Virtual Typography

A)

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Job:01212 Title: Basics typography (AVA)

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engage their subconscious. Only with the help of their

intuition (their instinctive knowledge and understanding)

can viewers fi ll the gaps which virtual typography

presents during the early stages of the display.

If information provokes simultaneously diverse possible

interpretations, the human brain is intensively stimulated

to verify all those possibilities in search of the correct

solution. According to Zeki, it is not ambiguity per

se but the ‘capacity of multiple experiences’ that is

aesthetically pleasing. What is virtually typographical

engages the viewer intensively because of the variety of

possible interpretations. Each plausible solution requires

the visual information to be compared to the variety of

memorised experiences. The consecutive evaluation

of several possibilities requires the viewer to invest

time in the process. But with the mind preoccupied

with the comparison of evolving forms and previously

experienced information, the amount of time passing

remains unnoticed.

The fact that the correct interpretation of ambiguous

forms relies on the viewer’s individual horizon of

experience helps us to understand why viewers who

are visually trained master visual challenges more easily

than others. Designers and artists will always be able

to interpret virtual typography faster than people who

do not work in the creative industry. The subjectivity of

perception explains why so many avant-garde design

solutions have failed to succeed in the context of mass

communication. What the design community praised as

the forefront of contemporary design has often turned

out to be too much of a challenge for the target audience

of the client.

‘One of the functions of the brain

[...] is to instill meaning into this

world, into the signals that it

receives. Instilling meaning

amounts to fi nding a solution. But

the brain commonly fi nds itself in

conditions where this is not easy,

because it is confronted with

several meanings of equal validity.

Where one solution is not

obviously better than the others,

the only option is to allow several

interpretations, all of equal validity.

[...] These interpretations must all

involve memory

and experience.’

Semir Zeki

Job:01212 Title: Basics typography (AVA)

2nd Proof Page:149

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