Dissertation Proposal Part 2

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 techniques used to produce and print type has changed so much over the years. In the early days designers used to use pencils, rulers, French curves and paint brushes. This was considered an art form, type had a personal touch about it, and this made it worth something. The revolution in printing text was bulk printing with big, monstrous printing machines. Letterpress printing became the next big thing, text could be printed in mass production and was much quicker to produce than by hand, this was a much more efficient way of printing.

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 out and planned, basically what is type and what should it do. So much planning has to go into the layout of a font. How straight must a line be? How big a curve is? Time has to be taken when spacing an individual letter.

“In bad lettering, there is a lack of relationship between letters that comes when shapes oppose on another rather than lying in unison, when a few letters disturb the rhythm of the group, rather than acting as accord as blades of grass lean together in response to a gust of wind”. (Haley, A).

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 where the public would be able to downloads magazines and newspapers. Even with the growth in 3D technology, could this be taken further and we see 3D type used for advertising? This is now the new and in thing at the moment. 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.

The Internet has also changed the world of type. Now we can upload our own designs on free font websites such as DaFont, BeauFonts, What the font etc, all for anyone to download and use. And with programs like Illustrator, Fontographer, anyone can easily design and produce their own fonts. It is of little surprise therefore that we may soon even see the creation of apps for creating fonts. One such app is FontStruct by FontShop.

There is now even a radio show where typographers and designers are invited to discuss their techniques of using type, as well as what projects they are currently working on at that moment. They also discuss other designer’s work. This show goes into detail of how the world looks and uses type. It is suiting that this show is called Type Radio, and the pod casts are available on iTunes or on the actual website, TypeRadio.org. Designers that have appeared on this show are Stephan Sagmeister, Veroninika Burian to name but two.

“Type is speech on paper, Typeradio is speech on type. Typeradio, the radio channel on type and design.” (ITunes pod cast description).

The fact that we can now design and talk about type on the net and radio just shows that the days of printing could nearly be over. Printing is becoming more expensive to do. A good example of this is the closure of the publishing company DC Thomson’s & Co. This is only their warehouse that has closed due to the high cost of owning printing equipment, having to repair them and to keep the machines running 24 hours a day. Now they print through another company outside Dundee.

It is also because of the Internet that more and more people are finding out news and information online. This is cheaper. This also shows that printing is becoming irrelevant. There has always been more readers than content makers, but the more people there are the more printers have to produce which costs more, meaning that new, updated techniques of printing are more in demand, such as a digital process.

“Type started out as chunks of metal and wood. Today, it’s anybody’s guess as to whether the computer font we design actually exists at all”. (Cabarga, L).

Already we are seeing touch screen technology being produced such as the iPad, it should not be long now until the availability of touch screen computers in our homes. In cities like Manchester and London, the public can use touch screen on bus stops to find out the schedules etc. and because of this it shouldn’t be too long before this is easily accessible for everyone to use.

Aims

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. 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 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 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 companies and ask a general discussion on how they used to print, compared to how they print today. To carry out experiments comparing various techniques. This will involve painting letters from hand, carving letters from wood and printing them on papers and finally creating a font digitally.

Key Words

Typography, fonts, technology, software, advertising, printing, typographer, publishing.

Bibliography

Aymer, G., 2009. Is This the Golden Age of Typography? Discuss…. Computer Arts, 168, pp. 58-61.

An article that debates the ongoing battle between digital and printed typography, through its history, to the present and where type could eventually be heading. Throughout this article are the opinions expressed by various designers.

Baines, P, and Haslam, A., 2002. Type and Typography, London, Laurence King Publishing Ltd.

Type and Typography looks into the fundamentals of typography, such as structure, layout and meaning behind the design of a font. This also looks into the history of type as well as the process used to produce type.

Barnbrook, J., 2007. Barnbrook Bible: The Graphic Design of Jonathan Barnbrook, United Kingdom, Room for Living Publishing.

A collection of work throughout Barnbrook’s career. This book contains various fonts created by the designer as well as exhibition, and promotional pieces.

Bellantoni, J., 1999. Type in Motion: Innovations in Digital Graphics, London, Thames and Hudson.

Unlike any of the other books I have looked at this one includes various projects in print, digital and interactive design. It looks into how we look and interact with not just words but design in the modern age.

Brody, N.,1988. The Graphic Language of Neville Brody, London, Thames and Hudson.

Neville Brody provides and detailed account to his period in the area of graphic design. This also acts a history of design as well as being an influential piece fro designers today.

Cabarga, L., 2004. Logo Font & Lettering Bible, Cincinnati, HOW Design Books.

Here the author, a designer reminiscing the old fashioned days of creating and producing type. This looks into old techniques of creating and printing fonts as well as today’s more updated digital techniques. This book also looks at various style of type used in logo design.

