“type radio”
experimental magazine 

Type Radio is an experimental magazine that explores new ways of representing music graphically. Each issue is like a radio programme printed on paper.

In the magazine you can find new musical typefaces, new ways of representing music graphically, articles about musical signage design and news in the world of music.

The contents page was designed to look like a radio tuner and every page number has its own place depending on its relation to the tuner line.

article title

page number

So when you are flicking through pages you can easily imagine yourself dialling through radio frequencies.

article title

 page number

For the best representation of the song Cosmic Love, special musical typeface was created so the notes, clefs and other signs would look like star constellations.

The layout was also completely changed. The purpose of the new layout is to create an impression of going through the outer space while listening to the song and following this music notation.

article title

 page number

Next song, called “United States of Eurasia”, tells about a possible nearest future, when all the countries in Eurasia are combined into one super-state. As this song is very influenced by Arabic music, I have decided to create a set of letterforms - a combination of Arabic and Latin calligraphy, that could replace the usual music notation.

This spread explains how system of these letterforms works.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL DESCRIPTION.

notes

halftones

Halftones are represented with a symbol, which consists of a circle and a line. If the circle is above the line it means we are dealing with a sharp, circle below  the line means it is a flat.

note value

In this system of hieroglyphs note value differentiates by additional symbols. A letter by itself represents a quarter note as it is a most common value. Half circle represents whole note, half circle with a stroke - half note. A stroke below the letter represents an eighth note (as one tail in traditional notation does), two strokes below - sixteenth, three strokes - thirty second and so on.

pitch

The pitch of each note is represented by a dot.  A letter without a dot represents a note in the first octave. A letter with one dot above it represents a note one octave higher, one dot below letter represents a note one octave lower, two dots above - two octaves higher, three dots below - three octaves lower and so on.

rest signs

bar line

article title

 page number

And this spread is an actual piece of the song, that could be read and played on a musical instrument.

This section tells a story about treble clef design.

article title

 page number

Spread about the history of the treble clef design.

Some of my treble clef designs.