FinalEssay_IM

Typography is political.
A critical investigation on advertising in Greeklish
by Ioanna Milopoulou
6FTC1035 - Critical and Cultural Studies L6: Degree Essay/ Report
Tutor: Gareth Longstaff
29th
April, 2016
Abstract
This paper originated from my interest to understand why Greek typography is lacking behind in
developmentscompared to English one. As a practitioner working primarily in Greek I am daily facing
the challenge of working with Greek text, which has serious limitations in terms of typefaces used. In
some cases, the decision is made to communicate in English, simply in an effort to produce a more
“trendy” or contemporary piece of graphic design (for example music concerts). In other cases, simply
by communicating in Greek is a kind of revolutionary statement,one that decisively states I am Greek.
But why do we find ourselvesin need of such a statement?
In this context,I ventured into a critical investigation on the role of typography and language in
current communication dynamics,with emphasis on the Greek example. The case study of Vodafone
advertising in Greeklish provides a great platform to touch and combine different aspects of the issues
at hand,in a complex yet challenging manner.Digitalization and globalization,by lifting (language
and) typography to a primary visual communication code, through which people identify themselves
and relate to others, brought it to an influential stage of such an importance that I claim at the end of
my research, that not only graphic design,but more so typography, is political.

Ioanna Milopoulou IDI L6 /6FTC1035
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Table ofcontents
Introduction
1. Introducing Greeklish. More than meets the eye
2. Language and alphabet understood
3. Greeklish as a “hot medium”
4. Typography, alphabet and letters: codes and symbols
5. A hot case study: Vodafone advertising campaign in Greeklish
6. Graphic design, as a form of visual communication is subjective, public and political
7. Typography more powerful than ever
8. In a nutshell: evaluating Vodafone case study
9. Reflections on (Greek) typography design in digital ages
Conclusions
Bibliography and other sources

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Introduction
The research that follows is an investigation on how language and typography are crucial and
decisive components of graphic design communication and messaging. More so, it is a
commentary on the increasing influence of visual communication in our modern societies and
a realization of the extent to which we are starting to communicate even more intensely so
through text. Additionally, by choosing to work on the Greek language example, this essay
highlights the significance of allowing for local, “personal” languages to exist and overweight
uniformity in a digital world.
There are three basic stages in my analysis.
First, I will try to elaborate and clearly describe the way Greek language has evolved in the
last three decades and how Greeklish came around. Sociological theories, such as Mcluhan’s
and semiotics will be briefly deployed in order to elaborate on the vital importance of
language and typography in visual communication.
Secondly, the Vodafone example will be presented, as an all-inclusive extreme case of
typographic advertising, challenging (the political) issues of language, perception and
communication.
Last, the controversial nature of the advertisement, concerning its intentions and implications
opens up the door to my claim on the strongly political nature of visual communication, in a
consumerism and aggressive world that is apparently becoming so dependent on digital
devices and applications. And more interestingly, the ever so political nature of typography,
in a uniform digital culture that is becoming increasingly textual.
1. Introducing Greeklish.More than meets the eye
The Greek language is one of the official languages of the European Union, spoken by
11.000.000 Greeks living in Greece and probably that many in diaspora.
The Greek language and its alphabet, that exists since 8th
century BC, has undergone various
important and complex phases of development, impossible to discuss in detail in the limited
context of the present essay. The Greek alphabet, as it stands today, is not similar to Latin,
although Latin has evolved out of a version of the ancient Greek alphabet as mentioned in the
Encyclopedia Britannica: «Developed from the Etruscan alphabet at some time before 600 bc,
it can be traced through Etruscan, Greek, and Phoenician scripts to the North Semitic alphabet
used in Syria and Palestine about 1100 bc”.

