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Typographic Manipulation in Magazine Advertising :

Readability and Legibility

Wan Nurul Asikin binti Wan Ramli / Ruslan Rahim / asikinwan@yahoo.com / Rusr2001@yahoo.com
Faculty of Art and Design, University Technology MARA (UiTM), Malaysia

Typography is one of the magical things that people use on a daily basis. Any approach can be used to create a typeface

including hand rendering, computer code or program generation. Based on ‘Text and Image’ by Mark Wigan (2008),

letterforms can be manipulated in many different ways depending on the mood or context to be conveyed. Besides that,

different classes of typefaces (fonts) have different innate levels of readability and legibility when using typography

manipulation. This paper aims to identify the most suitable ways to apply manipulation in print advertising. The objectives

are to analyze the important of typography manipulation, to investigate the awareness of public about typography

manipulation effectiveness and identify the elements that brings about visual impact.

Keyword: Typography, Manipulation, Print and Magazine Advertising.

One of the main components of typography is the distance in the letter spacing and form spacing. It is difficult to devote

attention to the words or concepts that are overly designed. From here cops the question on how to ensure typography

manipulation can remain legible. Typographic clarity comes in two types: legibility and readability. What’s the difference?

Legibility is a function of typeface design. It is one of the informal ways to identify a one letter from another in a particular

typeface. Readability, on the other hand, is dependent upon how the typeface is used. Readability is about typography. It is a

way of how easily words, phrases and blocks of copy can be read.

Figure 5: Periodic table of typeface

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Typography is one of the magical things that people always. Any material can be used to create a font including hand render,

code or program generated. Moreover (White,2007) defined typography as text with drawing (p.86). Typography refers to the

combination of text on a page, and shows in all written communication. An article by Jennifer Kyrnin mentioned that

typography is visual communication using typeface and design.

Typography also can be shown in the form of art (Smith,2009). An example is in advertising design. Each company will have a

design that shows the identity of the company. Numerous companies utilize typography as a logo. Based on Benjamin Koh,

typography is the craft of human language. Nowadays typography is one important element in our daily lives. Without

typography our lives will blank.

Typography is conveying messages through the design, selection and composition of typefaces. Like illustration, typography

is constantly evolving and concerns the manipulation of visual languages in many contexts including typefaces, logo types,

information design and sign systems, trademarks or concrete poetry.

Based on ‘Text and Image’ (Wigan), some recycle and reclaim physical objects, transforming and remixing them into collages.

Others employ imagination, experimentation, visual metaphors and mnemonics to create letterforms, images and ideas.

There are also those who orchestrate emotion and feelings through the manipulation of color, scale, texture, juxtaposition and

contrast, while others deploy parody and pastiche, risk, chance and error.

To begin with, illustrative text has four categories. Handcrafted type is one in this category that plays an important role in

typography. Handcrafted are hand-drawn letterforms. Wigan postulated that lettering and type design is about the observance

and breaking of basic rules. The skeletal structures of alphabets, icons, index and symbol are manipulated in the creation of

word-images.

Sampling and mixing is one of the media and techniques to create illustrative text. Tools and materials used can be varied as

found objects, nails polish, oils, household paints, letterpress, stencil, rubber stamps, phonograms, typewriters, textiles, fax

and badges machines and photographs.

Another category is typographic poetry which is divided into two types; pattern poetry and concrete poetry. Pattern poetry

means typography or lines that are arranged in an unusual configuration, usually to convey or extend the emotional content of

the words also called figure poem and shaped verse. Concerning with pattern poems, according to Finch (2004), the patterns

in these poems usually consist of grammatical items (adjectives, adverbs, verbs, etc), metrical frameworks, phrases, or

sentence structures, though they can also include acronyms, alphabetical sequencing and other types of patterning.

In ‘Text and Image’(p.138), Wigan stated that concrete poetry is poetry where the poet intent is conveyed by graphic patterns

of letters, words or symbols and not by the meaning of the word in any conventional business.
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Another category in illustrative text is letterforms. Furthermore, letterforms are powerful and interesting ways to conveying a

message, information, emotion and values. Letterforms is all about illustration and typographic.

It is observable that sampling and mixing techniques are the best elements in illustrative type because of the feeling and the

originality conveyed. The elements created manually and mixed with digital elements combined can be visually exhilarating.

Furthermore, the immediate spontaneous and emotional qualities of illustrated and hand drawn letters are evident in a wide

range of media and contexts. Handcrafted together with drawn techniques can be mashed up and mixed with the digital to

create new experimental hybrid forms.

References

Print
1. Gillian Dyer. (1982) Advertising as Communication; Great Britain: Richard Clay.

2. Robin Landa. (2004) Advertising by Design – Creating Visual Communications with graphic impact; Hoboken, New Jersey:

John Wiley Sons, Inc.

3. David Jury. (2006) What is Typography; Singapore: Page One Publishing Private Limited.

4. Timothy Samara. (2004) Typography Workbook; Massachusetts: Rockport Publishers Inc.

5. Timothy Samara. (2006) Type Style Finder; Singapore: Page One Publishing Private Limited.

6.David A. Amdur. (2007) Typographic Design in the Digital Studio- Design Concepts; Canada: Thomson Delmar Learning.

7.Mark Wigan. (2008) Text and Image; Singapore: AVA Book Production Pte. Ltd.

Periodicals
1.Frieze – Contemporary Art and Culture (Issues 131, May 2010)

2.Creative Review- Advertising, design and visual culture (Issue 7, volume 3 , July 2010)

3.Archive (Volume 6, 2007)

Online Journals and Websites

1.http://www.designishistory.com/1450/type-classification/

2.http://richworks.in/2010/01/35-most-amazing-typography-in-advertisement-and-design/

3.http://www.noupe.com/inspiration/gorgeous-typography-examples-in-advertising-design.html

4.http://desigg.com/meaningful-typography/

5.http://desigg.com/creative-use-of-typography-in-print-design-and-products/

6.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

7.http://www.blurtit.com

8.http://dictionary.reference.com/

9.http://www.answers.com/

10.http://typography-daily.com/2009/10/02/15-must-read-typography-articles/

11.http://www.noupe.com