The Semiotics of Typography in Night Media
Written by Isabel Sices
Edited by Courtney Squires
Introduction
The majority of people have indeed judged a book by its cover. While most likely do not revel in admitting this fact, it is a fairly normal practice—and reveals the influence of a central tenet of cover design: typography. Defined as “the design, or selection, of letter forms to be organized into words and sentences to be disposed in blocks of type as printing upon a page,” typography is integral to nearly all other forms of design. In the most basic sense, it is an application of art and creativity that manifests in practical use and aims to solve a problem1. A typeface is therefore defined more specifically as a unique design of type, or more simply, a font. Our interactions with typography are frequent; book jackets are just the tip of the iceberg. Every time we consume media with any written element, from literature to billboards, to packaging at the grocery store, we encounter an intentionally and likely meticulously designed alphabet. While the intricacies of type design may go largely unnoticed to the untrained eye, they nevertheless influence our impressions as we read, and are thus central to our understanding of the world.
For each day that we encounter and consume type design, our experience is invariably followed by nightfall. An emerging field, night studies aims to study the nighttime as a spatio-temporal realm with a distinct culture and imagination, as opposed to the dominant daytime culture. Our notion and understanding of the night is largely influenced by the collective cultural imagination, and representations of the night in a variety of media. Via an examination of the mechanisms and semiotics of typography, followed by two case studies illustrating various phenomena at play in night-media cover art—that is, the cover art and design of film, television, and music which takes place during or is associated with the night—this paper will explore the ways in which typography is used to reflect or identify conceptions about the night. This paper, therefore, seeks to identify and dissect the intersection between typography and the night.
Typeface as Semiotics
As we interact with any given typeface, we discern meaning not necessarily by virtue of what the words themselves mean, but rather through the shape of the letters and words; from the alphabet itself. This meaning can be studied through a semiotic lens, which is the study of signs and “how meaning is made and reality is represented”2.
Typography embodies what can be considered a sign, as the design of a typeface pulls from a range of elements and references, each with its own context and implications. Designers use these frameworks, often like puzzle pieces, to create new typefaces- and thus they convey new meaning. The majority of elements that constitute any given typeface have pre-existing cultural associations, frequently enmeshed in our understandings of and throughout history. This is a large part of what gives any typeface semiotic meaning. For example, most would associate a full-bodied, bubbly typeface as representative of the laid-back and easygoing atmosphere often characterized by the 1970s, or a stylized, all capital typeface featuring an additional vertical stroke complementary to each character’s stem with the 1920s art deco movement. Furthermore, “when a semiotic resource is organized as a ‘medium’, meaning comes about… through one of two principles, connotation or experiential metaphor. The term ‘connotation’… refers to the idea that signs may be ‘imported’ from one context (one era, one social group, one culture) into another, in order to signify the ideas and values associated with that other context by those who do the ‘importing’”3. Thus, it is evident that the purposeful construction and reconstruction of typefaces and their applications in a variety of settings are used to deliver meaning about the things that they represent.
Mechanisms
There exists a wide variety of different mechanisms used to construct each unique typeface. Common variables include serif or sans-serif, script or block, and overall size. Other important factors are the x-height of a font, which is “the height of the main element of a lowercase letter and is the equivalent to the size of a lowercase x,” and ascenders and descenders, which are the parts “of a lowercase letter that rise above the body (x-height) of a letter… [and] the parts that fall below the body… of the letter” (fig. 1)4. All of these factors and more are considered throughout the design process of a typeface. Additionally, because of the way these elements combine to create a cohesive visual presentation, they are all considered by graphic designers as they decide which typefaces to include in their designs. In a finished product, such as a piece of cover art, the typeface, along with its weight, color, size, and orientation, contribute in tandem to the semiotics of the typography.
Figure 1. Demonstration of the various x-heights of a typeface. As evidenced, the size of a lowercase “x” in a certain typeface determines the heights of all the other main elements in each lowercase letter.
Figure 2. A traditional blackletter type sample.
Case Study 1: Conception of Night as Scary
Nyctophobia, which is fear of the night, epitomizes an all-too-common conception of the night, which is that it is scary and unknown. Night media frequently exploits this fearful trope, and uses nighttime as a setting and/or explanation for plots or ideas that are fearsome and unnerving. Oftentimes, designers use a classification of type called blackletter in cover art for night media which embodies the nyctophobia trope through both composition and the emotions it elicits (fig. 2). Blackletter was a prevalent typeface during the medieval period in Europe, between 1150 and 1500 AD, and many contemporary typographers have riffed off this historic typeface, creating new designs such as Gothic and Old English. Blackletter-inspired typefaces are commonly used for media which portrays a scary night for two main reasons. It appears “heavy and difficult to read… due to the complexity of the letters and the fact that they seem antiquated and unfamiliar to use”5, and its evocation of the medieval period—a time generally regarded as a “dark” time in history when society regressed from its former cultural flourishment—allows it to convey feelings of fear that surround the night.
Figure 3. Blackletter-inspired typeface seen in the script which reads “Night Demon,” the heavy metal band on their album cover for Darkness Remains.
Figure 4. While less explicit, Russian Doll’s script is also reminiscent of blackletter, which can be seen in the boldness of the letters, and the distinct shape of the “S.”
Figure 5. Comparing the Russian Doll script to this one, called MacBeth OldStyle, helps to illustrate the blackletter influence for Russian Doll.
