NMG Design
Experimental Typography Layouts
Spring 2024
Bachelor's at Columbia College Chicago
The Brief
A study in experimental typography layouts that can still tell the story while being visually interesting. This project was inspired by the work of American artist John Cage and his compositions.
Go back
Problem
Our assignment was to get as experimental as possible with our typography for this project. We were to take inspiration from artist John Cage to apply his experimental principles to design and tell the story of his life and art.
Design Intent
- Mirror the experimental concept of John Cage's work into a book displaying text about his life
- Create a cohesive color palette to go with his work and establish a theme
- Break the rules of typography layout to design within chaos
Insight
This project was about learning about the impact of typography layout in the process of telling a story or illustrating a point. Breaking free from so many grids and lines, while still maintaining some semblance of harmony in the layout, was an important skill that can be applied to any other work thus far.
Outcome
A short book about the life and times of John Cage that also visually represents the art he created alongside the words he used to describe it. Using experimental typography opened just one of many doors for getting creative with layout design and effectiveness.
Images & Layouts
Examples of John Cage's work: Left, "Not Wanting to Say Anything About Marcel," 1969; Above, "Extended Lullaby," 1994; Right, an excerpt from "Mushroom Book," 1972 (edited as bitmap)
Images of John Cage edited with Photoshop to have a yellow hue over them, indicative of the color palette chosen for this project.
An example of a layout presented in this book about John Cage. The task was to get as experimental with our typography as John Cage had gotten with the world of art. There were no wrong answers, as long as the copy still had a flow to it that could be followed effortlessly.
Another example of a layout presented in the book, with less of an experimental approach to the placement of each individual line.
A part of the assignment required us to scatter broken spaghetti noodles onto a surface, take a picture of their layout, and implement it in some way into our project as a way to encourage experimental type layout.