Slanted, Issue 40 – Experimental Type

Slanted started with a Weblog in 2004. The first magazine issue was published 2005.
Slanted is the first German magazine devoted to typography. It takes an interdisciplinary approach, and has been designed to complement the highly- frequented internet blog at www.slanted.de.

The main focus of Slanted is typography found within design, illustration and photography, but a variety of other topics — related both directly and indirectly to the field — are also addressed. The magazine contains expertise analyses and reports, as well as information on typographic experimentation, portraits and interviews with today’s superstars and underground players on the international scene of typography and design. All of this is presented alongside spectacular, first-class graphics and thought-provoking photography.

In this issue:

Mum probably told us, “The oven is a danger zone.” Still, we had to experiment our first burn to know how hot fire is. Our parents covered us with millions of kisses, long before we fell in love with somebody and experimented our first kiss. Even if we saw it before, nobody could really tell us how beautiful it is. Everyone must experience it by him- or herself. In other words: by making experiments we gain experience and knowledge. Experiments open our horizon, let us enter the undiscovered, and feed our lust for more.

With Slanted Magazine #40—Experimental Type we open eight doors, each one offering a glimpse into spaces that were explored by pushing conventions, limitations, and thoughts to the next level. We all know though, that the game is never over. The discovery of new areas, technologies, and thoughts are a constant source of inspiration, research, and experimentation for those that follow.

Tactile Realism shows works with tactile character, adding material properties to the typeface. The Anti-Reader-Friendly typography becomes the “readymade” of the type world—and in doing so, a form of denying the possibility of defining art. In the Deliberate Imperfection & Serendipity space, disassembly, and assembly of type leads to great discoveries. While Coincidence & Intention brings the accident into the design process and explores works based on mistakes and inaccuracy. The Ever-Changing room showcases experiments of kinetic typography breaking away from its static state by adding movement and a three-dimensional stereoscopy, and the fourth dimension: time. Cutting Edge drives the attention to state-of-the-art technologies and their impact on design experiments. Off the Screen explores physical space in which writing becomes material, object, and sculpture. Last but not least, Push to the Limits engages to think finitude differently, breaking boundaries of learned symbolisms and triggering new stimuli.