TYPOGRAPHY 
Traditionally defined as the art of process of setting, arranging, and designing type.
It is the glue that holds a design together, control emotions, tells stories not just with words but with design and style of the type.
IT IS INFLUENCED BY technological advances and culture
​(political, social, academic, artistic, etc).
  • Type evolved from one-of-a-kind handwritten scripts to printed technologies - this changed the nature of written communication so much that the term "typography" was coined to describe it.
  • Current digital typographic innovations continue to push the boundaries of type use in design.
  • Typographic quality is based on reproducibility.

TIMELINE OF KEY EVENTS

Pre-700 CE

Type has evolved from one-of-a-kind handwritten scripts to printed technologies; its evolution is influenced by technological advances and culture (political, social, academic, artistic, etc). Looking far back in our history beginning as early as 38,000 BCE we can see the start of visual communicative markings in caves, on stone tablets, on papyrus and papers, through digital means.
Picture
Book scribe creating a copy of a book.
In the beginning scribes would make manual copies of original texts. This process of reproduction was very time intensive and errors could occur.

Woodblock printing techniques, were developed around 700 CE. by the Chinese which sped up the process of reproducing works; the first printed book was a  Buddhist text called the Diamond Sutra published by Wang Jie  in 868 CE. ​

Early movable type began around 1040 CE (Song Dynasty) porcelain-like movable type had been used by Bi Sheng. Two-hundred years later during the Goryeo Dynasty in Korea that the first metal moveable type printing system was developed. This led to the Jikji, the earliest known movable metal type printed book in 1377. Neither of these caught on because of the enormous amount of labor involved in producing the letterforms - block printing remained the primary production method.
​For this class we are going to jump far ahead...

1440s - Johannes Gutenberg, German
  • Started the printing revolution in Europe.
  • Credited with the invention of mechanical, movable type made from metal and the printing press - see a press in action; short version. 
  • ​Created the first typeface - Blackletter which was dark, fairly practical and intense but not very legible.
  • Movable type is a relief printing technique that lowered the cost of reproducing print, made printed materials more available to the masses.
  • His 42-line Bible became the first book printed in Europe using movable type technology.
  • ​Johannes Gutenberg and the Printing Press |  video

1470 - Nicolas Jenson, French

Picture
Nicolas Jenson
  • Created Roman Type which was inspired by the text on ancient Roman buildings; based on straight lines and regular curves.
  • More readable than Blackletter.
  • Important figure in the early history of printing and a pivotal force in the emergence of Venice as one of the first great centers of the printing press.

1501 - Aldus Manutius, Italian
Picture
Narrow, Bembo, Italics sample.
  • Italian humanist who became a printer and publisher when he founded the Aldine Press at Venice.​
  • Created italics and designed many fonts; italics was originally created to fit more words per page and save money on printing.
  • He possessed a passion for learning,  founded the Aldine Academy of Hellenic Scholars. invented the concept of pocket / portable books.

1734
​William Caslon English​

  • Create Old Style; it has straighter serifs and more obvious contrast between thin and bold strokes.
  • With his father, they produced the first English book of type specimens.

1757
John Baskerville
​English​

  • Created Transitional Type; it is a Roman style type with very sharp serifs and a great deal of contrast between thick and thin lines.

1780
​Didot, French & Bondoni, Italian

  • ​Created the first ‘modern’ Roman typefaces: The contrast is more extreme than before creating a cool, fresh look.

1815
​Vincent Figgins
British​

  • Created Egyptian, or Slab Serif – the first time a typeface had serifs that were squares or boxes.
  • 2nd Industrial Revolution - advertising created a need for new type.

1816 - William Caslon IV, English

  • Designer of the first Sans Serif typeface: type without any serifs at all. 
  • It was widely rebuked at the time. 
  • During this time, type exploded, and many, many variations were being created to accommodate advertising.

1920s
Paul Renner, German

  • Created Futura, geometric sans.
  • Avoided any non-essential elements, making use of basic geometric proportions with no serifs or frills.
  • Futura's crisp, clean forms reflect the appearance of efficiency and forwardness even today.

1920s
Eric Gill, English

  • Created Gill Sans, Humanist Sans.
  • Based off of geometric sans but with gentler, more natural curves.

1920s
​Frederic Goudy
​American

  • The world’s first full time type designer, developing numerous groundbreaking typefaces, such as Copperplate Gothic, Kennerly, and Goudy Old Style.

1957
​Max Miedinger
​Swiss

  • Created Helvetica, the most well-known typeface of our time.
  • This was a return to minimalism, and many other simplistic typefaces such as Futura surfaced around this time period.
  • Filmmaker Gary Hustwit explores the proliferation of the typeface and how it affects our lives in his movie entitled Helvetica; see the trailer on YouTube.

Present Day

Enter the computer age where the possibilities are endless!

Pixel

  • Started with pixel type due to the primitive monitors
  • Quickly evolved ---->

Adobe

  • Invents Postscript in 1985
  • Uses mathematical calculations to describe type rather than pixels.
  • Apple create a PostScript controller for the Apple LaserWriter. This printer was similar to the HP LaserJet but the PostScript controller would allow it to output ‘typesetter quality’ pages.

Apple & Microsoft

  • Jointly develop Truetype in 1989
  • Not as clean and reliable as postscript but allowed for font design to explode!

Adobe & Microsoft

  • OpenType font file developed jointly by Adobe and Microsoft in the late 1990's.
  • Cross-platform compatible and supports widely expanded character sets and layout features.
25 mind-blowing typography art projects | 99 Designs
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