Message on a ? napkin!

Natasha Raissaki

A woman walks into a bar to have a drink. As the evening progresses, men approach the woman and in an effort to secure a potential date, they hand her their name and phone number on a napkin. By the time she leaves she has a bundle of napkins in her purse from men she doesn?t know. What she also doesn?t know is that she holds some clues regarding the psychological characteristics their handwriting may convey. And if she?s a typeface or graphic designer, things become even more interesting!

Every person?s handwriting is completely different to everyone else?s. Each person?s handwriting will elicit a different emotional or cognitive association to the woman in the bar. The question therefore is: will she indirectly perceive these associations? And, if yes, could she then use these associations in order to determine the associations that her typeface design or choice of type for a specific design job would convey to the readers? In the end, who will be receiving the lucky phone call?

Do typefaces have the same connotations for different readers?

Several studies have been conducted in order to examine whether typefaces elicit semantic associations from their readers. That is, whether subjects agreed upon impressions of the typeface as well as whether typefaces could be distinguished by such qualities. All in all, these studies point to the same conclusion. Typefaces do create mental associations in readers just as the human tone of voice alters the meaning of a spoken message. Mental associations consist of connections made, consciously or subconsciously, between the shapes of characters and personality traits or moods or settings, therefore leading to a cognitive or emotional response by the reader/receiver. Some examples of the studies will now follow in order to illustrate the methods used and the conclusions drawn.

 In a psychological study, conducted by Lewis and Walker (1989), subjects were presented with 16 typefaces and were asked to rate their perceptual qualities with polarised words such as heavy-light, fast-slow, hard-soft, sharp-blunt etc. The results showed that subjects agreed upon at least some of the typeface characteristics, indicating that typefaces possess perceptual qualities. Furthermore, Lewis and Walker moved on to present different animals to subjects asking them to agree upon their different characteristics. The names of these animals were then presented in typefaces that had binary characteristics which were either in accord with or opposite to the animal?s characteristics. They noted that responses where typeface and animal characteristics were conflicting were significantly slower than responses where animal and typeface characteristics were congruent. This suggested that typefaces can be perceptually encoded and can trigger semantic associations in the reader prior to the activation of the meaning of the written word itself. Research from information design and marketing has also established that individuals are able to extract consistent meanings from typefaces, indicating their semantic attributes (Bartram; 1982, Rowe; 1982, Tantillo, Lorenzo-Aiss, & Mathisen; 1995, Walker, Smith, & Livingston; 1986)

In ?The readability of typefaces and the subsequent mood or emotion created in the reader?, John E. Gump (2001) surveyed students to determine whether they would agree upon the mood or emotion evoked by ten typefaces. Mood was selected from words such as rigid, friendly, plain, elegant and ?no-opinion?. The majority of the 84 respondents agreed upon the mood for four out of ten typefaces, 65.5% designating Arial as ?plain?, 63.1% selected Bernhard Modern as ?elegant?, 52.4% selected Alternate Gothic 2 as ?rigid? and 51.2% selected Stymie as ?friendly?. This study could suggest that some typefaces are associated with specific emotional or cognitive attributes, while others may not evoke specific associative thinking. In addition, Bartram (1982) made an effort to establish a universally applicable scale of attributes grouped under four factors?evaluation?, ?potency, mood and vitality?comprising of terms such as pleasant, strong, happiness, speed and so on. He found that although groups of professional designers and non-designers agreed to a significant degree with at least one factor out of the four, their judgments varied on the rest. This suggests that a single designer may not base his choice of a typeface solely on the impression created in himself, but should take into consideration the impression created in the average reader as well.

Moreover, Childers and Jass (2002) investigating typeface semantics in marketing, asserted that typefaces communicated unique associations that are separate from the verbal meaning of words they ?clothe?. Their studies showed that subjects extracted different information from advertising copy depending on the typeface chosen to display the message. This occured both under low involvement -that is, when subjects were not expected to process the verbal content of the advertisement, and under high involvement, when subjects were expected to process the arguments of the copy presented. Furthermore, an examination was conducted pertaining to the mental cues evoked when the typeface chosen was consistent with the pictorial and verbal elements of the ad as opposed to when the typeface was conflicting them. Childers and Jass found that typefaces do interact with peripheral components of advertisements, thus enhancing the semantic cues evoked by an advertisement as well as influencing the consumer?s memory regarding the benefits suggested by the brand.

