Typography is two-dimensional architecture, based on experience and imagination, and guided by rules and readability.
Hermann Zapf
I feel frustrated this week considering the vast range of topics that can be looked at in detail regarding typography such as the terminology, the anatomy, the history and so on, and the lack of time to be able to do so! Typography is something I’ve always enjoyed visually, but have been weary of doing myself as all to often I feel type is an assumed given for most designers and that everyone can do it. But as Craig Ward says;
Bad typography is easily noticed and seems to be everywhere, but good typography isn’t – however, is that because the typography is doing a good job, so much it becomes invisible, the message is portrayed without the consumer knowing which element has done so?
As Williams states in New Perspectives, typography is arguably the backbone of graphic design, but has to fight its corner regularly. It would seem typography is often underestimated, despite being a multi model competent of design, of which when integrated with other elements such as colour, texture, 3D or movement, can portray a range of clear and strong visual communication techniques and messages for all types of design. (Williams, S. 2015). It could be argued the reason type is neglected is because, well, no one wants to read, humans are naturally lazy. But, it’s very hard not to read carefully considered, inventive type. (Stillwell, L. 2016). Even when you are scrolling through Netflix, typography can make a difference to your decisions…
A BRIEF HISTORY OF TYPOGRAPHY
And as if typography on its own wasn’t appreciated enough, along comes the history. From around 43BC we have seen typography develop through a range of visually beautiful formats including the invention of printing in around 1450, throughout all this the way humans read has not fundamentally changed (Baines, P. and Haslam, A. 2005). The art of typography is a skill in itself, but so are the traditional techniques. Briefly, from Johannes Gutenberg being the inventor of movable type (arguable as Kris states in the lecture, but for the sake of the Latin and Western side of the argument lets leave it at that), through to the invention of linotype which allowed more than single letters to be rearranged, more sentence structure to produce a slug line. Then phototypesetting which allowed designers to own one style of type, that using light would allow them to change the size of the type via projection. All of which lead to where we are today in terms of printing and typography, but what does the future hold?
Printing Press Machine 
Linotype Machine 
Phototypesetting Machine
With a world that is becoming vastly digitalised, could the art of traditional typography be at risk in terms of techniques? Blokland goes on to discuss that the current stage of typographic development is considering the possibilities and limitations of the production technique, with less importance in regards to the expectations and behaviour of the reader. There are current developments where printed and electronic texts are becoming alike, therefore the changes are minor. (Blokland, P. 2016) He then further Blokland suggests, ‘people are reading more than ever, there is a need for typographic design that provides the best possible support for the practice of reading—regardless of the medium, the application, or the page size.’ (Blokland, P. 2016).
Furthermore, Baines states that what matters the most is that the text is readable and attractive to its intended audience (Baines, P. and Haslam, A. 2005). Therefore does it matter what format the type is presented or created in? I think so, focusing back on my discovery of the beauty of craft over the last few weeks, I believe a considered, hand crafted type has much more personality, consideration and connection to the designer.
Personally I disagree with some of Blokland’s statement, as much as the development of possibilities and limitations with typographic production are of importance and exciting, the reader / consumer is one of, if not the most important, aspect for producing typographic responses, as designers we need to ensure whatever medium the typography is portrayed on, it still clearly portrays a message.
All to often when I teach my own students typography they assume all typography is characterised, flowing, curved, ‘pretty’ type with personality, but often forget about body copy and other similar formats of which the purpose is purely formative (and admittedly, so do I sometimes). A good example of this is Kindle, originally they had a range of typefaces for the reader to chose from, but of which none where considered for readability of large amounts of text, and the typesetting was often described as hideous. (Brownlee, J. 2015).
