HISTORY OF TYPOGRAPHY
EVOLUTION OF WRITING - HAND SCRIPT: 100 – 1000 C.E.
From the year 100 – 1000 C.E., the only form of any writing was
‘Hand Script’, which was one of the first forms of books as well.
According to John Kane (2011), in the ‘A Type Primer’, Hand Script
was originally written on ‘Papyrus’ but things changed for the
better. “By 150 B.C.E., parchment had replaced papyrus as the
writing surface of choice” (Kane, p.18 2011). This snippet may
suggest that parchment seemed easier as papyrus had to be harvested
from a plant, but parchment is easier because it’s stronger and
resilient, due to it representing the skins of calves –
particularly, the preferred parchment material was taken form sheep
and goats because the writing works for both sides, which offers
more opportunities for books whereas the papyrus usually cracked or
was damaged by the writer. It can also be folded, which also makes
it useful to compose into books. The paper also withstood the
hardest of pens, which meant the text could be as small as they
wanted, which allowed them to write a substantial amount on the
each page (Kane, p.18 2011).
Incidentally, according to the text, the first forms of paper
were invented in China around the year 105 C.E. by Ts’ai Lun, a
court eunuch, who used a collection of fibers from a wooden pulp,
which was made into a silky cloth for painting and calligraphy
(Kane, p.18 2011). Kane mentioned that gradually over time, the
cloth idea from the wooden pulp was replaced with bamboo, which
made the paper more resilient against pens and brushes and
according to Kane, “The technique did not reach Europe for 900
years” (Kane, p.18 2011).
Gradually, paper production began to spread across to different
countries, like Japan in the 7th Century, even to Samarkand, which
was changed to Uzbekistan in the 8th Century and now paper
production moved through the countries until it reach Spain, where
it began to evolve further into the development of books (Kane,
p.18 2011).
Kane (2011) Identified that by 1300, Europe began to evolve and
develop the production of paper further, “A paper mill (or
factory), using water-powered machines to pulp linen fiber and fine
screens to produce smooth, flexible sheets, was operating in
Fabriano, Italy by 1300” (Kane, p.18 2011). From this point,
scribes and monks would’ve begun the development of books and even
the earliest versions of the ‘Psalms’ (Psalter).
Paper production evolved and began to gradually get bigger in
industry throughout all of Europe, as by 1600, all of Europe was
full of up to 16,000 paper mills, which meant the invention of
books, reading and writing and essentially developmental process of
Typography had begun to spread (Kane, p.18 2011).
The image to the right is a clear example of the ancient
material, ‘Papyrus’, which was originally what scribes and monks
used to write on. This one particularly a ‘Royal Decree’ according
to website, but looking at the Papyrus, you sort of get an
impression of the durability they have to handle and the struggle
to avoid damaging the paper. Papyrus is essentially made from a
plant as mentioned by Kane (2011), so the material is usually weak
and limits how much you choose to write on it and how much you work
on it before it breaks apart and deteriorates.
The image to the right is an example of writing that the Chinese
would’ve done when they invented paper according to Kane (2011). As
said by Kane, Ts’ai Lun initially invented paper and the paper
would’ve looked something similar to this image. It is a preview of
calligraphy, which came before typing in Europe.
As mentioned by Kane (2011), paper was invented in China in 105
C.E. but began spread worldwide to the point of the Far East and
Europe. Looking at the text suggests that the invention of paper as
inspired innovators to invent type, like Gutenberg (1395) for
example.
BLACKLETTER (HUMANIST SCRIPT): JOHANN GUTENBERG
Johann Gutenberg is one of the many founders of typography, or
at least, prints typography. During his career, he began his legacy
by creating a book, one of the first books to be written using
print. “Gutenberg's masterpiece, and the first book ever printed in
Europe from movable type, is the “Forty-Two-Line” Bible, completed
no later than 1455” (Biography.com 2015). According to a
‘Tiki-Toki’ timeline, Johann was in fact the original creator of
print typefaces; font face to be precise. “His font, Gothic
Blackletter was created in order to make his books look hand
written yet from the press” (Tiki-Toki 2015). Around the margin of
1440 to 1445, he created the first print-based book using his
newly-found font face but he died by 1468, but has clearly left a
great legacy that has manifested upon the design world.
Before producing his book, around 1430, “Already familiar with
bookmaking, Gutenberg perfected small metal type. Infinitely more
practical than carving complete wood blocks for printing, each type
was a single letter or character” (Biography.com 2015). This quote
explains that Johann’s experience with printing had paid off and
gained him the ability to use metal blocks or type to create
typefaces. On the website, they’ve outlined that typefaces had been
used before but as ‘movable type’ in Asia, hundreds of years before
this point, but his method seems a lot easier to consider –
“Movable type had been used in Asia hundreds of years earlier, but
Gutenberg’s innovation was developing a casting system and metal
alloys which made production easier” (Biography.com 2010).
