X · Glossary of pretension
Words we keep using, and probably shouldn't.
Every small design practice develops a language. Most of it is shorthand. Some of it is theatre. Here is the theatre.
- Apparatus
- A word used when 'system' has already been used twice in the paragraph.
- Artefact (the)
- Any finished thing the designer would rather not describe functionally. Often wooden.
- Bespoke
- Made-to-measure. Implies a tailor somewhere. There is no tailor.
- Breathe (let it)
- Request that someone take things off a page. Usually reasonable.
- Considered
- The adjective you apply to your own work when you cannot think of a better one.
- Concern (a concern for)
- A light way of admitting an obsession. 'A concern for letterspacing.' Everyone has one.
- Curated
- Chosen. Chosen carefully, in the aggregate. Largely by email.
- Deliberate
- Opposite of accidental. Frequently neither.
- Discipline (the)
- Whatever we're doing. See also: 'the practice', 'the trade'.
- Editorial (as an adjective)
- Rigorous in small, defensible ways. Ask for the grid if pressed.
- Finished
- A state only the designer can identify. Others detect it instead.
- Gesture
- A small, unjustified design choice you will defend to the grave.
- Grid (the)
- A religion with a column for every flavour of guilt.
- Ink trap
- An ink trap.
- Judicious
- Made five cuts. Regretted two.
- Legible
- A bare-minimum virtue restated as if it were a compliment.
- Letterpress (done properly)
- Letterpress, done once, with feeling. See also: 'letterpress, by someone else'.
- Manuscript
- Word-document. Sometimes markdown. Occasionally paper.
- Matter (the)
- The text. Calling it 'the matter' implies it has been weighed.
- Modest
- Adjective one applies to one's own work at a precise angle.
- Noted
- Seen. Will never be actioned.
- Overdesigned
- Opposite of 'considered'. Often applied to adjacent studios.
- Plate (a)
- A printed page. Gives the impression of copperplate. Usually a laser print.
- Quietly
- An adverb that makes any design decision sound intentional.
- Reader (the)
- Assumed, sometimes patronised, never asked.
- Restraint
- The quality of having removed what you found easiest to remove.
- Risograph
- A photocopier you get to call a press.
- Set (to set)
- To typeset. Implies effort. Do not use as a transitive verb in polite company.
- Sober
- Black and white. One accent. Plenty of margin.
- Specimen
- Any example of a typeface printed with more care than ink.
- Taste
- Opinions consistent enough to be recognised across commissions.
- Typographic (adj.)
- Concerned with letters. Can mean 'typeset', 'well-typeset', or 'merely typeset'. Context required.
- Unpretentious
- A word we use only about other studios.
- Widow
- A lonely short final line. The studio will spend one full afternoon on this.