An exquisitely illustrated introduction to the gestural mark in the designed world, exploring the tension between marks, which are felt, and images and words, which are conceptual. In
The Hidden Factor, Steven Skaggs provides a beautifully illustrated and explained introduction to the mark--from those as physical as a scratch made by an animal, to those as accidental as a splatter of paint, to those as intentional as hand-drawn characters. Skaggs makes the case that, in the visual arts, gestures and mark-making operate on an equal level with image and word. While we might think of content as that which is communicated through text and images, Skaggs shows, through visual examples, that the gestural mark is often hidden within both images and the typographic forms that convey words.
By mapping different kinds of marks and showing how marks combine with image and word,
The Hidden Factor explains that our desire for conceptual information suppresses our awareness of marking. This is especially the case with the tension between word and mark, where we desire legibility. As a result, one of the most conservative of arts--calligraphy--has the potential of being the most radical, since gesturally expressive handwriting is a natural threat to the legibility of a text.
Filled with expressive calligraphic art, graffiti, and other gorgeous marks,
The Hidden Factor is an eye-opening read that brings to the fore the importance--and indeed, the prevalence--of the mark in everything we see.
一本精美插圖的介紹，探討設計世界中手勢標記的緊張關係，這些標記是感知的，而影像和文字則是概念性的。在《隱藏的因素》中，Steven Skaggs 提供了一個美麗插圖和解釋的介紹，涵蓋了從動物留下的刮痕這樣的物理標記，到意外的油漆飛濺，再到手繪字符這樣的有意圖標記。Skaggs 主張，在視覺藝術中，手勢和標記的創作與影像和文字處於同等重要的地位。雖然我們可能認為內容是通過文本和影像傳達的，但 Skaggs 通過視覺範例顯示，手勢標記常常隱藏在影像和傳達文字的排版形式中。
通過映射不同類型的標記並展示標記如何與影像和文字結合，《隱藏的因素》解釋了我們對概念信息的渴望壓抑了我們對標記的意識。這在文字和標記之間的緊張關係中尤為明顯，我們渴望可讀性。因此，書法這種最保守的藝術之一，卻有潛力成為最激進的，因為手勢表達的手寫字對文本的可讀性構成了自然的威脅。
《隱藏的因素》充滿了表現力十足的書法藝術、塗鴉和其他美麗的標記，是一本開闊眼界的讀物，突顯了標記在我們所見一切中的重要性，甚至是普遍性。
Steven Skaggs is Professor of Design at the University of Louisville and the author of Logos and FireSigns (MIT Press), which was named an Outstanding Academic Title for 2017 by the Association of College and Research Libraries. His font design, Rieven, received the Type Directors Award of Excellence in 2010, and his fine art calligraphic work is in the permanent collections of the Sackner Archive (University of Iowa), the Akademie der Künste (Berlin), and the Klingspor Museum (Offenbach).
史蒂文·斯卡格斯（Steven Skaggs）是路易斯維爾大學（University of Louisville）的設計教授，也是《Logos》和《FireSigns》（麻省理工學院出版社）的作者，該書於2017年被大學與研究圖書館協會（Association of College and Research Libraries）評選為傑出學術書籍。他的字體設計Rieven於2010年獲得了字體設計師獎（Type Directors Award of Excellence），而他的美術書法作品則被收錄於薩克納檔案館（Sackner Archive，愛荷華大學）、藝術學院（Akademie der Künste，柏林）和克林斯波爾博物館（Klingspor Museum，奧芬巴赫）的永久收藏中。
