Morris Reflection

I found these two articles concerning Morris’s typographic experiment very interesting because although they are of opposing opinions, I found myself somewhat agreeing with both. The John Brownlee article is an interview with Errol Morris where Morris discusses the results of his experiment with data from over 40,000 participants. With this large pool of data, Morris’s results appear to have credibility. I was swayed to agree with Morris’s findings that typography could influence our perceptions about the truth of a statement. It seemed to make sense. If typefaces can influence the tone of a message then they must also have the ability to affect the trustworthiness of a statement. I took from this article that because typeface is also a visual image a statement’s believability may be influenced by how the font “appeals” to the reader. After reading the “Fonts In Use” article, by Stephen Cole, however I questioned Morris’s tests results. Morris used only six fonts for his experiment. Why did he use only six fonts when there are so many more to choose from? Morris also stated that his choices were not necessarily “scientific”. Although Morris’s experiment did not follow the scientific steps it did reveal that typefaces do influence the perception of the message. I feel from these articles, designers can take away the important idea of knowing their audience and to create an “appealing” overall message for that audience through typography and design in order to attract their attention and win their trustworthiness.