MA Thesis Report {The Anatomy of the British Character}

Unit 3.1 Major Project Resolution Major Project Report Matteo Blandford BLA14436176 MA Contemporary Typographic Media 2015 University of the Arts London: London College of Communication Course Leader and Tutor: Paul McNeil Teaching Assistant: Alex Swain

Printed in Anatoma.

The Anatomy of the British Character or how to create a typeface that talks about typographic history.

A report organised in chapters: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

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Introduction Runes Handwriting Gothic Roman Modern Humanist Conclusion

11 15 23 31 41 53 63 67

Bibliography

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Thanďż˝ you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, to everyone.

0 My project is a study of British type design through the creation of a sans-serif typeface which aims to unveil the letterforms that shape the national typographic heritage.

My interest in the topic is to understand if it is possible to have a typeface which we can identify as British, not meant as a visual portrayal of national identity, but as a contemporary typeface which holds, embedded, the history, evolution and use of letterforms. My approach to the design, in order to distance from mere imitation, was defined upon reading a passage by E. Johnston to his students:

“The learner... has... three great points to consider: his alphabet, his material, his power of making right application.

In the first place let him limit himself to a study of good alphabets, principally those of the special type he would follow. In the second place those that have a direct bearing on that type or on the hand he would evolve from it.�

Thus my project seeks to distill the anatomy of the letters found in my research, eliminating the visual features, only concentrating on the architecture of the character, and to interpret them with a modern eye and with today’s technology. Simultaneous to my inquiry in British (typographic) history, I have experimented with a series of techniques and methods, before finalising upon one method for the execution of the output. The project, due to its purely typographic nature, is directed at professionals

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of the trade; though I have managed to discuss and communicate my findings through my typeface, primarily by means of comparison, with success to the average reader. The use of the typefaces is still largely untested, and there is no right or wrong way of using them, I like to think its creative use will expand the potential of the given letterforms, in time. Ultimately I believe history shares enough common ground with general knowledge to be approachable and beneficial to any reader, even if they might not fully comprehend the scope of the typographic endeavours.

I began my research from the runes of pre-roman Britain, to trace the progression to the latin alphabet found in medieval manuscripts and to the birth of printing in the 15th century. I found this to be useful as I was worried that the gap in time could change my way of perceiving what I was going to see. In the evolution from the gothic character to the old-face roman, I discovered the importance of the purpose of a piece of typography in the selection of a typeface over another. The differences between literary, religious, utilitarian and political printed texts helped me to contextualise each type under scrutiny.

The progression from roman to modern types was key to my understanding of the process of designing, making and printing type, which allowed me to better differentiate between an evolution of style, to that of technique. The 19th century was harder to trace, especially as the trade decided upon favouring the market demands over fine printing, so tradition and care for the craft was replaced by fashion and quick printing in large numbers. The shift also brought about a more democratic access to the mass

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produced printed page. Though revivals and fine printing was, at the turn of the century, back in vogue, these were efforts that were then overtaken by the evolution of printing technology in the first half of the 20th century. What is important about the period for my project is the philosophy of the craft and a new understanding of type design as a progression from calligraphy, one which heavily influenced my design process. My research into the 20th century was largely inconclusive for letterform references, but in terms of technique and typography it was a treasure chest. Particularly of interest was the rise to dominance of the grotesque form, almost born by accident. After that I focused primarily on documenting popular cultures.

My findings will be articulated to substantiate and describe the completed experiments, their purpose and their individual design approach, one for each period taken into consideration. I will separate the efforts undertaken during UNIT 2, which were varied, from those of UNIT 3, which abide to one system of inquiry, and I will evaluate the progression. This report will conclude with a reflection over the finished output and its success (or not) according to the initial intent, and for its future use.

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1 I hold quite dear the possibility of using typographic means to inform and educate the reader on typographic matters. I believe that this, almost, responsibility of sharing information, is the starting point of my project. The idea of communicating the findings of my research through a typeface began forming then; though how to do so was unknown to me at this point. For the first experiment made during UNIT 2 I decided to take into consideration the Runic alphabet.

Language, how did it begin? How did it evolve? and, how did the alphabet come about?

