Text typeface design can often be a lengthy and solitary endeavour on the part of the designer. An endeavour for which, there is little in terms of guidance to draw upon regarding the design processes involved. This is not only a contemporary problem but also an historical one. Examination of extant accounts that reference text typeface design aided the orientation of this research (Literature Review 2.0). This identified the lack of documented knowledge specific to the design processes involved. Identifying expert and non-expert/emic and etic (Pike 1967) perspectives within the existing literature helped account for such paucity. In relation to this, the main research question developed is: Can knowledge of text typeface design process be revealed, and if so can this be explicated theoretically? A qualitative, Grounded Theory Methodology (Glaser & Strauss 1967) was adopted (Methodology 3.0), appropriate where often a ‘topic of interest has been relatively ignored in the literature’ (Goulding 2002, p.55). This research is specifically concerned with knowledge of design process relating to world-leading experts in the field. Data was derived via recorded in-depth interviews, these were transcribed, analysed and coded in accordance with Grounded Theory’s constant comparative method (Glaser & Strauss 1967, p.105). From the analysis, raised concepts and themes resolved in the generation of three unique Grounded Theory core categories, these have been named: Trajectorizing, Homologizing and Attenuating (chapters 4.0, 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3). The core categories describe how experts negotiate the initiation of design, relational qualities with respect to design and continual accretive refinement of design. The core categories combine to resolve together (chapters 5.0 and 6.0) as workable, conceptual theory that describes and explains text typeface design process generally. The developed theory this research contributes, is anticipated suitable to be applied as analytical and/or prescriptive tools for future study, research and pedagogy in the specific subject area. Beyond this, disciplines such as graphic design, typography, information design etc. may also benefit from this research.

This practice-based study explored the relationship between text-based messages and audio-based communication within the contemporary urban environment. Issues relating to signage overload and urban movement were identified at an early stage in this study, and pedestrian wayfinding was then selected as a form of communication that allowed for exploration of all the key issues. Two practice-based approaches to the research were developed that utilised both analysis and experimentation. Initially informal and then subsequently structured investigations of text and audio-based communications in real environments were conducted. Subsequently structured case studies were undertaken in carefully selected external environments, whence a series of charts and macroscopic drawings were produced facilitating data collection and analysis by the researcher. Analysis of findings indicated that whereas in interior public spaces the combination of text and audio in messages was relatively well established, there were few examples of wayfinding design that employ a combination of text and audio design currently existing within the external environments investigated in the case studies. It was also indicated that signage overload and visual clutter made pedestrian wayfinding problematic in the urban environment. Speculative design proposals investigate possible solutions to these issues. From this practical and theoretical basis guidelines have been derived with a view to supporting practitioners in this new area.

This thesis considers the design of a combined industrial printing and publishing house as a semi-public institution. The site is in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The institution includes a bookstore, archive, studio, book conservation facility, and guest rooms, in addition to printing and publishing. Research included relevant literature, an applied course in typography, and a working visit to Gaspereau Press. The way program elements are brought together and overlap relates to the formal strategies of spatial organization in typography. The design as a setting for human activity relates to the relationship between text and content in the activity of reading. The simultaneous presence of the practical and the creative in the practice of architectural design is also explored in relation to typographic practice. The intention is to clarify both the object of design and the practice of design in comparison to both aspects in typography. This then further clarifies the relation of the program to the built work.

