bil'ak + triggs reading highlights/notes.

Merriam-Webster defines “experiment” as: a tentative procedure or policy, an operation or procedure carried out under controlled conditions in order to discover an unknown effect or law, to test or establish a hypothesis, or to illustrate a known law.

Experimental typography. Whatever that means. By Peter Bil’ak

The word experiment, is more complex than the last reading on differing between “an experience,” “that was an experience,” + “experience.”

“Type design that is not bound by convention is like a private language: both lack the ability to communicate.”

"We can go further to suggest that no completed project can be seriously considered experimental. It is experimental only in the process of its creation. When completed it only becomes part of the body of work which it was meant to challenge."

*reference to Triggs asking asking thirty-seven internationally recognized designers to define what "experiment" means; there was a variety of definitions.

"Every type job is experiment." Hamish Muir of 8vo.

"Experimental typography does not exist, nor ever has." Melle Hammer.

"Experimental is something I haven’t tried before… something that hasn’t been seen and heard." David Carson.

"True experimentation means to take risks." Michael Worthington.

The definitions of words, especially in relation to graphic design seem to not have one specific answer. It could be the fact that it is a semi-new area, but I feel more than not it is due to the fact that the topic is sometimes inhabited by fine artists and the topic of art in general. If I were to break down graphic design it would be half math, half art; on different projects it may lean heavier on one side or the other, but it is always comprised of the two. This leads to the often open ended definition of words and procedures for completing design projects. There is the set of designers whom focus more on a very rigid structure and those that see it more as a canvas. Neither is more "correct" than the other, merely interpretations of the product.

The Typographic Experiment: From Futurism to Fuse. By Triggs.

"The typographic experiment is a way of trying something out...it is about innovation but it is not always formulaic nor is there an established set of rules."

"It has as its starting point a definition of experimental as a valid means of rational investigation, of taking risks and viewing those risks as crucial to the development of the overall design process."

"To experiment extends the work beyond the limits of 'newness' and 'plays it out into the territory of the unknown.'"

"Some may argue that a handful of examples will transcend time, but what is experimental at one historical point or in one cultural context may not be considered experimental in another."

Stanley Morrison, designer of Times New Roman advised against the use of vibrant text but also understood that experiments always needed to be made.

"Artists and designers developed ways of thinking about graphic languages in which writing structure and visual forms more accurately reflected the conditions of the modern world."

"Images are to be read and interpreted, as well as seen; typography is to be seen as well as read." Katherine McCoy.

Although it was once questionably whether or not experimental typography was part of design, it is now fully accepted. Many schools now have classes encouraging students to play and experiment with type(just like this class).