Designed & edited by Allison Shiman Printed by blurb.com Copyright Š 2010 by Allison Shiman
Sons of Serif Publishing
a BRIEF
HISTORY of
TYPE
ALLISON SHIMAN
03
Contents HERB LUBALIN
06
JAN TSCHICHOLD
08
CARLOS SEGURA
10
ZUZANA LICKO
12
CLAUDE GARAMOND
14
Old Style
16
JOHN BASKERVILLE
18
Transitional
20
GIAMBATTISTA BODONI
22
Modern
24
26
DARIUS WELLS
28
Slab Serif
30
ERIC GILL
32
Humanist Sans Serif
34
MAX MIEDINGER
36
Transitional Sans Serif
38
PAUL RENNER
40
Geometric Sans Serif
42
Credits
43
Colophon
05
HERB LUB L N (1918–1981)
Avant Garde Gothic, Medium, 107 pt.
H
erb Lubalin was a designer whom did not limit himself to any one design specialization. Lubalin was able to move from postage stamps to advertising, to skyscraper signage without losing his ability to package design ideas visually and exquisitely. To his colleges, Lubalin was known as a quiet designer with a love of words, which he expressed with typographic impact. Lubalin graduated from Cooper Union in New York City and argues that he did nothing of great design importance for 13 years (until)when he won his first New York Art Directors Club Gold Medal as creative director of Sudler & Hennessey. At that point in time he was a partner in its design organization, SH&L. This award opened the floodgate for many other awards and prestigious honors. In 1964 he opened his own firm, which turned into one of the first international graphic collaborations with offices in London and Paris. Over the next 11 years Lubalin expanded his firm not only by adding offices around the world, but also by adding other designers – Ernie Smith, Tom Carnase, Roger Ferriter and Alan Peckolick.
06
While expanding his company, Lubalin also designed many bold layouts and typefaces for the editorial magazines Eros, Avant Garde, and U&Ic – the International Journal of Typographers. The combination of Lubalin’s audacious graphic treatments and the general subject matter of the magazines shook up the reading world. In all of his designs, Lubalin was able to break tradition, integrate his sense of humor, and still have respect for printing limitations. Lubalin’s theory was, “We read words, not characters, and pushing letters closer to tightening space between lines doesn’t destroy legibility; it merely changes reading habits”.1 Lubalin has been the subject and the author of many design articles in internationally known magazines and was considered one of Print magazine’s “Great Graphic Designers of the 20th Century”. As a creative talent, Lubalin managed to embody qualities that can’t be taught in design schools. He had a superlative sense of inventiveness and an eye for perfection. He knew the impact of words and how to keep an open mind to new ideas that would pop up at any time. –Martha Willis
A BRIEF HISTORY OF TYPE
HERB LUBALIN
07
TS
CH
(1902– 1974)
JAN I
CHOLD Sabon Small Caps, 42 pt.
J
an Tschichold was a typographer and graphic designer who helped create the principles of new typography in his books Die Neue Typographie (1928) and Typographische Gestaltung (1935). In his early work, Tschichold worked in a mostly abstract modernist style. He later helped revolutionize new typography by combining the use of sans serif type, flush text, and asymmetrical layouts. He created many ground-breaking typefaces such as Sabon in 1967. Jan Tschichold was born in Leipzig, Germany in 1902. His father was a script writer which introduced Tschichold to traditional forms of writing at an early age. Tschichold originally planned to be a drawing teacher and began teaching drawing seminars at the age of fourteen. He also practiced calligraphic writings that were influenced by old typefaces. Tschichold realized he wanted to become a typeface designer and began attending the Academy for Graphic Arts in Leipzig. At the age of 19, he was asked by his typography professor to teach an evening class in script writing.
08
Along with teaching, Tschichold began working as a freelance graphic artist and typographic designer. In 1924, Tschichold visited the Bauhaus exhibition in Weimar, which greatly influenced his typography style. He began using sans serif typefaces and simplified, symmetrical layouts. Tschichold wrote a piece entitled “Elementary Typography” for the magazine “Typographic News” in which he stated his views about new typography needing to abandon all of the old rules. His piece caused an uproar in the design community but many found it to be ground-breaking and adapted his style. In 1933 Tschichold fled to Switzerland in to escape the Nazi government. He began working for publishers in Basel and taught at the School for the Applied Arts. Tschichold was hired by Penguin Books in 1947 and worked at the publishing company until 1949. During his time at Penguin Books he worked to standardize the rules of composition and redesign entire series of paperback and hardback books for mass production. While at Penguin Books, Tschichold supervised and designed over five-hundred books. –Allison Shiman
A BRIEF HISTORY OF TYPE
2
The goal of typography is communication.
