Life Architects_Folk Font Collection_Taiwan Exclusive

***This product only ships to Taiwan. Author: Life Architects Publisher: Bright Light Culture Size: 129mm x 210mm Pages: 240 ISBN: 978-988-8820-92-4 Publication Date: March 2024 [Synopsis] The Art of Architectural Observation in Text — "Folk Fonts" Made in Hong Kong Character Creation in the City — 109 Selections of Folk Fonts Explore the art of font design on the streets, rediscovering the joy of writing within playful imperfections. Foreword by Ouyang Weihao Ben Sir, Ah Shin (Owner of Book Little Little X Tong Du Guan), Sampson Wong. Introduction by Yang Jun, Special Appointed Professor at China Academy of Art. The author points out that today, the characters people mostly see, digital or computer fonts, likely account for eighty to ninety percent. The characters that can be typed are considered "correct," and those that cannot are "incorrect." When a character is displayed on an electronic device, it has limited presentation options. Besides font choices, most are restricted to standard, specific forms. Characters in the city seem much more dynamic than those in the virtual world. Signboards in front of shops, advertisements on bamboo scaffolding or building exteriors, business solicitations in real estate windows—among these, the most varied are probably price tags in wet markets or handwritten menus in dai pai dongs. Some might call them typos, some might dismiss them as random scribbles, and others might see them as evolutions of old writing styles. Teachers never taught writing this way, yet in people's hands, they evolve into characters with personality and charm—we call these "folk fonts." This book begins by exploring the design potential of "folk fonts" as "deviant characters" and their significance to the city and its people. Using a digital approach, this book simulates a set of electronic fonts based on the handwritten or signboard characters commonly seen in daily life. We discovered that digitizing folk fonts can lend them a sense of formality, making them viable for serious discussion while retaining their spontaneous feel in strokes and forms. This method, in the author's view, is an important extension for exploring the visual appeal of folk fonts. Given the development of the digital age, dressing folk fonts in new attire, while preserving their unique writing styles, might allow them to be seen and discussed anew. As a medium of communication, how much variation can the design of folk fonts accommodate? How can they change to express more? What do the same characters reveal when written differently by different people in various contexts? While we cherish these "folk characters," we are not scholars specializing in Chinese or characters. Without deep knowledge of Chinese characters and language, we step away from "archaeology" and lean towards the spirit of "modernology" in observing these "folk characters." Therefore, the approach of this book is not strictly academic, nor is it a purely personal record of urban observations. It aims to explore characters and the city from a grounded, alternative perspective using architectural research methods, attempting to discuss their anti-conventional yet spontaneous characteristics. It engages with the city's script in a lighthearted, pseudo-serious mode, offering amusing anecdotes about the folk script found everywhere in the city. Irrespective of right or wrong, we only talk about imagination. [Author's Bio] Life Architects Life shapes the city, and the city shapes life. This team aims to explore the reality of the city through everyday life, and its direct impact on people's emotions, perceptions, and behaviors. From this, we reflect on the collective memory, living culture, and architectural design of the city. In this way, we attempt to provide a discussion for urban theory that moves beyond history and pure emotion, grounded in academic principles. We also hope to inspire people's understanding and imagination of local culture.