Task 5 - summary of 'Thinking with Type' & Deconstruction

 Allen Hori - 'Typography as discourse poster' - 1989

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From reading Ellen Lupton’s writings, (‘Thinking with type’, 2008, pp.87-100), it is clear that deconstruction as a theory is one of great complexity, containing many underlying theories on how text can be constructed to portray meaning and change a texts ‘tone of voice’. The theory of deconstruction was first devised by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in the 1960s, and in short, is an approach to text which aims to analyse the systems of representation used when writing and the surrounding systems that frame their communication.

Deconstruction looks at examining the relationship between speech as the primary method of communication and writing as the secondary. This is based on writing being once removed, so it is not a direct response to a person, it also requires learning and equipment to achieve. Whereas speech is a direct form of communication that gains meaning from its delivery and the way in which it is formed during spontaneous conversation.

Deconstructivist designers look at the written word as equal to, if not more important than speech in conveying meaning. This is down to the role of typography and the designer, in the creation and implementation of meaning within the text itself.

A conventional typographic layout would emphasize the completeness of a work and its authority as a finished product. Alternative design reflects how the meaning originally intended by the author can often be lost through the design of the page in order to help the flow of information. Deconsturctivist designers such as Katherine McCoy use a text to challenge the reader in producing their own meaning and finding their way through the text.

Ellen Lupton’s text also outlines how designers generally treat a body of text the same throughout a document as this gives it the feeling of being coherent and evenly distributed across a document. A designer then uses their knowledge of how texts are taken in to help the reader navigate through long bodies of writing whether this be through the use of paragraphs, indents, or when working digitally, hyperlinked text. It is seen as the job of a designer to utilise typography in order to help the reader navigate the flow of content, however Lupton (‘Thinking with type’, 2008, pp.87) writes, “one of design’s most humane functions is, in actuality, to help readers avoid reading”

French critic Roland Barthes like Derrida looked in great detail at typography’s role in creating meaning and looked at the idea that while talking is a form of communication that flows in a single direction, writing occupies an element of space as well as time.  Therefore written text can be used spatially to portray various meanings and give a text a whole dimension in the way it is read, which can’t be used in the same way through speech. This is backed up by this quote from Barthes(“from Work to Text”, 1971). “A text…is a multi-dimensional space in which a variety of writings, blend and clash.”

The theories of deconstruction are then reflected in deconstructivist design as a critique of design conventions, by using these agreed typographic conventions differently. Which I think is summarised in the image that I have chosen to analyse, Allen Hori's, 'Typography as discourse' poster. I really like this poster however it is evident that everything to do with the flow of content and user friendliness from the  writings above have been dropped in order to help the reader create their own meaning from the text on the poster. There is no hierarchy of information as text is placed in what looks like a totally random configuration in various point sizes, fonts, directions and orientations around the poster. It is clear from the way that the text is placed, there is not supposed to be a defined way of reading this, information is picked through as the reader discovers it.

There is also a clear use of image in this poster, and an element that the text has been placed in a composition that would be more visually engaging than logical. Again this would appear to be an attempt at making the reader build meanings but also to elevate the designer within the process of authorship. As Lupton writes that deconstruction('Thinking with type', 2008, pp.97), "Imploded the traditional dichotomy between seeing and reading. Pictures can be read and words can be seen" This places value within design on ambiguity and complexity over legibility and flow of information.