Visual Arts Extended Essay - Typography! Suggestions?

[iMushu]

What I Need Help With

I figured it'd be helpful if I provided my original research question:

To What Extent is Typography an Integral Part of Effective Propaganda?

But since I've found out, it has been near impossible looking for an assortment of sources to help me type out 3500-4000 words of unadulterated typographical insight, resulting in a reformulation of my research question!

To What Extent has the Helvetica Typeface Revolutionized Modern Typography?

What You Can Do To Help!

I understand that as a Visual Arts EE, its important to include plenty of images to help portray my research. Unfortunately, typography doesn't share the same plethora of books and websites that a Literature or History paper might have.

Would anyone have any suggestions how I could possibly make this easier?

Perhaps broadening the question allowing a wider range of sources to be found?

Or how I'd go about creating an outline? (How many words to be allotted for defining typography, history of it, helvetica, etc?)

It's a pretty hard topic in general as far as I know, but it's what I would rather research and type 4000 words about than other topics.

Thanks!

Edited December 23, 2012 by iMushu

[dniviE]

Maybe you should be focusing upon a specific part of propaganda. I.e. I see you are from the United States and therefore it might be worth looking at the war-time propaganda that you have had for example against the Germans and encouraging the war to take place and people to go for it. Another idea would be to look at Hitler and Nazi-Germany's very successful pre-war and wartime propaganda and see how they used fonts to enhance the message that is communicated or how it matters.

I am not an art student, so I can't really tell if these suggestions are good or valid at all. Just some thoughts to consider, maybe! Good luck anyways!

[N.H.A]

i don't know if this would help, since i am new to IB, but you're first question regarding propaganda seems to have more to talk about, also you might want to rephrase your question again, maybe investigate the affect the different typographies on ads have on consumers? and since you're an art student and you'll need pictures (i don't know if this is okay but) maybe you could create an ad and experiment with different typographies?

[iMushu]

I appreciate the help guys, but my question is about the Helvetica question, solely because of the lack of any detailed background about propaganda posters

With the propaganda route I've found many, many posters, but little artistic background about them. And if the artist can be named, there will often times be very little to discuss in relation to the poster.

With Helvetica's impact, I've bought and am currently watching a documentary about Helvetica and typography. So far its very nice as its essentially a stitching together of many designers' interviews, so the words are unaltered in any way.

So as far as sources go, considering the limited amount at my fingertips, how many would be acceptable at least?

[Emmi]

So as far as sources go, considering the limited amount at my fingertips, how many would be acceptable at least?

As many sources that are necessary to answer the question and show you did a decent amount of research. It varies from subject to subject (for example a literature EE might have just the book(s) as the only sources and a history EE might have twenty sources) as well as the specific topic itself, but for your topic, being about the Helvetica font and posters, aim for a minimum of five sources at least. More would be a bit better, but don't just BS sources to add more.

[iMushu]

Thanks Emy!

Would anyone have any tips on how to document facts or opinions stated by someone from an interview?

I've found a path to follow that'll lead me to completing my paper but considering I'm the type who keeps things succinct, how should I go about documenting quotes or rephrasing them? To put it simply, the words said by designers in the Helvetica documentary are essentially the facts that I was looking for to answer my research question, so do I quote them and add my own filler around it to support it? Provide picture examples of any, if not all examples made in the film? I've never had to use a film source so this is new to me.

I just want to make sure I'm making a research paper, not copying a directors work and interviews, as excellent as they may be.

Edited December 28, 2012 by iMushu