Context of Practise: Lecture Notes- "A History of Type"

Wednesday 28th November 2012
"A History of Type" Lecture Notes
Richard Miles

Typography is the intersection between the visual communication and the verbal communication

               VISUAL COMMUNICATION- WRITING- VERBAL COMMUNICATION

Typography is Meta- Communication (A system that frames another system)
                        Paralinguistics ( The way we read the language)
                        Kinesics (Emphasis on Gesture)

6 Classifications of Typography:

1. Humanist
2. Old Style
3. Transitional
4. Modern
5. Slab Serif/ Egyptian
6. Sans Serif

Roman Letterforms- "Trajan's Column" (113AD)- Earliest form of recognised letterforms
                                                                               - Birth of Serif, Decorative forms

 Late Age of Print (1450's)
     - Media Theorist Marshall Mcluhan coined the phrase- "Taken out of the Dark Ages"
     - Gutenberg Printing Press is invented
                                            - Birth of mass re-production of print
                                            - Makes it widely available
                                            - Heralded the Renaissance as people learnt how to read
     - Previous version of reproduction was re-writing of books by Monks
     - First font- Gutenberg Gothic Script (1450) (Often know as Fraktur or Blackletter)
                                            - Replaced by Humanists

Humanists
     - Suppose to reflect handwriting- More readable and lighter (Move towards Legibility)
     - Crossbar is slightly inclinded on the e
     - Meant to aid humanity despite mechanical process
     - eg. Jenson (1475) and updated with 'Centaur' by Rogers
     - Geofroy Tory Type logic- "proportions of the alphabet should reflect the ideal human form"
     - Reference: http://ilovetypography.com/2007/11/06/type-terminology-humanist-2/

Old Style (15th Century)
     - Refined versions of Humanist (Step away from script)
     - eg. Palatino, Garamond, Perpetua and Goudy Old Style
     - Connotations of Class, Sophistication and Traditional

Transitional
     - Ideal letterform created on quasi- scientific lines by Louis Simonneau
     - Accentation of Serif & Mixture of Weights/Thin & Thick strokes
     - William Caslon
     - Continuous Refinement- Baskerville accussed of "bliding all the readers of the nation" due to the
                                                strong contrast of Thick & Thin Strokes in Baskerville typeface

Modern (Didone's) (1790's)
     - Didone by Bodoni (1784)
     - Hairline Thin Strokes
     - Used in Fashion - Connotations of Style, Sophistication, Glamour and Elegant

Slab Serif/ Egyptian (1800's)
      - Reference to Orientalism
      - Fat Fonts: Bold and Brash- Designed in Industrialism so as to be noticed above the noise
      - "Fat Face"- inflated hyper bold from early 19th Century
      - Reference: http://ilovetypography.com/2007/11/06/type-terminology-humanist-2/

Sans Serif
      - Modernist
      - Berthold Type Foundry founded (1896)
      - Universal and United typefaces
      - Morrison's "Times New Roman" Font (1932) - referencing the greatness of the British and
                                                                                   Roman Empires

Notable Typefaces:
"Cooper Black" (1920's)
"Helvetica" by Max Miedinger (1957) - Quintessential or Epitome of Bland Facelessness
                                                              - Difference between Arial & Helvetica (The Q and the R)
                                                              - Reference: http://ilovetypography.com/2008/06/20/a-brief- 
                                                                                   history-of-type-part-5/
"Grunge" Type- David Carson
"Bastard" by Johnathan Barnbrook (1990) Blackletter

"There is a new generation of Graphic Designers who, before ever considering what thier favourite typeface is, will design a new one"

-Judy Vanderlans (1994)