TYP

G E
S A
E S
A GRAPHIC DESIGN
LAYOUT WORKSHOP M
it has often been
said that a picture
is worth a thousand
words.more recently
in a lecture at the
Rhode Island School
of Design, multimedia
designer Mikon van
Gastel offered, “One
perfectly chosen word
is worth thirty minutes
of footage.” Value
judgments aside, one
thing is clear: graphic
designers are both
blessed and cursed
for working with two
very distinct modes of
communication, the
word and the image.
 3

As in any successful partnership, type and image work best when they complement
each other—when they finish each other’s sentences. For graphic designers, a pho-
tograph isn’t finished with a click of the shutter. That is just the beginning of the
creative process, as an image becomes a part of a piece of graphic design. In fact,
the image must be “incomplete” so there is something left for the type to do.

In the conceptual phase of a project, designers often begin working with type and
image intuitively, in a mind space where the two are more like substances than
entities. We experience them, imagine them, see them in our sleep, and consider
them simultaneously. They never operate outside of a context and their meaning is
never fully realized until they are put into play. Often they are assigned a “format”
within which to interact. They can be visualized with common textures, shapes,
and colors, and unified with light or shadow, but even in the realm of our greatest
imagination, they remain uniquely discernible as type or image.

The viewer depends on type and image to five form and meaning to many messag-
es and ideas. Both contain room for interpretation by the audience and extend the
role of the graphic designer from form giver to mediator and guide. Through form,
designers construct and create an organized system for content, emphasizing some
concepts and de-emphasizing others, providing ways into, around, and out of each
work.

While much has been written about typography and photography, surprisingly
little has been written about how the two work together. Many times while in the
final throes of completing a project that employs both type and image, designers
will confess, “I’m just no good with type.” The reality is that nobody is naturally
good at combining type and image. Even though words and images are familiar
ways of expressing human experience, the two forms of communication are inher-
ently difficult to reconcile. This book is intended to begin to fill that gap. We call
it a “graphic design layout workshop” because it originates from a place of making
as much as analyzing. Pioneering, innovative graphic designers and photogra-
phers from around the world have contributed their extraordinary designs to this
endeavor, and it is their inspiration within these pages that serves as the backbone
of this discussion and possible reconciliation.
4

c e
a r y
t
En

Sp d
Po in t (s) o f

a n
 5

“reading” a photograph is very

different from reading a text.
For example, in Western culture,
a conventional hierarchy is well
established, dictating a left-to-
right, top-to-bottom approach.
Letters make up words, words
make up sentences, and sentences
make up concepts.

Photographs are representations of the physical world possessing a three-dimen-

sional sense of time and space. Photographs of landscapes feature a horizon, while
photographs of architecture have perspective and a vanishing point. Portraits
contain unique human features of eyes, nose, and mouth. Each of these elements
and scenarios commands a different point of entry into a picture.

Unlike objects rendered in photographic space, letters and their forms do not
customarily exist in three-dimensional space. Letterforms themselves have no
intrinsic third dimension. Jan Tschichold, renowned typographer and designer,
wrote a wonderful metaphorical essay about working with type called “Clay in the
Potter’s Hand.” But type is less like clay and more like Legos. It is a prefabricated
kit of parts, a closed system, with typefaces whose inner harmonies make them
complete in the and of themselves.
 T
AS
N R or
T l
CO c
o
ur
e
6

te
xt
 7

while images render the world

in a complete tonal range, tonal
shifts generally interfere with,
more than contribute to, the
clear reading of text.

Type is therefore an inherently high-contrast medium. Dieter Feseke of the Ber-

lin-based studio umbra-dor observes, “The type is more geometry, more digital
and clean. The image is patchy, spotted, more analog, natural, and dirty.” As the
viewer looks at and discovers a work that is formed of both entities, the flow of
experience is varied, with each medium dictating its own point of entry and rate of
comprehension.

The reading gets even more intricate when the piece contains multiple images and
text elements. Complexity adds to the time needed to investigate and interpret a
work, regulated by each viewer’s level of experience. For intricacy to transcend
entanglement, designers must embrace the creative potential of photo-typographic
space. These strategies should guide the viewer beyond what Rick Poynor, in his
book No More Rules: Graphic Design and Postmodernism, calls “fully postmod-
ern representational space, where all that is solid often melts into an intoxicating,
semi-abstract blur.”
 8

M
ea
ni
ng
 9

as containers for meaning and

expressions of human experience,
type and image have different
properties—but they also operate
on different levels of cognition.

Images open the door to multiple interpretations through varied experiences

and memories. These connections make photography a more complex, and more
visceral form of communication. Unlike images, words are essentially shapes that
have learned, recognized meanings. Willi Kunz describes this phenomenon in
Typography: Macro–and Microaesthetics: “Every word is comprised of a partic-
ular set of letters, whose sequence and form makes each word semantically and
syntactically unique.”

When type meets image, there is automatically a dialogue between them and each
can pull the other in many different directions. The text can support or contradict
the image just as the image can illustrate or refute the written message. Each may
also contain independent meanings that may react with or against the overall mes-
sage in the work. To compound the interpretation further, additional relationships
can spring up from the viewers’ backgrounds and personal points of view.

