Type Card Set

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The experience of a San Francisco earthquake, visually conveyed.

Distortion

Distorting type provocatively transports it into the visual realm, for letters and words that function normally as symbols for spoken sound are transformed into expressive images. When type is distorted, it acquires strange and unfamiliar visual characteristics. Depending upon how and why it is distorted, there exists a potential for new and extended meaning. Fragmented type, for example, may allude to disjointed conversations or chaos, while blurred type may exude calm as it floats softly and atmospherically. Skewed and stretched type can represent movement. Used in combination, the factors of type distortion can lend nearly infinite possibilities. All that is required is a sense of play, some ingenuity, and a bit of software knowledge. Computer software provides typographic experimenters with a dazzling array of tools for distorting type.