Response: The secret language of letter design

https://www.ted.com/talks/martina_flor_the_secret_language_of_letter_design?language=en

I like how Martina pays close attention on how to tell a story with letters. As she mentioned in her working process, she will divide words into what is important and what is not. And then think about what kind of concept and emotion should be delivered for each individual word and what kind of style the whole group of text should have. Then she will play around with letter styling to enrich the plain text into a story. She focuses not just on delivering the message but also the craftsmanship of how the message should be delivered. from her example of “delivering her favorite swear word in a super flowery way”, she gives a perfect example of how things are delivered is sometimes more important than what is literally delivered. And I really like her ending “if the message is important, it requires craftsmanship; and if the readers are important, they deserve beauty and fantasy as well”.

things I find interesting:

• her working process:
  1. group information into what is important/not important
  2. what concept needs to be delivered? “wonder”
  3. what kind of style? conventional?
• by giving shapes to letters, it gives the word gestures and tones, makes it easier for her to decide what she means to say and how to deliver, beyond the literal text
  • I can say my favorite swear word in a super flowery way, and be really corny when I talk about love
• “be more precise at telling the story”
• if the message is important, it requires craftsmanship; and if the readers are important, they deserve beauty and fantasy as well