Typography: Macro- and Microaesthetics

With the proliferation of computers, typography has become increasingly experimental and is created according to personal visual criteria. But the design of effective typography – that is, typography the reader can comprehend and understand – is based on certain fundamental principles. As long as letters, words, and sentences are used to transmit information, these same principles will remain valid – even in electronic media. Part one of this publication discusses the typographic elements; the microaesthetic qualities of letters, numbers, and punctuation marks, lines, and geometric elements and their diverse applications. Part two analyzes the design aspects of space, structure, sequence, contrast, form and counterform, and illustrates their function with examples from teaching and praxis. Part three demonstrates how typographic elements contribute to design on the microaesthetic level. Part four, based on a series of architectural posters, analyzes the interrelationship between purpose, macrostructure, and microaesthetics. This publication provides artistic and technical instruction for typographic designers, architects, and professionals in allied creative fields. It facilitates a more critical appreciation not only of the mediated foreground, but also of the unscripted background and of the various relationships between them.