Tonya Meyrick

Typography observed in the genre classifications of the Netflix catalogue intentionally conveys the conventions of genre styles rendered to attract audience selection of film and television titles. Much has been written about the treatment of typography in the title sequences of films and television shows, yet an examination of typography as a collective enterprise within such a prominent global catalogue has eluded researchers. With over 160 million Netflix subscribers typography deployed in the catalogue is a highly visible feature that assists in communicating the narrative of content for audiences. With hundreds of films and television titles vying for audience selection, key typography attributes are deployed and made visible through genres coded as science fiction, romance or horror for example. The aim of this paper is to reflect on the collection of typography deployed here. This permits a review of how typography is used to express both genre representations and distinct points of view yet collectively allowing various typography presentations to coexist within one visual language grouping. These distinctions are typified through behaviours and attributes of typeface characteristics designed to actively exploit both embedded meanings and pre-existing public and traditional value systems of subscribers. This paper introduces the compelling notion of a heteroglossia of typography in the context of the Netflix catalogue. Examining the ways, the streaming giant deploys typography for subscribers allows a lens to be focused on how contemporary audiences are active participants in dominant conventions of genre and highlights the powerful role that typography performs in the Netflix catalogue.

Despite the fundamental contribution typography makes to cultural festival brandmarks, little is known about the complex role typography performs. Academic discourse has not given this issue due attention with typography excluded from much literature examining the branding, tourism or place-making perspectives of the festival scape. Drawn from an ongoing investigation into the contribution of typography to cultural festival brandmarks, this paper offers to exemplify typography’s role in the billion-dollar festival ecology. The author combines manifest and latent design research methods in an analysis of 260 festival brandmarks randomly surveyed from a pool of over 5000 from 17 English speaking countries. Primarily quantitative, the manifest approach sees coder judgement minimalized and visual features of typography objectively observed based on frequently appearing features.  The implicit characteristics are conversely hypothesized, with the latent approach focusing on theoretical constructs of multimodality as observable measures in 2 expert summaries.  Debate surrounds the most appropriate research method for studying design artefacts however, this paper asserts that combining manifest and latent design research methods is an effective model to expose the complexities of typography used in the brandmarks of cultural festivals allowing for a nuanced understanding of the area.

Typography is an important visible element of a cultural festival's brand mark, yet is overlooked within cultural festival research. An abundance of work has been published that examines cultural festivals from cultural, economic, tourism, and place-making perspectives, yet there is a shortfall in scholarly research addressing the key role typography performs to engage audience participation through cultural festivals' primary brand driver – the brand mark. This paper critically considers triangulation as a constructive and effective research framework for enquiry into typography deployed in the brand marks of cultural festivals and provides a roadmap to further research. Offering an analysis of how and in what way typography is being used in the brand marks for cultural festivals, this paper contributes a discussion of appropriate research methods in the examination of this material. Triangulation is engaged as a research technique combining the methods 1) content analysis, 2) case study (text analysis) and 3) a semiotic analysis of typography as a framework to advantage three perspectives on typography, capturing the complexities of the phenomenon. Through a pilot study of 20 cultural festival brand marks from English speaking countries in 2016, the findings show that triangulation of three methods is beneficial to uncovering a rich and nuanced understanding of the role of typography in brand marks. Although many research methods are available to design researchers, the authors argue that triangulation, is an appropriate method to analyze typography used in the brand marks of cultural festivals as it allows for the emergence of a heterogeneous understanding of the discipline. This study was motivated by the discovery that we know little about how typography's visual syntax, practical mechanisms and theoretical frameworks are deployed in branding cultural festivals. A substantial amount of literature exists that explores various economic, geographic, cultural development and social elements of the festivalscape (Gibson, Waitt, Walmsley & Connell, 2008; Johansson & Toraldo, 2017; Taylor & Kneafsey, 2016). The shortfalls in scholarly research investigating typography used in branding cultural festivals was discovered through enquiry conducted across academic journal articles and publications from the fields of communication design, marketing, cultural interpretation, branding and place-making. This paper presents a roadmap for researching typography used in the brand marks of cultural festivals. First, the authors frame the discipline of typography research. Second, we discuss research methods available to design researchers. Third, we demonstrate the use of triangulation of three research methods 1) content analysis, 2) case study (text analysis) and 3) semiotics of typography. This is achieved in discussion of a pilot study examining 20 cultural festival brand

This paper offers a social semiotic analysis of logotypes used to brand cultural festivals in 21st entury Australia. A contemporary method is explored that suits the significant role typography performs within this context and offers a contribution to design research and the festival scape
that not only engages with the artefacts of design but with the conceptualization of designed meaning in visual culture. Branding is a vital part of the festival space and relies on typography
to establish the symbolic values and representations of urban freedoms; rich histories, cultured
places, playfulness and stimulation that seek to subvert our daily existence while performing the task of engaging local, national, and international visitors and participants. However, professional practices demonstrated in the design, media and arts industries have far outpaced the extent to which this phenomenon has been written about in the academic or public realm. This paper addresses this shortfall and offers the foundation for a systemic functional method in the decoding of typography in visual culture.

Typography performs a critical role integrating signs into contemporary culture yet typography’s role in the design and conceptualization of meaning has been underestimated and its position as a critical component in the discourse of visual culture has been neglected. The role of design is fundamental in maintaining social stability and cohesion and the manipulation of form, structure and behaviour of typography’s letterforms are instruments in this system. Typography operates as a linguistic and visual communication device and possesses the agency to be symbolically meaningful to individuals and groups and representative of social, cultural and economic concerns. Professional practices demonstrated in the design, media and arts industries have far outpaced the extent to which this phenomenon has been written about in the academic or public domain. As such, little is known about the complex role typography performs in the social, economic or cultural realm of contemporary practice.
This research study aims to make visible the mechanisms through which social classes and social institutions are established and validated in contemporary culture offering critical insight into the investment toward expressing how particular facets of tastes are constructed to demarcate cultural distinctions.  Cultural festivals are a form of cultural capital in an objectified state and an increasingly important aspect of our contemporary experience. Branding is a vital part of this festival space presenting impressions of urban freedoms, rich histories, and cultured places, that seek to subvert our daily existence while performing the task of engaging local, national, and international visitors and participants. There is prestige in holding culturally relevant and socially acceptable festivals that serve the discourses of “city branding” and the “creative industries” in a competitive global context. Festivals have become a central figure of not only the political economy of tourism but also of urban regeneration and cultural tourism. The intention is to establish recognition suited to the significant role typography performs within this context and to offer a contribution to design research that not only engages with the artifacts of design but with the conceptualization of designed meaning in 21st century visual culture.