The effect of globalization on typographic practice

Katy Mawhood

United Kingdom

Globalisation represents the compression of the world and the intensification
of worldwide relationships. Its influence is significant to economic, political, cultural and social facets of global culture. Globalisation is largely mediated through media and communication channels, including the written word. Literate cultures profuse globally: visually manifested as different writing systems, signs and scripts that embody idiomatic conventions and features. Typography, as the written organisation of writing, is inseparate from these literate cultures. As global society emerges, texts are deployed with greater quantity, immediacy and frequency across national barriers. The typographic practice of non-native users, by accident or design, can be insensitive to the needs and desires of their audience. This discussion analyses the development and interaction of groups, identities, preferences, perspectives, conventions and beliefs. It considers the motives of differing typographic practices, their reception and interpretation. It synthesises the theories and studies of different disciplines within a linear argument to assess more thoroughly the true extent and effect of globalisation on typographic practice.