They’ve outlined that Gutenberg (1395) had difficulties in
concerns to money; this may be because he was in debt with one of
his financial benefiters. “He had borrowed 800 guilders from local
financier Johann Fust to purchase specific tools and equipment
needed for his unique typography method” (Biography.com 2010).
Gutenberg had clearly worked hard for what he was trying to achieve
and did anything to hit his goals, which is a proper innovator’s
expectations. Eventually, it began to get difficult in terms of
financial benefits; Fust (1455) became tedious and came up with a
considerate offer to supposedly make things easier. “Gutenberg was
heavily in debt and unable to pay Fust’s loan. A new agreement was
drawn up making Fust a partner in Gutenberg’s business. However, by
1455, Gutenberg was still unable to pay the debt and Fust sued”
(Biography 2010). Gutenberg was driven into poverty a second time
after this incident when Fust (1455) decided to sue him and take
all of his printing business away from him, at this point, his
future was looking bleak – “Fust eventually won the suit and took
over most of Johannes Gutenberg’s printing business, including the
production of his Bibles.
Peter Schoeffer, Fust’s son-in-law, who had testified against
him during the trial, now joined Fust as a partner in the business”
(Biography.com 2010). This is also mentioned in ‘A Type Primer’ by
John Kane (2011), he disclosed a similar way of explaining it, by
the time of 1455, Fust’s mortgage reached 2000 gulden, therefore
causing Gutenberg (1395) to enter debt and lose all of his
equipment, which they took over (Kane, p.20 2011)
Initially, they took over and developed it more while Gutenberg
is placed into poverty once again. Even one of Gutenberg’s greatest
creations, the Psalter (The Book of Psalms), was taken from him.
Fust and Schoeffer developed the Psalter, “The Psalter is decorated
with hundreds of two-color initial letters and delicate scroll
borders using an ingenious method based on multiple inking on a
single metal block” (Biography.com 2010). This enhanced the idea of
typography and print media but in the end, they couldn’t have
ridden Gutenberg completely, as neither of them were not
sophisticated enough to perform such ingenious skills with the
typeface printing (Biography.com 2010).
An example of the ‘Psalter’ is shown to the right, as you can
see, it shows the type of typeface that Gutenberg was capable of
producing during those times. This was the foundation and very
origin of print typography itself.
In John Kane’s (2011) ‘A Type Primer’, he has outlined that
Gutenberg (1395) also possessed more disciplinary actions; other
strengths or abilities in his job role. He has revealed that
Gutenberg (1395) possesses various skills including engineering
skills, metallurgy and experience with chemical apparatus (Kane,
p.20 2011). Kane (2011) also shows that Gutenberg (1395) uses these
skills to produce the typeface that he began the development of
typography with, therefore ‘Blackletter’ – “His type mold required
a different brass matrix, or negative impression, for each
letterform” (Kane, p.20 2011). This is due to Gutenberg (1395)
desiring the idea of having his typeface exactly like handwriting
essentially.
Another way that John Kane (2011) described Gutenberg’s (1395)
experience is that he had “a lifetime of unpaid debts” (Kane, p.20
2011). This kind of sounds comical but it actually means that
Gutenberg (1395) really had to work hard to achieve the development
of type, especially when he particularly made type itself, by
developing the idea from scribes, which were the beginning of any
form of writing. Just by saying this, Kane (2011) jumps to the
conclusion that Gutenberg (1395) is no matter what, the developer
of type and the central of its creation, whichever way you put,
that’s printing type, which is distinct from scribing, which was
before the idea of type.
HUMANIST SCRIPT – ROMAN TYPE: NICHOLAS JENSON
A French Printer and follower of the typography development
through history, ‘Jenson’ (1420) born in 1420, in Sommevoire,
Champagne and he was a famous cutter for coinage and attended in
Mainz to follow Gutenberg’s (1395) footsteps (T.E.O.E.B. – The
Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica 2015). After discovering his
next goal using the great legacy that Gutenberg (1395) had left
behind, Jenson (1420) decided to move elsewhere and begin a career
of his own based on his discoveries – “In 1470 he opened a printing
shop in Venice, and, in the first work he produced, the printed
roman lowercase letter” (T.E.O.E.B 2015). From what has been
disclosed here, he’s began his own development of his own typeface,
in his own business establishment. During this point, the ‘Editors’
(2015) of this website, have identified that he had made two
subsequently defined typefaces – “Jenson also designed Greek-style
type and black-letter type” (T.E.O.E.B 2015). These fonts seemed a
bit tedious at first, from what has been said on the website,
Jenson (1420) might’ve not followed the same perfect condition as
Gutenberg (1395), although he tries to adopt it; the website
editors have mentioned that he didn’t get the right numbers that
the text needed, as said by this quote in more detail and
specifically – “Although he composed his types in a meticulously
even style, he did not always print them with the accuracy they
deserved” (T.E.O.E.B 2015). What they meant by “meticulously”, is
that Jenson (1420) was careful with his work and treated it very
kindly just like Gutenberg (1395), but as revealed, he may have not
satisfied with some of his accuracy, nevertheless he managed to
make a good sale using what he had – “Nonetheless, he published
more than 150 titles, soundly edited by scholars of authority”
(T.E.O.E.B 2015).
