# Cranbrook & Deconstructivist Typography

> Graduate-school experimentation, centred on Katherine and Michael McCoy's Cranbrook design programme, that applied post-structuralist literary theory to the page. Text and image were layered into dense fields to be read rather than merely seen; typographic hierarchy was fractured, vernacular lettering was mixed with theory, and meaning was left open for the reader to construct.

- Period: 1980–1998
- Where: North America
- Origin: Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; CalArts, Valencia, California
- Branch: Postmodern
- Also known as: Cranbrook typography, Deconstruction, The New Discourse
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/deconstructivist-typography/

## How it works

- Layer text and image into one dense field that must be read slowly rather than scanned.
- Fracture hierarchy by giving captions, quotations and headlines competing weights and positions.
- Mix typefaces, scales and orientations within a single block so reading becomes an act of interpretation.
- Borrow vernacular lettering and commercial ephemera, then recontextualise them.
- Let the structure of the content, not a universal grid, generate the layout.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Broken grid](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/broken-grid/) (defining)
- [Collage & layering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/collage-and-layering/) (defining)
- [Dynamic asymmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/dynamic-asymmetry/) (characteristic)
- [Diagonal axis](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/diagonal-axis/) (occasional)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Layered information](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/layered-information/) (defining)
- [Flat hierarchy](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-hierarchy/) (characteristic)
- [Visual tension](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/visual-tension/) (characteristic)
- [Horror vacui](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/horror-vacui/) (characteristic)

### Typography
- [Experimental & distorted](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/experimental-and-distorted/) (defining)
- [Eclectic mixing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/eclectic-mixing/) (defining)
- [Rotated & vertical setting](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rotated-and-vertical-setting/) (characteristic)
- [Tight setting](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/tight-setting/) (characteristic)
- [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (characteristic)
- [Grotesque & neo-grotesque](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/grotesque-and-neo-grotesque/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Limited spot colours](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/) (characteristic)
- [Monochrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/monochrome/) (characteristic)
- [Light ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/light-ground/) (characteristic)

### Form & shape
- [Non-representational](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/non-representational/) (occasional)
- [Squiggles & confetti](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/squiggles-and-confetti/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Photocopy & distress](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/photocopy-and-distress/) (occasional)
- [Halftone & Ben-Day dots](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/halftone-and-ben-day-dots/) (occasional)

### Ornament
- [Rules & bars](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rules-and-bars/) (characteristic)
- [Restrained accents](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/restrained-accents/) (occasional)

### Imagery
- [Photomontage](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/photomontage/) (characteristic)
- [Treated photography](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/treated-photography/) (characteristic)
- [Found & vernacular imagery](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/found-and-vernacular-imagery/) (characteristic)
- [Diagram & data](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/diagram-and-data/) (occasional)

### Medium & production
- [Offset printing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/offset-printing/) (characteristic)
- [Desktop publishing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/desktop-publishing/) (characteristic)
- [Pen, brush & ink](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pen-brush-and-ink/) (occasional)

### Tone & intent
- [Rebellious & subversive](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rebellious-and-subversive/) (characteristic)
- [Ironic & self-aware](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ironic-and-self-aware/) (occasional)
- [Playful & witty](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/playful-and-witty/) (occasional)

Avoids: Classical text block, Central symmetry, Single focal point, Gloss & highlights, Authoritative & institutional, Rational & objective

Palette: #f2efe6, #141414, #8a8780, #d1342c, #c99a2e

Typefaces: Keedy Sans (Jeffery Keedy), Dead History (P. Scott Makela, 1990), Outwest (Edward Fella), Univers and Helvetica, fragmented and layered

Known for: Katherine & Michael McCoy (Cranbrook Academy of Art design department, 1971–95); Edward Fella (flyers for Detroit Focus Gallery); Jeffery Keedy (Keedy Sans; CalArts); Allen Hori; P. Scott Makela & Laurie Haycock Makela; Cranbrook Design: The New Discourse (Rizzoli, 1990)

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Grew out of: [Swiss Punk / New Wave Typography](https://stylogeny.com/styles/new-wave-typography.md) (1968–1990)
- Influenced by: [Hand-Painted Signage & Vernacular Lettering](https://stylogeny.com/styles/hand-painted-signage.md) (1800–present)
- Alike in its design choices: [Grunge Typography](https://stylogeny.com/styles/grunge-typography.md) (1990–2000), 71% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Dada](https://stylogeny.com/styles/dada.md) (1916–1924), 66% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Emigre & Early Digital Type](https://stylogeny.com/styles/emigre.md) (1984–1998), 64% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Mavo](https://stylogeny.com/styles/mavo.md) (1923–1925), 59% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Situationist Détournement Graphics](https://stylogeny.com/styles/situationist-detournement.md) (1956–1972), 57% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Punk & DIY Zine](https://stylogeny.com/styles/punk-diy.md) (1976–1986), 56% alike

## Real works

- [Detroit Focus. Morris Brose: A Sustained Vision (exhibition lecture poster)](https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O192509/): Edward Fella, 1987, Victoria and Albert Museum, London (E.594-1998)
- [The Cranbrook Graduate Program in Design, Michigan (recruitment poster)](https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O120192/): Katherine McCoy (printer: Signet), 1989 (V&A production date; its brief description says 'early 1990s'), Victoria and Albert Museum, London (E.599-1998)
- [Holland, Michigan (spread, Emigre no. 10, Cranbrook issue, pp. 9-11)](https://archive.org/details/LFAEmigre0010/page/n6/mode/1up): Lisa Anderson (Cranbrook Academy of Art), 1988, Letterform Archive, digitised on the Internet Archive (LFAEmigre0010)
- [Poetics (definition spread from the CalArts 'lexicon' project, Emigre no. 21)](https://archive.org/details/LFAEmigre0021/page/n3/mode/1up): Uncredited CalArts graphic design graduate student (issue guest-edited by Jeffery Keedy), 1992, Letterform Archive, digitised on the Internet Archive (LFAEmigre0021)

## Sources

- Katherine McCoy, Michael McCoy et al., Cranbrook Design: The New Discourse (Rizzoli, 1990)
- Ellen Lupton & J. Abbott Miller, 'Deconstruction and Graphic Design', in Design Writing Research (1996)
- Rick Poynor, No More Rules: Graphic Design and Postmodernism (2003)

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Cranbrook & Deconstructivist Typography”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/deconstructivist-typography/