“The Eye� is a project that investigates these questions by looking at pre-latin alphabets from three, very distinct, places around the world: Britain, South America and Eastern Europe. In a comparison chart of the five alphabets - Anglo-Saxon runic alphabet from the 5th century and the 12th century and Ogham writing (5th - 6th century), pre-colonialist South American glyphs and Baltic runes - structured like the iris of an eye, we (Sofia Arhancet, Ev Melekhovets, Diana Mora and myself) compared the visual symbols of these languages organised by their phonetic values. In the centre, the pupil of the eye, an interrobang questions their birth.

The project was supported by Bailey Nelson London, an eyewear store of products made primarily in England.

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The project was painted between the 13th and the 14th of June, 2015, in their store in the Old Spitalfields Market. The shop has now changed ownership and the artwork has been painted over.

The translation of the first experiment into Anatoma Runes started by the assembly of our names for the signature of the piece. This first letter amalgamation was progressed, during UNIT 3, into an alphabet which does not inform the reader on the characters, but it plays on how similar some may be to today’s alphabet.

The uppercase letters of Anatoma Runes are composed of letters from all the alphabets taken into consideration for “The Eye”, similarly the lowercase is an assembly of characters from various styles of Anatoma in a pseudo unicase alphabet. The uppercase is surprisingly readable in some instances, in others it becomes harder, I believe the familiarity of the word has to be taken into account. It overall appears black, and if used in conjunction with the lowercase, it becomes an interesting alternate to a small caps.

The source of my research into the expansion and development of language was D. Deringer’s “Alphabet: a key to the history of mankind” (1968). Looking at the early alphabets in Britain was quite interesting, though if not by popular associations (with the recent Pixar film “Brave”, for example) we actually don’t hold many similarities with our celtic ancestors. The Romans had more impact on modern day Britain, and to look at the development of the Greek alphabet to the Latin alphabet, to Roman capitals,

"The Eye": Finished work 16

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and their influences on letterforms, was more helpful. In return this allowed me to discern between the Anglo-Saxon influences and the Roman influences in typography and art after the collapse of the Roman empire.

With the Romans came the first round of technological advancements in Britain since the Iron Age: a large network of roads, water channels and towns where constructed, and a bigger commerce network soon followed. This is important as it gave rise to informal hand writing - as opposed to the formal writing (mainly in Latin) - in which one can see the runic letters and the latin alphabet combined.

The invasion of England by the Cetes, Jutes, Angles, Saxons and Frisians brought Old English and the roots of the English language; Latin was still largely used by the aristocracy in the country. Though the formal language didn’t evolve, stylistically the letterforms did: the traditional Roman capitals were merged with the Greek uncial, strong in Eastern Europe, creating uncial and half-uncial lettering, which in Britain evolved into the insular letterform; in France letterforms evolved into the Carolingian Minuscule - this was imported in Britain during the Norman conquest, in the form of proto-gothic lettering.

The importance of religion is clearly evident in the evolution of the letterform, and of language, in Britain.

St. Patrick’s arrival in Ireland in the 4th century marked the beginning of monastery life, but it wasn’t until two centuries later when St. Augustine landed in Kent (597)

* Anatoma Runes 480 pt.

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with the monastic life dictated by the Benedictine Rule of “Ora et Labora” (pray and work) that we see a change in Britain. Together with writing illuminated manuscripts of Gospels in Latin, from the 9th century the monasteries were in charge of writing the historical chronicles, which were written in Old-English, such as the “Anglo-Saxon Chronicle” (871). Old English was a Germanic language mostly used by common people. The monasteries efforts in keeping a historical record at the time was crucial as it allowed for the English language to evolve, to be taught and to be written as seen in the “Tale of Beowulf” (700 - 1000).

* Anatoma Gothic Book 480 pt.

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2 The Norman conquest (1066) united the country under one monarchy but divided it into counties and for taxation purposes, William the Conqueror ordered the first nation wide survey. The Doomsday Book is the first written record of the manors and their content. This was to become the basis of the modern government and its forms based system of bureaucracy. The division of power created aristocracy and the class system.

The style of writing on the cusp of the millennia was a formal insular script, with longer, straighter and more defined letterforms (as opposed to the more rounded forms) though a few letters (such as the ’a’) can be seen having carolingian / proto-gothic influences. A prime example is the “Peterborough Chronicle” (1150), which was written in Old-English, and later the “Magna Carta” (1215), written in Latin.

