Type is a modernist obsession. Type is what language looks like, it makes the spoken word visible. Typography is the craft of endowing human language with a durable visible language.
One thing we learnt is that nobody can agree when language began, as it has no physical
existence, but we believe it began in Mesopotamia 3200 BCE (Persian Gulf to Mediterranean) which was the melting point of civilisation. All that is necessary for any language to exist is an agreement amongst a group of people that one thing stands for another an example of this would be a hand gesture etc.
The formation of civilisation allowed people to come together to make agreements of meaning that create language to form. Visual forms of this language were required by this society and alphabets began to form in a structure of vowels and consonants relating to phonetics. The first full alphabet was Greek (adapted from the phoenician) which finally went on to develop into what we know as the Latin alphabet now. The use and development of these alphabets is effected by where people settled and trade etc
- William Foster (1870) influenced the need for type, brought forward the elementary education act in 1870. All children aged 5-12 were taught to read and write. As such the audience and demand for written material shot up
- Walter Groupius (1919) a German Architect and founder of the Bauhaus. The Bauhaus (1919-1933) was the birth place of all modern arts.
- Max Miedinger - designed Helvetica one of the most influential typefaces of all time. A fact I learnt about this was 25 years after the original release of Helvetica, Arial was designed. 25 years is the maximum protection of design. Helvetica was ripped off by Microsoft in 1982, which is one of the points Fred stresses... Microsoft is the enemy of type.
Helvetica vs. Arial - Steve Jobs (1990) Created the first Mac classic, providing advanced technology to the masses at a much more affordable price. Type was seen as an effective method of communication. For example, the font Gotham was adopted by the Barack Obama campaign which became its identity, to portray someone as dependable and strong
Gotham Font - Tim Berners- Lee (1994) invented the world wide web and gave it away for free
- Bill Gates (1995) invented Internet Explorer. In a way the internet has effected the way in which written language has developed. However, it created great limitations with design.
Quotes that came up in the lecture:
- "By making itself evident, typography can illuminate the construction and identity of a page, screen, place or product" - Thinking with type
- "Typography fostered the modern idea of individuality but destroyed the medieval sense of community and integration"- Neil Postman
- "There is no single approach within typography that applies to everything" - Shelley Grundler
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