In an effort to further examine the mental impressions created by typefaces, Henderson, Giese and Cote (2004) focused on specific typeface design elements in order to identify the impressions created in groups of people. In collaboration with professional graphic designers, they selected design characteristics and corresponding typefaces, moving on to select impressions that would be tested on the chosen typefaces. As this is a marketing targeted research, the impressions chosen are relevant to the strategical goals of corporations. The typeface design characteristics used were ?elaborate? (meaning ornate, depth, distinctive, meaningful, uncommon and less readable), ?natural? (meaning active, curved, organic, slanted, and not appearing as if typed), ?harmony? (meaning balanced, smooth, symmetrical and uniform), ?flourish? (referring to serifs, ascenders and descenders) ?compressed? (consisting of x-height and condensed) and ?weight? (consisting of heavy, fat and repeated elements). The corresponding impressions were pleasing, engaging, reassuring and prominent. The results drew up a general pattern of typeface characteristics and corresponding low, average and high impressions

Table taken from Henderson, Giese, Cote (2004), ?Impression Management Using Typeface Design? Journal of Marketing, 68 (October), p.68

Lastly, Stopke and Stanley (1994) identified certain typeface attributes based on the appearance of typefaces. These were of attributes such as contemporary look, traditional, trendy or post-modern, elegant or ?classy?, friendly and serious. These attributes however could be regarded as rather general and not identifying more specific feelings and ideas that might be evoked in the reader.

Association of handwriting elements to attributes of personality

Going back to the napkins, we see the variety of handwriting styles in Greek and in English.

We see that some have long ascenders and descenders, some are very rounded, others have big capitals in comparison to the lowercase, or a calligraphic appeal. They can have big x-height or be simply unreadable.

Proceeding to the meanings and the associations our typeface or graphic designer may conjure up, we may look at some examples of napkins. Looking at these two potential dates, which one seems to you to be more organised and down to earth?

Which one seems to be more of an extrovert?

Graphology is the study of all graphic movement; from handwriting to doodles and drawings, in order to infer the physical, mental and emotional state of the writer or artist. Graphologists claim to have drawn their intricate conclusions via empirical studies over the years since the first book on graphology was written by Camillo Baldi in 1622. The pseudo-science has enjoyed a long-standing popularity up until today, particularly in personnel selection and especially in Europe. However, the International Graphonomics Society has published a statement along with a research study, clearly demonstrating that graphological claims have failed to meet a level of validity, a statement further supported by manifold psychological studies. Psychiatrist R. Persaud in his article in New Scientist (2002) states that ?to date more than 200 objective scientific studies have concluded the technique is of no practical value?.

The previously mentioned studies on typeface semantics conducted up until today, have either used specific typefaces (therefore producing results that could not be generalised) or they have matched specific design characteristics to general attributes. Furthermore, they have matched impressions to large typeface groups, with type designed for continuous text being a group on the whole, as in the study by Henderson et al., and therefore being rather general. Graphology refers to particular emotions and attributes of the writer and focuses on specific design elements of the handwriting. Scientific studies conducted on refuting handwriting evaluation for the prediction of personality traits only focused on whether elements of someone?s personality may be portrayed by their handwriting. They did not test, however, whether readers would draw the same impressions of someone?s handwriting regardless of whether these impressions were actually congruent with the writer?s personality.

On the other hand, objective studies have proved that people do create mental associations when looking at typefaces. As typefaces are a more structured form of handwriting it could be suggested that readers would draw analogical impressions from handwriting as well. Although graphology may not have established a correlation between people?s handwriting and basic personality patterns, it might be able to ?predict? the impression created on ?readers? when looking at someone?s handwriting and therefore at a typeface.

This is where our female designer comes in. Which man will be lucky enough to receive a phone call from our undoubtedly quite interesting graphic or typeface designer? Whose handwriting conveys the meanings that tick the right boxes for her?

According to graphology, handwriting may be separated to three zones. The upper zone (ascender) signifies intellectuality and abstract thinking. The middle zone (x-height) signifies everyday activity and material matters, while the third zone (descenders) portays desires and motives. More specifically, when examining the upper zone, tall capitals in comparison to the lower case signify people who tower above the rest, while small capitals signify people who are modest in nature. The same applies to the lower case where the ascenders are rather tall. Furthermore, according to graphology, narrow capitals indicate shyness, collectiveness and possible suppression, while wide capitals are translated as a sign of extroversion and grandeur.

Wide letters in the middle zone indicate extroversion while those who write narrow letters are timid, loners, modest and conservative. When the middle zone is too wide and rounded, that is perceived as an indication of immaturity and a low educational level. On the other hand, when the middle zone is not rounded but rather angular, that is a sign of frustration and maybe anger. In addition, open counters convey a feeling of openness and acceptance, while closed counters a sense of reservation. When the middle zone is short that is a sign of objectivity and realism, someone who focuses on facts and not so much on ideas.