In 1470, he developed another print that was called the
‘Eusebius's De Evangelica Praeparatione’, which was written in a
‘noble Roman font, then he created a greek typeface for quotes
within a text or book and a black letter gothic type for history
books and medical texts (The University of Manchester 2015).
The image to the right is an example of one of the prints that
Jenson (1420) created using a lowercase font face. This print was
made 1476 and represents the ‘opening of Genesis’ in the ‘Jenson
Bible’ and according to the ‘caption’, it was “printed on vellum.
Biblia Latina (Venice: Nicolas Jenson, 1476)” (The University of
Manchester 2015). By looking at this image, you can kind of tell
where the ideas have originated, especially when it has ‘Gutenberg’
(1395) influences within it or works patented by Gutenberg but made
as well by Fust (1455) and Schoeffer (1467).
At the end of his biography, Jenson (1420), has been identified
as an extremely successful worker in the print design as well as
business and punch cutting, which gave him great aspirations.
Another achievement was becoming a papal count in 1475, which meant
he was a personal assistant to the pope according to this quote –
“He enjoyed the patronage of Pope Sixtus IV, who made him a papal
count in 1475” (The University of Manchester 2015).
The image to the left is an example of text that Jenson (1420)
produced, which is a form of script according to the caption,
“Roman script designed by Nicolas Jenson, from an edition of
Laertius, printed in Venice, 1475” (T.E.O.E.B 2015). This image
gives you an idea of what sort of font typeface he would’ve used; a
clearer version of it so you can almost read it but its roman so
you may struggle but at least, each letter can be easily read now.
He has even considered the accents and other symbols for specific
letters, which shows that he has taken Gutenberg’s (1395) work very
seriously.
In John Kane’s (2011) ‘A Type Primer’, it is revealed that
Jenson (1420) actually took over another designer’s role, Spira,
when they died in 1470. Jenson (1420) also had his original type
and it seemed that he wanted to use it to perfect it before he died
in 1480, considering what Kane (2011) said – “Jenson effectively
codified the aesthetics of type for those who followed” (Kane, p.22
2011).
The press artist before Jenson (1420) was a German Humanist
called “Johannes da Spira” (1469). According to Kane (2011), he
reflected the work of “Conrad Sweynheym” (1465) and “Arnold
Pannartz” (1465), which was the idea to replicate Gutenberg’s
(1395) original text but to use a ‘calligraphic’ Italian style
(Kane, p.22 2011), although, it seemed that Spira’s (1469) work
gave a stronger message than Sweynheym’s and Pannartz’s as “it
displayed a regularity of tone that far exceeded the work of
Sweynheym and Pannartz” (Kane, p.22 2011).
ITALIC: ALDUS MANUTIUS
Italian entrepreneur of the Italian Renaissance and the inventor
of italics type, ‘Manutius” (1450), began his development of type
using the previous works of Jenson (1420) for influence, but
originally, Manutius (1450) was an Italian Humanist Scholar
according to this quote – “Aldus Manutius was an Italian humanist
scholar who became a printer and publisher” (The University of
Manchester 2015), but identified by this quote, he expanded his
disciplines into printing and publishing prints, which evidently
leads to his development of type.
At the point of becoming a printer, he started a new development
that actively changes the nature of typography, evolving it from
Gutenberg’s (1395) ‘Blackletter’, Jenson’s (1420) ‘Roman Type’
eventually to ‘Italics – “He founded a press in Venice that was to
change both the direction of typography and the format in which
books were produced” (The University of Manchester 2015), his
development was to alter the function and setup of all the books
that are printed, by developing a new type of course. From what has
been said, the ‘Italic’ typeface was first used in the famous
‘Aldine’ editions as evidenced (The University of Manchester
2015).
In 1501, before the generation of the Aldine editions, Manutius
(1450) created editions of the works of ‘Vergil’, but this lead to
the development of the ‘Octavo format’, which lead further onto the
‘Aldine’ editions (The University of Manchester 2015).
