Metro nova by ioan davies

Metro Nova

A typographic explanation of the fundamental processes that govern our world.

04 — Contents 06 — Aa 08 — Bb 10 — Cc 12 — Dd 14 — Ee 16 — Ff 18 — Gg 20 — Hh 22 — Ii 24 — Jj 26 — Kk 28 — Ll 30 — Mm 32 — Nn 34 — Oo 36 — Pp 38 — Qq 40 — Rr 42 — Ss 44 — Tt 46 — Uu 48 — Vv 50 — Ww 52 — Xx 54 — Yy 56 — Zz 58 — Metro 60 — Metro Nova condensed 62 — Metro Nova bold

Evolution is the mechanism that explains how life on Earth has developed over millions of years from single cell organisms to fantastically complex creatures, like you. Using Monotypeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Metro Nova, the processes by which the simple building blocks of life can form designs of infinite complexity from seemingly chaotic and random conditions, can be illustrated by replacing the building blocks with letter forms, and the rules by interlinking the characteristic shapes and angles of the letters.

To understand where this all began we have to go back some 3.5 billion years into Earth’s history. The Earth at this point was a ‘primordial’ soup of minerals and carbon dioxide with no constituents of life that we would recognise today. The atmosphere was ravaged by constant volcanic eruptions and days only lasted six hours because the Earth’s rotation was much faster at this point in time. Somehow something triggered the development of life from this chaotic world. How that happened is fiercely debated. A new and interesting theory is that static charges, generated by hot gases escaping from vents deep on the ocean floor, created an electrical charge in the surrounding water. This small charge was enough to kick-start the development of simple organisms that feed off this electrical charge. Eventually these tiny organisms evolved the capacity to create a charge of their own, allowing them to leave the confines of this primitive environment and evolve into bigger and more complex creatures. However life was almost snuffed out before it really got going by an event that lasted 100’s of millions of years. Discoveries of rock samples around the globe, taken from a period just before evidence is seen of complex organisms, shows from glacial deposits, that the Earth was covered in a thick layer of ice, kilometres thick in certain parts. Known as Snowball Earth it is likely that even simple organisms would have struggled to survive in these hostile conditions. However, some hardy microbes dubbed ‘Extremofiles’ held on for millions of years living on the surface of glaciers and sediments where ice met rock.

The Earth eventually warmed due to volcanic activity some 650 million years ago which produced a greenhouse effect heating the planet up. As conditions became more favourable life boomed in complexity and shortly after, the first large multi cellular organisms developed. They are referred to as ‘Charnia’. These simple organisms that developed deep in the ocean were basic in nature with constantly self repeating patterns like we see in plant life today. This design repeated throughout the natural world led the maverick mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot to coin the term ‘fractal’ and create the instantly recognisable ‘Mandelbrot Set’. This fractal design, which inspired many of the designs in this book, allowed organisms, which thrived by filtering nutrients from the water around them, to create complex structures with large surface areas. This made them highly successful, although this design was to become their ultimate downfall as other forms of life developed in new and more diverse ways.

This diversification came in a number of ways. Mobility was the first major step forward which allowed the previously static organisms to avoid danger and search for food, seeding the evolution of sensory organs and the basic blueprint for the body plan of all animals that we see today, i.e. eyes nose and mouth at the front to sense food. Mid sections to attach appendages to (arms and legs) and of course, a rear end.

Fractals are everywhere in nature, from the veins in your body, the branches of trees and plants, to the winding structures of vast river systems. If you look outside your window you will notice that nearly all the natural processes you see will, in one way or another, use this simple concept of repeating and scaling down of shapes to form structure. This same process can be replicated using typography. The shape of the letters determines what can ultimately be built by resizing and fitting them together. In the same way that nature creates its exquisite structures, many of the images in this book have been formed by the designer merely manipulating the letter forms to see what comes about; imitating natureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s natural processesâ&#x20AC;Ś after all, nature does not need an active interfering designer!

“a

One day in the late 1920s, C. H. Griffiths, who was responsible for typographic development at Mergenthaler Linotype at the time, read a magazine article bemoaning the lack of worthy sans serif typefaces available for Linotype composition. The article was written by William Addison Dwiggins, an eminent calligrapher, illustrator, writer and graphic designer of the day. Rather than ignoring Dwiggins’ rant, Griffiths sent him a letter that, in essence, offered, “If you think you know so much, let’s see the sans serif you can draw.” Dwiggins rose to the challenge – and it wasn’t long before “typeface designer” became the newest of his accomplishments. Metro quickly became a mainstay of graphic design in North America. Its widespread prominence lasted until the early 1950s, when faces from Europe began to find their way across the Atlantic. Metro also proved to be the first of 17 typeface families Dwiggins would draw for Linotype.

Fast forward 80-some years, and the Metro Nova story begins with the making of a movie. Doug Wilson, producer and director of the documentary “Linotype: The Film,” did some of his research for the project at the Printing Museum in North Andover, Mass. The museum’s director told Wilson about the original Mergenthaler Linotype typeface drawings stored in the museum. Eagerly sifting through these artifacts, Wilson happened across the original production drawings for Metro – and it was love at first sight. Wilson was determined to have Metro for his film’s credits. Several e-mails, a spate of phone calls and an in-person meeting or two later, it was agreed that Toshi Omagari, a Monotype type designer, would develop a custom font for the movie.

design dare” William Addison Dwiggins [1880 - 1956]

“Doug specifically wanted the original version of Metro,” recalls Omagari, “so I only made small modifications to the design. Then it was decided Metro would be revived for Monotype, and I felt that it would be appropriate to make fartherreaching changes.” The original Metro was designed to be compatible with the early, somewhat rudimentary Linotype 18-unit spacing system. Metro was also a duplexed family. (Duplexed typefaces are a pair of designs – usually roman and bold or italic – sharing common character widths.) Omagari comments, “An interesting challenge on the Metro Nova project was removing the duplexing restrictions while still

maintaining the character of the design. I eventually stopped drawing letters based on the earlier shapes and began to refine proportions to what I considered right. And to what I hope Dwiggins probably would have done, if he had been given the opportunity.” Omagari worked to make Metro Nova appealing to current design sensibilities without sacrificing the essence of the original. “There were a number of idiosyncrasies in Dwiggins’ original,” he recalls. “Distilling these was a challenge. They were perhaps the most difficult, and the most rewarding, part of the design process. Addressing them was when Metro Nova became my own design.” [credit: www.fonts.com/font/linotype/metro-nova]

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