Typographic Deconstruction

Deconstruction Theory was first proposed by French philosopher, Jaques Derrida in 1967, in a paper named ‘Of Grammatology’. Here he argues that language is not a string of words but a group of thoughts or images in the mind. He states that when a speaker talks they are actually thinking aloud, and the listener interprets their words. At any point, if the meaning is not clear, the speaker is able to clarify their ideas with the listener. However, a author is usually absent at the time of reading and therefore is unable to clarify any ambiguity of meaning. Another problem with writing is that the alphabet is also supplemented with conventions that bare no relation to speech at all, for example; spacing, punctuation and page layout. These non speech related conventions have infected language and have in turn influenced the way we think and talk.

Deconstruction Theory, in the context of design, was given the name of ‘Deconstructivism’ due to an exhibition at the MoMA called ‘Deconstructivist Architecture’ in 1988. This helped secure its place as a design movement and propel it into the mainstream. The curators Philip Johnston and Mark Wrigley used the term Deconstructivism to contrast a range of contemporary architectural practices to Russian Constructivism. In Wrigley’s view, ‘deconstruction in architecture asks questions about modernism.As with most architectural movements, deconstructivism found its way to graphic design where its mission statement is to favour complexity over simplicity and legibility. Simply put; the viewer should have to decode and translate the piece to arrive at a their own conclusion.

This post looks at Derrida’s argument to explore the possibilities of his ideas on Deconstruction Theory. Using a range of experiments, I will ultimately derive a new typeface based on the same principals, but at the same time reflect a more contemporary feel.

As deconstruction theory states, the of meaning of the typeface must constantly be in flux between the creator and the viewer. So with this experiment the idea attempted was to give a holographic quality using two fonts split along the vertical periodically, then composited together to derive a new unique letterform.

For this experiment the sound of the letter A when spoken out loud was recorded and broken down into four main frequency groups of High, High–Mid, Low–Mid and Low. The waveform of each frequency type was then traced in Adobe Illustrator. The traced waveform was coloured in grey–scale based on its pitch, and ‘blended’ to create a visual representation of the letter’s sound.

Taking the idea of sound depicting writing further, the waveforms were arranged to depict the letters they were derived from.

An experiment was then conducted to determine if different accents would give different results. The letters A, K, O, and Y were chosen as they gave a greater diversity of the audible characteristics in each sound.

These last images were a chance to have fun with the typography.