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Fig. 1. The Greek and Latin alphabet in parallel display.
It is sufficient to say that contemporary Greek language went through a last decisive and
controversial stage of transformation as early as back in the 80s, where 4 out of 5 diacritics
were abolished, introducing the monotonic system. The arguments supporting this, so called
progressive, change were:it was too difficult for kids to learn at school (supposedly required
more hours of tuition), it was expensive to uphold for newspapers and magazines (required
more man-hours at work), it was…useless and old-fashioned, declaring in this way the
ambition of the enlightened supporters to establish “simpler Greek for all”, people and
markets alike. Influential writers and thinkers strongly disagreed with this simplification of
Greek but the dynamics were in place, asking for change (Panayotakis N.M., 1996).
Gradually since then, and in the course of the last 30 years,Greek spelling and grammar,
silently and numbly are being simplified too, discarding diphthongs and certain grammar
rules (to the extent that some words look unreadable to the Greeks who have been educated to
read Greek). Yet, scholars do claim that there used to be specific reasons that a word was
written one way and not another, having to do with the etymology of the word, as Prof. G.D.
Babiniotis, one of the most prominent linguistic experts and writer of A Dictionary of Modern
Greek (2008), underlines.
The profound change of monotonic system coincided with the expansion of digital forms of
communication in Greece:the more computers and digital communications were growing in
use, the less Greek language and consequent typography/typefaces were keeping up with
developments.
An elaborated description of the situation:

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“Computing in Greek? A severe problem to read and write Greek on the Net is the
combination of special characters needed for writing in Greek and the small size of Greek
market. The problem became more complicated due to the lack of any nation-wide standard
for reading, writing and printing in Greek. (…) This is a paradigm on how development of
communication can diversify people instead of unite them. It's encouraging that some of the
big hardware ventors they provide internationalized version of their operating systems which
include now support for the Greek language.”
(found on http://www.hri.org/culture97/fonts.html and assessed 24th April 2016)
These dynamics allowed for a digital distortion of the language, that distortion being
Greeklish, i.e. the writing of Greek words with the Latin alphabet. Greeklish today is widely
used in social networking and messaging. By doing so, it could potentially remain a relatively
innocent hybrid language form, a functional code within a digital world, but not harmful to
the Greek language, a language through which for centuries Greek people identify
themselves, communicate and relate to each other. Unfortunately, considering the extent to
which digital communication has replaced physical or even verbal one, and also the effect of
using a keyboard instead of a pencil and hand (which alienates one from the form of letters),
the hybrid code has penetrated everyday life, especially that of youngsters, who get to learn at
school the “simpler Greek for all” (and yet, for none) and be glued to their mobile and social
networking friends and chatting.
In a recent survey run by the University of Western Macedonia (2008-2009), within groups of
high school students (at Kozani city), it was established that Greeklish negatively affects
learning Greek language rules. Alarming signs were outlined: 67% to 88% of students use
Greeklish (percentage variations come from different schools), words written in Greeklish
were used by the students in their homework (63,4%) or personal notes (15,7%). It was also
established that Greeklish use starts at the elementary school. The reasons given by the school
kids for using them were: habit (83,9%), time saving (75,8%), practical (71,4%), to avoid
making grammar mistakes (38,7%) or simply because it is a trend (33,9%). A percentage of
58,5% of the students comprehends that using Greeklish is a threat to Greek language and
unfortunately only 64,3% of the educators understands it too.
Concluding on outlining the cultural and societal context of Greeklish, I would like to refer to
three key incidents:
1. The announcement made by the Academy of Athens, a prestigious institution
established in 1926, having as objective “the cultivation and advancement of the
Sciences, Humanities and Fine Arts”,and its members being “eminent representatives
of the scientific, intellectual and artistic circles”. Their declaration on the “Greeklish
problem” back in 2011, highlights the ambiguous function of Greeklish within
society and it’s not-ephemeral nature.
2. Now, take the decision of LIFO magazine in 2012, one of the most popular internet
content magazines -with 4,8 million unique visitors per month, ranking amongst the
top 5 Greek websites- not to accept comments in Greeklish by its readers. An
interesting stand-up by a medium that is being supported by youngsters, too.
3. Then, note down the following: some advertisers responsible for the communication
of one of the biggest private mobile telephony conglomerate, Vodafone, judged that
Greeklish was a trendy idea, probably saw its phatic role in communication as cool,
interactive and “forward thinking” and proceeded, back in 2010 & 2011, with
producing numerous TVCs and print material in Greeklish. And only in Greeklish.

