Type focused contemporary design

Richard Turley

 "This approval culture, Turley explains, can push designers into a daily existential crisis and periods of self-doubt. “A lot of that bubbled around,” he says. “That and the paradox of a lot of socially-minded left of centre creatives providing the (often rather successful) communications for multi-national corporations whose motives they are entirely at odds with.” 

"Although Turley doesn’t suggest that all of this thinking exists in the design, it was the underlying spirit that drove its direction. He says, “Without sounding too pretentious… the scrawl is trying to find an equivalence for that – the ghost in the corporate marketing machine. Digitized, stupefied. Compliant. Powerless. A bit frantic. With a sense of humour."

I really like this design concept by Richard Turley as it doesn't take itself too seriously, and is playful in the type choices it uses; this use of messy, handwritten type explores the themes of the book in a sense that graphic designers are often in self doubt and take themselves seriously. The type rebels against the formality of design, and the digital world; it provides a sense of human nature and celebrates mistakes. This approach to type and cover design would be very appropriate for my own project, as it would fit the books witty sense of voice; as well as this, the book is intended to be for 'everyone', so an intentionally 'bad' or messy aesthetic could evoke this down to earth atmosphere - it is a science book that doesn't take itself seriously. 

Actual Source - Shoplifters

I found this cover design interesting due to the way that the text is manipulated to fill up the entire page; it makes the title the key focal point and is immersive in how it is positioned to flow onto each line with hyphens. Although this challenges legibility, I think it works nicely in making the text more striking to an audience, which makes it fit into contemporary design. I also like the vivid juxtaposition between the colour palette, and how the yellow doesn't fill the whole page - it almost has a highlighter quality which evokes the idea of a 'homemade' design; it doesn't take itself too seriously. What I can really take from this design for my own inspiration is how it transforms the formality of a sans serif type into something really intriguing and powerful; I could try doing the same with existing typefaces and playing around with compositions etc.