1. Lupton argued that “linearity dominates many of the commercial software applications that have claimed to revolutionize everyday writing and communication (p. 68)” Lupton further suggested that databases are “genres that create and information space rather than a linear sequence (p. 69).”  How do modern forms of textual communication defy linearity? How do they conform to linearity? How do databases create non-linear information spaces?

2. Lupton stated that “The dominant subject of our age has become neither reader nor writer but user, a figure conceived as a bundle of needs and impairments—cognitive, physical, emotional (p. 73)” How do you think this shift from reader/writer to user has affected the use of typography?

3. Lupton discussed that “visually impaired users employ automated screen readers that ‘linearize’ Web pages into a continuous text that can be read aloud by a machine.” How does usability discourage designers from using non-linear methods, and how does this effect typography trends?

4. Gage discussed the politics of color. How do contemporary politics affect our symbolic and metaphorical interpretations of color?

The readings this week, Ellen Lupton’s thinking with type:  A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students, and John Gage’s Color and Meaning:  Art, Science, and Symbolism, call readers to evaluate the way we read and interpret texts, emphasizing the cultural influence of the writer and, ultimately, the reader, in establishing meaning. 

I am an instructional designer who works virtually, so a common form of correspondence with my team is through Instant Messenger (IM).  (via MS Communicator).  Like other forms of instant messaging, users have the ability to change their fonts.  A few months ago, I had a conversation with a co-worker that went something like this:

IM?

sure

How does this font look?

I like the purple…font’s easy to read.

It doesn’t look like I’m yelling?

Yeah, good call.  I’d change it.

In The Social Life of Information, John Seely Brown and Paul Duduid discussed the negotiation of meaning that is compromised when technology replaces face to face interaction.  The conversation above is a basic example of meaning could be misconstrued as a result of visual rhetoric.  In face to face conversation, we convey meaning through, not only verbal discourse, but through tone and inflection, body language, etc.  A culmination of these factors influences how meaning is interpreted.  But through electronic conversation, such as IM and email, we have come to understand that CAPS LOCK MEANS WE ARE YELLING, bold is more significant than the surrounding text, etc.

So, as we move toward the more complex special arrangements evident in databases over the linear (and often limiting perspective of PowerPoint, according to Tufte) is it, in fact, possible to control the way our ideas and intentions are interpreted?  To me, the vastness of the internet and consequential misinterpretations of meaning is an overwhelming concept. 

When I was teaching, I delivered a demonstration for a group of teachers involved in Rowan’s National Writing Project that I entitled, “Assigning Value to Multiple Perspectives:  A Question of “Meaning” Displayed Through Ideology.”  In short, the purpose of the demonstration was to encourage teachers (and students) to recognize ideologies inherent in our interpretations of texts in attempt to embrace multiple meanings. 

We may never truly be able to discern authorial intent, whether we’re analyzing a colonial piece of American literature or a blog post from five minutes ago.  But by contextualizing what we understand of the author’s culture and by taking in the visual rhetoric and other electronic discourses that are quickly replacing face to face conversation, we can attempt to define meaning and, if nothing else, try to recognize what those interpretations say about our own ideas. 

Ellen Lupton’s Thinking With Type is a fascinating book about how to use fonts and structure text most effectively.  The book is set up in three main sections Letter, Text Grid, and the appendix. While I was reading I could easily see the concepts that were discussed in the text being implemented in the layout of the book itself.  For example, the Contents page in the very beginning of the book is set up using a typographical hierarchy or “an organizational system for content, emphasizing some data and diminishing others” which is discussed on page 94. (Lupton, 2004) The book showcases an incredible number of images and examples.  When the author discuses something they put it in that font so that you can actually see it for yourself.  Interesting enough the is a strong and surprising element of humor such as the “Common Typographic Diseases; Typophila, Typophobia, Tpochondria, and Typothermia”, “Type Crimes” and the suggestion to not use “extra spaces to create centered effects or layouts unless you really are e. e. cummings” which help to keep the reader engaged and interested.  (Lupton, 2004) 

Thinking with Type is also friendly to those who have no background experience with typography.  Whenever the author introduces a new term or concept she immediately defines it which I found very helpful.  Also, each page is given a title the encapsulates what is about to be discussed which helps prepare the reader and makes looking for information extremely easy. 

The book begins with a brief history of typography.  This history is said to reflect “a continual tension between the hand and the machine, the organic and the geometric, the human body and the abstract system.” (Lupton, 2004) The book then continues on to provide us with examples of many popular fonts, families of fonts and how they are created, as well as different aspects of fonts such as cap height, x-height, baseline, spine, ascender, descender, ligature, serif, bowl, stem, and finial.  As the author states however “this is not a book about fonts.  It’s a book about how to use them.” (Lupton, 2004) Lupton shows us how and why to use certain texts depending on the situation such as Helvetica and Times Roman for print, Georgia and Verdana for websites.  

The next section deals with text.  Here text is “defined as an ongoing sequence of words, distinct from shorter headlines or captions.” (Lupton, 2004)  A body of text generally has “more integrity and wholeness than the elements that surround it, from pictures, captions, and page numbers to banners, buttons, and menus…Typography helps readers navigate the flow of content.” (Lupton, 2004)  Amusingly the author admits that “although many books define the purpose of typography as enhancing the readability of the written word, one of design’s most humane functions is, in actuality, to help readers avoid reading.” (Lupton, 2004) Here we also learn different methods of formatting text such as spacing and indenting. 

The third section is Grids, which “break space or time into regular units.” (Lupton, 2004)  Grids help control text, image or data and “establish a system for arranging content within the space of page, screen, or built environment.” (Lupton, 2004) Here the author discuses the golden section which is a “ratio that has been used in Western art and architecture for more than two thousand years.  The formula for the golden section is a:b=b: (a+b)” or 1: 1.618.” (Lupton, 2004)  The author explains that some designers are extremely in favor of the golden section while others put it in the same category as other grid methods “such as beginning from standard industrial paper sizes, or dividing surfaces into halves or squares, or simply picking whole number page formats and making logical divisions within them.” (Lupton, 2004) The author also describes single-column, multi-column, and modular grids as well as table designs. 

The book ends with an appendix that discuses punctuation and editing. Here the author talks of the different types of punctuation and where they are used as well as the role of the editor.  There are three types of editing; developmental which “addresses broad issues of the content and the structure of the work,” copy editing which “seeks to root out redundancies, inconsistencies, grammatical errors and other flaws,” and proofreading which “checks the correctness, consistency, and flow of design and typset pages.” (Lupton, 2004) Overall I found this book to be extremely interesting and would recommend it to anymore who would like to learn more about typography.