After the Norman conquest, the strong hold of christianity allowed for proto-gothic lettering, in the span of three centuries, to evolve into the Black Letter - which is visible in religious written texts written from the 13th century - which, when printing was introduced, was used as standard type until the Civil War (1642-1651). The language also evolved, from Old-English to Middle-English, with a stronger Latin and French influence. The structure of the two languages is also different: the first is more logical and descriptive, the second was more intellectual and abstract; the latter became the noble’s language. * Anatoma Uncial 480 pt.

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Since UNIT 1 I have been interested in working on the black letter, possibly because of its beautiful appearance as a ‘black’ block on the printed page. During one of the first type design workshops I developed a modular type, which held some letters in common with the gothic manuscripts; this became the basis of my second experiment made during UNIT 2. The Rock fount looks at the black letter with ‘modern eyes’ by twisting its nature on its head. If at first it was based on hand lettering, I was going to make it as detached from the hand as possible. I decided to use the purely digital process of constructing type with modular elements, yet maintaining the traditional stylistic features of the type. From the UNIT 1 starting point, I created a new set of characters with a very repetitive appearance, harsh angles and black colour. The Rock Fount’s lowercase in definitely more successful than the uppercase as I followed the rules of construction of the letter more closely.

The uppercase, due to lack of better scrutiny, was rushed without looking further into the making of the character. The experiment was not progressed further; looking back, the finished character set is interesting in some instances, but some ascenders and descenders take up to much attention on the overall look.

Simultaneously I decided to look closely at the Magna Carta (Great Charter), as it marked for me a milestone in British political and social definition. The seminal document marks also the rule of law over men, and kings. Of the typography, what struck me were the long swashes and the majestic nature of the long lines together with the incredible precision in the writing. Trying to emulate the letters I realised that my calligraphy was not

* Rock Fount 480 pt.

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good enough to instinctively write in that script. Inspired by the work of E. Johnston, I decided to interpret the script used on the charter in the same way Johnston calligraphy was interpreted for the London Underground’s Johnston Sans (1916). I defined the skeleton of each character and through the use of a large nib pen I traced the line of the letters, adding it width to emulate its appearance. After a series of iterations of the process, I focused on a set of insular letters, which I then converted to digital letterforms, creating the Paper Fount. The process of creation of the letters for the Paper Fount defined the approach for the Anatoma typeface family. Which will be explored further in the next chapter. For the application of the typeface created, I decided to merge the principal uses associated with the types I started from: on the one hand the Great Charter was a set of rules, on the other, Johnston Sans is used by the London travel authority to communicate with the users of their services. The Great Charter of Commuting is an ironic set of rules that commuters in London generally abide to, and secretly wish that the tourists did.

Still in UNIT 2, I looked briefly at early old-face roman type, but with the lack of more in depth knowledge, which I gathered over the summer, I consider the Scissor fount experiment to be ‘unsuccessful’. I investigated the evolution of the letterforms with a Barnbrook-esque (post-modern) methodology. I composed the letters of Scissor Fount to create a sharp, pointy, yet playful serif type, substantiating my actions only based on the visual qualities of a character. This is the fourth and last experiment made during UNIT 2.

“The Great Charter of Commuting”, Logo 27

The letterforms are reminiscing of early British and Dutch typefaces, but some share features with J. Barnbrook’s Ma(n)son and Priori Serif type, and some with Insular scripts (such as the letters ‘d’ and ‘g’). Ultimately I find this type to be too peculiar for its own good and by deliberately not communicating about the period of time, it fails to answer my research question.

Over the summer period I dove further into the study of the evolution of letterforms. Reading A.F. Johnston’s “Type Designs: Their History And Developments”, 1959, allowed me to gather an understanding of the progression and the key players in this history.

* Scissor Fount 480 pt.

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3 To talk about typographic history through making a typeface, it is necessary to identify and to understand the reason for the progression from one style of type to another.

Generally, letterforms evolved to answer a need. The need for speed, the need to speak another language or to hold a different content, still today, letterforms are constantly changing according to our needs. But what changes really?

According to S. Morrison “Type Designs of the Past and Present�, 1926, the hand of the 15th century evolved for necessity of speed to be used as movable type, with all its consequences. One being that now each letter was separated, but also that now one had to cast various styles, sizes and a large amount of letters to compose an entire book. By tradition each manuscript held a different letter style according to its content; movable black-letter type equivalents did the same, Texturas for liturgical print, Schwabacker for vernacular texts and Rotundas for literary content. The visual differences are at the basis of the choice, yet our way of reading each style remains the same. Our understanding of the letter, and of letterforms, remains attached to the skeleton of a letter, which allows us to read it. Identifiable architecture, in the shape of forms or features, make symbols on the printed page to be recognised as letters. So, besides the stylistic change, how do the letters evolve, do they evolve? They do, subtly and maintaining the very basic strokes derived from our hand writing, which are translated typographically. This rationale was the breakthrough for my project consolidation.

