Ansichtssache – Über Lesbarkeit und die Details in der Typografie by Sabrina Öttl
From Sabrina Öttl’s website, describing her bachelor thesis project that went on the win the Red Dot Award, among other things:
Type is language visualized. Every day we encounter information made out of letters that are then combined to words in different media. In this wealth of information, those things that are specially differentiated stand out. Therefore, typography becomes the balancing act between design and communication.
“Matter of opinion – about readability and the details in typography” is about analyzing the aspects of microtypography that affect the readability of printed text as well as the design possibilities that arise out of them. For this purpose, different theses from different designers are put in relation. Hence a grading system for ideal qualitative font selection – besides subjective or contextual circumstances – was developed. This thesis demonstrates that font selection alone is not what matters most for optimum reception of a text. Typography is a craft and requires knowledge, proficiency, sense and experience of its practitioners. The practical part consists of a specimen book that is put together using the criteria of the theoretical part. This thesis does not only provide knowledge about typography but also has practical relevance and provides some orientation in the multitude of available fonts.
The main typefaces used for the book design are Nils Thomsen’s Pensum Pro (TypeMates) and Jost Hochuli’s abc Allegra (abc Litera). Ansichtssache presents many other fonts, too. Among the ones that are prominently visible in the featured images are Carol Twobly’s Adobe Caslon (Bold Italic, with swash caps) and Michael Hochleitner’s Ingeborg Fat.
