The Typographic Experiment: Radical Innovation in Contemporary Type Design

This book reflects on the point in the design process when the constraints of convention are released and the fundamental notions of function and aesthetics are challenged. The study is significant in its contextualisation and analytical approach taking a fresh look at the work produced over the last decade by 37 internationally recognized designers and typographers who engage with the notion of experimentation. It also documents the shift from design concept to final commercial application - a significant contribution to the current literature in the design field. Such contributions are evidenced in reviews in the mainstream design press. The noted design critic Peter Hall states that Triggs’ provides ‘a sophisticated approach to the study of experimental type’ and, ‘Triggs rescues the idea [design process] with an extraordinary array of examples and some good old-fashioned scholarship.’(Print Jan/Feb 2004, p. 34-5).

Many of the original sketches and images that have informed the selected examples of designers’ thinking and making process are heretofore unpublished. Triggs has conducted extensive interviews and studied original archive material in the preparation of this text. She was also responsible for the book’s picture research and worked alongside the designers, Joe Ewart and Niall Sweeney in determining the approach the design of the final book would take.

Triggs has written previously in the area of experimental typography for the international design press (Émigré, Eye) as well as for scholarly publications [e.g. Point 8: Art and Design Research Journal (CHEAD); Visual Communication (SAGE)] and in numerous anthologies (e.g. Heller 2004; Jury 2001). Triggs’ book has become an essential reference book for design professionals and students. It is cited frequently in professional designer’s book lists (e.g. Studio Blue, USA, Typotheque, NL) as well as on student reading lists internationally (e.g. North Carolina State University, USA and University of Technology Sydney, AU).