BEAUTY AND UGLINESS IN TYPE WRITING. INTERVIEW TO PETER BIL’AK

We attended a lecture of the type designer Peter Bil’ak at the SPD Scuola Politecnica di Design, which has opened our eyes on the design of fonts: a design aspect which we rarely pay attention but that, in hindsight, permeates every area of our lives, and on which Bil’ak has set an interesting discussion about the almost mathematic difference between what to our eye is beautiful or ugly. The result is Karloff (explained in the video to the right) showing how the difference between attractive and repulsive resides in a single parameter: the contrast between thick and thin lines. To better understand Karloff and his activity as a type designer, we asked Bil’ak a few questions.

Designspeaking: How do you explain the substantial, yet subtle, between beauty and ugliness defined by Karloff?

Peter Bil’ak: Despite the idea of beauty is subjective and personal, in the context of type design, many agree that the characters created by Giambattista Bodoni are an objectively beautiful expression of elegance, order and symmetry. It is consequent that ugliness comes from overthrowing Bodoni’s rules: as in the case of Italian, during the industrial revolution, deliberately designed to attract the attention of the reader to destabilize his expectations with a simple trick: thick lines instead of thin ones and vice versa. Karloff shows exactly how close is the connection between beauty and ugliness.

DS: In typographic design, do we have an absolute freedom of creativity or there are fixed parameters to always conform to?

PB: The human eye doesn’t change, which means that the shapes type design create are subject to basic optical laws, such as the reading distance, smaller legible size, length of sentences, etc. Usually, every technological change inspired type designers to take advantage of the newly created possibilities. In the similar fashion, the typefaces will continue evolving reacting to the available possibilities. It is not an absolute freedom, but excellent type designers manage to create something which hasn’t been made before.

DS: In nowadays trends, graphic design seems to have forgotten clearness and simplicity in favour of a retro look. Is it a cyclic discipline following trends and fashions? Or, aiming for an efficient communication, the right path is always the same?

PB: Just like with music, or cinema, in design there is no single dominant style. If something is part of a fashion, it is usually shortlived. I strongly believe that effective communication exists beyond fashions —it is a fundamental exchange between readers and authors.

DS: What did you study, and how did you approach your professional activity?

PB: I commenced my studies in Czechoslovakia, at theAcademy of Fine Arts. After that, I made a master course in Paris at the AtelierNational de Recherche Typographique. From there my path leads to Holland, first I spent two years on a scholarship at the Jan van Eyck Academy, at the Design department. In 2001 I started my own company, producing very hybrid work, web design, curating exhibitions, designing books, publishing fonts, editing and publishing magazines. More recently, most of our work is self-initiated — not waiting for the clients to call, but doing what we believe is relevant work.

Photo by Peter Bil’ak’s presentation.