Patrevito - Chapter 6 Reflection

            Chapter six is about the typographic message.  This is very important because this is what most designers are trying to achieve: some type of reaction or to get a message across to their viewers.  Typography must communicate, that is the main purpose for it, but with some designs this is not always the case.  I thought this chapter was interesting because it is all about typographic communication and getting the message across in your designs.  I think that this is extremely important in today’s society because advertising is all around.  Most of these advertisements are using typography to communicate whatever product they want to sell or whatever message they want to get across to their viewers.  Making things clear and legible is extremely important, but keeping a design creative and visually appealing is just as important.  An advertisement that just reads straight up can be visually boring for the viewers and easily passed up.   Ones that have too much going on can confuse people, and result in them passing up that advertisement up too.  Designers must find a balance between these two to create compositions that help customers and designers find a common ground.  Function and expressionism also plays into this.  Function is used for a specific audience when it comes to typography.  Expressionism comes through ornamentation and elaboration.  Ornamentation can give the piece uniqueness, and can identify the object to what it is associated with.  The designer must understand both the verbal and visual parts of their design in order to have a successful design.   Too much ornamentation can ruin a design and completely demolish its function.  In order to be successful, one must be creative when creating their compositions, and look at them from the viewers perspective.  Without functionality and effective communication, most designs are going to be overlooked.