Lecture 8 - A History Of Type - Notes

Original Key Notes

Revisited

BAN COMIC SANS

The 'VERY VERY' in red and bold makes us feel on edge and in danger. This goes against the whole idea of being calm and therefore is a ridiculous outcome for the message that is needed here.

Again, the typeface here looks like the 'GRAND THEFT AUTO' logo. For a massage parlour you'd expect some sort of light script not something block like this here which possibly suggests and is related to strength, violence and guns even.

Heavy metal bands in script. Another unlikely outcome.

Type Classifications

Humanist | Old Style | Transitional | Modern

Slab Serif (Egyptian) | Sans Serif

Just some background information i looked up on wikipedia to find out more about the printing press evolution...

A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. Typically used for texts, the invention and spread of the printing press are widely regarded as the In 1999, the A&E Network rankedGutenberg no. 1 on their "People of the Millennium" countdown. In 1997, Time–Life magazine picked Gutenberg's invention as the most important of the second millennium; the same did four prominent US journalists in their 1998 resume 1,000 Years, 1,000 People: Ranking The Men and Women Who Shaped The Millennium. The Johann Gutenberg entry of the Catholic Encyclopedia describes his invention as having made a practically unparalleled cultural impact in the Christian era.</ref> revolutionizing the way people conceive and describe the world they live in, and ushering in the period of modernity.^[1]

The printing press was first used in the Holy Roman Empire by the German Johannes Gutenberg around 1440, based on existing screw presses. Gutenberg, a goldsmith by profession, developed a complete printing system, which perfected the printing process through all of its stages by adapting existing technologies to the printing purposes, as well as making groundbreaking inventions of his own. His newly devised hand mouldmade for the first time possible the precise and rapid creation of metal movable type in large quantities, a key element in the profitability of the whole printing enterprise.

The mechanization of bookmaking led to the first mass production of books in history in assembly line-style.^[2] A single Renaissance printing press could produce 3,600 pages per workday,^[3] compared to forty by typographic hand-printing and a few by hand-copying.^[4] Books of bestselling authors like Luther or Erasmus were sold by the hundreds of thousands in their lifetime.^[5]

From a single point of origin, Mainz, Germany, printing spread within several decades to over 200 cities in a dozen European countries.^[6] By 1500, printing presses in operation throughout Western Europe had already produced more than twenty million volumes.^[6] In the 16th century, with presses spreading further afield, their output rose tenfold to an estimated 150 to 200 million copies.^[6] The operation of a press became so synonymous with the enterprise of printing that it lent its name to an entire new branch of media, the press.^[7] As early as 1620, the English statesman and philosopher Francis Bacon could write that typographical printing has "changed the whole face and state of things throughout the world".^[8]

From its beginnings, printing was practiced also as a true art form, setting a high aesthetic and artistic standard, such as in the famous 42-line Bible. Today, incunables, or books printed before 1501, are among the most prized possessions of modern libraries.

The unprecedented impact of Gutenberg-style printing on the long-term development of modern European and then world history is difficult to capture in its entirety. Attempts at analysing its manifold effects include the notion of a proper Printing Revolution and the creation of theGutenberg Galaxy. The ready availability and affordability of the printed word to the general public boosted the democratization of knowledge and laid the material basis for the modern knowledge-based economy.

In Renaissance Europe, the arrival of mechanical movable type printing introduced the era of mass communication which permanently altered the structure of society: The relatively unrestricted circulation of information and (revolutionary) ideas transcended borders, captured the masses in the Reformation and threatened the power of political and religious authorities; the sharp increase in literacy broke the monopoly of the literate elite on education and learning and bolstered the emerging middle class. Across Europe, the increasing cultural self-awareness of its peoples led to the rise of proto-nationalism, accelerated by the flowering of the European vernacular languages to the detriment of Latin's status as lingua franca.^[9]

In the 19th century, the replacement of the hand-operated Gutenberg-style press by steam-powered rotary presses allowed printing on anindustrial scale,^[10] while Western-style printing was adopted all over the world, becoming practically the sole medium for modern bulk printing.

SLAB SERIF - EGYPTIAN - USED ON BILLBOARDS AND POSTERS THROUGHOUT THE 1800's

TYPEWRITER SLAB SERIFS developed for the mechanism of a typewriter. Used for the I LOVE NY Logo and now changed into a digital typeface and obviously used outside of a typewriter.

SANS SERIF TYPEFACES

Known now as Helvetica

Helvetica, a big debate on wether the font is overused, boring and ugly. The other side being that the font is beautiful and timeless. It is often used for signage, way finding in airports and publications. It is clear and easy to read but also modern and beautiful. This is my personal view.

Microsoft could not afford to buy Helvetica so they made their own equivalent called Arial which could be used on all PC's. It is very similar but the image above shows the differences.

POSTMODERNIST TYPE

199 Rudy Vanderlans argues ‘there is a new generation of graphic designers who, before ever considering what their favourite typeface is, will design a new one'