Re-reading this essay by Stuart Bailey about higher education and criticality. There are some great quotes that have become guiding principles for the project.
“Education is all about trust. The teacher embraces the uncertain future by trusting the student, supporting the growth of something that cannot yet be seen, an emergent sensibility that cannot be judged by contemporary standards.”
Mark Wigley, 2006 (cited in Bertolotti-Bailey, 2007)
References
Bertolotti-Bailey, S. (2007) ‘Towards a Critical Faculty’. Towards a Critical Faculty (Only an Attitude of Orientation) From the Toolbox of a Serving Library. Available at: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://readings.design/PDF/00_TaCFOaAoFtToaSL.pdf (Accessed 25 January 2025)
Again, going back to some core reading on the subject of typography and how I can connect the PgCert intervention and ideas of decolonisation to this.
I read Paul Luna’s excellent book Typography, Oxford University Press (2018).
Paul Luna, Typography (2018)
“There is some irony to be found in the fact that it took the dematerialisation of type, from metal to digital, to make it so widely present in so many minds.” (Luna, 2018)
“It takes a broad definition of typography – as design for reading, whether in print screen, or in the environment – and draws out ideas about the development of letterforms, the organisational and perceptual issues behind key typographic decisions, and the differences between printed and on-screen typography.” (Luna, 2018)
“The way we present language graphically has always been a subject for serious study, but often this work did not connect with or even reach the wider reading public.”(Luna, 2018)
“By mechanising the production of letters, the invention of printing both fixed the Latin script and enabled systematic variation of it.” (Luna, 2018:7)
“These constraints of consistency and repeatability meant that makers of type developed styles and conventions, establishing a canon of established letterforms.” (Luna, 2018:7)
“There was a general belief, throughout the artistic and scientific worlds (which of course were then not as separate as they are today), in divine proportion – a fundamental set of geometric relationships that can be found in nature, in mathematics, and even in man. This belief is most memorably demonstrated by Leonardo da Vinci” (Luna, 2018:9)
“The eye rather than measurement should be the arbiter of beauty.” (Luna, 2018:10)
“But if we look at any kind of modern publication, we see a variety of letterforms coexist. The headlines and text of a printed newspaper need to be distinct and on web pages links have to stand out – a typographic monoculture cannot support the variation and differentiation that we require for effective reading.” (Luna, 2018:17)
“Shopfronts, branding, and advertising show the great variety of letters that can evoke different expressive or emotional associations in the reader’s mind.” (Luna, 2018:17)
“Selecting the kinds of letters to use for any piece of typography is a fundamental design choice, because it can have an impact on all of these aims. Some are more legible, some are designed for particular technologies, and some strike us as having intrinsic emotional associations.” (Luna, 2018:17)
“What determines the shapes of the letters we use? […] And why do the shapes of some letters have such extraordinary communicative power, capable of affecting the way we perceive the messages that are written with them?” (Luna, 2018:17)
Luna, P. (2018) Typography: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press
Thinking of ideas for my intervention, I’ve been thinking about a typeface design project that looks at cultural identity as a starting point. This would hopefully encourage students to think beyond the Western canon for ideas for typefaces, not only looking to diversify the ‘voice’ of typefaces but also reflecting the culture from where the ideas came.
This reminded me of Norman Potter’s writing in Models and Constructs (1990).
Every artefact, from painting to poem to chair to waste paper basket, tells the total story of the culture that produced it.
Norman Potter, Models and Constructs, 1990
and something James Langdon said in a lecture (I believe the Walker Art Center Insights lecture)
Contained in everything that is manmade is the evidence you would need to understand the values of the society that produced that object.
James Langdon (adding to above)
References
Potter, N. (1990) Models and Constructs: Margin Notes to a Design Culture, London: Hyphen Press
The Decolonising Design Collective’s ‘A Manifesto for Decolonising Design’ was published in 2017 and states as current problems in the design industry:
“Much of the academic and professional discourse within the design disciplines over the last century has been bereft of a critical reflection on the politics of design practice”
And
“design theory, practice, and pedagogy as a whole are not geared towards delivering the kinds of knowledge and understanding that are adequate to addressing longstanding systemic issues of power”
“These issues are products of modernity and its ideologies, regimes, and institutions reiterating, producing and exerting continued colonial power upon the lives of oppressed, marginalized, and subaltern peoples in both the ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ world.”
