A HISTORY OF TYPE

1. TYPOGRAPHY 

= 

meta-communcation

paralinguistics

kinesics

2. TYPE CLASSIFICATIONS

Humanist/Old Style/Traditional/Modern/Slab Serif or Egyptian/Sans Serif

3. LATE AGE OF PRINT

- Gutenberg's printing press 1450

- term comes from Marshall McLuhan 

- movable type

...would eventually bring the Renaissance

- TRAJAN'S COLUMN 113AD (uppercase)

- GUTENBERG GOTHIC SCRIPT 1450 (lowercase)

4. HUMANIST TYPEFACE

- NICOLAS JENSON, circa 1475

- easier to read, more modern for this time

- characteristics = very little difference between main and secondary stroke, slanted 'e'

- painter and designer Geofroy Tory believed proportions of alphabet should reflect the ideal human form

- MITCHELL KENNERLY 1911, modernist humanist type

- SCNNEIDLER, 1936

- JAEGER, 1985

5. OLD STYLE FONTS, 1500s

- first italic font invented

- GARAMOND, different spacing, 'e' not upturned

- type becomes an art

- NEW OLD STYLE = Palatino, Perpetua, Goudy Old Style = first Roman fonts

- Renaissance style, sophistication

- Venice

6. LOUIS SIMONNEAU

- commissioned by Louis XIV in 1693, ideal letter form, created along quasi-scientific lines

- based on modern ideas of the enlightenment period

- transitional fonts

- Roman du Roi

= 18th century

- WILLAM CASLON

- crisp, upright characters that recall fluid strokes of ink pen

- 1776 declaration for USA

- late 18th century, BASKERVILLE, contrast between thick and thin elements, accused of making strokes too fine

7. MODERN/DIDONE 1784

- BODONI

- high contrast, abrupt serifs, vertical axis, horizontal stress

- signifies class, elegance, high end glamour and chic

8. SLAB/EGYPTIAN 1800s

- designed to command attention

- rules of hierarchy broken

- confusing but noticeable

- FAT FACE FONTS = bodoni on steroids

- TYPEWRITER

9. SANS SERIF 1896

- BERTHOLD TYPE FOUNDRY, GROTESK, simple, stripped down, function over form, everything else is secondary

- popularised, font of the modernists

- JAN TSCHICHOLD 

- order and rationality

- BAYER, 1925 = unicameral, all lower case

- GILL SANA 1926 = penguin books, public info signs

10. REPRESSIVES

- STANLEY MORISON, TIMES NEW ROMAN 1932

- BAUER 1850, used by THIRD REICH until 1941, BLACKLETTER

- COOPER BLACK 1921

- HELVETICS 1957