1
Communcation must appear in the shortest, simplest and most forceful form.
3
The basic typeface form is sans serif.
The new typography emphasizes function.
4
Organization is the design of strong opposites through the use of contrasting forms, degrees, and weights.
–Jan Tschichold, "Elementary Typography"
JAN TSCHICHOLD
Film poster for "The Woman Without A Name, Part II" by Jan Tschichold. 1927.
09
CAR L O S SEG U RA Various T-26 typefaces, 80 pt.
C
arlos Segura is the founder and CEO of T-26 Digital Type Foundry, a pioneer in contemporary type and typography. Segura was born in Cuba in 1957, at a young age he moved to Miami (in 1965) and finally settled in Chicago in 1980. Segura always had a passion for design and as a former drummer in a band he created a portfolio consisting of band promotions in order to get a job as a production artist. He then worked for various ad agencies including Marsteller, Foote Cone & Belding, Young & Rubicam, and DDB Needham until he began his first company, Segura Inc. in 1991. His goal was to put as much fine art into commercial art as possible. Three years later, Carlos and his partner, Scott Smith, went into business together and began T-26. T-26 explores the typographical side of business and Segura’s goal was to create a resource for those who were seeking ‘forward thinking font designs’. As Segura put it, “We are very conscientious of starting something truly different and wanted to offer new ways of thinking in the font industry, beyond aesthetics”. As stated on their website (www.t26.com), T-26 offers a wide variety of pre-designed type faces but they also design custom fonts that are engineered specifically to their clients’ needs.
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As stated on their website (www.t26.com), T-26 offers a wide variety of pre-designed type faces but they also design custom fonts that are engineered specifically to their clients’ needs. Some of T-26's clients include: Jack Daniel’s, Kahlua, The Wall Street Journal, Nissan, Prudential, and Pacific Bell Network. Segura believes that “innovation is the creation and introduction of something which is unlike anything before”. T-26 has developed itself into one of the leading independent sources for new and original fonts. The company is truly dedicated to integrating typography into graphic design, fine art, and the visual side of popular culture. Segura’s creativity and attention to typographical detail has resulted in the enormous success of T-26 Digital Type Foundry.. Segura truly has an eye and a passion for design and is able to find inspiration through the little things in everyday life; Carlos stated, “Not a day goes by where I don’t seem to notice things around me that I recognize are accidentally ignored or past by most people”. –Megan Koranda
A BRIEF HISTORY OF TYPE
Left: "Stick" by T-26. Above: Portrait of Carlos Segura. Right: Illustration by Carlos Segura.
CARLOS SEGURA
11
ZUZANA
LICKO Matrix Bold Small Caps,
Z
uzana Licko was born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia in 1961. She emigrated to the United States at the age of 7. She became interested in technology at a young age and by the age of 17 had learned how to program games. Licko attended undergraduate school at the University of California at Berkeley in 1981 to study architecture and first experimented with low-resolution type in an architectural drafting course. She eventually changed her major to visual studies and began experimenting with photographic printing processes such as making cibachrome color prints from color transparencies created on a Xerox machine. Licko disliked her calligraphy classes because of the attention to production rather than creativity, and because she was forced to write with her right hand even though she was left-handed.
68 pt. and Modula Serif,
Licko began studying with Aaron Marcus, a designer whose studio developed digital fonts. After graduating, Licko began developing her own typefaces. She designed her first digital font based off of the Greek alphabet that her father used to write scientific papers. In 1984, Licko and her husband Rudy VanderLans founded Emigre magazine. Emigre showcased Licko’s digital typefaces, some of which were the first typefaces ever to be generated by a Macintosh computer. The publication had a large influence on the graphic design community and the continued development of digital typefaces. –Allison Shiman
Right: The smoothing process of a character from a bitmap font (Emperor Fifteen) into a high-resolution font (Modula Regular). Far Right: Emigre Catalogs. Rudy VanderLans and Zuzana Licko. 1990–1993.