“This planet, shared and co-inhabited by a plurality of peoples, each inhabiting different worlds, each orienting themselves within and towards their environments in different ways, and with different civilizational histories, is being undermined by a globalized system of power that threatens to flatten and eradicate ontological and epistemological difference, rewriting histories and advance visions of a future for a privileged few at the expense of their human and nonhuman others.”
“mainstream design discourse has been dominated by a focus on Anglocentric/Eurocentric ways of seeing, knowing, and acting in the world”
And see potential solutions / ways forward as:
“a sharper lens needs to be brought to bear on non-western ways of thinking and being, and on the way that class, gender, race, etc,. issues are designed today.”
“highlighting of these issues through practices and acts of design, and the (re)design of institutions, design practices and design studies […] to be a pivotal challenge in the process of decolonisation”
They state that it’s not enough to increase diversity but that we must “seek the radical transfiguration of these structures through the critical eye of the programmatic imagination that dares to identify the possibilities and conditions that will give us alternatives to the now.”
Decolonising Design Collective. (Revised 2017, June 27). A Manifesto for Decolonising Design. Available at: https://www.decolonisingdesign.com/statements/2016/editorial/ (Accessed 26 November 2024)
Article by Ray Masaki on It’s Nice that exploring issues of inclusivity in type design.
Ray Masaki, It’s Nice that
Masaki “argues that a more equitable and diverse future of design will rely less on tools and technology and more on the decisions made by type designers.”
Masaki talks about the availability of modern digital tools and software and how this has increased access from previously marginalised communities, something that Catherine Dixon talks about in her conference presentation on Lettering and Typograohy.
“Due to the accessibility and relative affordability of modern type design and typesetting software, as well as multilingual support enabled by Unicode standards, the barriers to diverse typographic expression have been lowered over the past few decades.”
Ray Masaki, It’s Nice that
“While access to a more formal type design education is still limited in many parts of the world, the software itself has a much shallower learning curve, which makes it much more possible for one to become a self-taught type designer.”
He touches upon non-latin scripts:
“Accessibility towards designing non-Latin scripts, though not quite equal, is steadily evolving and improving as well.”
“I often wonder if there’s currently a lack of criticality and cultural sensitivity missing in that process.”
“A future of more inclusive type design and typography, in my opinion, is less about the tools and technology, but more about the unintentional or subconscious decisions that type designers are making around language support.”
Ray Masaki, It’s Nice that
“when language support is limited or designed improperly, the expression that is embedded within also becomes limited to people who are within similar language borders.”
“This, by extension, means that certain types of typographic visual expression are limited only to typographers who come from similar linguistic backgrounds.”
“Designers often hear the tired argument that there’s too many fonts out there, but when you consider that a Vietnamese typographer only has access to four per cent of the same tools, it places into perspective how typographic expression can be stifled by a lack of inclusive thinking.”
References
Masaki, R. (2023) ‘How typography can make a more inclusive future’, It’s Nice That, 4 Jan. Available at: https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/forward-thinking-how-typography-can-make-a-more-inclusive-future-graphic-design-040123 (Accessed 4 December 2024)
I wanted to look more at the history of typography at CSM, to link with the legacy of the school and contextualise teaching of typography today. So I revisited Edward Johnston (who taught calligraphy at the Central School in the early 20th century). Some guiding quotes from Writing & Illuminating, and Lettering (1906).
Pages from Johnston’s calligraphy guidance, Writing & Illuminating, and Lettering (1906)Pages from Johnston’s calligraphy guidance, Writing & Illuminating, and Lettering (1906)
“one must begin at the beginning, and that, in an honest attempt to achieve a simple end, one may lawfully follow a method 1 without imitating a style.” (Johnston, 1906:xx)
Preface, Writing & Illuminating, and Lettering (1906)
“Developing, or rather redeveloping, an art involves the tracing in one’s own experience of a process resembling its past development. And it is by such a course that we, who wish to revive Writing & Illuminating, may renew them, evolving new methods and traditions for ourselves, till at length we attain a modern and beautiful technique.” (Johnston, 1906:xvi)
“We have almost as much or as little to be afraid of in Originality as in imitation, and our best attitude towards this problem is that of the Irishman with a difficulty “to look it boldly in the face and pass on” – making an honest attempt to achieve a simple end. Perhaps we trouble too much about what we “ought to do” & “do”: it is of greater moment to know what we are doing & trying to do.”
