Modernization of Typography

Modernization of Typography From the Industrial Revolution to the digital era

The Birth of Modernity The history of typography echoes through a long pathway that is almost parallel to that of the history of human civilization itself. The making and use of letterforms has evolved with numerous technological and cultural shifts throughout history. As with the development of all things in history, typography progressed naturally overtime, with a significant progress notable in the to the early nineteenth century, and the late twentieth and twenty-first century. What could be the cause of such sudden exponential growth? Some would argue it is the technological development that greatly impacted typography. In truth, the answer is the very thing that lead to the technological development as well as the revolution in typogThese rapid advances include technological advancement, cultural influence, and aesthetic movements of the time.

raphy: Modernity. Modernity is more than just a period of time when cities develop, when machines making jobs easier, or when new inventions being made everyday. It

is also when people began to think differently; in new and innovating ways. The developement of new typographic forms and its uses is a good representation of the effect that modernity had on culture and society.

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Clarendon, 1845

Avenir, 1988

The difference of popular typefaces in two different time periods. Clarendons and slab serifs emerged in the nineteenth century and was very popular. Avenir would be a standard on what is “up-to-date� in the contemporary times.

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A Decorative Era In the nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution brought numerous advancements into technology. The first industrial revolution occurred in the eighteenth century beginning in Britain.

Some noteworthy changes from the revolution are the use of new materials such as iron and steel, the use of the steam engine, the development of factories and change in labor. (Montagna, “The Industrial Revolution”). Nearly all forms of technology were overhauled for the better and this would include typesetting as well. Finally, after 350 years of no innovations done to Gutenburg’s movable type, type production finally got its long due update (Blaine, Haslam, 92). Such innovations such as Mechanical punchcutting allowed a much more fast and efficient method of producing type. An example of such technology would be the Benton Automatic Punchcutter. With machines such as these, type making became a two stage process with division of labor (the designers and the producers of the type) (Blaine, Haslam, 94). While quicker methods of developing type was revolutionary, the experimentations of new letterforms makes the nineteenth century an important part of typographic history. Englishmen Robert Thorne could be considered the pioneer of these new experimentations. In one example of Thorne’s crazy experimentation, he made a serif in a Tuscan style with splayed serifs. (Carter, Day, Meggs, 12). This modernization in the nineteenth century allowed other type designers to experiment new aesthetics and designs that were previously unavailable. Common types of typefaces that we know today were born in the nineteenth century. The first slab-serifs were introduced by Vincent Figgins in 1815. There is much diver-

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sity in Figgins’ work. Figgins also introduced shaded type in the same year he introduced slab-serifs and outline type in 1833—further signifying the experimentation era (Carter, Day, Meggs, 12). The introduction of the san-serif is another major development in nineteenth century. William Caslon IV introduced the very san–serif in 1816, but does not become common until the twentieth century (Carter, Day, Meggs, 12).

The Arts and Crafts movement began in the late Victorian period in England (Obniski, “The Arts and Crafts Movement in America”). This movement was a direct result of the industrial revolution. Craftsmanship in the arts was believed to be fading away at the time due to the machines replacing the workingman. The designers of this movement pushed for reform decorative design. This period of time was very ornamental and illustrative and it can be evident in type as well.

For example, William H. Page and company crafted different iter-

The Linotype machine invented by Ottmar Merganthaler in 1884

ations of ornamented Clarendons in 1859 (Carter, Day, Meggs, 14). Another example would be a poster printed with wood-type

by Davy and Berry in 1836 (Carter, Day, Meggs, 13). In a way, this poster could be described as a summation of typography in the nineteenth century, as nearly all letterforms that came about in that century can be present. A couple of decorative elements can be in the poster; two of which is the actual type itself. The first display font in the poster looks like it might be made out of bricks. The second display font looks like it was actually carved from wood. The Art Nouveau movement followed after the Arts and Crafts movement in 1890 and ended in 1905. Unlike its predecessor, the Arts and Crafts movement, Art Nouveau embraced changes of modernity and shunned the ways of the old. While Art Nouveau’s ideology may be the complete opposite towards the Arts and Craft’s ideology, they both shared This period of time was very ornamental and illustrative and it can be evident in type as well.

the same goals. Art Nouveau sought excellent workmanship and craft, but also wanted to produce modern design (theartstory.org, Art Nouveau). While Art Nouveau may have began in the nineteenth century, it would be considered more as twentieth century movement due to ideas aligning and even influencing the next set of art movements that came after (theartstory.org, Art Nouveau).

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While Art Nouveau period was still very much ornamental, its ideology of embrace of modernisation is the bridge into the next set of movements that replaces it.

