Design Education In Progress

Grid Structures and Syntax

by Frank DAstolfo project completed at Rutgers University-Newark

Introduction

Undergraduate education in typography has undergone a remarkable transition over the past fifteen years. However, the transition to digital typesetting has not always created a continuity in typographic education. Informational access and production have been substantially increased by combining the responsibilities and processes of typesetting with design. A pivotal course of action within design education has now presented itself in an unmistakable vernacular: digital technology.

Initially, the lack of computer equipment and faculty expertise in the early to mid 1980s resulted in the inability of many design programs to focus on the technological possibilities. Educators who had access to the technology saw the complexity of teaching visual and typographic courses in the digital environment. Curiously, today this complexity is ostensibly allowing a closer connection to the visualization methods and typographic methods practiced in the past.Teachers skilled in the aesthetics of typography, trained in the technical complexity of digital typesetting, and apprised of historical context and prevailing movements are now at an advantage.They can now readily present the knowledge of established typographic principles while adapting digital typesetting technology to support an imaginative visual education. When students are introduced to a digital typesetting environment the flexibility, productivity, and peripheries of the system can facilitate the learning speed and decision-making process. Using these kinds of systems typographic information can be processed intensively, engendering greater coherence in type and image composition. A teaching method that is both processed on the computer and based on the reinvestigation of syntactical typographical characteristics (arranged through order, harmony, rhythm, contrast, and proportion) can produce unusual variations.When a student is taught via this method the learning process can exceed beyond the students and teachers expectations.
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Overview

The following examples represent work from an initial assignment given to graphic design students in their junior year, first semester, at Rutgers University-Newark.The assignment lasted three weeks.The students met two days a week with three contact hours each day. (It should be noted that most students earn a BA in Art with a concentration in graphic design.) The exercise stipulated that each level of development (from thumbnail to final comprehensives) be sketched out by hand first. Importance was placed on students being able to draw what they are imagining. Drawing slows the process of ideation, making the interplay of logic and intuition more accessible. Later in the exercise the students produced a final computer comprehensive printout from a laser proofing system. At this level, the computer functions as a synthesizer for graphic material. Color for this assignment was restricted to black and white. Discussions with the students on traditional typesetting methods, terminology, and a variety of typographic fonts, anatomy, categories, and cuts were combined with the formal development of typographic grid structures from Late Medieval, Renaissance and Cartesian, Modern, and Post-Modern periods as a compositional design matrix for controlling the placement of typography and image.These discussions ended with challenging the students to modify but not distort letterforms to allow for unconventional expressions when processing the information. Students were given instruction in the use of Quark X-press, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Photoshop. It is of particular interest to mention that some of these students became familiar with the Macintosh computer and digital scanner only while completing this assignment. Approximately one half of the students enrolled in the class were transfers needing remedial work in basic typographic principles.

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Design Education In Progress

The Project
Sound Formation(s) Initially, students were asked to select an onomatopoetic term, a word formation that sounds like its referent. These unconventional word/sound formations, produced by an animal, object, human, or machine, were chosen as a vehicle for syntactic exploration. Within an 8 x 8 inch square format, preferred for its neutral proportions, students were asked to investigate three levels of design translations. All three levels of the assignment were discussed so that the students could comprehend the word/ sound formation in the contextual framework of the exercise. Students were encouraged to investigate the connection of one level to the next in their preliminary pencil sketches. Content in expressive and referential context dominated the exercise.

Level 1
In level 1, students utilized typographic constructs and explored various typographic treatments with the word/sound of their choice. Specifically, students investigated the intrinsic or obvious form made by the sound. Students were encouraged to continually voice the word in order to distinguish nuances and hierarchical shifts in pronunciation. These sounds were translated into letters and then word formations. Syllables consisting of the relationship between consonants and their connecting vowels were examined for typographic cues. Students could repeat letters to emphasize the particular sound and structure. Through the stages of typographic syntax and refinement involving the manipulation of individual letters, the sound acquired greater and unexpected visual meaning and expressiveness. Simple hand drawn type configurations evolved into complex typographic constructs as they were arranged into a cohesive whole within the size limits of the composition. Simultaneously, a grid system of intersecting primary and secondary lines delineated by tangents of the word formation was imposed. Unoccupied spaces in the composition were now perceived as 'white' space or spaces to position additional information. Students observed the effects of meaning and placement of the word /sound formation through discernible changes in the variation of: type face type size type weight upper-case/ lower-case letters letter spacing positioning grouping symbolic gesture pictorial reference gestalt cues intonation contrast form-to-counterform

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Columns 1 through 3 Pencil sketches of word/sound Ver

Column 4 Examples of word/sound computer designs

Schhh

Ribbitt

Ding Dong

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Design Education In Progress

Level 2
In the second level, students included an additional word in the composition. To move beyond words with obvious associations and idiosyncratic metaphors, students were asked to think in unusual terms. By visualizing in nonlinear links rather than using linear logic, they reinvestigated the use of metaphor as a conceptual primer. The second word the students selected was a descriptive term referencing a skewed association to the original composition. The syntactical reaction inevitably invited a more ironic interpretation as the project progressed. At this point in the exercise, students began to think about the third level of information and how its relationship could complete the message. Finally, the word referent was set as an uncomplicated line of type and introduced in the composition using structural typographic translations. Through this investigation, students experienced the complexity of typographic syntax. This then evolved into discussions about grid control, proportion, scale, type selection, and spacing. hierarchy propinquity juxtaposition legibility subtlety ambiguity direction symmetry asymmetry balance Students observed the effects of meaning and placement through cognitive shifts in:

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Columns 1 through 3 Pencil sketches of word/sound and word referent Ver, Fan

Column 4 Examples of word/sound computer designs with word referent

Schhh, Static

Ribbitt, Croak

Ding Dong, Ready

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Design Education In Progress

Level 3
In level 3, students were asked to include in their composition an image that referenced the concept. This was done in the form of a photograph. The idea was to expand the concept and at the same time complete a message. The shape was limited to a rectangle, square or silhouette to accommodate the spaces defined by the grid structure. For reasons of contrast, the size of the photograph was kept small. Students were free to alter the photograph by cropping and enhancing in Photoshop. Once positioned in the grid, the composition could be read in any direction. In addition, the drawing of unexpected analogous relationships and comparisons imbued with metaphor, irony, and puns were invented. Linking disparate information with implied associations enables the student to demonstrate effectively their conceptual process. The ambiguous connections heighten an understanding of typographic syntax and meaning. word/sound ver schhh ribbitt ding dong + word referent fan static croak ready + image referent image of a spectator image of a rabbit's ears image of a gun image of a boxer = visual message waving hand antennae death punch drunk Students expanded the word/sound and word referent to include a image referent:

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Column 1 Image

Columns 2 and 3 Pencil sketches of word/sound, word referent, and image Ver, Fan and Spectator

Column 4 Examples of final design compositions

Schhh, Static and Rabbit Ears

Ribbitt, Croak and Gun

Ding Dong, Ready and Mike Tyson

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