Completing an introduction to graphic design (a typography workshop) increased my interest in text and its potential uses. But was this in a new graphic design sense, or had I just found a new language/tool to enhance and develop my fine art practise in the future?
Our brief was to manipulate text in order to represent an allocated word: ‘Failure’. I feel that I initially matched the brief, creating an image that shows the word failing to follow an even layout. The top of the page shows the word repeated in equal spaces. This shifts into the ‘failure’ of this structure at the bottom of the page, where I used random variations of opacity, positioning and layering of the letters. I took a simplistic approach to exactly follow the brief.
Piet Zwart, a photographer and graphic designer, inspired my first development of this concept. I separated the letters completely by ripping prints of the original typogram and placing them randomly on the page, as well as drawing repetitions of some letters by hand. This takes the knowledge of the original word away, creating what I considered a chaotic image of failure.
At this point, I began to question whether my interest was in creating a graphic image of ‘failure’. I felt conflicted between this and my interest in the concept of using letters (specifically their shapes) separate from the context of the word they belong to as a way of forming an image.
My final development was also inspired by Zwart; his use of horizontal, vertical and diagonal angles of type in his work. This aspect began to interest me in the forefront, as I played around with extending lines from cut-off letters. While I still think this embodies the word ‘Failure’ itself, I am able to question what I really took from this exercise, as I ultimately strayed from the brief.
My conclusion, while still flexible, is that my practise remains in the fine art realm. Graphic design and the techniques it presents can be used in my work as a language to communicate ideas, and create compelling images.
Fine artists such as Barbara Kruger, who uses bold font to spell out the message behind, or formed by, her work exemplify the potential for this cross-disciplinary method. Jenny Holtzer uses text in isolation, forming pictures and other pieces (installations, lighting) made up entirely from language. Modernist poets’ fascination with typographic structure as an element of their writing shows how language and art coincide, and can exist as significant aspects of one another.
Sophia Tate 