In his essay “The Photographic Message, Roland Barthes said of the interaction
of text and image: “It is true that there is never a real incorporation since the sub-
stances of the tow structures graphic and iconic) are irreducible, but there are more
most likely degrees of amalgamation.”

During the process of analyzing the photo-typographic works contained in these

pages, the difficulty of teasing out the visual from the verbal brought the struggle
between the two forms of communication to the forefront. It is impossible to con-
struct an authentic written description of the type/image relationship at work in a
piece of visual communication. For, in order to measure that dynamic completely,
one has to go to a place in the mind that doesn’t speak or explain, but rather ab-
sorbs. These examples are rare because they take you there.
10

Four
Critical
Relationships
 11

wehn type and image coexist, each

remains a distinguishable entity,
occupying its own space and time
to greater and/or lesser degrees,
while continuously interacting
in distinct ways. Through the
combinations of permutations of
type and image are infinite, the
integration of these media can
be delineated according to the
following criteria:

•
SEPARATION
•
FUSION
•
FRAGMENTATION
•
INVERSION
12

S e p
a r a
t i o n
 13

When type and image operate independently

The principle of
14

separation forces
text and image
retain clear
autonomy; the
designer allows
the text to react
with, against,
or independently
from the image.
Often the
designer inserts
additional graphic
elements that
further mediate or
separate the type
and image.
 15

Formal Qualities

Layering: The type is superimposed on the image but

remains distinct from the image.
Border or frame: A border or frame contains the type
and sets the stage for the photograph.
Compartments or windows: The picture plane is
divided into type spaces and image spaces.

Applications

• To play the type against the image

• To create a series
• To provide clarity
16
17
18

FFFF
UUUU
SSSS
II II
OOOO
NNNN
 19

When type and image blend for form unity

The principle
20

of fusion, uses a
unifying force to
synthesize the type
and image. The
alliance of form and
meaning presents
itself in a strong
visual coherence—a
“cause and effect.”
Some images and
text are optically
altered, and others
are circumstantial
through motion or
juxtaposition, they
are all the result of
deliberate, holistic
choices made by the
designer.
 21

Formal Qualities
• Irregularities: Elements are torn, divided, or unevenly
dispersed.
• Displacement: The composition appears as an
individual frame that has been extracted from an
animated film
• Interruption: The type or image intrude on one
another or punctuate or disconnect the message.
• Exaggeration: Actions are amplified through scale,
color, and complication

Applications
• To animate and energize
• To imply the passing of time
• To construct a complex message with
multiple meanings
• To create a surreal scenario
• To privilege one idea over another
23
I I
24

NN
VV
E E
RR
S S
I I
OO
NN
 25

A form of Fusion, when the type and image trade places and the type takes on
pictorial properties or the image takes on typographic qualities
The principle
26

of inversion is a
specific category
of fusion, in which
type and image
fuse by exchanging
roles. When type is
portrayed as part of
an image, or when an
image is built from
type, it captures
our imagination
and transports us
beyond the potential
communicative
properties of type or
image alone and into
an elevated sense of
discovery.
 27

Formal Qualities
• Hyper-realism: The type is physical-
ly photographed or rendered through
other hyper-realistic means.
• Building blocks: The letterforms ap-
pear within the picture plane as the
building blocks from which the image
is constructed.
• Frames: The letters create frames for
preexisting photographic images.
Applications
• To reveal a potential or unrealized connec-
tion among elements and ideas
• To create harmony and integration among
different or related texts by blending them
into visual union
• To generate visual or verbal puns, or both
• To invent fictional narratives between words
and letterforms become characters
• To create the strongest possible connection
between the word and the image
28
29
30

F R AG
MENT
TATION
 31

When the type and image disturb or disrupt each other

The principle of
32

fragmentation occurs
when type and image
disturb or disrupt
one another, usually
with one providing
the impetus for
activation the state
of flux. There is an
unsettled nature
of a design with
fragmentation, the
interrelationships
have the potential
form interweaving
multiple meanings
and a high degree of
decoding.
 33

Formal Qualities
• Irregularities: Elements are torn, divided, or unevenly
dispersed.
• Displacement: The composition appears as an individ-
ual frame that has been extracted from an animated
film
• Interruption: The type or image intrude on one anoth-
er or punctuate or disconnect the message.
• Exaggeration: Actions are amplified through scale,
color, and complication

Applications
• To animate and energize
• To imply the passing of time
• To construct a complex message with multiple mean-
ings
• To create a surreal scenario
• To privilege one idea over another
34
 35

All four interactions—

separation, fusion, fragmentation,
and inversion—manifest
themselves both formally and
pragmatically. Designers can
use them for many purposes as
well as to create a range of
visual effects. The practical
applications reviewed here include:
to present and clarify facts, to
tell a story to persuade, and to
express emotion, or to create an
atmosphere.
36
37
This workshop is
focused primarily
on poster design
as a form because
posters transcend
and propel layout
into a realm where
type and image can
combine seamlessly.
In poster design,
words and pictures
step out of the
compositional
boundaries
and workaday
responsibilities that
often distance them
in conventional
page layout.