Experimental Type vs Grunge
実験的タイポグラフィ / グランジ
Experimental Type comes from Avant-garde and Grunge from Counterculture. Both are read here as style. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
Experimental Type
Pushes letters from something read toward something seen and felt.
Grunge
Uses dirt, tears and wear as resistance to the neatly managed screen.
| Experimental Type | Grunge | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1980s– | 1990s |
| Family | Avant-garde | Counterculture |
| Kind | Style | Style |
| Cues | Distorted letterforms / Overlaps / Extreme letterspacing / Tension with legibility | Scuffing / Tears / Disordered type / Low-quality copies |
| Best used for | Making the title itself the visual · Breaking déjà vu in music and culture | Body heat for music and street culture · Deliberately breaking the look of a finished product |
| Type | Variable, stretched, dismantled — support with a plain text face | Decayed sans, typewriter faces |
| Composition | Run type to the edges and partially conceal it | Overlap and crop; keep alignment only in places |
| Material | Monochrome plus one color; warps and scanlines | Dirty paper, grain, low chroma plus one accent |
| Caution | Break everything and the way in disappears. Always keep one readable layer. | Texture overlays alone feel dated. Run the logic of wear through photo, type and margin alike. |