This work provides the first extended account of New Typography’s path in Scandinavian countries, a topic which has yet to receive attention beyond a handful of articles and book chapters. Based on an exhaustive study of graphic trade journals published in Denmark, Norway and Sweden between the years of 1927 and 1943, it charts debate on New Typography and discusses the journals’ changing designs. Additional visual material has been sourced from a number of Scandinavian archives. In discussing the spread of New Typography’s theory and aesthetic from elsewhere in Europe, and then primarily from Germany, the thesis uses the concepts of domestication and networks, rather than those of diffusion or influence and centre–periphery. Dealing with a period in which the graphic designer had yet to appear as a professional figure, New Typography’s impact on a range of professional groups — all of which held responsibility for the design of graphic materials — is considered. Particular attention is paid to how the printing trade took up New Typography in its educational efforts to ‘heighten the trade’. However, the differing cultural, organisational and technological factors informing not only the practice of printers, but also that of architects, avant-garde artists, commercial artists, intellectuals and lay-out men, is detailed in order to understand how and why New Typography achieved different levels of penetration amongst these groups. Rather than facilitating an exchange of ideas across professional boundaries, the Scandinavian trade journals serving these various practitioner types formed parts of discreet international networks, more likely to report on developments within their particular trade or profession abroad, than on those occurring in related trades or professions at home. The last two chapters deal with how New Typography related to two major cultural and political forces in 1930s Scandinavia: Functionalism and Social Democracy. Commonly perceived as closely related, not only to one another, but to Scandinavian architecture and design of the period, the discussion of these two forces is used to relate typography to the wider design field. It will be argued that whilst initially separate strands, New Typography and Functionalism were quickly coflated, shifting the focus of debate from aesthetic matters to those of function. Taken up as a domestication strategy, this shift paradoxically allowed traditionalist views of typography to be put forward as more progressive than the teachings of Tschichold or the practices of the avant-garde. The use of photomontage was limited in a commercial context. This particular aspect of New Typography was thereby able to retain its radical political associations, and found prominent use in the discreet zones formed by the publications of Clartéist publishing house Mondes Forlag, publications associated with Functionalist architects and the graphic materials created for the Social Democratic parties’ youth and women’s groups. A clear organisational commitment to both Functionalism and New Typography was made by the Swedish cooperative society, Kooperativa Förbundet. It not only made pioneering use of Functionalism in architecture, but established a house style based on New Typography for its ‘konsum’ stores.

This study examined the readability of fonts. More specifically, it investigated how four different fonts effected both reading rate and reading comprehension. The typefaces Georgia, Verdana, (which, according to their designers, optimize onscreen readability) Times, and Arial (both designed for digital output to hard copy) were displayed as treatments both on a computer screen and on paper. The purpose of the study was to determine whether sans serif and serif typefaces optimized for on-screen viewing significantly improve reading rate and reading comprehension. Comparisons were made among the typefaces using a categorical independent variable postmeasure-only research design to determine the level of dependent variables (rate, comprehension). The group means of each of twelve treatment groups (N=264) were analyzed using analyses of variance to determine if either of the variables (presentation mode or font) had a statistically significant effect upon reading rate and/or reading comprehension of a sample taken from a population of subjects attending a midwestern state university. No significant difference was found among reading speed or reading comprehension scores of subjects tested who read text which was typeset in any of the four typefaces. However, significant difference was found between the presentation modes used in the experiment. Since it was found that 8-bit on-screen text was not significanly more readable than 600dpi text on paper, and 1-bit onscreen text was found to be significantly less readable than onscreen text and 600dpi text on paper, this research concludes that for purposes of ease of readability, onscreen text is better suited to be rendered as 8-bit onscreen text than 1-bit on-screen text. Also, the findings indicate that 8-bit on-screen text was not found to be significantly less readable than 600dpi text on paper. Also, due to the various typefaces currently being used in digital typography and the differing presentation media, further exploration of the readability of on-screen text should examine more fonts and screen display variables. / Ph. D.

Thesis (MDes) - National School of Design, Swinburne University of Technology, 2009. / A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Design by Research, [Swinburne University of Technology], 2009. Typescript. Bibliography: p. [89]-91.

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Summary in Chinese. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--The Chinese University of Hong Kong. / Bibliography: l. 83-84.

The hypothesis that this project aims to investigate is this: That through the arrangement of letterforms in space, a graphic designer can manipulate this voice in order to deliver a nuanced impression of language as it is intended to be heard. As a graphic designer, my job is to communicate meaning visually. When my choice of typography aids in the assignment of proper tone of voice to words, communication is made more clear. In the typographic studies I've created in the course of this exploration, I've tried to establish the pitch, tone, and volume of typographic voice by manipulating how words look. I've created compositions that explore how we see and hear language through typography, in order to assemble data that supports my hypothesis.