Final: Podcast

final trailer:

 

final presentation:

 

final artist statement:

Types of People, a design podcast about typography’s relationship to social movements and creators, was manifested from my own personal questions when examining the industry. Being an avid podcast listener, I was always curious as to how I could take ideas of connecting my passions and interests in other designers and work into our relationship with typography. After several weeks of scrambling ideas in my notebook, I pulled them all together and came up with a list of letter-writing prompts, or so I thought. The “Dear Helvetica Addicts” and “To the Zingbatz of the World” became points of interest for me. I constantly asked how I could address and write for these people, for a design community, so I turned to the books and active podcasters for the way. Shows like How I Built This99% Invisible, and In The Dark guided me in questioning, researching, and beautifully articulating a narrative of people and moments of time. The research I’ve conducted, examining the production of podcasting, the art of storytelling, techniques of investigative journalism, and the foundations of typography have created this project today and laid out its future. Ideally, this summer I would complete my necessary research, draft and publish the 6 part series, alongside a type walk/assisted visual component to further connect the audience to my audio.

The first season of the show looks into visionary designer Massimo Vignelli, a father-figure of Swiss-style graphic design, who speaks to six crucial typefaces designers need- Futura, Helvetica, Bodoni, Garamond, Century, and Times New Roman. In these six typefaces, their rich history and application use remain crucial to understanding the building blocks of the field us young designers are entering today. In seeking out books from professionals, articles, interviews across the graphic design industry, I’m searching to connect the dots in who created the visual typographic forms and how their intent relates and emphasizes the intent graphic designers have already given it- and what we can do as a wave of new designers to bring change with these typefaces.

In the second season of the show, after experimenting and finding the arch narrative of the show, I want to study the typography and work of designers at this moment in time. How are these Instagram-famous, million-following designers shaking up the world with pre-existing typography? How are they giving these existing forms a new voice, redefining them in social movements? These are the type of questions I find myself asking daily, and would finally like to begin sparking discussions about their answers. A key element in absorbing and releasing the conducted research is crafting it in a way that’s new to the designer, beyond the regurgitated Q&A format. Outlined in my trailer to set the precedent, the show will craft each episode into an open letter of sorts, as prompts, for designers to consider in their own work.

I hope this show expresses the passion and beauty that lies beyond and within letterforms. Letters provide us with an infinite amount of ways to address and articulate a massive range of emotions and ideas, their typefaces the same. I want people to understand and invest in this relationship through the connection of certain forms to the work and impact they’ve had. Design is enumerously more enriching when we take the time to study its history and evolution, and as a young designer, I already see with such different eyes the work that lied before me just by studying the context of these 6 typefaces. May Types of People be only the beginning of bridging the knowledge of typography and industry designers to social impact and movements.

 

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