On the website, it seems that Manutius (1450) didn’t create this
font on his own; he had help from his punchcutter, ‘Francesco
Griffo’ (1450) – “The invention of italic was due to the talent of
Manutius's punchcutter and typefounder, Francesco Griffo” (The
University of Manchester 2015). They also realised that the space
they gained on a page by using the Italic font style, allowed them
to produce more and for a good reason, it began to make their
‘Aldine’ editions more popular overtime and also, they seem to be a
lot cheaper to print as well – “The 'Aldine' editions proved to be
very popular and demand for them translated into larger print runs”
(The University of Manchester 2015).
Overall, Manutius (1450) was one of the first scholars and
printers to ever create the ‘major Greek classics’ (Heller 2015).
Heller described Manutius (1450) to be one of the most immaculate
visionaries because Manutius (1450) was classed as one of the most
popular and famous writers and printers as well as humanist
scholars in the Italian Renaissance (Heller 2015). This points out
that the visionary had produced something similar to the nature of
Jenson’s (1420) and Gutenberg’s (1395) works because he seems to
adopt the typography development very well.
“Manutius was a supreme innovator who transformed the hallmarks
of literacy. It was due to his editions that the works of Virgil,
Horace, and Dante became available to a wide audience” (Heller
2015). This quote here, explains what Heller has identified, which
is where he describes Manutius to be a ‘supreme’ innovator, which
means that Manutius was someone that would leave their mark upon
the world and pass this innovation to the next person of the
typography development. Also, he has explained the reason behind
the popularity of the new ‘Italic’ font by disclosing a couple of
his ‘Aldine’ editions, which were popular to a vast audience during
the time.
The image to the right, is an example of the sort of type you’d
expect from ‘primal’ italics or what Manutius (1450) has developed.
This image particularly, is an actual copy of the ‘Vergil’ part of
his Aldine editions (The University of Manchester 2015). As you can
see, you can kind of tell that Manutius (1450) is able to create
really nice texts and be able to spend more room but incidentally,
the text is still as difficult as ‘Blackletter’ to read, so at some
point, another breakthrough in the development of type will
occur.
In Italics, there are two types, ‘Cursives’, which are italics
based on hand-writing and ‘Obliques’, which are based on slanted
versions of Roman type (Halley 2015).
In ‘A Type Primer’, Kane (2011) has disclosed that Manutius
(1450) represented one of the mast prestigious European scholars
considering he was mostly the only best. Also, he had Griffo (1450)
working for him, which he handled the lowercase letterforms with
alternating letterform features. Overall, Griffo achieved a higher
standard than even Jenson (1420) managed too, especially when they
were the highlight of the Italian Renaissance.
Manutius and Griffo seemed to have achieved more than they could
hope for especially when their ideas began to spread through the
Renaissance, notifying other scholars of their work and what it has
reached; his main achievements include, “the first pocket-sized
books, whose low cost and easy portability” (Kane, p.24 2011),
which meant that he and Griffo created books that can be handled
easily and can be taken anywhere with no weight or size problems
(Kane, p.24 2011).
To add from before, Kane (2011) also disclosed that Manutius
(1450) and Griffo (1450), managed to develop the typeface so that
the letterforms were narrow. This allows the writer or printer to
utilise more space on the page, which leaves zero space wasted.
Fitting more on a page meant the ability to increase depth in the
writing and be able to work with large quantities of pages or small
quantities depending on the context (Kane, p.24 2011).
Also, it is evidenced that Griffo’s Italian type was loved by
‘Papal scribes, which meant that his typeface was working
particularly well in the Psalms. Like before, this is because of
the narrow size, this grants more space on a page, which allows
more writing on the page (Kane, p.24 2011).
THE GOLDEN AGE OF FRENCH PRINTING – CLAUDE GARAMOND
Sometime around the 1500s, a French Parisian, one person that’s
imperative to the development of type is Claude Garamond (1480),
the first French typefounder that worked very much independently to
produce immaculate practices of type, which include ‘Adobe
Garamond’ (Kane, p.26 2011). Kane (2011) also discovered that
Garamond (1480) worked much better with steel printing than using a
pen to capture the strokes on each letterform. This shows that
Garamond was more practical and wanted show a difference or a
contrast from Jenson’s (1420) and Manutius (1450) (Kane, p.26
2011).
Also, Garamond (1480) stayed within the type-casting method of
producing typefaces as it seemed distinct from calligraphic
writing, which the humanists and the Renaissance scholars did.