14 12
Bold, 200 pt.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF TYPE
“Why do it the difficult way, or why do it backward? Simply because that’s the way you happen to think.”
ZUZANA LICKO
13
C L AUDE
GARAMOND
14 14
A BRIEF HISTORY OF TYPE
C
laude Garamond, 1480 -1561, known as the “Punch-Cutter”, was a French type designer, publisher, and maker of printing typefaces. He was one of the first punch-cutters to work independently of printers. His Roman typefaces, cut from 1531 onward, surpassed the best existing Roman typefaces. In 1510, Garamond began apprenticing under Antoine Augerau.. In 1520 he was working with the typefounder Geoffroy Tory, where he first learned significance in type art forms. His first Romans and his Grecs du Roi were cut for the firm of Robert Estienne. Claude Garamond came to prominence in the 1540’s when he was commissioned by King Francis I of France to create a Greek typeface to be used in a series of books by Robert Estienne. The French court later adopted Garamond’s Roman types for their printing and the typeface influenced type across France and Western Europe. Garamond had most likely seen Venetian old-style types from the printing shops of Aldus Manutius. Garamond based much of his lowercase on the handwriting of Angelo Vergecio, librarian to King Francis I. The italics of contemporary versions are based on those of Garamond’s assistant Robert Granjon.
Garamond’s letter forms convey a sense of fluidity and consistency. Some unique characteristics in his letters are the small bowl of the letter “a” and the small eye of the “e”. The long extenders and top serifs of the letter forms have a downward slope. Garamond is considered to be among the most legible and readable serif typefaces for use in print applications. It has also been noted to be one of the most eco-friendly fonts when it comes to ink usage. His Roman and italic types, however, were innovations in being designed as metal types; not as imitations of handwriting. His Roman letter forms won general acceptance in France and elsewhere and were a chief influence in establishing the Roman letter as standard, in place of the Gothic or black letter. A direct relationship between Garamond’s letter forms and contemporary type can be found in the Roman versions of the typefaces Sabon, Granjon, Stempel Garamond, and Adobe Garamond. – Jessica D’Amore
Garamond Type Punches Plantin-Moretus Museum, Antwerp, Belgium
CLAUDE GARAMOND
15
Old Style typefaces were developed in the 15th and 16th century by Renaissance typographers to replace the Blackletter style. These Roman-style typefaces are known for their readability due to their open, rounded characters. Old Style typefaces are characterized by their low contrast between thick and thin strokes, off-balanced thick strokes of curved letters, and angled, rounded serifs. They have a left-leaning or diagonal stress.
Aa Garamond, 160 pt
ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVQXYZ abcdefghijklmn opqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 Garamond, 26 pt
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A BRIEF HISTORY OF TYPE
low contrast between thin and thick strokes
dT h caps and ascenders are same height
oblique serifs
Oo inclined stress
OLD STYLE
17
JOHN 18
BASKER-
VILLE
A BRIEF HISTORY OF TYPE
J
ohn Baskerville was an English typographer born in Birmingham, England, in 1706. Very little is known about his family, parents and early life. He evidently was the last of many children, most of whom died young. His businesses included japanning (a lacquering/enamel technique used on furniture) and papier-mâché, but he is best remembered as a printer. Baskerville was a member of the Royal Society of Arts. He began his career as a printer and publisher in 1757 and then went on to become the printer for University of Cambridge in 1958. His first volume was a quarto version of Vergil. Baskerville’s books were usually large and included wide margins and extraordinary paper and ink. Although Baskerville was an atheist he printed a folio bible in 1763 that many say was one of his greatest works. Some of his other most noted pieces include: Milton’s Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained and Book of Common Prayer. His typefaces introduced a modern style that included level serifs and emphasis on the contrast of heavy and light lines.
JOHN BASKERVILLE
Baskerville was also responsible for significant innovations in printing, paper and ink production. He developed a technique that produced a smoother whiter paper that displayed his strong black type. He created the widely used Baskerville typeface, which is still very prevalent today. His type was harshly criticized due to the thinness of the strokes and it wasn’t really accepted until the 20th century. Along with Henry Caslon, he was one of the greatest typographers of the 18th century. His typefaces were greatly admired by Benjamin Franklin who was also a fellow member of the Royal Society of Arts. Franklin brought John Baskerville’s typefaces back to the United States and as a result it became one of the standard typefaces used in federal government publishing. It wasn’t until the 1920’s that Baskerville finally received the attention that he had long deserved. John Baskerville designed and produced printing type and printed books that set new standards for fine printing and his works are among the masterpieces of English printing. –Megan Koranda
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Transitional typefaces evolved from the old style typefaces and first appeared in the mid-18th century. The term “transitional� comes from their inbetween appearance of old style and modern typefaces. Transitional typefaces are characterized by a medium-high contrast between thick and thin strokes and a slight left-included stress. Some characters have a triangular shape that forms where diagonal strokes meet..
