Martina Flor: The secret language of letter design
Martina Flor: A linguagem secreta do desenho de letras
Martina Flor combines her talents as designer and illustrator in the drawing of letters. Through her work as an artist and teacher, she has helped establish letter design in the European design scene. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
"TED" would have looked like
como ficaria a palavra "TED",
in the sun chiseling it into stone.
no sol, esculpindo em pedra.
have looked in the 80s?
electric, strange colors,
the greatest of all:
na minha opinião:
beyond what they represent.
que vão além do que representam.
our days are full of letters.
nossos dias estão cheios de letras.
to give language an image.
de dar uma imagem à língua.
communication tool we have.
ferramenta mais importante.
que ela transmite.
that something is modern --
que algo é moderno...
and monumentality of a place,
e grandeza de um local,
feitas para durar muito...
they communicate.
que elas comunicam.
by inexperienced hands
what a place looks like inside.
esse lugar por dentro.
I experienced firsthand
can have in our day-to-day life.
podem ter em nosso cotidiano.
exciting and novel for me.
emocionante e singular para mim.
was at times very frustrating
foi, por vezes, muito frustrante
clutching my glass of wine,
agarrada à taça de vinho,
of what was being said around me.
que era dita à minha volta.
as if I understood everything.
to say what I thought,
de dizer o que pensava,
the conversations,
e textos que eu não compreendia.
and text that I couldn't read.
gave me clues;
enclosed in those shapes.
que suas formas guardavam.
where tradition was important.
onde a tradição era importante.
was trying to give me a signal,
me dava um sinal,
it was better to stay away.
que aqui era melhor não passar.
quando algo era para ser eterno.
was made to last forever.
a compreender os arredores
understand my surroundings better
tasty to take back home.
saboroso para levar para casa.
until I found the perfect bakery.
até encontrar a padaria perfeita.
I imagine the master baker
to each loaf of bread
dedicou a cada letra desta palavra.
to each letter of this word.
with just the right ingredients,
com os ingredientes exatos,
drew the ends of the letters
as extremidades das letras
the buns over a thin layer of flour
sobre uma fina camada de farinha
the mosaics in the oven one by one,
os mosaicos no forno um por vez,
that the master baker has
that went into creating this sign.
para a criação desta placa.
we already imagine it tastes good.
já podemos imaginar que é bom.
it requires care in its preparation,
precisa de cuidado no preparo,
my raw material and my limitation.
minha matéria-prima e minha limitação.
is for me a playing field,
é para mim um campo de diversão,
at the end of the road,
no fim do caminho,
to design the cover of a classic book,
para fazer a capa de um livro clássico,
through a world of fantasy, remember?
através de um mundo de fantasia, lembram?
is my raw material.
é minha matéria-prima.
that are not very important,
"no" e "das" em escala menor.
on a smaller scale.
the idea of "wonder,"
that the book is a classic
que o livro é um clássico
a little more stiff and serious,
mais rígido e sério,
this book has so much gibberish,
que esse livro tem tanta coisa surreal,
in a single arrangement:
em uma única composição:
living together in the same composition.
convivendo na mesma estrutura.
and I'll work on it in detail.
e vou trabalhar nela com detalhes.
to work more comfortably.
para trabalhar com mais conforto.
where the words will be.
onde haverão palavras.
form to each letter.
forma a cada letra.
without losing sight of the whole.
sem esquecer o todo.
of the letters methodically.
das letras com atenção.
or change elements.
ou troco elementos.
the drawing turns into precise forms,
o desenho toma formas precisas,
and decorative elements.
e elementos decorativos.
is placed at the front
é colocada à frente,
playing in the background
muitas coisas acontecem,
lots of things happen.
the feeling it generates,
o sentimento que gera,
looking at her wonderland.
para seu país das maravilhas.
I recreate the text's atmosphere a little.
eu recrio um pouco da atmosfera do texto.
through a peephole in the door.
por um buraquinho na porta.
to concepts and ideas
para conceitos e ideias
work a bit like gestures
funcionam um pouco como os gestos
"TEDxRíodelaPlata's audience is huge,"
do TEDxRíodelaPlata é imensa",
"TEDxRíodelaPlata's audience is huge!"
"A plateia do TEDxRíodelaPlata é imensa!"
what I mean to say and how,
o que quero dizer e como,
in a very flowery way
de uma maneira muito enfeitada
when I talk about love.
between Buenos Aires
entre Buenos Aires
where my work became more colorful,
que meu trabalho ficou mais colorido,
at those parties,
dizer naquelas festas,
this limitation that language has
with which I could express myself.
minhas ferramentas de expressão.
has been to find my own voice
a de encontrar minha própria voz
tone and gesture I want.
exatos da minha vontade.
shapes that are truly beautiful
tenham formas lindas de verdade
a reaction in the reader,
if the message is important,
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Martina Flor - Lettering designerMartina Flor combines her talents as designer and illustrator in the drawing of letters. Through her work as an artist and teacher, she has helped establish letter design in the European design scene.
Why you should listen
Based in Berlin, she runs a leading studio specializing in lettering and custom typography for clients around the globe, such as The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, Harper Collins, Penguin Random House, Etsy, Adobe and Cosmopolitan, among others.
She cofounded the online competition Lettering vs. Calligraphy, which has garnered international attention and has initiated numerous other non-commercial projects, including Letter Collections, a series of postcards.
With a master in Type Design from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague (KABK) under her belt, Flor dedicates a large part of her time to teaching lettering and type design. Her book The Golden Secrets of Lettering (Princeton Architectural Press and Thames & Hudson, 2017) is published in several languages such as German, Spanish, French and Japanese.
When she is not busy drawing letters, Martina travels around the world to teach and speak at design conferences about the importance of typography in our daily lives.
Martina Flor | Speaker | TED.com