AH246 Week 2: Evolution of Letters, Typography, & The Industrial Revolution

Today we talked about evolution of letters in type and the Industrial Revolution. The most intriguing part was the typography, the way letterforms changed slightly through the times from Old Style to Transitional to Modern, etc. Not only did the typographers take from history, but also do graphic designers, while using the current technologies to make things work. For example, lead is good for small type and wood is good for the bigger sized type and was used during the crazy poster time with just so many different typefaces.

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Storytelling was probably the first most important thing before picture writing and cuneiform. Pictographs were turned to form cuneiform.

phonetics -> greeks -> roman letters

~800AD was when the Celtic art style with decorative elements was made.

Coronation Gospels 800AD

Alcuin of York

Xylography, woodcarving. playing cards.

Velum and paper

Letters of indulgence 

Education was fundamentally altered because of printing. BECAUSE OF REDILY AVAILABLE BOOKS.

Aesop. Frame lost in images.

Fall of Rome 476AD

1465

1467

Sevyheym and Pannartz - Evolution to Roman letters.built off of Caroline minuscules. First example of a tipend(added material and labor to printing)

1640; Steven Daye brought printing to the Colonies in 1639.

IN WHAT WAYS ARE STEVEN DAYE AND GUTENBERG ALIKE?

1695: Engraving of letterforms. Square divided into measurement system for all letters. More precision, less hand-like.

Romain du Roi printing.... no one was allowed to use this King's typeface. 

Rococo design...1730s. Fancy French art, floral and intricate like the Manuel of Typography by Pierre Simon Fournier le Jeune.

Copperplate engraving become books and influences letterform designers. Metal type.

BODONI. Giambattista Bodoni, 1771: return to the classical forms. Neoclassical style. MODERN TYPEFACES. Bodoni gets rid of brackets and makes display faces of Fatface. Didot is similar typeface. 

Industrial Revolution --- the need to grab attention with boldfaces and fatfaces. Brands start appearing.

Wood comes back... the router copies and makes printing easier.

Manufacture and Industrial means. Machine power. The factor system and division of labor. Rise of middle class. Growing literacy and the rise of a revolution. 

It cools unevenly.

Egyptian. 1815 Vincent Figgins. Egyptian faces don't look egyptian. Uneven weight. Not a lot of contrast. Slab serif.

Wheat-pasting. Composed posters, not designed, more practical. Lead is good for small type and wood is good for the bigger sized type.

Poster houses decline 

Lithography

The 5 Historical Font Families

Old Style... Garamond

Transitional... Baskerville

Modern.... Bodoni face, no brackets

Egyptian... even weight, *slab serifs, Century

Sans Serif... no serif

//Beyond that... display, black letter, hand, script, dingbats.

Point size is measured from highest to lowest part of letter. Cap height to descender line. x-height changes font size.

Leading is measured 20% above the face size...

12 points = 1 pica

6 pica = 1 inch

72 points = 1 inch