Typography A-Z: The letter Y
Grafik Magazine , March Issue 2009
This writing assignment asked 26 designers to create a 200 word text on a typography-related subject under the heading of a given letter. We could write about anything, as long as it fit the above criteria... it could be a typeface, an individual character, a typographic style or movement, a type designer or foundry, a significant place or moment in typographic history, an application of type, a process, a typographic cliché....
My letter was "Y"
My first essay was about Yoko Ono's Instruction Paintings.
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Y / Yoko Ono
Although Yoko Ono is not a graphic designer or typographer, there is no doubt that artists who use typography in their work, like Ono, Lawrence Weiner, and Christopher Wool, have been influential to many graphic designers. Daniel Eatock and Experimental Jetset are a few examples of contemporary graphic designers who examine the precedents set by these artists.
Yoko Ono’s text based work investigates the concept of language replacing the material art object. The viewer is asked to participate in the making of the artwork by interpreting the text, using one’s mind to visualize and experience the image.
In a recent exhibition, The Art of Participation 1950 to Now, I viewed one of Ono’s series called “Instruction Paintings.” The piece, PAINTING TO SEE THE SKIES, 1961, is a list of directions set in a ubiquitous slab serif font on a pad of white paper that hangs from the gallery wall. Experiencing this piece was a reminder of the authority text can have, even with a very simple and direct design approach.
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Unfortunately we weren't able to get the rights to reprint Yoko Ono's artwork...
at the last minute I replaced Yoko with more informal text about the typeface Yearbook...
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Y / Yearbook
Foundry: Monotype
Designer: Unknown
Classification: Slab Serif
Yearbook is a typical American sports typeface sometimes referred to as “collegiate lettering.” It’s a blocky, slab-serif typeface, commonly used on team jerseys at all levels of sports from little league to professional. The complete font family contains Yearbook Filler, Outline, and Solid; the first two of these faces are designed to be superimposed on top of each other to create a decorative outline.
This typeface is commonly associated with the culture of high school and college athletics as well. Those who excel in a particular sport are dubbed a “letterman,” and wear jackets that have the first letter or initials of the school, set in Yearbook on the left breast area. Traditionally, athletes wear these jackets to represent team pride and to display personal awards.
Although I lettered in tennis and received one of these jackets, I felt quite uncomfortable with what it meant to wear it. Like many schools, the “atheletes” were at the top of the social pecking order, and that embroidered letter on the jacket became a status indicator of the social elite and essentially a symbol of what was depressing about being in highschool. On the other hand, I have many fond memories of little league baseball, and soccer teams as a kid. The ritual of choosing your jersey number and getting that big slab-serif 4 printed on my uniform before first game was always exciting for me!
