Type, Philosophy, Perfection

In the article by Peter Bil'ak, Experimental Typography: Whatever that Means, the idea of "experimental" is explored in a rather philosophical way. He disects the way we normally think of the term "experiment", in the sense that we are either looking for empirical data or an easy way out of a failure.

However, none of this is beneficially when being applied to design, specifically, typography. He asks if experimentation is even possible within the confines of the alphabet as we know it today. Further, experimental design can only be validated by its audience, closed to true experimentation to begin with. He concludes by stating that there is no definitive explanation of experimentation in typography.

This got me thinking, back towards philosophy. The debate of ethics is a prominent, unresolved argument. For ethics to exist (or be utilized), ethical conditions must be constant and true for all, with no exceptions permitted. Hence, are there even any practicable ethical codes?

I would argue, no, there aren't. It is left up to the individual to define a unique ethical code, governed only by the individual, and impenetrable by anyone else. The same can be said for design. We are conditioned from early on to a unique type of aesthetic code - the very code we employ in our coursework. The teachers can't reasonably tell us if our choices are correct or incorrect for they are simply choices.

Why must we seek impossible solutions when all we need is to feel a sense of ease? That is why we postulate and seek answers - to calm our troubled minds.

~

In Typography, we've been exploring type formally. We were assigned seven "values", repetition, gradation, anomaly, direction, concentration, space, and texture, and challenged to explore them digitally and through analog means.

So far, I've done two sets of digital explorations to both successfully and interestingly convey each design value.

I'm not sure how I feel about my explorations as of yet. To be honest, other class work has been physically and emotionally consuming. For now, the other work has died down and I'm ready to put my main focus on Type. I hope the distraction isn't evident in my work, but I'll have to wait until after critique to see.