Compared to a monotype Dante, his ‘Adobe Garamond’ seems a lot
cleaner and subtler than the calligraphic style, which consisted of
strokes and minor grunge. The image below, which displays his font
style, shows that his style, even though it is only type-cast, it
is still a clean style and it looks quite exquisite (Kane, p.26
2011).
At some point in 1540, Garamond (1480) met Robert Granjon (1513)
and they opened to collaboration to develop a set of italic
typefaces, which were for Roman typefaces (Kane, p.26 2011).
Granjon (1513) progressed with the italic typeface development
until he eventually made the ‘Civilite’, in 1577. This font face
alternated back to a French handwritten typeface, which was
‘Batarde, but according to Kane, “It did not spur a line of script
typefaces that continues to the present day” (Kane, p.26 2011).
This means that the script typefaces, never represented the italic
forms but they managed to continue towards the modern age.
The image to the left that is represent on Henley’s (2014) page
on the Guardian, shows the basic structure of Garamond’s (1480)
style of type-casting and just by the image, you can identify the
standards that he wanted to accomplish whilst he was developing
it.
EVOLUTION OF TYPE: WILLIAM CASLON, JOHN BASKERVILLE, DIDOT,
BODONI
OLD TYPE:
In the early 1700s, a very memorable printer in the development
of type, William Caslon (1692), was the official creator of the
letterform or clear text that featured the formation of ‘Serifs’ –
“English typefounder who, between 1720 and 1726, designed the
typeface that bears his name” (T.E.O.E.B 2015). The image to the
left is only an example of what I mean with ‘Serifs’; this is the
first ‘Specimen’, which showed the transition between different
typefaces that he developed (T.E.O.E.B 2015).
Originally, he was working in a job that somehow leads to this
profound career, “Caslon began his career as an apprentice to an
engraver of gunlocks and barrels” (T.E.O.E.B 2015). This shows that
he was pushed into developing type through various cutting and
engraving jobs. After starting his own business, his real career
began to come into fruition, “When his work came to the attention
of the printer John Watts, Caslon was given the task of cutting
type punches for various presses in London. In 1720 he designed an
“English Arabic” typeface used in a psalter and a New Testament”
(T.E.O.E.B 2015). This quote identifies that he is following
similar footsteps to what Gutenberg (1395) did when he designed the
Psalter but with using his ‘Blackletter font.
“The success of Caslon’s new typefaces in England was almost
instantaneous” (T.E.O.E.B 2015). The quote above helps describe
Caslon’s (1692) works to be coherent and memorable, where they will
live on eternally and continue to develop, just as Gutenberg’s
(1395), Jenson’s (1420) and Manutius’s (1450) did, which would be
expect as type was one of the rarest pieces of design during those
times.
The image to the right is a development of Caslon’s font face
throughout a timeline by certain members of the family that have
inherited the idea. As you can see, the font gets cleaner as you
contrast from the first letterform to the end one.
In ‘A Type Primer’, Caslon’s (1692) work managed to spread
towards England’s American citizens, which may be responsible for
reaching Baskerville (1706), allowing him to develop the next
typeface, which seemed a little better than just serif text, his
consisted of changing features as you go from the flicks to the
centre. According to Kane (2011), his typeface was used for the
‘Declaration of Independence and Constitution’, which may have
influence him as well (Kane, p.30 2011).
Lastly, his sons were to continue his work until the 19th
century, according to what Kane (2011) mentioned, which may have
led to Caslon’s son, where he begins a new development that would
change the face of type forever (Kane, p.30 2011).
TRANSITIONAL:
Following from Caslon (1692) works, John Baskerville (1706)
began to develop upon it by creating what’s called, ‘transitional’
type, where the serifs and letterforms transition smoothly in terms
of curves, stems or flicks. The image to the left explains more
about what the differences are between transitional fonts and old
type fonts. This font specimen was created by Baskerville (1706) to
display the font’s evolution and eventually, it is used to form
newer font faces that share a similar style (Suarez 2011).
Baskerville’s (1706) typeface is considered ‘transitional’
because he was influenced by the Italian renaissance printers and
Caslon (1692) but he wanted to go for something a bit different in
terms of what the letterforms look like, “Baskerville is creating
type with more refined their forms and more extreme contrast of
thick and thin strokes” (Suarez 2011). This quote identifies the
idea behind creating letter forms that have more contrast in them,
so they look almost cleaner and not so complex or ‘bold’ like
‘Blackletter’ or Caslon’s ‘Old Type’ although, it still keeps the
same style type as Caslon’s (1692), it just adopts the style and
alters it to look a bit better.
Although he only developed the idea of transitional materials in
a letterform, it would spread quite easily to others that will
develop the type further into the ‘modern’ stage – “His designs
stand as a pinnacle of pinnacle of transitional typography and as a
prelude to the modern Didone design of later years” (Suarez 2011).
