Signs

click here to view the book in pdf

A month-long systemic typography assignment that originated from eight texts allowed me to experiment with letters, words, concepts and sentences in a visually expressive way. We were not allowed to use any images in this assignment, only type. Polly Johnson, my teacher at Ringling College of Art and Design (for one semester) was encouraging with my use of handwriting and watercolours in communicating the concept of my chosen text, eventhough it involved photography and escaped the boundries of the computer. Other specifications were to use black and one other colour, and to use only two fonts in the first section of laying out the eight texts. There was a lot of process involved with this assignment in a fairly short amount of time. With one semester at Ringling, I produced more results than I would have on my own or at OCAD. It was a great 5 months of hard work, no play, in the beautiful Sarasota Florida.

"Language and writing are two different systems of signs; the only purpose of the latter is to represent the former.

Linguistics is not concerned with the connection between the written and spoken word–
its sole object is the latter: the spoken word.

But the written word is so closely bound up with the spoken, whose image it is, that it is increasingly arrogating the main role to itself/

Ultimately the point is reached where more importance is attached to representation of the spoken sign than to this sign itself. It’s like thinking that to know someone,
It is better to look at his photograph than his face." - Ferdinand de Saussure

The main concept from Ferdinand de Saussure's "Spoken and Written" text that I wanted to communicate was the fluidity of language: its randomness, its play, its form out of formlessness. Saussure's reference to signs and depiction of language addresses the importance of differenciating between representation and reality, truth and illusion, spoken and written, photograph and face. I believe his concern was that reality is constructed with our understanding of signs. We define our reality through systems of signs constantly created to follow. This I found to be very meaningful, which is why I went a little overboard with the project compared to others and called the book "Signs" instead of "Eight Texts".

At the end of the year, I was given an Expressive Typography award for this piece. It was also one of my 2 pieces selected by juror Dave Mason for the Best of Ringling show out of the 21 winners from the department. It was also selected for semi-finalst at the Adobe Achievement Awards. Didn't expect any of that when I was immersing myself in the words of Ferdinand de Saussure everyday for a month.