After a few years Kindle collaborated with Dalton Maag to solve this problem, or yet, create a more logical solution. Dalton Maag created ‘Bookerly’, a font who looks to have taken inspiration from Baskerville with a modern twist. In addition to this new font, Kindle needed to solve their typesetting through a new system that used drop caps, sorted kerning and justification overall. Arguably a pretty simple task of allowing the consumer to read a book, as Eirk Spiekermann says, ‘the Bookerly typeface is lovely and appropriate but nothing new for book designers. The layout also looks like a proper book page…In other words, a page on a Kindle has finally almost achieved the look we’ve had in books for 500 years. But it still runs out of batteries, cannot be read in bright light and won’t survive a fall.’
TRADITIONAL TYPOGRAPHY TECHNIQUES
It would seem that there are still some gaps between digital and traditional typography, whether it be readability, conveying a message or creation. In turn counteracting Blokland’s statements of printing and electronic texts becoming alike, although I see some instances where this is true, e.g. editorial pieces both in print and online or creating traditional effects digitally. But it would seem there is still a very strong presence of traditional and hand printed techniques to produce beautifully typography, of which, I don’t believe will be replaced completely by digital any time soon.
Letter Press style designs seem to be very in trend still, especially for invites. No longer are these digitally mocked up either, it seems people are going back to the traditional technique in terms of printing, even if the design is created digitally before being made into a plate. 
It seems to be an ongoing trend for business cards too.
Companies such as Counter Press, based in London focus their practice purely around the letter press technique and have a portfolio full of exciting, visually pleasing results. One example below is for ‘Raw Wine‘, which they created the body of type with wood letters on their letter press. The logo was created using a traditional stencil that was traditionally used regularly within wine production. The brand of Raw Wine focuses on making their wine the lowest intervention possible, in both the growing and production. Traditional methods for a new audience. Therefore, it makes sense to bring the traditional methods through to the design elements too. Each of the cities have a different typeface created via the letterpress to suit the characteristics of said city. Combined with the rustic craft paper, the typography speaks volumes of a rustic and traditional company, with a trustworthy element thrown in due to the bold, friendly typefaces used.
Another example of Counter Press’ work is Beatbox and Sun. ‘Beatboxing, a song lyric of choice and a non-profit organisation who support people with stutters was the brief for this print.’ This is a great example of how typography can enhance a message, the different widths, heights, weights and different baselines of the letters enhance the stutters, but in a beautiful way. Again, knowing this is hand rendered technique, that has took time and care, makes the response more relatable and personal, which is ideal in terms of the supporting cause.
SCIENTIFIC TYPOGRAPHY
Throughout my research for this weeks task I have noticed regularly ‘scientific’ coming up when discussing typography. Is typography scientific? I found out this has open yet another giant can of worms that could be looked into till the end of time. It often comes back down to psychology within design or how our brains work, that huge umbrella that sits under the even bigger umbrella of Graphic Design itself.
Typography is used to convey a message whether that be to persuade, inform or make aware. However, did you know type can alter your smell? No, me either. Sarah Hyndman conducted a range of research into typography and the effects it has, and argued that written language is not just seen, it is also heard, felt, tasted and sniffed.
She states that due to reading being a skill developed at an early age, typography ‘creates the illusion it is a simple, effortless and automatic activity… The task is performed by our non-conscious brain, which gathers a great deal of information from the type, independently of what the words are spelling out. Type takes a short cut direct to the non-conscious brain.’ So, maybe typography is even more powerful than I ever thought? Hyndman’s discovery of type altering your smell was based around the same perfume, but portrayed via a feminine font and a masculine font, of which subconsciously tapped into our brains without us knowing, changing the smell. Proving typography can enhance experiences. (Hyndman, S. 2017).
Keeping in line with the senses, typography is good for your eyes, if done effectively. Kevin Larson, the psychologist of the Advanced Reading Technologies team at Microsoft along with his team set out to improve fatigue by designing fonts easier to read and exploring ways to improve reader’s experience. He states ‘on the one hand typographers believe that we recognise words from their word shape or outline, while Reading Psychologists on the other hand argue that we first recognise letters and then use the letters to build up word recognition. However, recently the two sides have started to bridge their gap, since the scientific point of view on how to look at type has been proved.’ (Yiannakopoulou, K. n.d.).
