Study task 08 required the re-typesetting of Lewis Carroll's 'A Mouse's Tale' using two approaches - one a modernist approach and the other a post-modernist approach.
A Mouse's Tale is a concrete poem which appears in Carroll's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. In the tale, the Mouse explains how a cur (mongrel dog) called Fury plotted to condemn it to death by serving as both judge and jury. Carroll's typesetting of the poem, which is undoubtedly post-modernist, is inspired by Alice's misunderstanding of the Mouse as he speaks of his tale, his recounted story however Alice think he is taking about his tail, leading her to imagine the story in the twisting tail-like shape.
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| Carroll's Original Concrete Poem. |
Modernist Typesetting
Design Decisions:
- Use of only two type sizes, the smaller exactly half the point size of the larger (Massimo Vignelli Ideology)
- Line lengths that contain 45 to 65 characters for maximum legibility. (Fassett's Theorem of Legible Line Length)
- Maximum readability achieved via flush left type which is the easiest formatting to read as the gaze has one starting point and clear, distinct line-ends due to the rag and un-justified line. (Massimo Vignelli)
- Helvetica - modernist, sans-serif typeface.
To achieve a post-modernist resolution to the typesetting of Carroll's 'A Mouse's Tale,' I manipulated adjectives to visually represent their word, including 'long,' 'turning,' 'down' and 'puzzling.' These manipulations visually communicate the words enhancing the effect reading has on the reader, forcing them to physically act out the words via the gaze.
This typesetting directly challenges modernist master Massimo Vignelli's view as he said 'I can write the word 'dog' with any typeface, and it doesn't have to look like a dog. But there are people who, when they write 'dog' think it should bark, you know?'
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