Further thoughts on typography and speech-melodies:

I came across a fascinating post on Just Another Foundry’s blog in which the concept of spatial frequencies is used as a tool for analyzing type. Filters are applied as a means of investigating which features of a typeface are communicated by high or low frequencies. Filtering out high frequencies, for example, results in something like a camera blur – but reveals aspects such weight distribution and overall proportions.

A number of audio examples are provided in which “The quick brown fox…”, read aloud and filtered in various ways, is presented alongside its visual equivalent.

Thinking about melodies: the layer we carry around in our minds and the actual sound of the melody when sung or played on an instrument. And how those two aspects relate.

While transcribing a large number of speech-melodies for my twitteropera I got to thinking of their instrumentation as analogous to typeface and text. Typography clarifying/obscuring as well as lending a particular character to the letters it communicates. Also the manner in which individual handwriting characteristics are gradually formed into a font, and how speech transcriptions might be shaped similarly.

Here’s a favourite, FF Franziska – its story wonderfully told.