Typography Project 2: The Word

I assign the words. That decision matters more than it might appear. A student who is given a word they find genuinely interesting will push further than a student who is given one they find neutral. The four-panel sequence — full definition, word only, syllables, letterforms — is the structure that makes the concept legible, but the concept has to be there first. What the project teaches, at its best, is that typography is not decoration applied to language. It is language. The panel of isolated letterforms is where students either understand that or they do not. A student who arrives at the fourth panel with something to say about the word has understood the assignment. A student who arrives with well-composed abstract shapes has not.