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I claim that within these two years’ period (2010-2012), a piece of public, visual, commercial
communication, based on typographic elements purely and with high penetration rates to all
age groups (due to wide media exposure), managed to make a politically (incorrect - as it
proved to be) statement and to have an impact on the controversy on the Greek language
transformation. I am proposing that it possibly accelerated debate on Greeklish on a public
level while at the same time cuddled (and rewarded) a whole generation simply for using it.
Following the presentation and analysis of this example in the next parts of my essay,I would
like to further defend the idea that graphic design and advertising are indeed inherently
political (concerned with power exercised at various levels), and that language and
typography exercise great influence in this communication process, more so today where
visual communication outweighs verbal and physical one. It is not a mere coincidence that
this advertising case study comes from a mobile telephony market, the primary social
platform of digital communication.
I will refer to the media theories of Mcluhan, Plato, use semiotics and linguistics tools and
graphic design communication theories for approaching both the importance of the matter and
also the weight and the responsibility of the advertiser/graphic designer/visual communicator.
Last but not least, I will elaborate on the role of typography in visual communication in a
digital world, where text is even more powerful than ever and Latin script dominates through
its visual uniformity.
2. Language and alphabet understood
Language considerations are most definitely a huge topic, as language can be approached
from many different angles and theoretical contexts, depending on the purpose and scope of
the debate at hand. For the purposes of my research,I will try to establish the importance of
language as a medium in communication and also its significance in cultural and societal
context. Both the media theory of Mcluhan, linguistics and semiotics provided me with
appropriate tools and ideas, allowing for an interesting argumentation.
Language is meant, in the context of my essay,as being primarily a phonetic code, expressed
in a specific alphabet. “Alphabetic script is only one among many graphic ways of
representing language. Others include pictographic, ideographic, logographic and syllabic
scripts” (Whitehead, H. 2010). In the same source, the Greek alphabet is mentioned as the
first fully developed one to include all sounds (consonantal and vowel).
Alphabet and letters, being the visual manifestation of sound-perceived words, reinforce
recognition and provide a commonly shared visual code that organizes and facilitates
interaction between people. Compared to verbal communication, this type of visual
communication can be seen as being less open to participation and interpretation.
Introducing Mcluhan ideas in my analysis:
“A hot medium is one that extends one single sense in high definition. High definition is the
state of being well filled with data. (…) Hot media are therefore low in participation or
completion by the audience.” (Mcluhan M., 2001)
Alphabet and typography could be classified as a hot medium, of high definition, with a
vested (and crude) power to impose uniformity (and arguably, control). Historically speaking,
apart from uniformity, it also facilitated literacy through the spread of print and really
influenced the way Western civilized societies were (and are) organized and power is
exercised (compared to tribal ones for example).

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“Civilization is built on literacy because literacy is a uniform processing of a culture by a
visual sense extended in space and time by the alphabet.” (Mcluhan, 2001)
A medium being hot or cool depends on the society that is being introduced, and therefore it
is historically specific. If I had to decide, I would consider Greek society to be “cooler” than
other Westernized, European countries. This cool element observation stems basically from
its long history and distinctive language, religion, music, dance, societal values, norms of
interaction between its people and its production and economy patterns.
It is this function of alphabet (and language) as a medium that enables me to evaluate its role
in societal affairs: a medium allowing for change.
“For the message of any medium or technology is the change of scale or pace or pattern that
introduces into human affairs.” (Mcluhan, 2001)
3. Greeklish as a hot medium
Greeklish, as a visual (and phonetic) distortion of the Greek language, is a new medium, a hot
one, introduced in a cool society.
Although Greeklish claims to be simply a digital language idiom, it could eventually alter theway letters are
pronounced, simply by following Latin phonetic rules.
As Mcluhan (1964) comments: “it makes all the difference whether a hot medium is used in a
hot or cool culture.” It is a medium which excludes Greeks that speak, write their language,
experience their world around them in Greek. And even though Mcluhan is not concerned
with the perception of values and their role in his analysis (he is interested in “the
configuration of societies”), in my analysis it is paramount to demonstrate that Greeklish is a
hot medium messaging a change of pattern on how Greeks perceive themselves through their
history and in relation to the others, especially in a powerful digital and globalized world. The
main argument for this last point is borrowed from the field of linguistics. As Anthony