Larson discusses a few interesting points:
– Research showed that this muscle becomes more active and the blinking rate decreases, when you read text that is too light or too small, 12 pt.
– A nicely designed article can hold the reader’s attention and help him to understand its content much better than a non or a badly designed article.
– They have figured out how to design text easier to read by colour blind people, who are less sensitive to red and green pixels, so the design is built by increasing the contrast between those two and that makes the letters sharper
Further information of the studies: https://affect.media.mit.edu/pdfs/05.larson-picard.pdf
Despite this being based around type of screen findings, it’s very interesting. Of course, I had no clue about the in depth science of reading type or that there’s such a thing as reading psychologists (briefly touched on the science of reading in uni) – is this something that needs to be developed into a new teaching curriculum to allow us to produce effective and efficient typography, both in print and on screen? As Anna Leyva states ‘Typography does encompass fonts, but it’s so much more than that.’ (Leyva, A. 2017).
CREATING TYPOGRAPHY
It’s already known that typography doesn’t change the actual meaning of a word, but your perception of the word through carefully considered and constructed typographical responses that create characteristics. As mentioned above, typography is an artwork that links with many avenues and should be used wisely to create character; character of the letterforms, the word and typeface message overall.
Mia Cinelli discusses in her TED talk how difficult it is to create typeface, one of which I agree with, like Mia, I have tried (very briefly) creating my own typefaces via tracing it digitally – it doesn’t work, but she goes on to explain her process and makes a good point of once you have an ‘a’ it can be implemented into other letter forms such as ‘o, g, p, q, d, b’, by borrowing each others forms. She discusses why type is so important, simply because it is everywhere and she refers to how type portrays a message as ‘visual inflection’ and concludes, type should never be an afterthought as it can persuade, evoke and help us make choices consciously or unconsciously. As mentioned at the start of this blog post, too often people ‘create’ typography, that isn’t considered which in turn lacks clarity and does not result in the desired effects set out to achieve.
Sawdust (http://www.madebysawdust.co.uk/)
Based in London, Sawdust have worked with a range of clients developing exciting and inventive typography, of which some examples are below. Looking through their portfolio proved difficult to pinpoint the most effective type pieces, all were so different and created curiosity. With a range of typography produced from old archives, for festivals, celebrations and much more, each outcome has a completely different and unique response, all of which portray character and intended messages subtly. A good example of clear characterisation of type is the typeface made for LeBron James, to suit him and his personality, through the use of heavy letters and a bold presence on any page.
One piece that stood out was the typographical result for Art Mosh, celebrating visual culture. Just because a typeface isn’t our known alphabet, does that mean it no longer has the title of a typeface? This is something that is often forgotten within typography, it takes us way back in history to a similarity of the hieroglyphics and their ‘typographical’ format at the time.
Old Archive Discovery – 8 years later it was created 
Transport for London, celebrating 100th anniversary of the Johnston Typeface. 
Barcelona’s Design Festival OFFF – portraying the community as a mysterious cult. 
Display typeface for NBA Basketball player LeBron James, used across his Nike Product range. 
Art Mosh Exhibition – Celebrating visual culture. 
Typographic illustration based on a quest to map the neural pathways of the brain.
Les Graphiquants (http://les-graphiquants.fr/)
Les Graphiquants are a design studio in Paris who has a lovely typography section on their website. With each typeface they show examples of it in use, most often these feature in fashion magazines, editorial, advertising. They have a wide range of typefaces of which differ massively in purpose, character, interpretation and overall make up. Often typefaces are named after a city, whether or not their aim is to portray this cities characteristics in not completely known, however it could be argued so. From the examples below, ‘Alsace’ stands out for me. The curvature of strokes creates a very elegant, almost flirtation look to the typeface, of a high end standard, but still somewhat grounded due to the weight. Any thinner I think the typeface would become obnoxious to some extent. Ideal for fashion, editorial and design that has a clear identity with a bit of sass.