Aa Baskerville, 150 pt
ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVQXYZ abcdefghijklmn opqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 Baskerville, 26 pt
20
A BRIEF HISTORY OF TYPE
medium-high contrast between thin and thick strokes
CBg
drop ears
vertical serifs
Oo vertical stress
TRANSITIONAL
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GIAMBATTISTA 22
BODONI
(1740– 1813)
A BRIEF HISTORY OF TYPE
B
odoni was born in Italy on February 16, 1740, the son of a printer, where he started learning the craft of making wood blocks, and his enthusiasm for type began to grow. When he was eighteen years old and had finished his schooling, he left home to work in a popular type foundry where one of the higher-ups took notice of his enthusiasm and started him working in a higher up position in the foundry. When he was 28, he was offered the position of director of the Parma government’s press. He noticed that more and more often, the typeface itself was being disregarded and the illumination was becoming the main focus, almost to the point of being illegible. Several other notable typographers attempted to de-clutter the pages of the works, including the Didots and John Baskerville, but none were as successful as Bodoni himself. He aimed to take out everything from a page that was not printing, and the result was a page that looked more clean and elegant
Bodoni’s greatest success was the Manuale Tipografico. In the Manuale Tipografico, Bodoni collected a dazzling array of over 300 different typefaces he created into one book. Sadly, it was not finished before his death. His wife finished compiling and arranging the type and had the book printed. Before he died, Bodoni created a popular typeface, self-titled of course, like many of his peers. His typeface was similar to John Baskerville’s in that both had a thick stroke contrast and both were more vertical. Unlike Baskerville’s, the characteristics of Bodoni’s font were more exaggerated. Bodoni’s typeface is widely emulated, even today, and is considered one of the first typefaces in the Modern type family. The Bodoni Museum, named after the master typographer, opened in Parma, Italy in 1963, –Alicia Lullo
Above: Book Design by Giambattista Bodoni. Left: Portrait of Bodoni. Right: “Manuale Tipografico” 1818.
GIAMBATTISTA BODONI
23
Modern typefaces emerged in the late 18th century. They are characterized by extreme contrast between thick and thin lines caused by heavy vertical lines and thin serifs. Characters have a vertical stress and long, fine, serifs with minimal brackets. Later versions of modern typefaces have bold, square serifs. Modern typefaces are less readable than transitional and old style.
Aa Bodoni Book, 160 pt
ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVQXYZ abcdefghijklmn opqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 Bodoni, Book 26 pt
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A BRIEF HISTORY OF TYPE
extreme contrast between thin and thick strokes
EXQ bracket and unbracketed serifs
vertical tail
Oo vertical stress
MODERN
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DARIUS
WELLS
26
A BRIEF HISTORY OF TYPE
(1800– 1875)
D
arius Wells was an American-born inventor who is noted as the creator of wood type. He was born in Johnstown, New York in 1800 and died in Paterson, New Jersey in 1875. His career in the printing industry began when he became the apprentice of printer William Childs and was so for six years. He later moved to Amsterdam, New York where he established the town’s first newspaper with Childs. They later established a small printing shop in New York City. Wells became ill and was forced to work at home which resulted in his first experimentations with wood type. Unlike the ordinary practices of wood engravers, Wells worked on the end grain of the wood instead of the side grain. He continued to practice carving wood type by hand and was producing wood letters in quantity by 1827.
