IXD304 – week 2 – Reflection on “The History of Typography” by Ben Barrett- Forrest

Barrett-Forrests video began by explaining where typography came from, and why it it was created.  As the video progressed he took the audience through the progression of type, and how/ why different styles of type were created.

 

Blackletter

The creator of typography: German man named Johannas Gutenberg.  Before type was created, books needed to be scribed by hand which was extremely time consuming and expensive.  Gutenberg revolutionised communication in this way as this allowed for books to be more available to a wider variety of people.  It meant that the less wealthy could afford to learn how to read and write and communicate through written means.

 

He created Blackletter – the first typeface ever.  It was a very thick, dense typeface that was modelled after the writing of the scribes.  This made it great for scribing however due to the fact that it had very thick vertical lines and thin horizontal lines – there was not enough differentiation between the letters, and when printed it was squashed together and difficult to read.

 

 

Roman Type

Cambria is a well known roman typeface that you can find on most typing applications.  The first ever Roman typeface was created in the 15th century by Nicholas Jenson.  He worked in Italy and was inspired by the lettering he found on ancient roman buildings. The letter forms were based on straight lines and regular curves.  These factors are what caused the typeface to be so much more legible than Blackletter and therefore successful across Europe.

Italics

It was a slanted and stylised version of Roman type.  Italics were created by Aldis Minuchis and it was designed to allow more letters to fit on the page – therefore reducing costs

 

Serif typeface categories

Old Style

William Caslon was the creator of the old style style face.  Type was fairly stagnant until the 18th Century in England until Caslon created Old Style.  It set a new standard for legibility, the style of his typeface us now considered old style.  Old style consists of letters which have thick serifs and low contrast between thick and thin strokes.


 

Transitional

John Baskerville then created a new category of typeface called transitional.  A transitional typeface has thinner serif and a higher contrast between thick and thin strokes.

 

 

Modern

Even later, a French man named Didot & an Italian man named Bodoni created typeface classed as modern.  A modern typeface has letters with extremely thin serifs and then extreme contrast between thick and thin strokes.

Slab serif

Slab serif came from this experimentation during the second industrial revolution.  They became popular in the 19th century for advertising display. These typefaces have very heavy serifs. Generally, changes in stroke weight are imperceptible and they’re characterised by most as having bold, heavily cornered serifs.




 

Sans serif typefaces

William Caslons great grandson decided he would finally get rid of serifs and create the first sans serif typeface.  During the second industrial revolution, advertising caused for there to be a greater need for a wider variety of typefaces.  As a result of this sans serif became extremely popular as it was very versatile and easy to manipulate.

The geometric sans

Paul Renner during the early 20th century created a typeface made up of simple, geometric shapes: Futura.

The humanist sans

Around the same time a man named Eric Gill created another simple sans serif typeface that was similar to a geometric sans but with gentler, less harsh and more natural curves.

Helvetica

The next biggest step in sans serif typeface history is the creation of Helvetica. It’s arguably the worlds most used typeface and is extremely controversial amongst designers due to this.  It has varying weights and so Helvetica can take on many different forms in many different settings.  This is also because of the blandness, and lack of personality and decorative features to it; its versatility has caused it to skyrocket in popularity since its release in Switzerland.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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