Subjectivity in type design

Type and Destruction In The Digital Era by Rick Poynor. A revised version of an essay originally published in Typography Now: The Next Wave, 1991.

Looking Closer 2

Rick Poynor offers views against Modernist type design by elaborating on the perspectives of new typographers such as Johnathan Barnbrook, Neville Brody, Emigre Graphics and Jefferey Keedy. 

• Rick Poynor critiques Modernist type design by stating that designers are "reacting against this bloodless neutrality." In the quote "it is the reader's familiarity with face that accounts for their legibility" by Zuzana Licko of Emigre Graphics, Poynor indirectly suggests that Modernism "orderly, linear, well-tempered messages" are not the sole reason as to why it is effective in communicating its message. He supports this claim by stating that the illegible black lettering of Pre-War Germany we see today would have been entirely legible during that period. Therefore the legibility of Swiss Design, according to Poynor, is not based on its principles but its exposure and continued use that has made it become the new paradigm for good design. 
• Poynor criticises the principles established by authoritarian Mordernists by stating that their strict rules on type has left typography to "only a single authorised reading" and are rejected by these new designers as being "too corporate, inflexible and limiting." The new typographers as Poynor identifies, "relish ambiguity, preferring the provisional utterance, alternative take, and delayed punchline to the finely honed phrase."
• What these new typographers share is the idea that typography should not be a linear medium in communicating its message. Using Barry Deck of CalArts view on the transparency of typography, Poynor explains that the aim should be "to promote multiple rather than fixed readings, to provoke the reader into becoming an active participant in the construction of the message." Keedy supports this view on typography by stating that a designer should use typography to "create a situation for people to do with it what they will, and you don't create an enclosed or encapsulated moment." 
• By going against the rigid and objective views on typography, graphic design has the potential to be more reflective of the cultural period. Typographers who use subjectivity in their designs are ensuring that with every brief, it comes with a "specific identity and tone of voice." This can be evidenced through Brody's typeface design for The Face magazine, which embodied "new perspectives on contemporary culture in the magazines editorial content." Taking this further, type design can also be a form of social commentary, as Brody's Typeface Two highlighted the "social climate of the 1930's and 80's" by being authoritarian in mood.  

From these points it is clear that the new wave of typographers aim to go against the rules of modernist typography. Creating more subjective forms of type design which require more involvement from the reader, is open to more interpretation and can provide a social commentary of the period. However the legitimacy in this new ideology must be evaluated against a neutral perspective of the role of typography itself. Only then can the revolt against ordered typography be justified as a valid form of good design.  
It is important to note that the subjective designs of new typography are usually reflected by subjective views on the rules of typography. British typographer Phil Baines explains that despite the valid reasons of type serving a purpose for logic and linearity, "it is equally important that typography should address...intuitive insight and simultaneous perception..."

• Poynor counter argues the relative effectiveness of experimental typography by equating the designs to Andy Altman of Why Not Associates describes as "type as entertainment", where by the function of the text is overruled by the subjective forms of its design that can "infuriate the reader". The uncontrolled letterforms of this movement provide little legibility when it comes to writing long lines of text. The subjective forms are thus mainly limited to display typefaces. 

Poynor concludes the essay by refuting justified uses for experimental type and outlining the conditions needed achieve a balance between typographic expression and text. This is Poynors most important point as it is an evaluation of the limitations of experimental type and a possible direction experimental typography could take to become more widely accepted.