In 1828, Wells issued his first wood type specimen catalog which contained seven different styles and twenty-one sizes. Wells officially listed himself as a ‘letter-cutter’ in a local directory and in 1835, established his own company called “D.Wells & Company”. The name later changed to “Wells & Webb” after a long-time employee, Ebenezer Russell Webb, was made partner. The company was run out of New York but also had a plant in New Jersey where the wood type was produced along with reglet, printing furniture and engravers’ wood. Wells & Webb opened the first general printer’s warehouse in America in 1842. Darius Wells is also noted for inventing the routing machine; a device created to manufacture wood type at a faster rate with less labor, which revolutionized the production of wood type. –Allison Shiman
Left: Hereford printer’s work. 1831. Right: Hand-cut wood type by Darius Wells. Photo by Nick Sherman.
DARIUS WELLS
27
Slab serif typefaces were first used in the 19th century for decorative purposes in headlines, posters and advertisements. They are easily recognizable by their round letter forms with thick, block-like serifs which are often the same thickness as the stroke weight. The thickness and boldness of slab serifs makes them wellsuited for headlines and titles but are not readable when used in body text.
Aa Clarendon Roman 130 pt
ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVQXYZ abcdefghijklmn opqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 Clarendon Roman, 26 pt
28
A BRIEF HISTORY OF TYPE
bracketed serifs with square ends
low contrast between thin and thick strokes
pronounced drop forms
Oo vertical stress
SLAB SERIF
29
ERIC
GILL
30
A BRIEF HISTORY OF TYPE
(1882– 1940)
Left: Portrait of Eric Gill. Right: "Keep Calm and Use Gill Sans" poster by Allison Shiman. 2010.
pieces of inscriptional lettering
carved stone figures
e n g r av i n g s
typefaces
F
rom the beginning of his artistic career, Eric Gill’s main passion was stone cutting, although he seems to be best known for his self-titled typeface, Gill Sans. Eric Gill was also well known for his sculptures, engravings, sketches, writings, and type fonts. It was through his passion and skill of stone cutting that Gill fell into the world of typography. He worked for years as a stonecutter, working a job carving letters and numbers onto tombstones and monuments. Interestingly, years before his own death, Gill designed the layout for his own tombstone which was carved by his assistant after his death. His stone cutting profession lead the way to his typography career and also led him to figure sculpture, which was one of Gill’s main passions. After carving stone for many years, Eric Gill began to work for a fellow typographer, Stanley Morison. In 1925 he commissioned Gill to design a typeface and the outcome was Perpetua. One inspiration in Eric Gill’s life was a man named Edward Johnston who was responsible for the revival of the art of formal lettering and the creator of London Underground typeface.
ERIC GILL
In 1928, Eric Gill designed the font that he would be forever remembered for, Gill Sans. This typeface was based on the Roman alphabet, inspired by Johnston’s typeface and derived from exact mathematical drawings done by Eric himself. He designed it with the hopes for Gill Sans to be the ultimate legible sans-serif typeface. Although Gill Sans did not work well for forms, it worked well with signs, advertisements and timetables. One of its most famous uses was on the Penguin book covers. Eric Gill designed “750 pieces of inscriptional lettering, more than 100 carved stone figures, roughly 1000 engravings, and 11 typefaces.” Gill loved all these art processes, but he is mostly known for his sculptures. Different artists see Gill’s different strengths in different aspects of his art. Eric Gill was truly a rounded and complete artist who practiced and loved so many forms of art. –Emily Campbell
31
Sans Serif
Humanist sans serif typefaces feature proportions that were based on old style typefaces as well as calligraphy. They are meant to look organic and are generally very clean, neat, and unobtrusive which allows for high readability. Humanist typefaces are characterized by open strokes and a stoke weight that is slightly higher than other sans-serif typefaces. Characters often have a slight flare on the end of the stroke.
Aa Gills Sans, 160 pt
ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVQXYZ abcdefghijklmn opqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 Gill Sans, 26 pt
32
A BRIEF HISTORY OF TYPE
light stroke weight, low contrast
EFB wide lower bowl cross strokes are equal weight
MN vertical outer strokes
HUMANIST SANS SERIF
33
MAX
MIEDINGER
34
A BRIEF HISTORY OF TYPE
(1910– 1980)
Left: Page from Miedinger’s notebook., 1956. Right: Poster designed by Massimo Vignelli, 1967.
