Department Store Screen Print Typography

Elena Etter

posted by Amber Weaver July 16, 2018

Columbian-born designer Elena Etter has a passion for exploring forms of writing around and through design. Having studied at 4 different institutions graduating from Central Saint Martins in London. Her explorations, in particular, take the form of an obsession with language and communication that has found its focus in written languages and typographic thinking. Etter produces content-driven pieces and likes to approach design through a process. Within her practice, Etter aims to capture the essence of a project and find a unique way to communicate it. She believes that graphic design is not only about making beautiful things but also building strong visual concepts and making a statement.

visual&syntactic Materialities project

visual&syntactic Materialities project

Available through Department Store, Etter has her own set of typographic prints featuring her love for typography and design. Etter tells us how she’s always been interested in translation and how the language we use determines what we say and how. The posters came out of an investigation in translation processes, where she formulated the notion of ‘designing as translating’. Etter was inspired by Kenya Hara, who says that ‘there is an unlimited number of ways of thinking and perceiving. In my understanding, to design is to intentionally apply to ordinary objects, phenomena and communicate the essence of these innumerable ways of thinking and perceiving’.

For these prints, Etter chose three statements to work with: ‘to translate knowledge’, ‘verbalising design is another act of design’ (Kenya Hara), and ‘language is not transparent’ (Mel Bochner). She created lettering for these using some of the analogue materials that are intrinsic to the design process: tape, a typewriter, and Letraset. They were then digitised and screen printed as posters.