typefaces beyond words: a framework for the multimodal analysis of typeface design as typographetic resource

Typographic letter shapes speak a visual language of their own that contributes, beyond legibility to the readability of written matter. Research reveals a continuous and increasing interest in the expressive potential of typography in general and typefaces in particular, along with a detrimental lack of a framework to guide semiotic questioning. Building on previous hermeneutic speculation by Gérard Blanchard (1982), this study brings the interpretation of letter shapes down to the micro-level of typeface design, expanding the framework to include multimodal expressivity along the main categories of Semantic Differential scales (Osgood & al. 1957). Following the logic of the typeface designer and not only that of the reader, it considers shapes and connotations as continuums rather than discreet elements and carefully reframes both variables, thus providing a typographically sound foundation for the investigation of typeface connotations.

Drawing from perspectives and frameworks borrowed from linguistics, hermeneutics, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, social semiotics, statistics, sociology and psychology, it builds a theoretical approach to outline a designer’s subjective interpretations of the meaning of shapes through the semiotic event. Then, by focusing on the basic design decisions that shape typefaces, such as x-height, modulation or slant, the present research further illustrates their impact on final letter shapes.

By linking shapes to a range of meanings, this research places letter shapes in a wider interpretative framework of typefaces as ‘intentional agents’, proposing keys to make typographetic resources serve textual content to their full potential. Furthermore, it provides researchers with an actionable theoretical framework for further interrogation, thus contributing to a discussion about the semiotics of letter shapes.