Dalston Type Safari

Some pretty hand drawings on a store front

On Tuesday we went on a Type Safari tour for our GrC class. We had a graphic designer tour guide who has set up a studio dedicated to research and experimentation related to the personality of typefaces. We started the tour in Dalston, and walked through the streets with a type safari handout, in which we searched for signage with various typefaces throughout the area. 

We saw some cool signs, and our guide asked us to consider the way that different type affects our subconscious or premeditated ideas about restaurants and stores. As a GrC major it was no new news to think that different typefaces need to be used in different settings, but I hadn't thought quite as much about really how much type can influence your thoughts. 

One of the type tasting experiments!

Goodie bag!

At the end of our type safari we visited the Type Tasting studio where we participated in social typography experiments. The studio itself was so cute with good design and typography everywhere. There were different tests that we could participate in that were related to her research. They included a test in which we were asked to describe a candy based on the font that labels it, one which attributed human characteristics to different fonts, and another, my favorite, the type speed dating game. During the type speed dating game, we were asked to choose which one of three typefaces we would choose to date. It was cool to see how strongly everyone felt about the different typefaces and how easily we could describe the type of person that each typeface would belong to. The work that our guide is doing is really cool, and after seeing how much research she has done, I'm surprised that there hasn't already been more research done about human reactions to typography, especially since typography is so important in advertising.