However, one question I do have is what does the coding process look like to use multiple-family mixes on a website. For example if the was one typeface but the balanced between multiple. Would this level of sophisticated typeface have to be coded in individually on each page, can a layout of template be made? I look forward to putting tis into practice.

My one critique of the text is that is was Euro-American male centric. This is not to say I find the text or the scholarship involved itself not valuable but I am curious as to why the overwhelming presence of white Euro-American men as typography designers was not addressed or how it informed the methodology or alter the text if placed in a different context. In the future I would love to see a comparative typography text that could perhaps render a more complex view of the politics at play in the history and present-day culture of typography.