Vox calls this graphic shift on Instagram PowerPoint activism as creators use the multiple post feature to create slideshows that “are bold and eye-catching,” which “feature colorful gradients, large serif fonts, pastel backgrounds, and playful illustrations––design choices intended to pause a user’s scroll and prompt them to read the text.” Soyouwantototalkabout Instagram Page Anti-Racism Daily Instagram PageĪccording to Washington Post contributor Kelsey Ables, “people have turned to social media to learn about topics and histories they did not even know they had missed. In bringing the medium of text-based art to the forefront of knowledge sharing on Instagram, these accounts highlight awareness of poignant social and political conditions of our time.

Instagram accounts such as soyouwanttotalkabout and antiracismdaily creatively design and share infographics to millions of followers. Instagram infographics created by (clockwise from left) Eiselle Ty, Dom Roberts, Isaias Hernandez and Avery Francis. In recent years, however, there has been a popular resurgence in the usage of text-based imagery on networking (and traditionally photographic) platforms. Today, the vast portion of knowledge and language sharing happens through the production and circulation of visual images and photographs on social media channels. In the 21st century, the evolution and popularization of photographic technologies have brought images to the forefront of visual culture and semiotic language. Dating back to ancient periods, humans from every sector of the world have used glyphs, symbols, calligraphy, and variations of type to formulate language, communication, and meaning. Typographic elements add character to semiotic to semantic language.

Tapiwanashe Sebastian Garikayi believes that a typographer must consider these questions prior to preparing a font design: what does a typeface aim to do? To whom does it speak to? What are the languages that it covers? Aura Typeface by Studio Nari and Margot LévêqueĮvery typographic element that formulates a particular font–– the curves of round swashes, the addition of formal serif marks, and the consistent alignment of letters’ legs––aid in the way that text, which utilizes the font face, communicates and mediates written, visual, and perceptual language. For typographers, type is “the letter that is the basic element of trade.” These designers spend endless hours carefully researching, sketching, and engineering new generations of fonts. The visual impact of type is sometimes neglected, yet text is an eminently aesthetic form. It is through the aesthetic design and formation of text that language becomes visible.

Art text vs logoist