Distortion : a typographic experimentation on the communicative struggle pertaining to addiction

Abstract

This study examines the role of typography in the subject of addiction, offering an insight into the different purposes of the typographic medium. This dissertation aims to investigate the history and theories of type design, particularly experimental, and puts them in the context of addiction. A specific interest in exploring significant typographic affiliations between visual : verbal, form : content and inside : outside is present. The practical project focuses primarily on the communicative struggle pertaining to addiction through a series of typographic compositions evoking the element of “distortion’. The project concludes with three different typographic compositions that emphasize the emotive qualities; attachment, pleasure and dependency respectively, in relation to the communicative struggle within addiction. The research methodology includes semi-structured interviews with a typographer and a psychotherapist, in order to analyse better how to liaise the two principal subjects of this study. Moreover, the interviewees’ emotional responses to typographic composition variations were tested, and it was suggested that typography is open to several subjective interpretations.