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Woodbury states: “A language is a powerful symbol of a groups identity. Much of the
cultural, spiritual, and intellectual life of a people is experienced through language. “
Or in the words of Aeschylus (Prometheus 1 to the OCEANIDS,in Prometheus Bound):
"Yes, and numbers, too, chiefest of sciences,I invented for them (mankind), and the
combining of letters, creative mother of the Muses' arts,with which to hold all things in
memory."
Or, in Plato’s philosophy of language (Demos, 1964):
“Despite (or because of) the fact that language is a tool of discrimination, language gives
expression to a total view of the world. In a language, we find embodied the total orientation
toward reality of a particular society at a given time and place.”
So Greek language is attacked by a hot medium, that being the web’s digital supremacy and
Latin script’s rule, in our everyday, private and not only life. And another hot medium is the
outcome.
Up to this point, my argumentation is purely a sociological one, aiming to reinforce the
understanding of the cultural and societal context of the analysis of Greeklish as a language
digital idiom.
But let’s look closer on how these considerations are extended to typography as a code of
communication.
4. Typography, alphabet and letters.Codes and symbols
Letters are symbols, in the semiotics sense,and according to Peirce categorization, meaning
that they are arbitrary, or in other words, based on convention and they are in this way
distinguished from indexes and icons (Barnard, 2005). Following this assumption, one can
claim that they have a historicity element implied. I will keep this assumption in order to
move on, although I would add another point: there is a literature explaining how letters in the
Greek alphabet try to imitate the sound flow, by trying to resemble and visualize the motion
of sound and if seen in this way then it could be held that they are motivated and thus falling
under the category of icons. Plato for example (Demos, 1964) refers to letters as primary
images, mimicking sound; “for instance ρ (r), as uttered, reproduces flux and its speed (rrr).”
It makes a difference whether to include convention or not as a decisive factor in the forming
of letters since it affects future evaluations of changing a language’s alphabet. Still, for the
purposes of my limited research,not focusing on philosophical matters, I will
methodologically abide with the conventional semiotics opinion, that letters are conventional
symbols. But I will keep for future reference the aspect of the Greek alphabet being an old-
wisdom sort of code, that upholds another kind of “truth” and in that sense it should be
preserved for safeguarding diversity and historicity, the foundations of our global culture.
Language is a code and “a code functions as a system of rules” (Moriarty, 2016). Alphabet
and letters are its components. There is no such thing as “breaking the code”,since
convention has done this for us and syntax and grammar work towards inferential
interpretation of the signs. In the process of making meaning out a code, such as language,
Peirce introduced the function of an interpretant. “By interpretant he means the idea contained
in the concept as it is decoded.” (Moriarty, 2016).
“Our memories, which provide the foundation for the meaning process,are,as Seboek puts it,
“reservoirs of interpretants”.

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If the Greek language (phonetic and visual) is considered a depositary of cultural and historic
memories (as linguistics suggest), then deconstructing this code is like losing (part of) our
reservoirs of interpretants, through which Greeks make meaning and consequently relate to
others.
How does typography and typefaces come in the big picture? In our westernized, modern
sense, typography works as a prolongation of this (historical and cultural) code, as a
representation, and extends it as compact, uniform, and of course, public. “Any
representations of letters made manually, regardless of the tool and the scale, are letterforms.”
(Tselentis et al. 2012), It is not accidental that through the spread of typography the French
Revolution happened (Mcluhan, 2001). It flows through this that with their vested power to
convey ideas and historicity, words, letters and typefaces, function as distinctive visual odes
per se, communicating more information than their actual content (this being words). The
development of typefaces has been a long social, creative process,messaging cultures,
aesthetics or even power structures (religion-state). It has also been influenced greatly by
print technology and of course by the analogue vs digital context, as commented earlier, by
the Greek language example not being able to survive intact in the New Brave Net World.
Having referenced semiotics, we established that:
 language is a code made up of symbols based on convention, culturally and
historically defined within a set societal group,
 when seen as a reservoir of cultural memories, works as a catalyst for inferential
interpretation,
 typefaces and typography in the complex system of visual communication could be
regarded as a distinctive, secondary code per se, interfering with interpretation and
meaning coming from visual communication.
Based on the analysis so far, that shaped a theoretical understanding of the issues at hand, it is
time to look at the case study of advertising in Greeklish and its political statement,intended
or unintended, its implications and conclusions for typography and the graphic design
practitioner.
5. A hot case study. Vodafone Greeklish advertising
Vodafone Greece is among the leader players in mobile telephony in Greece (and
internationally). It competes fiercely in a fast-moving sector,that of communications and
digital technology. It spends its Greek advertising budget of approximately 35.000.000E
(2015) on its services and products, accounts and projects being handled by Spot
Thomson/JWT Athens, a well-established agency, claiming, and having proved actually
through its impressive client list, advertising excellence.
J. Walter Thompson Worldwide,the world’sbest-known marketing communications brand,
has been creating pioneering solutionsthat build enduring brands and business for more than
150 years. Headquartered in New York,J. Walter Thompson is a true global network with
more than 200 offices in over90 countries, employing nearly 10,000 marketing professionals.
The agency consistently ranksamong the top networks in the world and continues a dominant
presence in the industry by staying on the leading edge - fromhiring the industry's first
female copywriterto developing award-winning branded content today. www.jwt.com
The advertising appeared both on TV and print (point of sales material) and consisted of a
number of TV commercials and posters, using supers and copy all in Greeklish. The period

