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Reading the Streets
Can we read the streets and unravel the intentions behind visual messages we encounter in the city streets?
This research explores the role of typo-graphic design in meaning- and place-making.
Abstract
The urban landscape is a canvas for visual
communication, and graphic design plays a crucial role in the shaping of the
messages present in the public city streets. But the
academic field of design and theory is a relatively new one, and only recently
started to be recognized as an academic discipline (van Helvert et al., 2016). Hence, more research on the power of visual
communication and question who has the means to express their visual voice in
the city is necessary.
This thesis adds to the academic fields of graphic design theory, visual culture, urbanism by exploring the intersection of typographic design, meaning- and place-making in the context of the city of Rotterdam. It aims to find an answer to the question: how do Rotterdam-based makers design meaning with typo-graphics visible in the city streets of Rotterdam? It does so by making use of expert interviews as the primary research method, as a semiotic analysis of signs as static texts proves insufficient as design has become both a product and a process (Balamir, 2021). In engaging in conversation with four Rotterdam-based designers, examining the different practices of adding to the typographic landscape of the city, this research focuses on the production side of meaning.
This thesis adds to the academic fields of graphic design theory, visual culture, urbanism by exploring the intersection of typographic design, meaning- and place-making in the context of the city of Rotterdam. It aims to find an answer to the question: how do Rotterdam-based makers design meaning with typo-graphics visible in the city streets of Rotterdam? It does so by making use of expert interviews as the primary research method, as a semiotic analysis of signs as static texts proves insufficient as design has become both a product and a process (Balamir, 2021). In engaging in conversation with four Rotterdam-based designers, examining the different practices of adding to the typographic landscape of the city, this research focuses on the production side of meaning.
Through deductive analysis
from existing literature on urbanism, place-making, vernacular design,
typographic landscaping (Järlehed
and Jaworski, 2015) and graphic ideologies
(Spitzmüller’s et al., 2012) four
frameworks through which the Rotterdam-based makers could design meaning are
established: Artistic framing, Cultural resistance, Cultural commodification
and Cultural standardization (Jaworski,
2015). Based on the collected data
from the interviews, a more comprehensive understanding of the four framings is
proposed. Additionally, the results show that in order to further investigate
the different ways in which graphic design can be used as a visual tool to
transmit ideologies, both the designer and the one that employs the designer
need to be considered in the production process of designing meaning.
Publication
