Ephemeral Typography : Writing the impermanent

Writing is usually understood as a tool for sharing information across distance and time. While it may feel counter-intuitive to envisage writing systems that are not for archiving knowledge or keeping traces of events, a large scope of existing typographic practices plays with evanescent letterform.

This book examines these in a variety of contexts: traditional, vernacular, activism, art and as graphic design experimentation. What happens when letters and words are ephemeral? How does impermanence tint readers’ experience and understanding of the message? At a time when human activity has impacted the environment enough to form a distinct geological age, how can we design without systematically producing more things? We’ve been obsessed with leaving traces and testimonies of our presence on Earth, but can expression through writing find another purpose? How can typography specifically offer hyper contextual content and completely disappear a moment later?

Concrete examples explore how form is influenced by context of display, and how the fluctuant nature of materials (movement of the human body, drying moss, light-sensitive surfaces, crumbling sand…) enhances meaning and perception.

Drawing upon a variety of points of view issued from anthropology, sociology, history of art and graphic design, this book captures the interest of readers curious about typography, activism, performance, and design as a sustainable practice.