M
ax Miedinger was born in Zurich in 1910. In the late 1920's, he trained as a typesetter in Zurich, after which he attended evening classes at the Kunstgewerbeschule, a traditional name for a German advanced school of applied arts. He went on to work for Eduard Hoffmann as a sales representative. Miedinger was commissioned by Hoffmann to create a sans-serif typeface. In 1957, the Haas Grotesk face was introduced, and 1960, the name of the typeface was changed from Neue Haas Grotesk to Helvetica. The typeface was originally classified as a grotesque or transitional sans-serif typeface, although was later moved into the sans-serif sub-category of neo-grotesque. Helvetica was well received by the Haas Typefoundary which had aimed to create a sansserif typeface which would compete against the successful Akzidenz-Grotesk. It was highly praised for its neutrality, which greatly differed from the 19th century typefaces that were still being used at the time. The Stempel Foundry purchased the rights to the typeface and expanded it by developing many different weights and variations.
MAX MIEDINGER
Helvetica was designed to be tightly spaced in both the upper and lower cases, bold and widely spaced when used as caps, and always thin. As one of the most widely used sans-serif typefaces, it has been copied and altered to develop other typefaces. By the late 1980's, Helvetica had become an accepted standard for corporations. In 1990, the ever-popular Arial typeface was introduced; it closely resembled and was, itself, modeled after Helvetica. Regardless, Helvetica still holds much value in its modern styling and easily legible design. It has become the popular choice for many commercial enterprises, some of which include: 3M, American Airlines, Lufthansa, Microsoft, Target, Motorola, Kawasaki, Craft and Barrel, and Verizon Wireless. It has even become the default typeface for Apple’s Mac OS X. Helvetica has become a celebrated typeface in the modern world despite being half a century old. It has even inspired a movie upon its commemorative 50th anniversary, which expanded on the values and ideals that made it popular and everlasting. –Eugene Zak
35
Sans Serif Transitional sans serif typefaces are the most commonly used sans-serif typefaces and are often used in logos and corporate branding. Transitional sans-serif characters are uniform, upright and generally straight in appearance. They have less variation in line-width than humanist sans-serif typefaces. Other characteristics are similar to those of transitional serif typefaces, however, transitional sans-
Aa Helvetica, 140 pt
ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVQXYZ abcdefghijklmn opqrstuvwxyz 0123456789
Helvetica, 26 pt
36
A BRIEF HISTORY OF TYPE
low contrast between thin and thick strokes
eTQ well-defined counters
high x-height
op slightly condensed form
TRANSITIONAL SANS SERIF
37
PAUL
RENNER
38
A BRIEF HISTORY OF TYPE
(1878– 1956)
IF
you have ever typed a paper or browsed through the font list in a word processing program, you have probably seen or used Futura. The geometric sans serif typeface designed by Paul Renner is one of the most commonly recognized typefaces among designers today. Futura was designed in 1927 and was based upon the geometric shapes that became representative visual elements of the Bauhaus movement. The typeface, commissioned by the Bauer type foundry, was initially issued in six weights, a condensed version in three weights, and an inline. Edwin Shar and Tommy Thompson added Futura Extra Bold and Extra Bold Italic to the type family in 1955. Paul Renner, the father of Futura, was born on August 9th 1878 in Wernigerode, Germany. Growing up in 19th century Germany, he was brought up to have a very German sense of leadership. Aside from being a type designer, Renner was a member of the Deistscher Werkbund (German Workforce). Renner was a pioneer for a new realm of book design. Two of Renner’s major books were Typographie als Kunst (Typography as Art) and Die Kunst der Typographie (The Art of Typography). In 1926, he became principal of a printing school in Munich.
Renner was also the cofounder and director of the Master School for Germany’s Printers. In 1932, not long after his great success with the Master School for Germany’s Printers, Renner published Kulturbolschewismus. The book insulted the Nazi’s cultural policies, which, with the consolidation of Hitler’s power in 1933, resulted in the Nazi’s dismissal of Renner from his teaching post in Munich. Later on, Renner would design one of his seldom mentioned typefaces “Topic”, also known as “Steile Futura”, which featured alternative rounded characters for the letters “A”, “E”, “M”, and “W”. Paul Renner died in 1956, and his original artwork for Futura is now on display at “Fundición Tipográfica Neufville” in Barcelona. –Ryan Monahan
UTUR A
ATHER
Left: Portrait of Paul Renner. Right: Mock-up of Futura.
PAUL RENNER
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Sans Serif Geometric sans serif typefaces were the product of the Bauhaus and Art Deco movements of the 1920’s and 1930’s. They are based on geometric shapes and feature letter forms with perfectly round bowls and sharp triangles where strokes meet. Geometric typefaces generally have poor readability when used in body copy because the round characters become increasingly similar in appearance as they become smaller.