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2010-2011 was one that Vodafone Greece apparently set as its main marketing objective to
further penetrate the youngsters group market and less so the corporate and adult user groups.
Fig. 2 POS posters in Greeklish.
The TV commercials appeared on Vodafone Greece official YouTube channel.
Uploaded on Mar 22, 2011

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Uploaded on Nov 18, 2010
Especially one of them got an extremely negative public reaction, due to the Greeklish
element. Interestingly so, this third TVC which received the most negative comments on
Greeklish is impossible to insert here through YouTube and it is even deleted from the blogs
that commented on it. If you want to access it please type Προσφορά Bonus Talk 2
Vodafone directly on YouTube channel).
In addition, heated articles were written in blogs and on-line magazines, on the grounds that
the specific piece of advertising was attacking Greek language and culture. The other two
TVCs,an alarming observation, received a neutral reaction. In fact,some viewers even
commented casually in Greeklish, and in this way, legitimizing it.
Coming to the rescue of the advertising agency, one can claim that it did the best to be
interesting and relevant to the new generation. Greeklish is definitely widespread in social
media, chatting and mobile sms-ing. Using it is simply an advertising gimmick, a visual
application of a communication language friendly to the youth. It is even possible to suggest
that the client asked so, so the advertiser merely did what he was asked: his job. No one is in
the position to know that, but what is certain, is that the client approved of the creative idea
and its implementation. So, where is the problem here? Everybody followed job descriptions.
But this is just half of the truth. Because graphic design and visual communication have
implications, consequences and effects. Just as all political actions.
6. Graphic design,as a form of visual communication, is subjective, public and
political
I would like first to establish that graphic design is a term with enormous plasticity. Lots have
been written about it, and although one single officially accepted definition is not somewhere
to be found, for the purposes of my essay I define graphic design as encompassing visual

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communication, may be commercial or not, directed to a group, with a specific aim: to
convey a message.
Conveying a message could mean that the sender takes the message and conveys it to the
receiver as such, without altering its original nature and content. But as it has been noted in
relevant literature, the idea that graphic design is transparent has long been rejected.
Considering graphic design as a metaphor, one vehicle that transports the message,brings us
to the point:
“Metaphor itself is already a form of communication (a carrying over).” (Barnard, 2012)
There is considerable input by the sender, him/her/it being either a graphic designer,
advertiser, agency or even client or marketing manager (the usual suspect, the one that risks
all possible ethics to get marketing objectives met at the end of the financial year). The
notion of “cultural intermediaries” of Pierre Bourdieu (Soar, 2002) is not a neutral one.
This point has been articulated greatly by Blauvelt A., in his article titled In and Around:
Cultures of Design and the Design of Cultures Part I (1994).
“While graphic designers may claim an independent status, like that of neutral observers, we
find that their role is a centralone in the system of representations. As producers and
consumers of various cultural articrafts,understood as both tangible goods, such as books and
magazines, as well as the more intangible products, such as ephemeral messages and images,
graphic designers find themselves both in and around culture.”
The point about neutrality is a comment on the (heroic) effort of graphic designers and
advertisers to be absolutely “professional”, “a mythical, autonomous observer in the design
process.” (Blauvelt, 1994).
A relevant debate that cannot be left unnoticed, is the one that originated from the re-
launching of the First Things First Manifesto back in 1999. The truth is that since graphic
design has developed to be an industry, this was a discussion that basically centered around
the ethics of this industry, its consumerism and market driven dynamics, and of course on the
social and cultural responsibility of graphic designers and advertisers. And as in all cases of
ethics, relativity reigns. But one thing was uncontested: the power vested in visual
communication. Push the argument further and you even have graphic designers being the
vehicles of…revolution!
“(…) Graphic artists are in some sense the perfect people to launch a revolution because they
have an open-mindness that I don’t find in other professions. Their skills can be used to sell
soap, sneakers and Coca-Cola, but they can also be used to change the world. More and more
visual artists realize that.” (Soar, 2002)
Oh well, very far from a neutral observer, or a hands-tied professional, one may comment.
It is this power, among other reasons probably, that pushes Moriarty (2016) to suggest that
visual communication per se should develop to a specific discipline within semantics, what
she proposes to call visemics. It is the complexity arousing through visual communication, the
multi-level referential understanding that makes it so powerful. Although semiotics is
primarily concerned with cognition rather than actual communication, a point made by the
scholar is that visual communication compared to verbal is more complex and demands
greater interpretation effort, because of the multiple codes applied (i.e. color codes,
metaphors, other signs).

