The Obscene Typography Machine

• Designers who overcome their computer phobia are mesmerized by the possibilities.
• Organizations with small budgets have easier access to better design.
• The ease of computer use put design in the hands of people who don't have any experience with typography.
• Powerful new software give the designer the power to flip, rotate, stretch and bend typography.
• Type is being distorted in violation of everything that has been learned in the past 500 years about making beautiful letter forms.
• Type designers optically adjust each letter form they design
• One reason a typeface is considered a masterpiece is because the designer achieved optical harmony, not mathematical.
• Suddenly in 1988 anyone with a Macintosh and the right software could wreak havoc on beautifully crafted forms.
• The impact of new graphic software is being called destructive typography.
• Tremendous capabilities are being put into the hands of people who dont know an ampersand from a hole in the ground.
  
• Though some equipment manufacturers and software developers have made efforts to to teach design many stay ignorant.
• The Obscene Typography machine can also be the sublime typography machine.
• It allows designers to explore concepts that would have taking much more time to accomplish.
• The obscene typography machine needs to be controlled or unimaginable atrocities will be among us.

In middle school print artist was my canvas and comic sans was my paint brush. So many possibilities were open to me, If I wanted to stretch my type to fit the page I could. If I want a justified column of 10 point type and 25 point letterspacing I could. The revolution of computers in graphic design is a great one it opened up so many possibilities for designers that would have taken them months to accomplish beforehand. I could not even imagine trying to design without a computer, I could not imagine what designer had to experience before the computer was invented. However, with the good there is an overwhelming amount of bad. Anyone who decided to call themselves a designer could. Moms, children, students, and the average joe took design programs and wreaked havoc. What many average people don't realize is that a type face takes many precious hours to design. Typographers adjust everything optically so it is nearly perfect to the eye. With people not realizing how precise a type design is they don't think twice about stretching and warping type. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. This bad type design is referred to as the obscene typography machine. As long as people stay ignorant about good design us who are educated will have to suffer. The computer is an amazing design aid but it needs to be used in the right way.