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History and Foundations of Information Science
The Typographic Medium
An innovative examination of typography as a medium of communication rather than part of print or digital media.
Typography is everywhere and yet widely unnoticed. When we read type, we fail to see type. In this book, Kate Brideau considers typography not as part of “print media” or “digital media” but as a medium of communication itself, able to transcend the life and death of particular technologies. Examining the contradiction between typographic form (often overlooked) and function (often overpowering), Brideau argues that typography is made up not of letters but of shapes, and that shape is existentially and technologically central to the typographic medium.
After considering what constitutes typographic form, Brideau turns to typographic function and how it relates to form. Examining typography's role in both the neurological and psychological aspects of reading, she argues that typography's functions exceed reading; typographic forms communicate, but that communication is not limited to the content they carry. To understand to what extent the design and operations of the typographic medium affect the way we perceive information, Brideau warns, we must understand the medium's own operational logic, embodied in the full diversity of typographic forms.
Brideau discusses a range of topics—from intellectual property protection for typefaces to Renaissance and Enlightenment ideal letterforms—and draws on a wide variety of theoretical work, including phenomenological ideas about comprehension, German media archaeology, and the media and communication theories of Vilém Flusser and others. Hand-drawn illustrations of typographic forms accompany the text.
Typography is everywhere and yet widely unnoticed. When we read type, we fail to see type. In this book, Kate Brideau considers typography not as part of “print media” or “digital media” but as a medium of communication itself, able to transcend the life and death of particular technologies. Examining the contradiction between typographic form (often overlooked) and function (often overpowering), Brideau argues that typography is made up not of letters but of shapes, and that shape is existentially and technologically central to the typographic medium.
After considering what constitutes typographic form, Brideau turns to typographic function and how it relates to form. Examining typography's role in both the neurological and psychological aspects of reading, she argues that typography's functions exceed reading; typographic forms communicate, but that communication is not limited to the content they carry. To understand to what extent the design and operations of the typographic medium affect the way we perceive information, Brideau warns, we must understand the medium's own operational logic, embodied in the full diversity of typographic forms.
Brideau discusses a range of topics—from intellectual property protection for typefaces to Renaissance and Enlightenment ideal letterforms—and draws on a wide variety of theoretical work, including phenomenological ideas about comprehension, German media archaeology, and the media and communication theories of Vilém Flusser and others. Hand-drawn illustrations of typographic forms accompany the text.
- GenresDesign
304 pages, Hardcover
Published October 12, 2021
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About the author
Kate Brideau
1 book2 followersKate Brideau is an adjunct faculty member at in Media, Culture, and Communications at NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development and in Management Communication at NYU's Stern School of Business.
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May 7, 2024
I learned a lot from this*. It is a rich exploration of a theoretical side of typography I'm not used to seeing in other typography books, websites, or publications. This book explores different past and present ideas centered on defining the minimum expression of typography (a "skeleton"), typography's outer bounds (the limit where typography becomes something else), and the relationship typographic shapes have with each other. To explore these ideas, the author draws from her many years of research at the intersection of different areas (like law and neuroscience) with typography, which makes the book feel academic, precise, and information-dense, but generally entertaining and packed with references to keep exploring.
*Probably because this is the first research-heavy book on typography I read. Might not be the same for you.
*Probably because this is the first research-heavy book on typography I read. Might not be the same for you.
Displaying 1 of 1 review