Triangulation as an experimental approach: Interpreting the synergistic relationship between the visual syntax, practical mechanisms and theoretical frameworks of typography used in brand marks of cultural festivals

Abstract

Typography is an important visible element of a cultural festival’s brand mark, yet is overlooked within cultural festival research. An abundance of work has been published that examines cultural festivals from cultural, economic, tourism, and place-making perspectives, yet there is a shortfall in scholarly research addressing the key role typography performs to engage audience participation through cultural festivals’ primary brand driver – the brand mark. This paper critically considers triangulation as a constructive and effective research framework for enquiry into typography deployed in the brand marks of cultural festivals and provides a roadmap to further research. Offering an analysis of how and in what way typography is being used in the brand marks for cultural festivals, this paper contributes a discussion of appropriate research methods in the examination of this material. Triangulation is engaged as a research technique combining the methods 1) content analysis, 2) case study (text analysis) and 3) a semiotic analysis of typography as a framework to advantage three perspectives on typography, capturing the complexities of the phenomenon. Through a pilot study of 20 cultural festival brand marks from English speaking countries in 2016, the findings show that triangulation of three methods is beneficial to uncovering a rich and nuanced understanding of the role of typography in brand marks. Although many research methods are available to design researchers, the authors argue that triangulation, is an appropriate method to analyze typography used in the brand marks of cultural festivals as it allows for the emergence of a heterogeneous understanding of the discipline.