“In so far as tradition fails to bound or guide us we must think for ourselves and in practice make methods and rules for ourselves: endeavouring that our work should be effective rather than have “a fine effect” or he, rather than appear, good and following our craft rather than making it follow us. For all things materials, tools, methods are waiting to serve us and we have only to find the “spell” that will set the whole universe a-making for us.”
References
Johnston, E. (1906) Writing & Illuminating, and Lettering. London: John Hogg
Left: Nüshu characters (black) and their Chinese Hanzi counterparts (white) set in Noto Sans Nüshu and Noto Sans CJK (Credit: Lisa Huang). Right Top: Original “Back to the Future” lettering. Right bottom: Javanese version of the lettering by Aditya Bayu Perdana.
“Futuress is a hybrid between a learning community and a publishing platform. Our mission is to radically democratize design education and amplify marginalized voices. Through various free public programs, we problematize the role of design and foster critical thinking. Our work is literally for the future: we bring people together and support our community to craft their own narratives. One story inspires; many stories can ignite a movement!”
The font Unite Stencil was created by November studio for the anti-fascist movement Artists Unite. To signify the movement’s national reach, the font is designed for all Indic scripts. First row, from left to right: Bangla, Deva, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Kannada. Second row, from left to right: Malayalam, Odia, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu.
‘A Resource Hub for Decolonizing Typography’
Futuress has posted ‘A Resource Hub for Decolonizing Typography’ with links to articles specifically about decolonising typography. – more to check out.
References
Futuress. (2022) ‘A Resource Hub for Decolonizing Typography’, Futuress, 15 September. Available at: https://futuress.org/stories/decolonizing-typography-resources/ (Accessed 7 December 2024).
Designer and educator Amy Suo Wu in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Some notes and quotes
“dismantling the Eurocentric historical design canon”
“Therefore, one way to think about “decolonizing design” is as the process of eliminating false distinctions between craft and design, in order to recognize all culturally important forms of making.”
Khandwala talks about decolonisation potentially meaning different things:
“The difficulty with a concept like decolonization, though, is that it means different things to different people in different places.”
“de-centering the perspectives of settlers to emphasize those of the indigenous”
“others focus on decolonization as a process of recovery and the restoration of identity”
“still others use the term to critique Eurocentrism and modernism.”
“recognizing diversity of thought”
Southall “as an indigenous person, it’s about centering Native voices”
Tejada “It’s been an education thinking about decolonization in this layered, complicated context.”
Tejada “Sometimes, decolonizing is about making space. Sometimes it’s about taking space.”
Tejada “Decolonizing is about unearthing, shifting the glance, de-centering, giving agency, being vulnerable, making mistakes, ideation, thinking about our communities, and not so much design.”
Wu: “As a teacher trying to disrupt this, I’m literally trying to mend the ruptures between binaries. I’m also interested in the word “mend” and reclaiming that word, which has been traditionally deemed inferior. It belongs to the realm of craft, and is associated with female labor. I use the word “mend” to describe literally and figuratively how to move forward with divides.”
Tejada “If we say “design,” I tend to think of Design with a capital “D” as being a European thing. I heard somebody say once that you can’t teach any other Design history because Europeans created, or “discovered,” design. It’s like okay—just like you discovered America? Great… What a lot of us are interested in doing is thinking about lowercase design. “
Southall “How many graphic design dissertations are looking at the iconography of a tribe and how it’s shaping the designers that are here? “
Wu: “I’ve learned to look at design through her [mother] perspective—her non-elitist, local, diaspora aesthetic—and it’s been an un-learning process for me.”
On ego and collaboration
Sanint: “When I was a student, I was taught to create something that was “mine.” Now, I can’t remember the last time I created something as only mine. I was part of something, I feel proud of it, but I feel it collectively—as in, we did this.”
Khandwala, A. (2020) “Decolonizing Means Many Things to Many People”—Four Practitioners Discuss Decolonizing Design. AIGA Eye on Design, 20 February. Available at: https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/decolonizing-means-many-things-to-many-people-four-practitioners-discuss-decolonizing-design/ (Accessed 7 December 2024)
