Type
This was our first lecture on type and the differences between a Font and a Typeface.
- A Typeface is the design of the alphabet: the shape and design of letters and numbers.
- Font is the digital file that actually contains the typeface.
The New Typography (1928)
The New Typography written by Jan Tschichold is a manifesto on how to create type. It started as a movement that brought font to the forefront of the new Avant Gard Moment that was sweeping the time. It was a very modernist approach to thinking about the page and how it implements type and image. Gothic fonts were prevalent at the time and this book really pushed boundaries of it's time. The book is also heavily Bauhaus inspired; it's a new, revolutionary way of looking at typography through codes and rules. This book was also widely available at the time, which eventually worked its way into commercial design, which some would say is the reason we readily use this design of typography today.
The main themes that ran throughout the book are;
- Balance of elements
- Lower Case replacing Upper Case
- Utilisation of White Space on the page
- The method of removing the serif
- Layout is very important
Herbert Bayer - Universal
Herbert Bayer is an Austrian Born Graphic Designer who was the last living member of the Bauhaus. His work 'Universal' was a creation of a simplisitic typeface that combined uppercase and lowercase lettering into a single character set; the idea was that it could be printed into magazines cheap and easily. The font was developed inventively, like an engineer; the lettering is geometrically perfect, with a uniform thickness, with perfect lines and circles. These were all things that the Bauhaus represented and once again, the simplistic nature of the text broke boundaries of it's time. Like everything in Germany at the time, the idea was snubbed in political issues; some saying that the drift from the Nazi Gothic Font was a message towards the system. A main quote that I picked up on was that the font found 'Beauty in Utility'.
Typo-photo
In the lecture we also looked at typo-photos. I particularly like this style of working; I tend to experiment readily with typo-photos as they are often used in many favourable advertising campaigns. It is practically a montage of type and text; in my opinion the best ways to communicate a message.
Theo H.Ballmer (1928)
This example of Typo-Photo combine Bold Letter forms with and minimalist text that lends itself really well to the Bauhaus Movement. The large, bold text, that smothers the page, resembles sturdy building blocks, almost representative of the minimalist architectural designs that were coming out of the Bauhaus.
Walter Dexel (1928)
Designers were now creating more influential text and readily using a Typo-Photographical expression within their work. Here, Dexel ironically uses the idea of a photo within his work, using negative imagery and the actual text as a photo. The reversed lettering almost represents the idea of printing letters and the utility and simplicity is ironically a product of contradiction; printing font and more specifically Lino Cut, is not simple or easy to create.
Joseph Muller Brockman
Brockman really summed up the Swiss Style, using pictorial imagery. The circle is a very textured shape and image-like; asymmetrical block of text is placed to the left which is very contextual to the whole piece. The piece all together is very musical, expressing light and movement through the different lines and shapes within it's composition. Brockman's work is very familiar to me and I love the way in which layout plays a big part within his work and how he can experiment with negative space in a way that most designers won't challenge.
His 1954 piece is very interesting to me; the way in which the imposing hand takes over the image creates an objection to the text that is also being displayed - it is almost ignorantly taking over the image and not allowing for the way in which we read the text. This method of strictly guiding the reader through a text can be seen in Kinetic Type too. We also looked into Helvetica text within this lecture.
We then went on to study about Kinetic Type and how this particular way of designing a typeface and a font can almost force the viewer into experiencing this differently to static type for example. This type is often seen in Tv Adverts and blogs. This type is also more readily available now due to an increase in electrical advertising, the internet and social media. Here is an interesting video that describes the pure effect and outcome of Kinetic Type:
FROM PAPER TO SCREEN from Thibault de Fournas on Vimeo.
Saul Bass
We also looked at the work of Saul Bass who is a very famous designer of title sequences, film posters and logos. There is a large coherence with his work on how the context and appearance blend into one and how he creates this cinematic ambience before the film has even begun; his short title sequences give a general theme of what the film will be about. He has created work for Stanley Kubrick and Alfred Hitchcock. It was his work on 'A man with the Golden Arm' that signified him as design excellence; the film, which is about an addicted musician, has a title sequence that focuses on the arm as being a metaphor for the controversial and challenging issues confronted in the movie. His work is described as creating an 'Emotional Resonance' with the audience. Other than his work being very inspirational and groundbreaking, I believe that his aesthetic is also very effective; the use of shapes and layout in his work is very influencial to me.