Aa Futura Medium, 140 pt
ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVQXYZ abcdefghijklmn opqrstuvwxyz 012 3 4 5 67 8 9 Futura Medium, 26 pt
40
A BRIEF HISTORY OF TYPE
no contrast in stroke wight
rounded counters
ODN geometric construction
GEOMETRIC SANS SERIF
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Credits p.6–7 1.Herb Lubalin: Art Director, Graphic Designer, and Typographer by Gertude Snyder & Alan Peckolick, "Art Directors Club / Hall of Fame." Art Directors Club / Home. Web. www.adcglobal.org/archive/hof/1977/?id=276, p.8–9 “Jan Tschichold Biography.” Jan Tschichold. Web. www.jan-tschichold.com, “In Honor of the 100th birthday of Jan Tschichold.” Linotype/com. Linotype Corp. Web. www.linotype.com/794/i, McLean, Ruari. Jan Tschichold: a Life in Typography. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural, 1997. Print, p.10–11 www.t26.com, p.12–13 VanderLans, Rudy, Zuzana Licko, Mary E. Gray, and Jeffery Keedy. Emigre: Graphic Design into the Digital Realm. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1993. Print., www.emigre.com, p.14–15 www.typophile.com, www.flickr.com/photos/ debcha/, “Claude Garamond.” Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/225576/ClaudeGaramond., “Garamond Encyclopedia Topics” Homepage.. Web. www.reference. com/browse/Garamond., Linotype.com. “Garamond Linotype Font Feature.” Just What Makes a “Garamond” a Garamond? Monotype Imaging. Web. www.linotype. com/3474/justwhatmakesaldquogaramondrdquoagaramond.html., p.22–23 www. unostiposduros.com, www.citrinitas.com/history_of_viscom/masters.html, Day, Kenneth, ed. Book Typography 1815-1965 in Europe and United States. Trans. Ernest Benn Limited. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966. Print., Rabinowitz, Tova. Exploring Typography. United States: Delmar Cengage Learning, 2006. Print., Cleland, T.M. Giambattista Bodoni of Parma. Boston: The Society of Printers, 1919. American Libraries. Internet Archives. Web., p.26–27 www.utexas.edu/cofa/a_ah/ rrk/romanfatfacemenu.php, famousamericans.net/dariuswells, Consuegra, David. American Type: Design & Designers. New York: Allworth, 2004. Print., p.30–31 A Century of Graphic Design. Jeremy Aynsley. 2001. Octopus Publishing Group Ltd., “Eric Gill: Cut in Stone”. Nigel Holmes. 2007. Visual Communication Quarterly. Volume 15., p.34–35 Malsy, Victor, Lars Müller, Axel Langer, and Indra Kupferschmid. Helvetica Forever: Story of a Typeface. Baden, Switzerland: Lars Müller, 2009. Print., Fil, Steven Hller and Loie. Typology Type Design from the Victoria Era to the Digital Age. Chronicles Books, 1999., Japert, Berry. Encyclopedia of Typefaces. London: Wellington House, 2001., www.linotype.com/522/maxmiedinger.html., p.38–39 Burke, Christopher. Paul Renner: the Art of Typography. New York: Princeton Architectural, 1998. Print., “Paul Renner.” CreativePro | Graphic Design Software, Reviews, Tutorials, News, and Resources. Web. www.creativepro.com., www.linotype.com.
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A BRIEF HISTORY OF TYPE
Colophon
The design and editing of this book was done by Allison Shiman with the use of Adobe CS5 software. The printing and binding of this book was done by blurb.com. Typefaces used are eurofurence and Lobster, courtesy of dafont.com, and Canadian, courtesy of abstractfonts.com. All other typefaces used are courtesy of Columbia College Chicago's font database. Research materials courtesy of Columbia College Chicago Library. Additional material courtesy of The Complete Typographer by Will Hill. The book cover image and dust jacket were letterpress printed by Allison Shiman at Columbia College Chicago's Center for Book and Paper Arts. Allison would like to thank Daniel Mellis and the assistants of the letterpress studio in the Center for Book and Paper Arts for their resources and assistance during this project. This book was printed in November of 2010.
CREDITS & COLOPHON
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