* Anatoma Gothic 480 pt.

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I looked back closely at my attempts to answer my research question, and the Paper Fount, compared to the other fonts, was the most expressive of my intent, and contemporary in look. The skeleton approach used for the construction of letters, in order to highlight the various stages of evolution of the letterforms, fits with the approach suggested by E.Johnston’s quote, and is the method I decided to adopt to progress my type design. So during my summer research I highlighted the recognisable shifts in the architecture of the characters I was seeing in British typographic history, especially the ones thats stood out in comparison to continental printing, and started assembling a collection of characters, anatomically British, which would compose Anatoma.

According to A.F.Johnston “The fa� that Engli�h Printer� did ultimately adopt roman (n.d.r. over the blackletter) seem� to be almo� accidental.” And to look for, or recognise, a British typeface at the time is erroneous as there were no British standards to be maintained when printing was developed in the 16th century. Fashion, or humility as Johnston suggest, is the root of the transition: “We have no black-letter versus roman dispute, perhaps because in the 16th century our printers were conscious of their inferiority to continental printers, in particular the French which they followed.” D.B.Updike adds that indeed “In Caxton’� day, gothic letter was in vogue for all Engli�h Printing”. But it “cry�allised into an Engli�h pointed blackletter character, �imilar to �ome of the black-letter type� of the Netherland�, from which, tempered perhap� by French influence�, it was derived”.

* Anatoma Gothic Book 480 pt.

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I can attest that badly cut types and the low quality of paper make it difficult to have a clearly defined letterform - let alone if the printers cut their own type and mixed it with the imported fonts - making it hard to trace a design to its point of origin. So in my search for something distinctively British I had to look further into who imported, or perfected, type born in continental countries against who cut their own.

De Worde’s efforts at the beginning of the 16th century were on perfecting the black-letter, and we owe to Pynson the introduction of the roman ‘white letter’ which in turn was perfected, and expanded into an italic, cut by De Worde - yet both printers resemble closely the French heritage. In France, Antoine Augereau cut for Robert Estienne the basis of the Garamond tradition, inspired by the Aldine roman. In 1545 the Gros Canon of Garamond was cut by Claude Garamond; the lower case is Estienne’s though the uppercase is revised. Garamond was imported in Britain and re-cut by Thomas Berthelet, King’s printer, in 1534. It is not until “AElfredi Regis Res Gestae”, 1574, printed by John Day for the Archbishop of Canterbury that we see “the results of the best efforts of type-founding up to that time” (Updike) and an original British type. Updike states, John Day (born 1522) left the only distinctive mark by Englishmen on Typographic history at the time.

The Saxon type cut by Day for his patron features the development of insular forms together with roman and italic types. The results are outstanding, especially considering the homogeneous overall look of the words.

* Anatoma Uncial 480 pt.

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Inspired by the look of the type I decided to expand the Paper fount, with its uncial (saxon) forms, and create a gothic alternate which could resemble the combined effect of the Saxon type with its roman equivalent. I started by adapting the grid of the Paper fount to fit the standardised regular font size. I then retraced the skeletal forms from the letter studies made for UNIT 2 and added more characters, such as an alternate ‘a’, ’s’, ‘e’, I also corrected some swashes for better functionality, such as the ‘y’. The result, Anatoma Uncial, has a very easy to read lowercase and an interesting, yet unbalanced, uppercase given the calligraphic nature of the characters I was studying.

Overall the typeface is very successful in communicating the letterforms of the time, some even share features with the later Fere-Humanistica style of type. Of interest is definitely the ‘g’ and ‘A’ for their peculiar form. Overall Anatoma Uncial has a white look, and the use of inverted slants (such as the ‘a’) makes the sentence look dynamic, though it takes some getting used to. I repeated the process of letter construction for all of the Anatoma family.

For the construction of Anatoma Gothic and Anatoma Gothic Book first, I drew and typologied the characters seen in the gothic types. Then, focusing on Caslon’s Gotisch and Berthelet’s Rotunda, I started constructing the most singular letters: the closed loop ‘a’ and the italic one-story ‘a’, various ‘e’, the trapezium ‘g’, the long ’s’ and ‘f’.

