Chapter 6 Reflection | Nauseda

Chapter six discusses a concept I touched on in my chapter one reflection, the typographic message. When I mentioned how iconic the Coca-Cola typographic logo is and has been since the 1890's, that is sort of what this chapter is talking about. How the way type is made affects the way we remember, perceive, or understand the feeling of a design. Something about the Coca-Cola typeface says “classic”, and that is part of their whole gimmick. Its about making the type work with the mood of your design and the context of the design. For instance, one would not use a bitmapped font for anything other than, maybe, a retro video game advertisement. Even then, they can be very cheesy if not done well, because of the aura or feeling attached to such a design. Imagine if Ferrari used Jokewood. It would have quite a different feel and probably wouldn't be taken seriously.

Emoticons are another way to simply explain the impact that typographic designs can have. “:)” is just a colon juxtaposed to a parenthesis, but because of the form these two characters make, we interpret them as being a smile. Over the years, emoticons have gotten pretty complex as people are finding new ways to combine letterforms in order to express a feeling they would otherwise not easily be able to express via text. Although simple, this example sums up what the chapter is about pretty well I think.

Here is a collection of bitmapped fonts that certainly give off the feel of a 90's game console.