I was contemplating what to write about this week and which
topic I would choose for my focus when I came across an article on Cyrus
Highsmith’s book, Inside Paragraphs:
typographic fundamentals. Highsmith focuses on creating and illustrating
his own typography, and in this book, he discusses the paragraph and its
functionality, perception, and reality on a page. He argues that it’s not about
the book or the page but what’s inside and what makes both of those things have
substantial content: the paragraph. In this paragraph are a number of symbols
and words, but overall, it is the mass on the page and the part that holds the
most meaning, the significance of each symbol, each word, together.
While all of this seems expected and like something you’ve
already grasped before, Highsmith takes an interesting approach to his theory
and perspective. He attempts to steer you away from viewing a paragraph as
merely a positive space and more as a collection of negative spaces that relate
to one another.
Those negative spaces are often ignored, but they create
that balance with what is put on the page, that positive space. I started
thinking back to my recent struggles with designing logos, typefaces, or even a
simple poster, and how maybe the reason for that struggle was my preoccupation
with the positive and neglect of the negative. After reading this article, I
refreshed my perspective on things and have made some alterations.
Highsmith uses the form of a book to illustrate his views on
the paragraph whether it’s contained in a space or spread across a page, it
shows his perspective. He also uses his own typography to demonstrate the final
product of this perspective and how it is applied. Overall, I thought this perspective and illustration of the paragraph was interesting and relevant to my own work.
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