Graffiti as Protest

Graffiti is most often characterized as an act of defiance and defacement. Money can buy space on a billboard to display a safe message honed to perfection by sterile board members. The largeness and imposing nature of giant advertising is often overlooked and forgotten by those desensitised to modern life.

In truth, there are infinite locations for supergraphic text. Any wall is a canvas to spread a provocative statement to reach the masses if you're willing to commit a felony.

Typographically interesting graffiti with a message is a rather fine line to follow. Amateur lettering to communicate a civic message quickly devolves into picket signage. True stylish thoughtful graffiti has potential for so much more.

What is the best font choice for raging against the status quo? Well, unlike with bubble letters and monogram graffiti, protest tagging demands legibility first and foremost.

Aggressive protest graffiti is just as vulgar as the bawdy Latin inscribed on bathhouse walls, although it carries an honesty with it. Pure traditional serifs demand respect even when peppered with randomly sized characters. Another tried and true approach to provocation is to remix lighthearted design trends. The example here is reminiscent of 19th century advertising. Bold black on white text has an implied three-dimensionality that commands attention.

Ancient Graffiti

Roman “graffiti” is famously bawdy, but many of the surviving examples are essentially just advertisements. The eruption that encased Pompeii in volcanic ash essentially froze time for this medium-sized city. Inscriptions such as this one was only meant to be temporary, which gives us an interesting glimpse into how and why the typical Roman actually made letters.

There were actually two Latin languages which evolved side-by-side. As early as the 200s BCE, evidence of a non-traditional writing was emerging in Italy. The highly technical and official Latin spoken by scholars and the upper class was growing into something new in the streets and alleys of

the city, as well as the distant countryside. Classical Latin culture rejected anything Greek due to deep animosity between the people dating back centuries. Linguists and poets rejected any co-mingling with other languages, but the diverse cultural mishmash that made up the lower classes had no such hang-ups. The living language that was Vulgar Latin was free to experiment.

If you consider these three examples, it is clear that the top and bottom examples are rough and unconfined by structure, only by the limitations of the wall. Classic Latin had no lowercase type, obviously. It also has no punctuation and often no spaces between the words. Classic Latin almost seems decorative and needlessly esoteric, where the vulgar graffiti perhaps follows actual speech patterns.

Etchings such as these highlight one of the biggest factors affecting the practice and advancement of graffiti. Writing illicitly is difficult and time-sensitive. The graffito-tagger must work quickly, thus simply. Noble, stoic, evenly spaced high-Latin letters become erratic and random as they meander across the wall. The amateur has no concern for leading, line length, x-height, or any of the conventions we take for granted. This tendency for random roughness will become the stylistic highlight of all graffiti moving forward, however truly memorable works will always have a well arranged balance and evenness despite breaking convention.

Graffiti and Class

When the subject of typographic history arises in conversation, I find the discussion often follows a similar question and answer path. Who invented type? Steve Gutenburg. What was the first book he wrote? The bible. Why does this matter to anyone? Because how else would we have high-minded discourse at cocktail parties?

In reality, type has always had two faces, two sides, two reasons for existing. Stated plainly, type is either high class or low class. Are the words printed in the New York Times or are they scratched into the window of a New York Subway? Is the nobility analyzing poetry or are the commoners discussing fornication?

Here we see two examples of graffiti separated by roughly two-thousand years. Both were written on walls without consent of the owner. Both seek to communicate with a wide audience, but only one individual reader at a time.

The Latin graffiti depicts a mundane re-imagination of a widely-known work of fiction. In the original epic poem, Virgil begins by saying “I sing of Arms and a Man” and proceeds to narrate the thousand-page story of the cultural hero Aeneas and how he founded Rome. The graffiti tag here remixes this famous quote to read “I sing of laundry workers, not arms and a man”. What really matters to a society: a single famous man or ten thousand laundry workers?

