Why is Typography so special ? Because letters are the visual
atoms of language, and language defines us. We are language machines,
and anything else, the physical world included, is an unnessential
accessory, a way-through, the organ/obstacle of our nature, which lies
in language.
Why is the visual part of language more important than the audible part, phonems..etc ?
I don't think it is. There is simply no art, studies, or ways to think
about the audible side of letters. Phonetics and phonology touches into
neurology, not yet into psychology or psychoanalysis. I just don't see
how one can be excited about various "a" and "o" sounds, just yet.
Don't we use other senses to express ourselves? Body language isn't a well-formed language, analytically speaking. I love perfumes but they have the same problem.
Are letters that important? Isn't the content of a text so much more vital than the way the letters are drawn?
I believe most people can understand the obvious principle of
typography: that letter-shapes carry different mental "packages" or
cultural assimilation: Stencil fonts feel strong and manly, Courier
feels mechanical, Script faces feel human...etc. But it takes a lot
of imagination and sensitivity to feel how the emotions of shapes can be
much more than a mental accessory.
Isn't typography just about the legibility/readbility issue? Typography is the mother of Text and its pedestal and its autel and its
backlight. It is the hidden and invisible power that makes content
shine.
What is the Graal, the aim, the god, the dream of typography? I
see a mirage, an idea, of words on the page. I believe there can be
letter-shapes that transcend their content because their shapes capture
the full attention of the eye, of the brain. And the meaning of words
would flow in the mind, invisibly, as in a mutual endeavour of the
outside/inside. I believe and dream in the resolution of the brain/mind
issue. There is a light coming out of a shape that fits its content, and
we are still in the infancy of creating such shapes.
Ok... let's take a step back. Design has an influence on how we
think, so isn't typography a cousin of architecture, or industrial
design? Yes, but objects and walls are only doors to memories,
images and sensations. Letter-shapes, and only them, are also doors to
the logical mind.
So typography is the supreme Art of design? Yes.
What do you think other designers would say about that? They would not like it, but I cannot convince them. Like I said, it takes a peculiar mind to see why typography rules.
