dynTypo

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Pedro Fernandes [ WEBSITE ]

1. How would you describe your work in connection with typography and multimedia?
My work is centered mostly around the exploration of movement and computer-based systems of rules that produce graphics or movement. My experience with typography is limited, but it seems to me to be an area with lots of potential. Some people claim we're moving from an industrial age of uniformization and mass production to an age of mass customization and niche markets. Typography has been defined by the printed press as a modular system of fixed symbols but this needn't be so, the difference with computer-based typography is that you can introduce non-fixed elements, as when you write by hand.

2. In dynTypo I'm collecting examples of artists, studios/projects where dynamic typography is used in cooperation with design and multimedia arts. Examples: John Maeda, Peter Cho, Andreas Müller, Yugo Nakamura, Jason Lewis, Letterror, etc. Is anyone else dealing with these issues that are important/influential for you? If so, why do you think they are important for your work?
I'm not that well informed about typography I'm afraid, however one example would be the playfulness in the use of type made by japanese collective delaware.

3. Did you study dynamic typography at school?
No.

4. How do you see yourself as a designer or a multimedia artist?
It's getting very difficult to distinguish between both. I suppose artists make work that goes on galleries, and designers make work that is paid for by a client for a specific purpose. With the web you can publish the work yourself, but you don't get the same level of exposure to the media that an exhibition in a white cube space gives you.

5. Can you identify some restrictions/limitations in the software you are using? If so, please specify?
That is a huge subject. Some people say Adobe is the biggest art director in the world, because so many options are made for you implicitly by the software you use, such as photoshop and illustrator. One can not help but notice the 'sameness' about fashionable vector-based illustrations found in most magazines. I think the key difference is what musicians call 'timbre': Each violin produces a very slightly different sond from the next, but the same thing doesn't happen with computers, who always execute crystal clear copies of the digital model they have stored.

6. How do you see the use of self-made programs for dynamic typography? And what do you think of using it for both 'personal research' and commissioned projects?
Self-made programs can be great tools for you to learn about typography yourself and in some cases other people might also benefit from the results. Research just for its own sake is all very good, but if no one knows about it you are working in a solipsistic way. If someone is paying you to do it, so much the better. Just bear in mind what use might be made of your work, the social/cultural implications.

7. How do you think dynamic typography can improve our daily basis life? In other words, what do you think about the usage of dynamic typography?
Typography will always have an important role in text-based communication. With the relentless drive for fresh aesthetics in contemporary media culture, I am sure we will be seeing much more of it in our screens.

8. How do you see the future of dynamic typography evolution?
As with everything else, things will get out of the research labs and get into the public domain. It won\'t take over arial as the standard default on PCs, but I think an increasingly sophisticated audience will look for more compelling ways of conveying information. It will be a mass niche. Possibly.

Thank you!