Text Editing Program Experimentation

Research began into representing the aesthetic of a videotape in text editing software. Some of the outcomes were to communicate how videos are intricately processed and the 'fuzzy' aesthetic of old video footage. The constraint of having to align the text perfecting became an incentive to produce an accurate, formulaic result. 

 

This design was unsuccessful because in the word document certain characters had been made bolder to stand out, yet in the print out they did not appear. Despite this, looking at the page creates a slight optical blur which reminds me of the static on old televisions. Also, by using a home printer it has created a slightly faded effect which adds to the retro style. 

 

There was use of word art as it's bright colours and experimental style remind me of 70s graphics, which was when videotapes became popularised. Because it is so hideous it feels as if it is breaking the rules, however I don't think I will be developing this further. 

 

I also looked at developing the research task work I discovered about the magnetic strip in videotapes. The lettering was to communicate the the layers of programming on the channels and video information. Although the outcome was a bit random, it did show how type could work in rows of production. I wanted to produce something that used a basic formula to create an objective outcome. 

 

Finally, I looked at David Carson's work from the “grunge typography” era. Carson proposes a theory that “what gives unity and coherence to intuition is truth”, which suggests that rather than a formulaic response to type- it should be spontaneous. After looking at his work, I created some of my own and layered them with his work, experimenting with photocopy. This created a patchwork effect which felt like it had a similar energy and obscurity. However, I still wanted to pursue something more formulaic to represent the video.