Introduction
As a global affairs student, my experience in the AVT215 class has introduced me to the world of book design, a field I had never explored before. This project, which involved creating a catalog of typographic specimens found in the popular video game Stardew Valley, marked my first attempt at designing a book, making the process both challenging and rewarding. Throughout this experience, I faced the difficulty of learning new skills, yet I embraced the opportunity to push my creative boundaries. Through my research, I aimed to explore how design, even within the digital world of gaming, can evoke elements of language and typography. The central focus of this book was to document 26 typographic forms resembling the English alphabet and 24 others reflecting the Korean consonants and vowels, which I found embedded within the game’s virtual environment. Though these are not actual letters, they replicate written characters due to their organic, linear, curved, and angled form. These forms are subtly embedded into the game’s environmental aspects, such as building facades, fences, and passing objects, to create abundant visual experiences. The research process included closely observing various settings from within the game, photographing them, and creatively analyzing the context for each specimen. It became evident in my exploration that these typographic forms would not only be coincidental but rather would be part of the aesthetic whole of the game as far as one may perceive the cognitive link between design and gaming. Documentation of these specimens opened my eyes to the intertwined relationship between digital environments and traditional design. The joy of uncovering the hidden typographic elements embedded in the game environment outweighs the second thought about how difficult it was without fully grasping the cultural and linguistic implications behind the design. Studying these samples, I have come to a fuller realization of game design and its melding with subtleties of visual storytelling. Tying into this desolate texture that was probably one of my biggest hurdles was the matter of understanding cultural influences that inform certain design choices. I’m distinctly a stranger in a strange land kind of thing, where I can’t fully grasp the language and, maybe, some cultural subtexts that may have informed how the game got made. Nevertheless, it was rewarding; the work opened my eyes to the ways in which design components could uniquely blend across different media. Basically, this work is a cataloging of such typographical forms, explaining how spaces like Stardew Valley can translate a sense of written language, entwining some elements of traditional design within the modern digital spaces. It was a captivating process through which I learned how any aspect of design, big or small, could impact a space’s overall narrative and visual aesthetic, whether, in this case, in the real world or digital gaming.
About the Author: Dana Lee
Hello, my name is Dana Lee.
I am currently a student majoring in Global Affairs at George Mason University in Korea. I chose this major because I was most interested in it. But I want to have more diverse experiences, not limited to this major. So I believed that this typography class will give me a new and special experience.
View the Project:
Wander Type: Stardew Valley