OUGD404 - Design Principles - Speech Made Visible - Task 3 - 'Who are you?'

4th December session

Design Principles - 'Type is Speech Made Visible'

In preparation for this session, we brought along the phrase 'Who are you?' in a light, regular and bold font in 4 different point sizes. These were then cut up into different words and the question mark separately. 

We experimented with the hierarchy of the phrase by changing the positioning of the letters and the variations of point size and line thickness. We then attempted to read the phrase in the way that it was visually portrayed, with comical results. 

Here are some of the arrangements created in that session:

We practiced that you can change the order of which we read, and the emotions of the words just by changing the hierarchy through type. 

Task 3 - 'Speech made visible'

Through practising in the session that type is simply speech made visible, we were set the task of portraying 11 completely different accents visually. We were asked to in no way label or caption what the accent was meant to be, and that the work should 'speak' for itself.

Here are the 11 different accents we were asked to portray:

• GEORDIE
• WELSH
• YORKSHIRE
• IRISH
• PIRATE
• FRENCH
• RUSSIAN
• ESSEX
• SCOUSE

My portrayal of these 11 accents through type:

Russian:

A stereotypical Soviet-style font was used, with emphasis on the 'R', as heard in the pronunciation, accompanied with the colours of the Russian flag.

 French:

Again, the colours of the French flag were used, with emphasis on the 'O's and an elegant style font helped me to portray this accent.

 Essex:

I found this one particularly difficult because there were no specific colours or fonts that were easily identifiable as from Essex, but after repeating and repeating the phrase in the Essex accent I was able to determine the 'tune' of the phrase and showed this through positioning of the type.

 Welsh:

I began to show the 'tune' throughout the other accents after that. The celtic style font and colours of the Welsh flag helped to accompany this portrayal.

 Scouse:

Again, with no specific regional colours and/or fonts to use, I had to analyse the 'tune' of the accent to portray this particular accent.

 Pirate:

I emphasised the 'r' in this for comical effect and used the white-on-black to mimic a stereotypical Jolly Roger flag.

Jamaican:

 I chose this hand-painted style font as it is the kind I could imagine on a beach hut in Jamaica, especially with the colours of the flag.

 Geordie:

Again, this was creating through the analysing of the 'tune' of the accent.

 Yorkshire:

I found this one particularly difficult as I wasn't too sure what a Yorkshire accent sounded like! Or what the audience would associate with Yorkshire.. 

 Australian:

The emphasis on the 'a', the sunset colour and the hand-painted, free style I think really helped me to show the Australian accent.

 Irish:

And finally, a typical Irish Celtic/Gallic font completed the design of the Irish accent.

Using everyone's 11 different sheets of accents, we mixed them around the classroom. Unlabelled, we had to assort the accents into the appropriate piles. Some were harder to understand than others, and the ones with colour were definitely easier to interpret. Scouse, Geordie and Essex seemed to blend into the same style because of stereotypical TV shows like the Only Way is Essex, Geordie Shore and Desperate Scouse Wives, while the rest of the accents seemed to fit to their stereotypes and so were easy to associate to.

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5 Fundamental Rules of Type:

1. Must communicate through (none offensive) stereotyping.
2. Must appropriately fit to subject matter/ context.
3. Must have a uniformed layout.
4. Must work in harmony, ie not compete with images/ rest of design.
5. Must have a distinguished hierarchy.