Carson, P., 1999. Back to the Old School, Creative Review, 19(5), pp. 41-4.

The author of this article discusses the decline in the traditional printing forms of typography such as the letterpress and the rise of computer technology. This goes on to compare the different techniques and how each feels and are experienced.

Drate, S., 1999. Extreme Fonts: Digital faces of the Future, New York, N.Y., Madison Square Press.

Here is a collection of various type designer’s work, each designer goes into detail of how they came up with the design as well as the process they went through in their designs.

Fawcett-Tang, R, and Jury, D., 2007. New Typography Design, London, Laurence King Publishing Ltd.

This is not a book of the history or opinions on type, but is a visual guide of the best work in modern typography throughout the world. This looks into how it is applied as well as trends of the current time.

Gale,N., 2002. Type 1: Digital Typeface Design, London, Laurence King Publishing Ltd.

A book that looks solely into the area of digital typefaces, from applications on computer software to type on the internet, although a bit dated is still relevant into how digital fonts are still important on the computer now just as much as they were first applied to this.

Gill, B., 2009. Words into Pictures, Images Publishing Group.

Bob Gill’s book is about the relationship of words and pictures in how we communicate. He notes down his own thoughts of how words and pictures can be combined together to make strong and powerful statements.

Harvey, M., 2009. Janet the Typeface: From Metal to Digital, Matrix, 28, pp. i-iv.

This article is describing the origins of the Janet font, of how creator designed it, and how years later, his son, with collaboration with Andras Benedik, took this font and made it a digital typeface.

Helvetica., 2007. [DVD] United States: Gary Hustwit.

This video includes various interviews from typographers around the world on the font Helvetica. It includes the history of the font as well as the impact it has had within the design world.

Jury, D., 2006. What is Typography?, Switzerland, RotoVision SA.

Unlike the other books chosen this book includes chapters on what typography is, how it type used to be printed and how it is printed today. It also looks into how type is applied within our culture. This also includes the facts on how to work with type as a designer.

Kinross, R., 1992. The Digital Wave, Eye, 2(7), pp. 26-39.

A review of the way in which digital technology changed the way in which typographer’s design and work with type type. This delves into how much of a revolution the digital era was.

McLean, R., 1980. The Thames and Hudson Manual of Typography, London. Thames and Hudson Ltd.

This looks into the history of typography, looking at past typographers who created groundbreaking fonts, as well as looking into how font works and is created.

Pearson, D., 2010. Special Collections in a Digital Future. Art Liberties, 35(1), pp.12-17.

This is an abstract from a paper at the 2009 ARLIS Conference ‘Tradition and Transformation: Roles in a Changing World”. This looks into the library content and how books could be recorded electronically rather than being printed.

Sagmeister, S. 2008. Things I have Learnt in my Life so Far, Abrams Books.

This is a self-publication of a list of experiences Sagmeister has learnt throughout his life. All the experiences are presented in a number of brochures that he has created using 3D typography, promotional work.

Sassoon, R., 2002. Computers and Typography 2, Bristol, Intellect Books.

This includes a number of essays from designers on the area of typography design on the computer. Each article gives opinions on the use of typography on computers.

Spencer, H., 1969. Pioneers of Modern Typography, London, Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd.

An older book that I still found useful. The author researches the typographers who all left their mark in the typographic world. This looks into how they designers fonts and how they were applied.

Staples, L., 2000. Typography and the Screen: A Technical Chronology of Digital Typography, 1984-1997, Design Issues, 16(3), pp. 19-34.

The author in this article is looking at the technical developments that happened for digital technology and typography during the 1980’s and 90’s. This looks into the impact it had as well as the changes that came with it.

Type Radio, 2011. Jo De Baerdemaeker (January 2011) Part 1 of 2. [podcast] January 2011. Available at:<http://www.typeradio.org/loudblog/index.php?page=0> [Accessed 4 March 2011].

Typeradio.org is a website that allows a user to download and listen podcasts of interviews with various typographers and designers. This particular podcast features the Belgian type designer Jo De Baerdemaeker, where he discusses upcoming designs he is working on as well as expressing his views and passion for type.

Warde, B., 1956. The Crystal Goblet or Printing Should be Invisible. [Online]. Available at <http://gmunch.home.pipeline.com/typo-L/misc/ward.html> [Accessed at 27 February 2011].

This article looks explores the authors views on typography, how type should be something that is carefully planned, and enjoyed. The experience of type is experimented with a goblet of wine, comparing amateurs to professionals.

Willen, B., 1981. Lettering &Type: Creating Letters and Designing Typefaces. New York, Princeton Architectural Press.

Lettering and Type shows examples of various forms of lettering applications on various designs, it also gives examples of how to apply text in a creative process.