This quote outlines that aspiration very well where the development
of type will keep going and eventually change into something that
will be easily recognised as a ‘world changing element’.
The image to the left is an example of the sort of contrasts
between different embodiments on each letterform. Compared to
Caslon’s (1692) Old Type, this new form of type has captured the
attention of printers aboard, which opens the idea to newer
opportunities and the chance to push it into the modern cultural
world of design – “Abroad, however, he was much admired, notably by
Fournier, Bodoni (who intended at one point to come to England to
work under him), and Benjamin Franklin” (My Fonts 2015). The locals
seem to not take an interest but a few aboard, thought differently
and were influenced by it.
In Kane’s (2011) ‘A Type Primer’, Kane informed that
Baskerville’s main ideas inspired a later typefounder, by the name
of ‘Phillippe Grandjean (1666). Although Baskerville (1706) is
mostly a self-taught typefounder, he has successful passed on the
responsibility of developing type. Baskerville developed
transitional using thick and thin strokes on the letterforms.
Grandjean (1666) was 10 years into developing a typeface called
‘romain du roi’ for Louis xiv’s royal press, but this project was
so complex, it would continue another 3 decades to finish (Kane,
p.32 2011).
MODERN:
After Baskerville’s (1706) works, a French printer, Firmin Didot
(1764) and Italian punchcutter, Giambattista Bodoni (1740) began to
develop of the ‘Didone design’, which is the launch of the ‘modern’
era of type. According to what is on the website ‘I Love
Typography’ (2008), a brief set of characteristics is outlined for
the Didone design. They are mainly, “High and abrupt contrast
between thick and thin strokes” (I Love Typography 2008). This is
probably noticeable on the images to the left that represent the
Didone designs. The bottom one is based on ‘Baskerville’s (1706)
type, that’s why it seems to be a play on words between Baskerville
and Bodoni.
Another characteristic that has been said is “Abrupt
(unbracketed) hairline (thin) serifs” (I Love Typography 2015).
This one is noticeable because you can tell the difference in
change with the serifs from Baskerville’s (1706) type and even
Caslon’s (1692) type, they are a lot straighter and don’t flick up
as much. This would make a typeface seem even more
contemporary.
Other characteristics consist of “vertical axis”, which would be
the alteration of stems or elements in italics, “horizontal axis”,
to change the thickness as well as changing the appearance of
italics and the final characteristic to the type, would be a “small
aperture”, which means that most ‘Hs’, ‘Ms’ and ‘Ns’ for example,
would contain less aperture, which is the gap that goes underneath
or through the letterform towards the ‘mean line’ or the line in
which all letterforms touch at the top other than ‘ascenders’.
The image to the right is an example of a ‘modern day’
representation of the Didone design, where it incorporates the type
that refers or is actually the font face that Didot (1764) and
Bodoni (1740) developed. This magazine in particular, is identified
to be ‘VOGUE’, which is fashion and cultural magazine and the logo
on the cover, incorporates the Didone design, with the attributes
that the Didot (1764) and Bodoni (1740) gave their typefaces.
Considering that typefaces have evolved hugely since ‘Blackletter’
and ‘Roman Type’, ‘Sans Serif’ is about to take over and take the
development of typography to a new level.
Kane (2011) in ‘A Type Primer’ explained that Bodoni’s (1740)
influences clearly came from Baskerville’s (1706) works – “His
early typefaces retain some elements we associate with Baskerville”
(Kane, p.34 2011). It is also made obvious here, when Kane (2011)
describes “Baskerville’s innovations exerted a notable influence on
European type founders, particularly Firmin Didot and Fournier
families in France and Giambattista Bodoni (1740) in Italy” (Kane,
p.34 2011).
SANS SERIF – WILLIAM CASLON IV.
According to Kane (2011) in ‘A Type Primer’, ‘Sans Serif’,
meaning without serif, was produced by William Caslon IV (1816),
Caslon’s (1692) son. Also, Kane mentioned that Sans Serif is a form
of the ‘Boldface’, which makes it jump out more because it seems
more important. It also seems intimidating concerning its size but
it would mainly be used for advertising purposes (Kane, p.36
2011).
Boldface is the beginning of Sans Serif, that began due to the
Industrial Revolution, which start due to the steam engine
development – “The sheer speed of mechanized presses meant that
thousands of copies could be printed in the time it formerly took
to print dozens” (Kane, p.36 2011). Typefaces that are used in
advertising now had to be clean, sharp and readable, therefore the
boldface and sans serif were recommended but because of the
previous typefaces, they seemed useless because they may be
difficult to read because subliminal messages were easier and would
last longer with the audience if the font face was big, thick and
serif free (Kane, p.36 2011).