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But I would like to add another dimension, too, equally important: it is its public exposure
and opportunity to get into every aspect of a person’s life that makes graphic design and
visual communication a king (or a queen). Unlike any other media, graphic design can appear
everywhere,on anything or anyone. Take for example environmental advertising or guerilla
marketing, the obsession of advertisers and communication professionals: how can I get
where you are? Where you sleep? Where you eat? Where you walk?
Fig. 3 Potatoes or pedestrian crossing? An example of environmental and guerilla marketing, emerging in our
everyday lives. An example also on how visual communication works on different referential understanding levels.
Traditional media have been conquered, and they aren’t enough for getting sales high. They
have a turn on-off button. Environmental advertising and guerilla not.
Take for example Kevin Lyons, “one of a “bumper crop of remarkable young talents” in
2000’s ID Forty Designers Under Thirty feature,said that “graphic design is a true guerilla art
form. If he was not a designer, he would be “doing guerilla activity of a different sort.” (Soar,
2001). In an extreme sense,this is what contemporary visual communication is turning out to
be.
In addition, social networking, as a recent and digital form of visual communication, became
a way of life for millions of people worldwide, and it is the penetration in every device that is
so valuable to communicators. Before you go to sleep, you check your FB notifications. And
this is visual.

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Smart phoneaddiction.
Vested with so much power and penetration and on the verge of monopolizing our personal
and professional communications and interactions, one can only suggest that visual
communication is deadly political. For consider not political to be only a governmental affair.
Political is all our public life, for it is based on organizing our actions, in co-operation with
others, in order to achieve specific results or outcomes that affect us and the others alike. And
visual communication lays at the heart of this process,more so today, with guerilla marketing
and digital applications, than ever before. Just a brief reminder to this direction and a
reference to Aristotle: “Human beings are by nature political animals, because nature,which
does nothing in vain, has equipped them with speech,which enables them to communicate
moral concepts such as justice which are formative of the household and city-state. (Politics,
1253a1-18)”. In simpler words, speech,language and communication of messages are what
makes our interaction political.
7. Typography is more powerful than ever
If visual communication is political, so powerful and penetrating, it is interesting to remind
oneself of what is made of. It is made of independent codes, all combined together,
combination being a choice of the sender of the message,to perform one or more actions:
inform, persuade, decorate. An interesting account of graphic design actions (and functions)
are found in Barnard (2012), where he also adds the phatic (conversational), metalinguistic
(language related) and the magic action. The power to change perception.
The language code, this being typography or typefaces in graphic design language, is a key
component. Let me think: are there many graphic design or advertising pieces of
communication that do not feature a typographic element? Or a signature logo for that matter?
If so, it would be a photograph or a painting or a graphic or illustration. Graphic design visual
communication is different from these forms of visual communication because it combines