Graffiti has the potential to represent the most eloquent and well resolved statements from the lowest class of society. When appropriately applied, the graffito tag can empower the powerless with weaponized language. Maybe it speaks truth to authority or maybe it crudely narrates the human experience in a way no stuffy high-class periodical ever could.

But what of type itself? Does a message seem trite when written in chalk on a wall and does that same message seem profound if printed on a newspaper? If graffiti is trying to play the game of typography, it is losing, right? Not so much. It seems that when society applies centuries of development onto an outsider art, that art becomes honed to perfection nomatter how vulgar its inception.

The Ampersand

https://www.flickr.com/photos/smallcurio/

Designers love the ampersand.

Typography can be harsh and utilitarian. The ampersand introduces some much-needed weirdness into the field. In the English-speaking world, words are made up of combinations of letters. Letters do not represent whole words. That is absurd.

The ampersand stands alone. It combines two potentially unrelated items and connects them. The ampersand itself is a combination of sorts. Designing an ampersand begins with the letters ‘e’ and ‘t’, forming the Latin word ‘et’, which means ‘and’. All ampersands are fundamentally just these letters crashing into one another.

The Romans invented the ampersand. The ampersand predates the invention of lower case and italic. The ampersand is stoic and ancient and therefore it can be used in a professional, classic, and timeless way. It is also curvy, whimsical, and light, which compels designers to create ever-growing collections of fancy ampersands. The Romans invented several other letter combinations which were written as overlapping characters, but none of them stuck like the ampersand.

In 2010, the Society of Typographic Aficionados gathered over 400 designers to create new original ampersands as a part of a design-led effort to raise money for the earthquake in Haiti. The collection of over 400 ampersands can be purchased for about $20. The ampersand is one of the few elements of type that can command attention.

Most type is dull. The ampersand is weird. It has no direct pair among the letters, so it is permitted to be wild and different. The letter ‘E’ and ‘F’, for example, must share many of the same exact characteristics within a typeface. The ampersand shares no elements with any other letter, and therefore stands alone.

Design Blogs

Blogs about design are prevalent on the internet. The subject lends itself to blogging, as any article written will contain vibrant images that illustrate the topic. Design blogs are easily the best looking sites on the internet, given the author's obvious interest in making things look nice and neat.

When I considered this assignment, the first site that came to mind is one titles "we make money not art". (http://we-make-money-not-art.com/). I began following this blog back in 2006, and I glance at it at least every few months. Most of the articles posted are focused on the collision of art and technology and their effects on developing nations. Features will center on a new gadget which is changing the way people see the world, or perhaps a new approach to an old piece of tech. The title of the blog may seem cynical, but it addresses a fundamental misunderstanding of what art and design can be. Art for the sake of art has its place, but design applies artistic skill to the world and improves lives in exchange for money. Greed is still a vice, but payment is validation that you are doing something useful. This website highlights clever design innovations and poignant impactful art projects all centered on the social issues of the tech-centric 21st century.

The DieLine (http://www.thedieline.com/) is a page that features mostly packaging design. I enjoy perusing the extreme and experimental approaches to commonplace consumables. I find that many of the designs featured are a little too creative and clever for their own good. The packages are beautiful and idyllic, but I find it hard to believe they will ever be brought to market. It is a bit like a runway fashion show of boxes. No one is ever going to see these products, but they indicate the direction design is heading.

http://abduzeedo.com/ Is a now famous design blog originating in Brazil. I have a fondness for South America, having visited there years ago. The site began in 2006 and has slowly grown into one of the most linked-to design blogs on the internet. The articles tend to center on subjects that are relevant to the heavily urbanized centers of Brazil where 1st world and 3rd world live together in close proximity. I personally enjoy the gadgets and accessories features, which seem both cutting edge, and durably built to last.

Blogs such as these can inspire ideas. Colors used in an interesting handbag might inspire you to make a teakettle with the same palette. A well curated blog can offer news and insight into the art world.