EAST vs WEST
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EAST vs WEST Throughout history, humans have found the necessity to improve communication. Clear communication has been essential for the existence of human kind. Hand drawn marks and shapes became the foundation of a written communication system developed as what is known today as typography. The creation of letterforms, size, shape, and organization has become an art form with the purpose of relating others an idea or conveying a thought. The art of designing letterforms started within the Greek culture and has been developed since then by a prolific amount of key players who have pushed many boundaries. Two important key players who have devoted their careers and passion to this art form have been Herb Lubalin and Adrian Frutiger. Both typographer’s accomplishments and contributions have propelled and made typography a better medium of communication. Their devotion and talent have distinguished these two type designers from the rest of other type designers that were venturing within this field. Even though typography was a common factor in their lives, both typographers shared many differences. The historical time, nationality, technology, and typefaces differentiate both of these masters of typography.
American The historical time in which these type designers developed became an influential factor in the accomplishments and contributions to the design world. Being American, Herb Lubalin grew up with a solid political foundation of a multicultural community in New York ( Widmer 8). Growing up in 1920’s, known as,The Golden Age Twenties, his family had a financial foundation steadier than other designers that were born a decade prior and after. During this decade rapid urbanization was occurring in the cities and radical political movements were rising in Europe. The birth of Art Deco Movement and Surrealism changed the Art world drastically. Lubalin is known for being a post-modernist type designer. His most successful work in graphic design consists of posters and magazine designs, packaging, and identity solutions. ITC Avant Garde t ypeface revolutionized the design world and it is still one of the most popular t ypefaces used today. In an inter view, Lubalin stated,“Typography can be as exciting as illustration and photography. Sometimes you can sacrifice legibility to increase impact� (Widmer 9).
& Swiss 20th Century Type Designers New York City, 1920’s
The spoon and the letter are tools; one to take food from the bowl, the other to take information off the page... When it is a good design, the reader has to feel comfortable because the letter is both banal and beautiful� (Osterer and Stamm 12).
On the contrary, Swiss born Adrian Frutiger dealt with W WII growing up which was devastating to most European countries. The war shook the art world creating turmoil and eventually making abstract expressionism the new form of expression. During this new era of abstract expressionism, Frutiger became interested in the Swiss style focusing on readability, cleanliness and objectivity. The Frutiger typeface was born as a result of the influences of the Swiss style as well as in Avenir and Univers. The diversity of interacting with different countries and a prolific amount of different European signs attracted him to reinvent signs in a more legible way (Osterer and Stamm 13). This eventually led him into redesigning many European signs including the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. He became known as a modernist and a functionalist and also as a post-modernist. In a speech he stated, “If you remember the shape of your spoon at lunch, it has to be the wrong shape.
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Lubalin stated, “For the first two years, I was the worst student in the school. In the last two years, I was about the best.�
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It is said that the background and the origins of a person
Having a singer mother
construct the foundation
and a trumpet player father,
and character of one’s life.
Lubalin was encouraged
Both of these successful
throughout his childhood
t ype designers come from
to be involved with the arts.
different backgrounds and
During high school, Lubalin
family nucleus. Herb Lubalin
gain interest in drawing
was born in New York City on
even though he was not
March 17, 1918. Lubalin grew
the best, his professors
up in Sheep Head Bay fishing
encouraged him to develop
all year round since he was
his feelings for design and
close to the Atlantic Ocean.
let tering. The depression
He was the younger out of
of the 1930’s financially
fraternal t wins who grew
affected his family forcing
up within a large, loving
Lubalin and his brother to
family an amalgam of artist,
apply to Law school. His
musicians and businessmen.
brother was accepted in
He grew up in a melting pot
Law school, and because of
communit y, New York, and
Lubalin’s poor grades in high
being that his mother’s side
school, he was not. Lubalin
of the family migrated from
had no other choice but to
Germany and his father’s
apply to a free program at
side of the family migrated
the prestigious Cooper
from Russia (Peckolic 8).
Union College where he was accepted. Lubalin stated, “For the first two years, I was the worst student in the school. In the last two years, I was about the best” (Peckolick 11). He felt that as a designer it is imperative to know the technical language of point, picas and leading. For the rest of his career he collaborated for three well-known magazines and created the typeface “ITC Avante Garde”.
At age 21, Frutiger decides to further his education by joining the Kunstgewebeschule in Zurich becoming their second student interested in t ypesetting. In contrast, Adrian Frutiger was born in Unterseen near Interlaken in Switzerland on 24 May 1928. He grew up in a small village on the valley floor between Lake Brienz in the east and Lake Thun in the west. Their home was located next to the train tracks where Frutiger developed a fascination with electricity and model traction engines (Osterer and Stamm 12). At age 13, he developed his own hand writing style that was rounder, more fluid, and more upright that the hand writing system that was being used in the Basel schools emulating writer and teacher Ernst Eberhart’s style (Monotype 4). The field of painting attracted him, but his father was firmly against it because he didn’t want him to become a starving painter. He decided to accept an internship as a typesetting where he worked with Ernst Jodi and got to travel. This internship opened up a new world of possibilities for him within the type world. At age 21 he decided to fur ther his education by joining the Kunstgewebeschule in Zurich becoming their second student interested in typesetting. Later in his career he moved to France where he stayed for most of his career. Charles de Gaulle Airport adopted his typeface, “Frutiger,” to better the legibility of their signs (Osterer and Stamm 12). In 1952, Frutiger became lead of the drawing office at Deberny & Peignot in Paris and founded his own studio with Bruno Pfaffli and Andre Gurtler where his first typefaces developed.
