How Can Words Be Visual?

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Andrew Haslam in his book “Book Design” where he is discussing the typographic journal “Mmm... Skyscraper, I Love You'. Designed & authored by Karl Hyde in which the form and the content portrays emotional poetry about New York. It features the use of very expressive typography. Its a very emotional piece in which Hyde has clearly thrown himself into. The typography is very abstract which is done on purpose so that the reader of the poems if forced to think carefully about the meaning, we’re pushed in a certain direction depending on the ocular palette etc but we’re allowed to have our own opinion.

There are lots of ways words can be visual, expressive typography is a way for the artist or designer to relay a message and meaning. Shapes and colours lend themselves to be a brilliant way of portraying the significance of word. Words themselves are a visual thing as we have to read them, for them to come alive. By adding shapes, colours, expressions alongside things such as onomatopoeias and images, as designers we are able to speak to our audience more clearly, making it more interesting.

Words can be visual if you make them. as designers we have the ability nd now the technology to turn a group simple letters into a piece of art work. Companies rely on their logos, websites and advertisements to engage with a particular audience. For example Coca-Cola, really its just two words put together , but the logo has become so iconic that it is recognised all over the world. Those words have become successfully visual. Even writers and poets have to make their work visual.they have to use visual imagery to describe a setting or a person. the placement of every comma and full stop within a dialogue between characters is essential as it determines how the reader sees that scene in their head. Ultimately authors are trying to project what they as seeing in their head onto a piece of paper using words. Poets use metaphors, alliteration to portray political, personal or emotional views. Words are so visual because we can use our imagination to create things in our minds that we have read, or have heard. As i said before, words are visual because we have to see them to read them, but its also more about what we create by ourselves from what we have read.

Word Count: 1,567

Bibliography

Aristotle Quote “There can be no words without images”

Creating Digital Content, John Rice & Brian McKernan, Editors, © McGraw-Hill 2001 · POSTED: 04/09/04

Ann Murray ,http://blog.visual.ly/six-lessons-from-the-bauhaus-masters-of-the-persuasive-graphic/ published on January 16, 2013

Bauhaus advertisement, 1928

Lester, Paul Martin. Visual Communication: Images with Messages. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Pub., 1995. - Page 425

Zang Tumb Tuuum 1914, Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti

Icord15 - Research into Design across Boundaries: Creativity. Place of Publication Not Identified: Springer, 2015. - Page 231

Hyde, K., Tomato and Warwicker, J. (1994) Mmm...Skyscraper I Love You, Google Books. Booth-Clibborn Editions

Andrew Haslam

Laurence King Publishing, 2006 - Book design - page 26