Syntax

Reading Wolfgang Weingart's How Can One Make Swiss Typography? inspired a possible area to explore in creating a piece 'ugly' design. He explains  how syntax need not be a determining factor in how one understands type. Using Basel and Basle as an example, he explains that despite the two being a German and English variant of the word, it does not matter to either audience, they both understand the meaning of the word despite the misspelling. Weingart's observation of syntax can be supported through Cambridge University's findings in how we read. Their findings conclude that it need not matter if the letters are in the correct order, as long as the first and last letter is in the right place, the reader will still be able to understand because we view words as a whole and not through its individual letterforms.

"Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe."

Shown through this example, the legibility of the text remains the same, whilst the readability is subjective to the readers proficiency in the English language. Experimenting with syntax would be disregarded by modernist designers and interestingly enough not explored by postmodernist designers. There probably is an obvious reason for this as purposely scrambling the letters in a word would often provoke comments of misspelling and an exercise of 'bad design'. Therefore the area of syntax should be explored contextually to what the purpose of the design is and what audience it caters to. Ultimately however incorrect use of syntax will never become an accepted form of type setting because of the way we are taught to correctly spell words. This results in an almost nonexistent use for this exercise in syntax. Furthermore there is a limitation to the extent of incorrect syntax. 

"A dootcr has aimttded the magltheuansr of a tageene ceacnr pintaet who deid aetfr a hatospil durg blendur"

In the example above, the longer more complex words of the English language become progressively harder to read as the letters are too jumbled for the human mind to infer the correct word quickly enough for easy reading. 

There is also the limitation of how scrambled the words can be before readability becomes negligible. Using 'Graphic Design' as an example, the more the letters are scrambled, the worse the readability of the words becomes, as shown by the worst example of 'Gahirpc Digesn'. In the first experiment, 'Grahpic Deisgn', readability is still relatively retained as the reader can infer the rest of the word despite the slight misspelling. Therefore the extent of scrambling the letters must be considered. 

This limitation was also tested in relation to whether grammar helps in the overall readability. As with the previous experiment, the less the scrambling of letters, the more the overall readability. The readability can become easier if the grammatical structure of the original is retained, helping the reader infer the following word. 

Experimenting with syntax, these two 'posters' feature errors for the reader to find out. The garish colours are meant to confuse and overwhelm the reader, making it harder for them to pick out the errors. In this context syntax becomes more an artistic exercise rather than proving its use in design. The combination of the colours and the syntax error can be related to the anarchist elements of post modern and 'ugly' design.