Long lower zones (descenders) indicate restlessness as opposed to short descenders, which indicate a more collected person. In addition, when the lower zone is rounded that stands for friendliness, activity and imagination as opposed to an abrupt lower zone which stands for stubbornness, determination and a tendency towards control.

Regarding the slant of letters, graphology claims that letters with a strong right-sided slant indicate sentimentality, impulsiveness, expressionism and sensitivity and a soft right slant indicates extroversion and tenderness.

The aforementioned attributes are but a few examples suggested by graphology. Graphology moves on to further analyse people?s handwriting using general characteristics such as pen pressure, general size and overall appearance, line orientation, word spacing, margins and so on, as well as more specific details such as combining letters, letter endings and beginnings as well as signatures and doodles. Some of these elements could trace an analogy to typeface design while others could not.

Applying the claims of graphology to typefaces

Associative thinking when using typefaces may not be desirable for example when using textbooks, where more attention is expected to be drawn to the verbal message of the text. However, in other instances such as advertisements, signs, books, newspapers, corporate fonts, and so on, a semantic association may be desired in order to intensify the impression of the content of the verbal message, the product or the corporation itself.

What if, using graphology?s claims on the connotations created based on the shapes of the letters, our female designer could then use these elements in order to control the impressions created on readers when choosing or designing a typeface?

Moving on to apply graphological claims to typefaces, the semantic associations of type may be examined. Two famous typefaces will serve as examples, Swift by Gerard Unger and Adobe?s Garamond by Robert Slimbach, both widely used and each bearing its own appeal.

Looking at Swift, what could the indirect mental association be when a reader sees this typeface? If the semantic properties were to be examined based on graphology, then the three zones of the typeface should be traced. The first zone, the ascenders, is short, possibly indicating a sign of modesty. The second zone is also slightly wide and angular and could suggest extroversion and slight frustration while the counters are open which might stand for openness and acceptance. The short descenders in the lower zone could convey a sense of being collected, while the angular teardrop might create an impression of determination. [As previously stated, these assumptions are clearly referring to the design itself in relation to the end-user and on no account should it be suggested that these reflect personality traits of the designers themselves.]

On the other hand, when looking at Adobe?s Garamond, one would notice that the upper zone is tall which might suggest a sense of towering above the rest. The middle zone is rounded, slightly wide and short. These elements might convey a feeling of calmness, extroversion, objectivity and realism. The long lower zone might give the impression of restlessness. The counters are not as open as in Swift, and that could convey a feeling of slight closure and distance.

 Moreover, when looking at the capitals of both Swift and Adobe Garamond one may notice that the Garamond capitals are wider than those of Swift. That may convey a feeling of extroversion and grandeur for Garamond and a feeling of modesty, shyness and collectiveness for Swift. The italics, on the other hand, convey different meanings. Garamond is fairly slanted and narrow which might convey a feeling of sentimentality, impulsiveness, expressionism as well as modesty and conservatism. Swift however, has a soft slant and has slightly wide elements that might create an impression of extroversion and tenderness.

As for a very famous typeface indeed, widely used in Greece and abroad, Comic Sans, due to its roundness and wideness the impression created to readers by this typeface would be that of immaturity and a low educational level. Furthermore, the inconsistency regarding the counters, as in the lowercase s, for example, bounces between acceptance and reservation elements which would make this typeface quite successful for the initial reason it was created.

According to the mental connotations created to readers first noted through handwriting and then applied to typeface design, which typeface would our female designer use to set a book of romantic poetry? Swift italic, Garamond italic or Comic Sans? An advertisement for children?s toys? The headline for a book on the grandeur of the ancient roman civilization?

Conclusion

During this talk, many mental associations have been presented based purely on graphological assumptions. Some might have seemed to be making perfect sense to you while others might have seemed to be striking the wrong note. This alone is reason enough for suggesting that a further investigation of the semantic properties of type is needed to establish with certainty some correspondence of specific typographic elements with particular impressions. In effect, studies will need to take into consideration further parameters such as legibility, association through convention ? where typefaces have gained specific semantic meanings via exposure to specific context ? cultural background of the readers, as well as to distinguish between aesthetic and semantic connotations, emotional or cognitive responses and so on.

Elements such as capital height, ascender and descender height, roundness and angularity, wideness and narrowness could affect the indirect message conveyed to the receivers of typographical stimuli. And these should be taken into consideration when designing a typeface for a specific reason or when choosing a typeface for a specific design job. There is still a lot of research to be done as this is a field of typography and applied psychology that has not been researched thoroughly yet, but I am certain that the results of such a research will be of great interest to our female graphic or typeface designer in the bar. As for the lucky guy, if our female is a typeface designer, he probably won't be receiving a phone call at all as she is clearly in a panic state having to kern that typeface of hers within a week!