Some examples of ornamental type from the nineteenth century

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Defining the Modern Modern life and the future were very much cov-

simple geometric san-serifs can be expressive too,

eted during the early twentieth century, but what

and that expressive type must be made for the

exactly was the future? What was considered

new modern age, just as ornamental type was

modern? The advent of the Bauhaus movement

expressive in the nineteenth century. Tschichold

came to define what modern meant in typog-

stated that the new age is “characterized by an

raphy. Rather than striving for something new by

all out search for clarity and truth, for purity and

abandoning and ridiculing the old, it was time

appearance” and that san-serifs are the exact

to define what this “new” meant. Paul Renner’s

style of that type the defines those traits. He

most well known typeface, Futura, is considered a

claimed that type can be expressive in more ways

“landmark of modern graphic design” (DeLange,

than just making it rich in ornamental forms and it

“Paul Renner”). Renner was never fully partici-

is up to the creativity of the typographer to figure

pated in the Bauhaus movement but advocated

out how to express it. Based on the typographical

its core principles’ more specifically “New Typog-

works around the Bauhaus movement, he was cor-

raphy.” New Typography was part of the Bauhaus

rect. Typographers used “boring” sans-serifs and

philosophy. Typogra-

utilized space, position, and scale make captivi-

New Typography truly defined

pher Jan Tschichold

ating images full of expression.

modern typography, and these

formulated the New

are all the principles we continue to follow in present day design in the twenty-first century.

Typography and it criticizes old typography for its ornamental and extensively busy

designs. Tschichold puts emphasis that one key principle in New Typography should be is simple and easily readable rather than be an attempt for designers to be “fancy” and “decorative.”

New Typography’s four principles are: asymmetric balance of elements, content hierarchy, use of white space, and the use of san-serif faces for clarity (designhistory.org, “Tschichold’s New Typography”).Some criticized that san-serifs aren’t expressive enough. Tschichold retorted by saying

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An example of modern expressive typography

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The Digital Era Digital typesetting is the most up-to-date form of typesetting. No longer is type bound into the same plane of existence as its maker, but rather it exists in a computer and presented through a screen.

PostScript is a computer language that aided digital typesetting by outlining letterforms for software such as Fontlab and Illustrator (Blaine, Haslam, 109).

These kinds of softwares often utilized Bezier curves for easy editing. (Blaine, Haslam, 113). Emigre is one of the first digital typefoundries. Zuzana Licko started her career as a type designer in the 1980s and has made over 36 typefaces. She has even made her own reinterpretations of classic typefaces such as Baskerville and Bodoni and Emigre itself now catalogues over 300 typefaces by digital type designers (Dodd, 177). While this change may have been good for many, it was also the bane of large type foundries that were not able to conform to new technology.

However, many small digital type foundries exist today (Dodd, 180). These changes in the last thirty years are extremely rapid and yet it appears that the only thing that was effected was how efficiently fast type could be produced while the aesthetics from the last century has roughly stayed the same. Even now, clean and simple sans-serifs dominate in contemporary times.

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Nationalism in typography was more prevalent in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century. Firmin DIdot and Giambattista Bodoni were the first ones to create “modern” serifs or simply known as Didone. Didot and Bodoni are similar looking typefaces and were only created so that the respective London corporation BBC Logo uses Gill Sans

country (France and Italy) would have own their own version due to nationalistic pride. In the twentieth century, typographic rivalries between nations were practically absent due to globalization and the exchange of information around the world. A form of nationalism still lived during the twentieth century however.

Rather than claiming superiority over another nation, countries wanted an identity for themselves. Gills Sans, for example became widely used in England in 1929.

The digital age allowed an easy medium so that anyone may create their typeface if they wish and share it online.

It became the “Helvetica of England.”

It appears that countries at the time wanted an iconic face that represents them (much like a flag). With the advent of the internet in the late twentieth century and twenty-first century, national-

istic pride has more or less faded due to the massive distribution of fonts created by user all around the world. The digital age allowed an easy medium so that anyone may create their typeface if they wish and share it online. With the internet being global, nationality does not matter much anymore since typefaces can be from almost anywhere and made by anyone.

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Technological advancements did not directly affect different aesthetics in the last two-hundred centuries, but rather they indirectly affected it due to different ways of thinking it brought.

A comparison of two hundred years of typography

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Works Cited

Carter, Rob, Ben Day, and Philip B. Meggs. Typographic Design: Form and Communication. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1985. Print.

Challand, Skylar, “Idsgn.” Know Your Type: Gill Sans:. N.p., 1 Oct. 2009.

Web. 01. Mar. 2016.

Baines, Phil, and Andrew Haslam. Type & Typography. 2nd ed. London: Laurence King, 2005. Print.

DeLang, Logan. “Paul Renner.” Paul Renner. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2016.

Dodd, Robin. From Gutenberg to Opentype: An Illustrated History of Type from the Earliest Letterforms to the Latest Digital Fonts. Vancouver: Hartley & Marks, 2006. Print.

Obniski, Monica, “The Arts and Crafts Movement in America.” The Met’s Heilbrunn TImeline of Art History. N.p., June 2008. Web. 01 Mar. 2016.

Tschichold, Jan. The New Typography: A Handbook for Modern Designers.

Berkeley: U of California, 1995. Print Montagna, Joseph A. “The Industrial Revolution.” 81.02.06: The Industrial Revolution. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2016

Colophon

Designer: Jay Park Project: Typographers Time line Book Course: Typography II Faculty: Francheska Guerrero Typefaces: Superclarendon, Franklin Gothic Book & Medium Photography: Washington Post Norbert Kaiser Bruce Type Foundry Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo Filippo Tommaso Marinetti FontLab

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