-Word and other
software programmes give accessibility to type to anyone.
Aims:
- The history of
type.
- The main
classification of type.
- Famous
typefaces and their connotations.
- The
metalinguistic function of typography.
- Kerning / X
-Heights etc..
Typography is..
– Meta – communication – a type of system
that frames another system. Language and words are an organised system, but
typography is something that can change communication.
- Paralinguistic – it can affect the way
we read the language eg. Rhythm,
- Kinesics- “slam on the table”, or a
soft emphasises.
-American Psycho
– Business Card scene
Type Classification – Developed in the
1800’s.
- Humanist
- Old Style
- Transitional
- Modern
- Slab Serif
- Sans Serif
“Late Age of Print”
-1450’s – The Gutenberg press is invented. The
first method of mass-producing writing.
-Prior to that,
the only way literature had been reproduced was graphically, a slow and manual
process. Only certain people had access to it. For the first time, literature,
ideas knowledge and the print word was widely available to a wide
audience.
-The advent of
the printed word took us out the dark ages, and heralded the renaissance.
- Black Letter –
the first type used on the press –Gothic, based on Medi evil script. – eg. Fraktur by Bauer – 1950.
- A lot of our
alphabet came from Roman times – Trajan’s Column 113AD – The oldest dated
record of letterform we use as modern letters. The reason we have serif’s is
due to the chisel carving into stone, whereas now it’s decorative.
Humanist Typefaces
- Designed to be
much more readable and to be lighter.
- A move toward
legibility and the new printed media.
- A new basic way
of copying human handwriting.
- One form of
identification is that the cross stroke of the “e” is slightly inclined as
oppose to horizontal.
- One of the
first Humanist typefaces – “Jenson”
- Used nowadays
to represent something historical.
- Although typed,
they still wanted it to have a human quality to it.
- Geofroy Tory – ‘The cross stroke covers the mans organ of generation, to signify that
Modesty and Chastity are require, before all else, in those who seek
acquaintance with those letters”.
-
Jenson
The Explosion of Typography – 1500’s in Venice – Old Style
- Refined
humanist fonts.
- Slanted
ascender now horizontal.
- Palatino,
Garamond, Perpetua, Goudy Old Style – All developed in the renaissance in
Venice.
- Connotation of
style, tradition.
- Whereas Tory
was influence by the human body, Old style was inspired by quasi – scientific
lines.
- Bembo
Transitional
- Contrast
between thick and thin.
- “The ultra
thinness of Baskerville’s serifs were blinding the country”
- Baskerville
Modern
- Attributed to
Firmin Didot/ Didone -1784 - Bodoni
- The first
really experimental typography.
- Hairline thin
and hugely thick strokes.
- Used in fashion
all the time – style, sophistication and glamour.
Slab Serif/ Egyptian
- 1800’s – A
reference to an exoticism.
- Really brash –
designed for era of mass printing, the city, and shout at you from billboards
over the hustle and bustle.
- Fat Face –
“Bodoni on steroids” – Hyper bold style developed early 1800’s.
Sans Serif Typefaces
- A neutral
conveyor or meaning – a design language for all.
- Modern, forward
facing – not historic at all.
- Cooper Black –
“ A warm embrace from a 70’s friend”
- Helvetica – corporate
and faceless?
- Post –
Modernism – 1994 – “ there is a new
generation of graphic designers who, before ever considering what their
favourite typeface is, will design a new one” – Rudy Vanderlans
- From the 90’s
onwards, thousands of fonts come about, and you cannot keep up.
- The Crystal Goblet - Beatrice Warde - Excerpt from a Lecture to the British Typographers' Guild
- The Crystal Goblet - Beatrice Warde - Excerpt from a Lecture to the British Typographers' Guild