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My contention is that typography in its “highest” form is a hybrid artform both visual and verbal, an interpretive artform, and the typographer is an interpretive artist, not unlike the actor, director, or concert musician. Certainly in its most elemental form, typography involves choosing a typeface to clearly convey a message or information. This is not meant to undervalue the importance of clarity and legibility. Simple communication is central to much of what typographers do day-to-day. But for myself, my challenge, my “kick”, is to take my typographic skills to that higher, more conceptual, illustrative, interpretive level. I have tried to do so with the selections contained in the first issue of “Quoted.” Whether or not I have done so I leave up to you. —MAX
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RUMILAO TZUpaul kleekhalil gibranHARRIET TUBMANGEORGIA O’KEEFEmitch hedbergGEORGE ORWELLMALCOLM XDR. SEUSSanais nin LENIN
MAX SINGER CONCEPTUAL TYPOGRAPHYFALL 2014
icouldsay thingswithcolorandshapes thaticouldn’tsayanyotherway-thingsihadnowordsfor
icouldsay thingswithcolorandshapes thaticouldn’tsayanyotherway-thingsihadnowordsfor
{ GEO
RG
IA O
’KEEFE }
DESPITE
FACTS
TRUTH
and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge
unfolds. I have always kept an open mind, a flexibility that must go
hand in hand with every form of the intelligent search for
{ MA
LCO
LM X }
my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face
{ MITC
H H
EDB
ERG
}
{ GEO
RG
E OR
WELL }
{ RU
MI }
We did it ourselves
A leader is best when
people barely know
he exists. When his
work is done, his aim
fulfilled, they will say:
We did it ourselves
{ LAO
TZU }
{ PAU
L KLEE }
I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.
I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.
{ HA
RR
IET TUB
MA
N }
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
{ VLAD
IMIR
LENIN
}
When at ast we are sure, y u’ve been pr per y p ed,
then a few paper f rms, must be pr per y f ed.
S that y u and y ur he rs, may be pr per y b ed.
When at ast we are sure, y u’ve been pr per y p ed,
then a few paper f rms, must be pr per y f ed.
S that y u and y ur he rs, may be pr per y b ed.
{ DR
. SEUSS }
Life’s Two Chief Prizes,
BEAUTY TRUTH,
I found the first in a Loving Heart & the second in a Laborer’s HandY
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Life’s Two Chief Prizes,
BEAUTY TRUTH,
I found the first in a Loving Heart & the second in a Laborer’s HandY
{ KH
ALIL G
IBR
AN
}
{ AN
AIS N
IN }
n GEORGIA O’KEEFE: SYNCHRONICITY Sometimes there’s just one perfect font for the job, in this case the perfectly geometrical P22
Constructivist. n MALCOLM X: DEVIL IN THE DETAILS A complicated and controversial person whose words are often misconstrued by those who have not actually read them. Don’t focus on the buzz words. (DIN BLACK condensed to 94%). n MITCH HEDBERG: SOLVING A PUZZLE What else but a text block in the shape of a hippopotamus?! Using a fun face, CHILADA,
I created individual vector letterforms and with direct select/add anchor point modified each letter to solve the puzzle. n GEORGE ORWELL: BIG BROTHER An imagined design for a billboard that might be found in a 1984-like dystopia. The appropriately named ITC MACHINE set tight with it’s minimal negative space achieves this authoritarian feeling. n RUMI: ILLUMINATION An attempt to capture the beauty and feeling of classic Islamic calligraphy: ornate, complex and lovely using heavily modified Airedale Bold and Bodoni Ornaments. n LAO TZU: IRONIC EMPHASIS Sometimes it’s just a question of emphasis. I decided on a “whispered” intro and a “shouted “conclusion set in classic Hoefler Text to express the meaning of this aphorism.
n PAUL KLEE: THINKING LITERALLY If form follows function this is a perfect example of using type to illustrate the sense of the text with Gotham bold
and BLACK. n HARRIET TUBMAN: MONUMENTAL A woman whose life should be more celebrated and her words set in stone. I used Slab American texturized with a heavily tweaked photograph I took of a wall in Soho. n LENIN: SATIRICAL Soviet-era agitprop and futurist graphic design immediately came to mind. Berthold City Bold had the right feel with flipped letter-forms redolent of the Cyrillic alphabet. The multiple check boxes were a last touch of irony. n DR. SEUSS: AT PLAY I imagined the good doctor sitting at his vintage Underwood writing these words. Using Slab
American with pills and tablets created with InDesign vector shapes & effects. n KHALIL GIBRAN: GOING FOR BAROQUE Who says less is more? I thought of elaborate hand-drawn initials in Medieval Books of the Hours. I created the “Of” with AT Burin, Zapf Dingbats, the polygon tool in InDesign and modified heart and hand clip art. Also used were Escorial, Fette Fraktur (my favorite ampersand), PAULA WOOD, AT Hadriano, CG Egiziano and Filosofia unicase. n ANAIS NIN: FRAGMENTED COMPLEXITY I took my cues from the phrases “fragment by fragment” and “laborious mosaic.” Ergo this mosaic with Neutraface Titling, a strong, clean, yet quirky typeface I had just recently began using.
