Johanna Drucker and Jennifer Egan have both outlined some interesting ideas and concepts in their typographic works. Drucker employs uses of effects such as embedment, entanglement, disruption, columns, hierarchies, gutters, ingesting text, and marginal insertions that draw the eye and encourage attentiveness from the reader. Although Egan’s story was captivating, her use of various colors, shapes, charts, and workflows were disorienting. These authors have inspired me to get creative with my typographic story by demonstrating the multiple ways that stories can unfold in an unconventional and non-linear fashion.
What Drucker eloquently discusses in her work Diagrammatic Writing aside from typographic concepts are strategies and sound pieces of advice when creating your typographic work. Drucker points out that “the first words placed define the space,” therefore describing how balance is maintained throughout the page based on the initial statement (2013:3). Druker also describes how “every decision has an effect on every other,” this statement illustrates how every decision made whether it be word alignment, space, or size will affect the sequence of your typographic work for each proceeding page (2013:3-4). Emphasis can be obtained through static space that projects “rhetorical force” to readers who interpret the statements as identifiable, distinct, and explicit (Drucker 2013:4). Sequence and structure are discussed further by listing four essential rules to remember:
1) Numbered sections have their own autonomy and not.
2) The modularity of these units, though ordered, allows them to operate without clear segues.
3) Any statement can be put into a numbered sequence.
4) A final line is not a conclusion, just an addition. Continuous reading and discontinuous reading occur in the same text spaces. The format does not determine reading but does structure the possible intervention
These concepts described in Drucker’s work are instrumental in maintaining structure, sequence, emphasis, pacing, and rhythm in typographic works.