opinios

Type Empathy

Our latest task in design class was to create some examples of type empathy, using Adobe InDesign.

Type empathy is when the meaning of a word is accurately reflected by its type (size, colour, font, arrangement etc). I instantly had flashbacks to my childhood, when I would pore over a book called The Lettering Book, a kid's classic chock full of fun examples of fonts and playful ways that they can be represented.

This exercise was definitely my favourite to date. We were given a choice of about twenty words from which we had to create type empathy for, using strictly type only (and very simple shapes), with just the fonts available on the iMacs in class (not many). Some of the words could be empathised in an obvious way, sometimes too much so. Others were really difficult to represent.

This is a snippet of what I came up during class time. Our homework is to make a few more, and we have a bit more flexibility on the fonts we can use and the addition of shapes. Should be fun!

Font: Birch Std

Font: Poplar Std

Font: Kozuka Mincho Std