In the text, Caslon IV (1816) called his new face, ‘Egyptian’
because apparently, the ‘Ancient Egyptian’ architecture and
structural art, complimented and inspired the European imagination
– “since Napoleon’s campaign and the discovery of the Rosetta Stone
in 1799” (Kane, p.36 2011). People that were against the face,
called it ‘Grotesque but others referred to it as ‘Gothic’, which
represented the revival 19th century typefaces – “English
type-founder Vincent Figgins was the first to call it ‘sans
syrruph’, in 1832” (Kane, p.36 2011).
In accord to Kane’s (2011) text, Caslon IV (1816) also
introduced ‘display faces’, which started with illuminated initial
letters from medieval copyists in manuscripts. Most designers of
typography, had developed text forms that seem intricate with
colours to provide difference on the text page –“In the 19th
Century, at the same time as the development boldface, and for
much, the same reason, type founders began casting entire
typefaces-upper-and lowercase-decorated (illuminated)” (Kane, p.36
2011). Initially, display faces are font faces that have
decorations and are mainly used for the purpose of posters or major
advertising to project a message that people will easily be able to
understand depending on the control of the theme. Type eventually
evolved from phototypesetting to digital rendering, which is
present day technology, according to the text (Kane, p.36
2011).
The image to the left is a clear example of what ‘Egyptian’
looks like. You can already see that the text is easy to read and
it has lost the serifs and took on an easily readable typeface.
The image to the left is an example of Caslon IV’s (1816)
letters, because he is one of many letter founders. This is also a
clear example of the different display faces that he made for the
letters.
“As it happens, we all know our alphabet well enough that we can
usually read the letters and numbers in display faces despite the
tortuous machinations they have endured” (Kane, p.36 2011). The
moral of this quote is that the decorative text is still easy to
read but they would’ve been very complex and difficult to create
using print pressing and machines. Nowadays, it’s literally pushing
keys, which allows the use of any display face.
HELVETICA – SWISS TYPE
According to the video ‘Helvetica’ (2007), Helvetica is one of
the most contemporary and most corporate font typefaces ever used.
This is evidenced by it being used for posters, advertising,
signage, logos and print advertising as well. In the video, the
creator of Helvetica, Max Miedinger developed the font face in 1957
but further on in the documentary; the original name for Helvetica
was in fact ‘Die Neue Haas Grotesk’ by ‘Eduard Hoffman in the 19th
Century at the ‘Haas Type Foundry’. The original is also associated
with the famous ‘Akzidenz-Grotesk’, which is another Swiss
typeface.
‘Wim Crouwel’ is one of many designers that have used Helvetica
for many different reasons. According Crouwel, he likes Helvetica
for its clarity, being easily readable and neat (Crouwel 2007).
This means that he favours the idea of that modernism that is being
considered, that the typeface is easier to read, it being used in
literally everything, brands like ‘Met-A-Life’ or ‘Greyhound’. In
1993, Crouwel started using a computer, which he said that layers
are really helpful and allow you to edit each part of the text and
place each letterform or word where you desire and how you desire
(Crouwel 2007).
Another thing that he outlined, photography was the old method
of capturing text or type-casting, suggested by him, a computer
allows you to speed up your work, so you don’t have to worry about
using too much time making one single word (Crouwel 2007).
Further on through the video, the next designer, ‘Matthew
Carter’, reveals his father’s work (Harry Carter), where he used to
use type-casting and moveable metal blocks with lowercase letters.
He also became a trainee and went to the Netherlands to learn his
father’s work and experience the history of type first hand (Carter
2007).
Carter also outlined some of the basic poverty of terms, which
were things like ‘O’ gives the sense of weight and the ‘P’ is also
good to use. He referred to these as the ‘horizontal terminals’
(Carter 2007).
Skipping ahead to a designer called Mike Parker, who revealed
some more inspiring analogy, which was “shapes within, hold the
text together” (Parker 2007). This meant that the clean and simply
text, holds together especially when none of the characters of
particularly heavy. Another quote I identified was that Parker said
“A letter that’s in a powerful matrix of space” (Parker 2007). This
was showing that the typeface is stronger in a sophisticated layout
with controlled weight.
In terms of American Airlines, a company that has been around
since 1966, they have always used the Helvetica font since the
generation of the logos. Max Miedinger is responsible for the
generation of the type for the logo (Miedinger 2007). M. A.
Miedinger, another graphic artist, displayed the ‘Stempel Haas´
specimen, which shown a first development for the Helvetica font
(Miedinger 2007).
