This week’s reading focused a lot on following a grid. All the readings shared the same ideology that typography’s main goal should be to communicate a message and not just look pretty. Jan Tschichold writes in The New Typography, “when in earlier periods ornament was used, often in an extravagant degree, it only showed how little the essence of typography, which is communication, was understood.” What this shows is that designers went back into old designs and analyzed what worked and what didn’t and realized that the extra flare the ornaments gave was not needed. It did not support the design’s purpose of communicating a message so they removed what didn’t work or fulfill their needs.

    Josef Muller-Brockmann writes in Grid and Design Philosophy about how “working within the grid system means submitting to the law of universal validity.” He seems to have believed that, “the designer’s work should have clearly intelligible, objective, functional, and aesthetic quality of mathematical thinking.” What it seems like to me is that design is becoming more of a mathematical thing rather than a form of expression.

    Everything about design and typography in this reading seems to focus a lot on grids and maths when it comes to composition and hierarchy. Every placement and size has a purpose to communicate a message. However, Brockmann does manage to hint that some expression does remain even when following these mathematical rules by stating, “every visual creative work is a manifestation of the character of the  designer. It is a reflection of his knowledge, his ability, and his mentality.” This hinting at and showing that some artistic expression does remain in a new way for this new era of design.