Working Title
How has the use of digital technology changed the way in which designers use type and how this may progress further?
Summary
Typography from the days of the very first print by Guttenberg has, and is still continuing to change in the present day. How we have displayed and applied words in our culture define who we are. Typographers such as Eric Gill, Edward Johnston (Who designed the type and map for the London Underground network), have all played their part in changing the way we look and use type, the font Helvetica was a revolution within the design world and is still today such a powerful font.
“If we were to consider the normal, everyday activities that consume our lives, it would quickly become apparent that typography is ubiquitous and inescapable”. (Jury, D).
The way in which designers work with text has changed dramatically. From the old technique of using the letterpress to the computer, the way in which we use type today. There is so much to learn about typography, from the font size, leading, serifs and sans serifs even the typeface we use, each and every process in type has to be carefully thought of and planned, basically what is type and should it do. In the mid 1980’s the age of digital typography grew and grew. Digital fonts are easier to work with and easily adjusted and manipulated in any way we want. Even today type is changing, the way in which we apply it may already be dying. Books may one day be replaced by the invention of the eBook, no longer may it be printed but simply downloaded, and this could be taken further and applied to downloading magazines. Even with the growth in 3d technology, could this be taken further and we see 3d type used for advertising? Typography is a learnt expertise, even though it is easily accessible for anyone to go online and create their very own fonts, it is still today a specialized subject.
Aims: Why are you doing this?
My aim for this is to gain a greater knowledge and understanding of what typography is. I want to know more about the history of type, were their ways of using it before Guttenberg? How old do we really think it is? I believe that knowing more about it will help me in my future career. I enjoy typography and hope to leave university to make this my main area of expertise. To do a dissertation on a subject I feel I can produce a strong piece of work and would enjoy researching.
Objectives: What will you produce?
What I hope to finally produce for my dissertation is a brief history of typography, a review of how designers adapted to the use of digital technology, a discussion on where students and professional designers think typography will develop further. An analysis of past and current typographers work, and their opinions of the use of typography. A study of how we apply type to everyday life. A review of the technology now available for purchase and how these can further develop type beyond what we already know. I aim to contact printing company and ask a series of questions on how they used to print compared to how they print today. To carry out an experiment comparing both techniques. How easy is it to make a font in the letterpress compared to creating a font online?
Keywords
Fonts, technology, software, advertising, printing, typographer.
Bibliography
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