Herman Zaph, another typeface designer, explained that during
the creation of Helvetica, Miedinger wanted it to be called
‘Helvetia’, which is Latin for ‘Switzerland’ but it seemed a bit
weird and didn’t make much sense so instead, they made it
‘Helvetica’, because that sounds more preferable and it works well
as a font face (Zaph 2007).
Skipping further ahead in the movie, we come to a type designer
called ‘Johnathan Hoefler’, he’s the one who mentioned the ‘poverty
of terms’, which represents ‘cap height’ or ‘apertures’, which he
thought was subjective but the one thing that seemed quite
interesting is when he became over-enthusiastic and mentioned
something strange, “Roman holiday espresso feeling” (Hoefler 2007).
This seemed strange but interest how he explained it; it’s
basically a metaphor and most of the description was conceited,
apart from that, he described the typeface to ‘elegant’ because the
typeface’s cleanliness and simplicity is pretty exquisite (Hoefler
2007).
A few moments into the video, the ideas and views on Helvetica
begin to alternate and somewhat fluctuate from against to for.
Another designer by the name of ‘Erik Spiekermann’, who gave quite
a conceited view about Helvetica, he said that the text must have
space and an ordered layout by saying “no choice but to breathe”
(Spiekermann 2007). This means that the text must have balanced
spacing to balance the font; this could refer to tracking or
leading. He also described what sort of designer he is by saying “I
am fast, loud and chaotic” (Spiekermann 2007). This could mean that
a designer is basically over-confident and somewhat psychotic, this
effect would make the person more creative because they would be
mad about it. He also said “no tight t-shirts”, which refers to the
previous quote where the spacing is the key to Helvetica
(Spiekermann 2007).
‘Las Muller’ is another outlined designer in the story of
Helvetica as he technically loves Helvetica in some way for its
clarity, simplicity and presentable layout. He says that the
development of Helvetica is “inviting everyone to type”, which
means that everyone can be influenced by type, especially designers
(Muller 2007). During his sequence, he only points Helvetica out
and doesn’t say it by words. He quickly identifies that people can
easily subconsciously adopt the idea of Helvetica and be able to
see it everywhere (Muller 2007).
‘Paula Scher’ described design to be separated into two
cultures, only identifying the ‘corporate’ one, which would refer
to advertising and design industry. One of the most inspiring
quotes I have identified is that “typography has life, a medium
that sets in the mind” (Scher 2007). She also showed that she tried
to see how much Helvetica was used in each US state, which is
revealed to be insane by opinion.
Nearing the modern era of typeface and typography design,
another great innovator in typography design, ‘Stefan Sagmeister’
explains view on typography. He reveals that he is essentially the
last designer to be taught by hand in terms of typeface design. He
also revealed some of his works, which also consisted of his
‘truisms’, which are special quotes that identify a message,
especially through a famous typography truism (Sagmeister 2007).
The quote identified was “Trying to Look Good limits my Life”
(Sagmeister 2007). That could suggest that perfection is
unreachable and you kind of waste your life trying to reach it,
this could relate to physical appearance as well.
Moving more into a region of design where the order and control
is minuscule, ‘David Carson’, a magazine printer and typographer,
developed his own innovations in type. He very much hated Helvetica
but during the video, it was particularly difficult to identify if
he hated it or liked it. From my opinion, looking at his ‘Raygun’
magazines, I see him as being ‘Dadaist’. This means that his work
isn’t constricted to design styles or rules; he just gets letters
from magazines or newspapers and pastes them onto a new sheet in
unique ways (Carson 2007). He calls these mishaps that he randomly
creates, ‘mistakes’, which he sees them as ‘good mistakes’ that are
worth keeping. Essentially by saying that he likes to use dingbats,
he’s basically taking the mick out of Helvetica, so from that
point, I know he hates it.
After the ‘Grunge Period’, we move into Post-Modernism, where
Helvetica becomes so known, everyone uses it without the worry of
plagiarism, according to designer, ‘Danny’ with ‘Erwin Brinkers’.
They say that there’s something superficial about Helvetica, that
it is ‘subversive’. (Brinkers : Danny 2007). He also shows some of
the logos that ‘Crouwel’ created like the ‘Rotterdam Logo’.
The final designer that I thought would be necessary, ‘Michael
C. Place’ because some of the things he said were quite
inspirational and useful for that matter. Importantly, he didn’t
know about the ‘poverty of terms’ and seemed as though he didn’t
care. He said he liked to grab basic rubbish off the streets and
use it as the means to create typography. He described it be
beautiful and “gives an emotional response” because that’s what he
wants to aim for. His true aspirations were to work on airplanes or
uniforms, which seemed a little strange (Place 2007).
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