6. Emotion or information?

Abstract

We are surrounded by a typographic environment. Typography is present not just in the printed matter that we read, but also in all our interactions with computers and mobile devices, with street signs and shop fronts. Typography has multiple personalities. As well as identifying and imparting information, typography is associative, and designers use it to influence our view of the messages we are reading. In this way, typography can be considered a creative endeavour. Typography is also the mechanized presentation of language. In this way, it is subservient to the structures of the messages it presents. ‘Emotion or information?’ considers how these different aspects of typography can be reconciled.