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typography with color codes and graphics and images and illustrations. All according to the
choice of the sender of the message. And because typography, as we established before, is a
medium on its own right, it is an indispensable ingredient of graphic design. And although we
have long ago discussed the phycology of colors and that of image, we are just starting to
focus and decode the phycology of typography. And apparently there is one that exceeds the
discussion serif/sans serif etc.
In an experiment run by Errol Morris on the readers of The New York Times, the conclusion
was that typefaces can sway your beliefs (Labarre,S. 2012). Actually, it was statistically
significant the influence exercised by a specific typeface to convince. This one being
Baskerville. (I thought of using it for writing my paper too, for obvious reasons). The findings
suggest that different typefaces have the power to convey hidden messages or emotions,
unconsciously, to the audience.
In addition, and even more importantly I should argue, there is a shift in the extent to which
typography participates in our visual communication and graphic design today.
“We know that people read more than they ever did. Perhaps they read fewer of some
traditional thing or other (and even that depends on the region) but, overall, more people
spend more time looking at strings of letters.” (Gerry L. 2013)
For example, phone conversation has given lots of its volume on sms-ing. And this is textual,
too. In a CNN article titled “We never talk anymore: the problem with text messaging”, this
point was brought up: “The telephone call is a dying institution. (…) Americans ages 18-29
send and receive an average of nearly 88 text messages per day, compared to 17 phone calls.”
So, communication is not only becoming more visual (than verbal) and penetrating, but also,
textual. But in a strictly digital context, that has its implications.
“(In tablets) the navigation arises from the document’s typographic design, not its
‘hardware’). The four main tools in typographic design become the main carriers of any
identity: from a simple publication to a large brand, typefaces,spacing, visual hierarchies, and
color are the only reliable identifiers.” (Gerry L. 2013)
8. In a nutshell: evaluating the Vodafone case study
So, it is under this light, that the significance of the Vodafone advertising is evident.
Actually, what we are witnessing here is an extreme example of how graphic design and
typography are strongly political. By being public, they penetrate big groups of people
(audience) and have effects and implications. I would like to argue that by using this kind of
distinctive, digital typographic element, actually by making a purely typographic piece of
communication, the advertising is putting forward the message that young Greeks speak and
communicate differently than adults, in Greeklish, and even more so, they prefer it, or they
should so, in order to fit well within their group of peers. By merely selecting Greeklish,
without even examining the content of the information provided, it becomes a statement that
this is a new,hip & hot code (language code) for youngsters. For the older ones, it simply
creates noise (and even embarrassment) and leads to a communication failure.
Going back to Mcluhan, by applying a hot medium such as Greeklish and its corresponding
typography, the advertising excluded Greeks in general, but adversely so, tried to include
youngsters. The medium was the message. And the message was one that did not relate to the
100 free Vodafone SMS package. And the advertiser was not a neutral transmitter. On the
contrary, the advertising was actively shaping a fact. Actually, it was shaping a fact so
controversial and prematurely, that the debate burst on. And one cannot even accept

16
ignorance by one of the biggest and most acclaimed advertising agencies worldwide, or a
client with such a great exposure and marketing expertise, such as Vodafone.
No other authoritative quotation written in 1998 could work better than Buchanan’s at this
point (Soar, 2002):
“When power and control are the foremost, moral purpose is reduced to whatever is popular
in the market place of ideas and commerce, rather than to what is right. This is the guiding
principle of bad marketing and bad advertising, and it is also the guiding principle of bad
design.”
9. Reflections on (Greek) typography design in digital ages
At this conclusive stage, having established the political power of visual communication and
the all increasing political importance of typography as a powerful code of representation and
understanding in our digital and everyday lives, I would like to return to my starting point and
reflect on typography of special languages and cultures, such as Greek. Not to forget that
typography in Greek graphic design is my main research interest and this investigative paper
sought to address certain typographical matters of concern to me as an active practitioner.
Greek language was unprepared for the web,as many local languages (and cultures). A
medium being attacked by another medium, as Mcluhan would probably suggest. Actually a
cool medium active and functional in a small country was being attacked by an international
medium, this being the Web, where Latin is its official language.
The fact is that for many years, Greek typefaces were designed by foreigners, based on the
Latin alphabet typefaces,and even more so, in a copy/paste manner, that did not, in its
majority, respect the morphology of Greek letters. Takis Katsoulides, a prominent Greek
engraving artist and a designer of wonderfully made typefaces,contests the same fact when
he mentions in one of his interviews that “Greek typography was an “émigré”.
Fig. 4. Metamoderna typefacefamily by Takis Katsoulides. As he himself describes (translated from Greek
manuscript by myself for the purposes of thepresent essay):After several decades of typefacedesign, I sought to
create one typefaceof unequal thickness, coming from observations of modern Greek manuscripts, without
calligraphic exaggerations. Innovation is mainly in the lambda letter which abolished the front part, which repelled
the previous letter, leaving a gap. I designed the main stem of theletter in vertical, protruding above and below the
other elements so as not to lose its character. Also zetawas designed on a vertical axis so as not to leave white
space on theright. Finally, the capital Omega was a major simplification, without losing its basic design. It is an

