Brief 2 - Final Rationale

Concept 

Carsten Nicolai’s book called Static Fades offered a great input into the creative ways to approach the subject static. Looking at the power of sound, light and electricity Nicolai’s book helped inspire initial ideas when looking into incorporating texture and context in the design of the typeface. Deriving from the informal Northern American terminology of static, my typeface modifications involved fragmenting and removing aspects (such as the aperture, shoulder and stem) to follow the characteristics of the typeface being aggressive and stubborn. Vignelli points and opinion of how powerful expression can be formed through using type of different sizes and opacities inspired to create the final specimen the way it is, the range of size and font successfully offers a very strong impacts and offer visually dynamic impressions. Juxtaposing from Vignelli was David Carson, who inspired the overall concept of fragmenting the Berthold typeface,  forming confidence in this brief,

Personality

Berthold was chosen due to its simplistic and uncharacterised form, this allowed deforming the typeface whilst keeping legibility. Berthold Grotesk Medium is bold and powerful, connoting a form of aggression linking to my chosen word.

This typeface ties in well with the meaning of the Northern American reference, it's sudden cut off of lettering represents the harsh aggressive tone of speech, as if a conversation was cut off abruptly. The purpose for this style of typeface is to make the reader do the work when reading, making the typeface stubborn and reluctant to tend to the reader’s needs. Reasoning for this is again is further developed by the overall feel of the design, something that doesn't conform to the social norm and Berthold conventions becomes alienating, unfamiliar and somewhat threatening to the audience. The typeface becomes rebellious by not conforming to its conventional rules derived from Berthold, making it a successful and confident representation of my chosen word static. 

Function

The function of this typeface is to make the readers do the hard work when reading, and also offers the opportunity to experiment with their own form of composition – again making using this typeface more time consuming (further reiterating the stubborn characteristics). This typeface would be used as a display typeface, bold and striking, the unusual typeface creates intrigue gaining more attention from readers whilst they comprehend what’s written. By gaining full attention, this typeface could be used to bring awareness to serious concerns, such as politics, corruption, poverty and war – one way in which the typeface could be creatively and effectively used is through rhetoric questions, targeting the reader in an impactful memorable way. This typeface could be confidently used for political and social art/designs, inspired by Carson.