Arem duplessis biography of william

By: Steven Heller

For almost thirty years, The New York Times Magazine’s resident linguist extraordinaire, William Safire, in his popular “On Language” column, analyzed hundreds of contemporary words and phrases—from jargon to slang and everything in between.

In 2005, the magazine’s art director Arem Duplessis began assigning designers, typographers, and letterers to interpretively render the week’s showcased vernacular, each in their own distinctively customized conceptual lettering.

What could be more appropriate?

Language is more than the words, and by giving visual form to these verbal constructs, the artists individualized the concepts, making each phrase into a veritable logo. While the letterers were given considerable interpretative freedom, they were still required to fulfill requirements of legibility and readability.

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As abstract as the lettering style could be, the result was not art for art’s sake. Total abstract form was proscribed by function.

The “On Language” as