typesetting example
photosetting inovation
T YPE & TECHN
1960’s In the history of typography, technology plays a leading role in transforming and changing everyday processes and systems. Today people enjoy and are able to have typography at their fingertips on their computers thanks to technology. In the process of improving technology, typographers faced many drastic changes to their creative processes forcing them to metamorphose their designs and methods. In his career, technology provided Lubalin with the hot metal technique that consisted of metal molds that were injected with molten metal that had the shape of one or more glyphs. The metal pieces that were created were then inked and pressed onto paper to create individual words and sentences. The process help designers print faster and it made print work more accessible to people. There were five well-known hot metal enterprises Linotype, Intertype Corporation, Typograph, and The Monoline. In addition, the invention of the 1960’s “photosetting” revolutionized the print world. Photosetting consisted of a machine that projected the image on film for offset printing. Later on this film had to go through a bathing process of three
OLOGY
different chemicals. This advancement in technology provided Lubalin and others with different scales in type sizes and allowed them to scale up type without sacrificing sharpness. They were able to manipulate type and have more control of kerning.
F Digital typesetting
Technology presented Frutiger with one of the most technological advances in history, the computer.
Fru t i g e r On the contrary, Frutiger was
conventional t ypographer
who became influenced by invented scripts, stylized handwriting, sculpture, monumental inscriptions, and calligraphy. Craftsmanship and tactile labor were the foundations of Frutiger. Whether using woodcut or paper silhouet tes, he persevered and became victorious in his designs. He was one of the only type designers who experienced a prolific amount of technological advances.
Being devoted and passionate with type, he embraced every change and had an optimistic take. Unlike Lubalin, technology presented Frutiger with one of the most technological advances in history, the computer (Osterer and Stamm 12). Digital t ypesetting revolutionized t ype and print changing every technique previously used. Designers had to developed and reinvent type, to make it more legible in this new pixel based world. His typefaces have become one of the most popular typefaces of the 20th and 21st century.
I T C AVAN T G A R D E G O T H IC
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With all of the technological changes experienced, both designer designed numerous typefaces. In 1970’s while working on the logo for Avant Garde magazine, Lubalin designed the typeface “ITC Avant Garde Gothic” that he later developed in partnership with Andre Gurtler, Eric Gschwind, and Christian Mengelt. This font family consists of 5 weights with complimentary obliques. Later on ITC released version called OpenType that included 33 alternate characters and ligatures. In addition, he designed Ronda typeface influenced by the Bauhaus movement, Lubalin Graph a heavily geometric typeface designed in 1974 consisting of bold geometric letter shapes and strong slab serifs, and ITC Serif Gothic of 1972 for the International Typeface Corporation which was a readable roman serif typeface with the simplicity of a sans a gothic sans serif mostly used for advertising, packaging, billboards and headlines.
ADesigned v a n t 1970 G a r-1977 de Magazine
geometric san serif
1920’s Bahaus Movement used on headlines and small texts ITC Avant Garde Magazine
UNIVERS
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neo - grotesque san seri f
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44 faces
16 numbered weights variety of widths and posit ion combinat ions
Paris 1970’s
France de Gaulle International Airport
A prolific career However, Frutiger had more an abundant career in typeface design. Starting
The "way-finding-signage"
in 1970’s he was approached
commission brief required
by the public transportation
a typeface both “legible
authority of Paris to examine
from afar and from an
the Paris Metro signage. The outcome was his
angle.” Frutiger considered “adapting Univers,
creation of the typeface
but decided it was dated as
Univers that consisted of a
too “Sixties.” The resulting
set of capitals and numbers
typeface is thus an
specifically for white-on-
amalgamation of
dark-blue backgrounds in
Univers tempered with
poor light (Typophile 7).
the organic influences of Gill
This neo-grotesque san-serif
Sans, a humanist sans-serif
type family consists of 44
typeface by Eric Gill, and
faces, 16 numbered weights,
Edward Johnston's type for
width, and position combi-
the London Transport, and
nations. All variations were
Roger Excoffon's Antique
designated by the use of
Olive. Originally titled Roissy,
numbers rather than names.
the typeface was renamed
This modern typeface success
Frutiger when the
caught the attention of the
Mergenthaler Linotype
French introducing it into
Company released it for
the Charles de Gaulle
public use in 1976” (Carter 7).
International Airport in the
Beyond this one example,
Roissy suburb of Paris. The
some of Frutiger’s most
typeface provided legibility
famous typefaces include
from afar and from
Univers, Egyptienne, Serifa,
different angles
Avenir and OCR-B. Frutiger
improving communication
is one of only a few
within the airport (Osterer
typographers whose career
and Stamm 13).
spans across hot metal, photographic and digital typesetting. In Amsterdam,you can see his typeface Avenir spread throughout the city as well as on BBC news.
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the present have been faced with the necessity of improving communication to relate the history, communicate, and to develop intellectually. From shapes and marks in caves to what we know today as typography, this communication system and art form has overcome many struggles and influencing factors that has slowly developed and improved it. With the creation
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In conclusion, from the Greek culture until
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of letterforms, printing methods and new technologies, typography has become a leading character in every field. The struggles and hard work of typographers
like Herb Lubalin and Adrian Frutiger h
ave contributed immensely to the field of typography. Their persistence and passion transform communication and elevated it
making it an essential part of everyday life. Both typographers differentiate in historical
time, in nationality, technological advances
faced, and in typefaces designed. Both left humanity a different
legacies and points of view.
Designer: Edrick D Agostini Typefaces: Frutiger and ITC Avant Garde Course: Typography III Faculty: Francheska Guerrero