PPRWRK Studio (http://pprwrkstudio.com/)
I wanted to include PPRWRK Studio due to their work such as the first example below, which seems to be very in trend at the moment, so much so, I’m starting to dislike it. The example below was for a Real Estate Conference in Las Vegas. Now, in terms of it’s location, yes the typography work well in portraying the message of Las Vegas, known for it’s bright, bold characteristics, however for a Real Estate conference I’m not too sure – I feel the typography should be more toned down, taking a more professional approach, as currently it looks like a night club event, which to me, isn’t successfully portraying the message.
PPRWRK Studio seem to produce a lot of work in this ‘hand lettering’ style when you look through their portfolio, which originally this style was lovely, but I feel it has been over done by many. As well as this, a lot more of their examples don’t portray a clear message, yes they look nice, but lack clarification of meaning. The other two images below are examples I found on their website that I felt worked typographically. The ‘Yes, we can!’ was custom lettering for a craft house, unsure of the background behind it my only judgements can be made from the hand lettering style portray a more casual and welcome message, something you want to associate with craft beer. The ‘good luck’ example is a lot more subtle, using the counter face to produce another letterform , I prefer this style over the others, it seems more considered and purposeful.
Worked closely with Inman to develop this event branding for the 2019 Real Estate conference in Las Vegas Nevada. 
Coaster Design for an Oregon based Pour House. 
Promotional sketchbook – The books were given away at the 2017 Adobe Max conference. 
Custom lettering intended to help raise money for Flatwater Foundation. 
Worked closely with the founder of Amplified IT to develop this custom lettered artwork to highlight the company values and goals. 
Custom lettered artwork of one of Scout Books brand values.
NOTES FROM LECTURE AND RESOURCES
Q the old habit of obsessively analysing any type I see in day to day life, as well as the ongoing frustration of adding to my list of ‘things to look into more because I can’t fit it all in during one week’ – the science and psychology behind typography is a must. Not sure when, but it is a must!
REFERENCES:
Chayasatit, A. (2015). 15 Type Foundries You Should All Know About. [online] People of Print. Available at: https://www.peopleofprint.com/pop/15-type-foundries-you-should-all-know-about/ [Accessed 1 Apr. 2019].
Baines, P. and Haslam, A. (2005). Type and typography. 2nd ed. London: Laurence King.
Blokland, P. (2016). The Future of Typography. [online] Design Observer. Available at: https://designobserver.com/feature/the-future-of-typography/39206 [Accessed 31 Mar. 2019].
Brownlee, J. (2015). The Kindle Finally Gets Typography That Doesn’t Suck. [online] Fast Company. Available at: https://www.fastcompany.com/3046678/the-kindle-finally-gets-typography-that-doesnt-suck [Accessed 1 Apr. 2019].
Hyndman, S. (2017). “Type alters what you smell” and other insights from Sarah Hyndman’s latest type-based research. [online] I’s Nice That. Available at: https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/sarah-hyndman-multisensory-typography-how-to-draw-type-and-influence-people-200417-1 [Accessed 1 Apr. 2019].
Leyva, A. (2017). The Art and Science Behind Typography (and How to Enhance your Message). [online] Linkedin.com. Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/art-science-behind-typography-how-enhance-your-message-anna-leyva/ [Accessed 1 Apr. 2019].
Stillwell, L. (2016). Typography and Why it is, Somewhat, Overlooked. [online] 07heavendesign.co.uk. Available at: https://www.07heavendesign.co.uk/insight/typography-and-why-it-is-somewhat-overlooked [Accessed 31 Mar. 2019].
Williams, S. (2015). New perspectives in typography. London: Laurence King.
Yiannakopoulou, K. (n.d.). Good typography is good for your eyes and science is here to prove it. [online] Typeroom.eu. Available at: http://www.typeroom.eu/article/good-typography-good-your-eyes-and-science-here-prove-it [Accessed 1 Apr. 2019].
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