The album cover for Darkness Remains, a heavy metal album by Night Demon, uses a font which is an abundantly clear reference to traditional blackletter. This allusion is meant to evoke a feeling of fear, similar to the one elicited by their music (fig. 3). Similarly, the cover art’s typography for the television show Russian Doll draws inspiration from blackletter, although less explicitly than Darkness Remains (fig. 4). The references to blackletter in the Russian Doll typography are made evident through the weight and overall shape of the type. This reference is made abundantly clear when viewed in comparison to a Macbeth Old Style typeface sample, as both typefaces are similarly bold, squared-off, and have stylized, slanted descenders (fig. 5). Russian Doll focuses on a woman who is forced to relive the same night over and over again, during which she always dies, triggering the night to restart, as the world she is trapped in slowly deteriorates around her. Russian Doll’s cover’s use of blackletter-inspired type is meant to connote meaning about a fearful night, something that is evocative of its plot and foreshadows to its audience what will happen in the film.
Case Study 2: Conception of Night as Transient
Another common trope or conception of the night is that it is ephemeral; fleeting. This is based, of course, on the fact that the night only lasts for a certain amount of time—as daybreak ensures it is always bound to end. This imagery, of one night containing a long series of unique events only to be suddenly whisked away with the sun as if all was perhaps never really there, and as if the events that occurred were exclusive to the night, is a common motif in night media, especially in single night films. Single night films are a narrow genre of film who’s plot takes place over just one night, often following the characters’ journeys throughout the night. Representing this intangible feeling of ephemerality semiotically—through type—is certainly less distinct or obviously achieved than in the typographic representations of nyctophobia. However, there are a couple of ways ephemerality has been signaled through typographic design on television and film covers.
Figure 6. The ephemerality of the Midnight Asia typeface is conveyed through the way the script is see-through, italicized, and curvilinear, as if it were handwritten.
Midnight Asia, a television show about night culture in large cities throughout Asia, uses typographic techniques to indicate the fleeting feeling of night in these places, as portrayed on the show (fig. 6). First and foremost, the type consists of several individual lines, in shades of blue and purple, layered atop one another to form an italic block. This does two things: it gives the type a quickly handwritten feeling, via its swishy shape, and it leaves empty space within the down and up strokes of the letters revealing a darker background behind the text. This slight opacity lends itself to a feeling of ephemerality, suggesting that the letters are only partly there. Additionally, the forward-leaning motion of the letters and the way they appear to have been jotted down gives the feeling that they could depart from the page as quickly as they appear to have arrived. These two main elements contribute to the way this type was designed to look impermanent: like letters written on a pane of glass with a dry erase marker; a kind of type which is merely temporary, fun, and easily wiped away. Similarly, the typeface for the cover art for Breve Miragem de Sol, a Brazilian one-night film about a taxi driver, evokes this same kind of ephemerality (fig. 7) through the way the letters seem to dissolve at the edges, signaling a feeling that the night too, is easily dissolved.
Figure 7. In this cover art for Breve Miragem de Sol, the typeface appears as if it is being eaten away at the edges, and therefore alludes to a certain degree of transience.
Conclusion
Ultimately, designers for media that is associated with or revolves around the night use typography to deliver meaning to the viewer in a multitude of complex and often indirect ways. Blackletter, a script with roots in medieval Europe, is commonly associated today with night-oriented media that aims to be unnerving—such as heavy metal music or television shows such as Russian Doll—because of its connotations of darkness, uncertainty, and barbarism. On the other hand, scripts which are more translucent than their bold counterparts, and which incorporate more movement and dynamism in their design can represent the fleeting nature of night media by connoting a feeling of transience, as seen in the cover art for Midnight Asia. As reflected through various and distinct samples of night media, the purpose of typography as a tool to communicate meaning and elicit certain emotions or connotations in viewers is integral to our collective understandings and conceptions of the night.
Endnotes
Preece, W. E. and Wells, . James M.. "typography." Encyclopedia Britannica, March 19, 2020. britannica.com/technology/typographyy/typography.
Daniel Chandler, The Basics, 2nd ed. (Abingdon-on-Thames, Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2002), 2.
Theo van Leeuwen, “Towards a Semiotics of Typography,” Information Design Journal 14, no. 2 (July 2006): pp. 139-155, doi.org/10.1075/idj.14.2.06lee, 146.
Suzanne Watzman and Margaret Re, “Visual Design Principles for Usable Interfaces,” The Human–Computer Interaction Handbook, April 2012, pp. 263-285, doi.org/10.1201/b11963-ch-14, 268.
Gavin Ambrose and Paul Harris, The Fundamentals of Typography (Lausanne: AVAAcademia, 2011), 31.
Bibliography
Ambrose, Gavin, and Paul Harris. The Fundamentals of Typography. Lausanne: AVA Academia, 2011.
Chandler, Daniel. The Basics. 2nd ed. Abingdon-on-Thames, Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2002.
Preece, W. E. and Wells, . James M.. "typography." Encyclopedia Britannica, March 19, 2020. britannica.com/technology/typography.
van Leeuwen, Theo. “Towards a Semiotics of Typography.” Information Design Journal 14, no. 2 (2006): 139–55. doi.org/10.1075/idj.14.2.06lee.
Watzman, Suzanne, and Margaret Re. “Visual Design Principles for Usable Interfaces.” The Human–Computer Interaction Handbook, 2012, 263–85. doi.org/10.1201/b11963-ch-14.