Artifact: Conceptual Type

Ida Engholm (Editor), Steen Ejlers (Editor), Mads Quistgaard (Editor)

    Publications: Book / Anthology / Thesis / ReportBookResearchpeer-review

    Abstract

    CONCEPTUAL TYPE: TYPE LED BY IDEAS 26/10/12“Where are the idealistic fonts, the artsy fonts, the non fonts, the political fonts, the funny fonts, the difficult fonts, the fonts that don’t look like fonts, the fonts that are frontiers of new beliefs? We would like to focus on the ideas and concepts behind type. Rather than ushering in our examination about type by asking who it was that created it and what it looks like, we want to ring in this new decade by asking why we create type and what it means.‘In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes art.’ (Sol LeWitt, ‘Paragraph on Conceptual art’, in Artforum, 1967.)We would like to draw on Sol LeWitt’s vision and then we would like to replace ‘art’ with ‘type’, in a search for the idea­typemachines of our time.We would be most honored if you would join us in our pursuit.”In the hopes of launching a non­dogmatic effort to discover the idea­type­machines of our time, a conference was held in Copenhagen in 2010, where designers and theorists convened to discuss the current status of typedesign with a point of departurein what was proposed on the invitation quoted above. The conference attracted more than 500 graphic designers, type designers and theorists from all over Europeand the large turnout and the huge interest in debating type inspired us to make use of the conference and the concept of ‘conceptual type’ as the basis of a book.The book includes presentations made at the conference, which have been revised and edited, as well as a number of new articles written especially for this volume book. In all the texts, the concept of ‘conceptual type’ forms the basis of a discussion about the current role of type design, as illustrated by specific cases and examples and with perspectives that are related to historical developments and contemporary trends in a variety of genres and publication formats.
    Original languageEnglish
    Place of PublicationCopenhagen
    PublisherKADK
    Number of pages50
    Publication statusPublished - Jan 2014
    SeriesArtifact: Journal of Design Practice
    Number1
    Volume3
    ISSN1749-3463

    Artistic research

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