17
alphabet in which curves dominate and is available in 4 regular and italic versions, in monotonic, polytonicGreek,
full Latin and Central-European sets.
It was uncontested who would win. While being under attack, the Greek language adapted
and transformed, in order to survive in the digital environment and Greeklish was born. I
observe that in the period 2010-2012 this debate was as hot and public as ever,as highlighted
in the beginning of my paper and through the Vodafone case study.
Still, through observing contemporary trends, both in Greece and internationally, there is a
shift coming on. At the informative blog by Gerry Leonidas, Associate Professor of
Typography, Vice-President of ATypI and board member of ISTVC, plenty of relevant
information and facts are presented and analyzed, concerning Greek typography and other
special local languages future, in the context of international typographic standards (Kahl, J,
ed.).
“Indeed, just as globalization brought a wave of uniformity, it also underlined the rights of
communities to express themselves in their local languages and dialects, in the script of their
traditions. (…) So, there you have it: the world may be turning upside down in other areas,
but typographically it is entering a period of global growth, maturity, and cultural sensitivity.”
(Gerr L., 2013)
In the light of the above, a Greek example of contemporary, informed, professional and
sensitive preoccupation with Greek typefaces is Atypical. A new society that develops fonts,
on a commercial basis, while claiming that their basic drive is to create new contemporary
Greek typefaces “that would address contemporary design problems and needs.” It is great
that young typeface designers and professionals exist and furthermore, are aware of the
problems and needs.
Another illustrative example of a significantly different and culturally important alphabet is
that of Arabic. Bridging these two cultures through typography, Rana Abou Rjeily showcases
an impressive study, the new Mashallah typeface family. A project similar to that of Atypical
or Takis Katsoulides designs, supporting the development of culture-specific typeface design
by respecting idiosyncratic letter forms and writing styles.

18
Fig. 5. Mashallah, makes an interesting comment on how typography can evolve into a polemical tooland play a
role in preserving and keeping alive a language and its respective, culture in an era of globalization.
Just as a final indication on the gradual weight local languages are gaining on the Web: there
are now 708 Latin fonts in googlefonts.com, vs 28 supporting Greek language and 61 the
Cyrillic alphabet. It could be worse than that.
Conclusions
In a digital world and under a constraining globalization umbrella, textual communication is
gaining vital space and acquires a new role in referential understanding. Under this light,
typography, as a distinctive code, as well as an indispensable component of graphic design
communication that functions in a non-transparent way and in, an ever more, penetrating and
complex manner, is deadly significant. It is in that sense that typography is political.
In the Greek example, Greek language is challenged today both by the web, the uncontested
Latin-alphabet uniformity but also (and more seriously so) by poor education and uninformed
people.
The importance of preserving a culture and history as old as the Greek one, is not at all an
original or emotional suggestion. I do not claim that Greek language or culture is a victim of
the “barbarians”. The long and controversial history of the Greek state and nation are the real
context for understanding this: “Greeks have often accused non-Greeks of corrupting our
cultural inheritance, just a foreigners have accused Greeks of negligence in caring for that
inheritance.” (Gerry L 2002)
I find the controversial example of Vodafone Greeklish advertising a provocative instance to
reflect on the power of graphic design, the controversy on role of graphic designer but also on
the wealth of this magical communication code called typography and more broadly,
language. I would like to conclude with the one last highlight: in praise of diversity.
“If English were to become the sole language of every person on earth,it would take tens of
thousands of years to produce anything like the diversity that is our heritage – assuming we
could somehow reproduce the conditions under which this diversity grew. For all practical
purposes, the diversity we have now is absolutely irreplaceable.” (Woodbury A.)

19
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20
www.greekfontsociety.gr
www.academyofathens.gr
Ioanna Milopoulou, on the 29th April, 2016, in Athens,Greece

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