I took the swash characters present in Anatoma Uncial to compose the ‘d’, ‘k’, ‘q’, and rectified some others, such as the ’t’. The large number of characters seen in the research of the period forced me to go through an iterative process of selection of glyphs. Anatoma Gothic holds more Textura and Rotunda features whereas Anatoma Gothic Book

* Anatoma Gothic Book 480 pt.

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reflects the Lettre Bâtarde and schwabacker influences on British Typography, as seen in Caxton’s type 1. Equivalently they reflect the look and feel of the types, when on a page: Anatoma Gothic is fractured and complicated to read, Anatoma Gothic Book is more readable given its whiter appearance and rounder forms.

At the end of the summer, and during my studies of Anatoma Gothic, Bailey Nelson contacted me again. As they were moving into a new store, they wanted me to do a piece on the same graphic style of the previous one. The new shop, two doors down from the previous one, has a longer, fragmented, wall and taller ceilings, ending with a vertical space to fill. The work was to answer more of the client’s needs: it had to feature a map showing the process of production of their glasses and their motto, “Look Different”. After a initial survey of the shop, I decided to collaborate with Massimo Dorigo, of Studio 589, for the drawing of the map. The mural, “Look Different” features characters from the three Anatoma styles made so far. It starts left with the motto, the x-height about 60cm and the uppercase measure up to 1.10m. At the far right, on the vertical section, the words ‘yesterday’, ‘today’ and ‘tomorrow’ are set in Anatoma Gothic Book, the x-height of 45cm. The black-ness of the letterforms is quite striking and it sits well in the shop, attracting enough attention, yet high enough not to intrude. The mural was painted on the 25th of September during the 10th anniversary of Spitalfields market; we were featured as the opening event of the shop, which attracted much attention and notoriety for the work and shop.

Completed Mural: from outside the front 39

AA AB AC AD AE AF AG AH AI AJ AK AL AM AN AO AP AQ AR AS AT AU AV AW AX AY AZ

BA BB BC BD BE BF BG BH BI BJ BK BL BM BN BO BP BQ BR BS BT BU BV BW BX BY BZ

MOST POPULAR BIGRAMS 276 Bigrams in the english language

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CA CB CC CD CE CF CG CH CI CJ CK CL CM CN CO CP CQ CR CS CT CU CV CW CX CY CZ

DA DB DC DD DE DF DG DH DI DJ DK DL DM DN DO DP DQ DR DS DT DU DV DW DX DY DZ

EA EB EC ED EE EF EG EH EI EJ EK EL EM EN EO EP EQ ER ES ET EU EV EW EX EY EZ

FA FB FC FD FE FF FG FH FI FJ FK FL FM FN FO FP FQ FR FS FT FU FV FW FX FY FZ

GA GB GC GD GE GF GG GH GI GJ GK GL GM GN GO GP GQ GR GS GT GU GV GW GX GY GZ

HA HB HC HD HE HF HG HH HI HJ HK HL HM HN HO HP HQ HR HS HT HU HV HW HX HY HZ

IA IB IC ID IE IF IG IH II IJ IK IL IM IN IO IP IQ IR IS IT IU IV IW IX IY IZ

JA JB JC JD JE JF JG JH JI JJ JK JL JM JN JO JP JQ JR JS JT JU JV JW JX JY JZ

KA KB KC KD KE KF KG KH KI KJ KK KL KM KN KO KP KQ KR KS KT KU KV KW KX KY KZ

LA LB LC LD LE LF LG LH LI LJ LK LL LM LN LO LP LQ LR LS LT LU LV LW LX LY LZ

MA MB MC MD ME MF MG MH MI MJ MK ML MM MN MO MP MQ MR MS MT MU MV MW MX MY MZ

NA NB NC ND NE NF NG NH NI NJ NK NL NM NN NO NP NQ NR NS NT NU NV NW NX NY NZ

OA OB OC OD OE OF OG OH OI OJ OK OL OM ON OO OP OQ OR OS OT OU OV OW OX OY OZ

PA PB PC PD PE PF PG PH PI PJ PK PL PM PN PO PP PQ PR PS PT PU PV PW PX PY PZ

QA QB QC QD QE QF QG QH QI QJ QK QL QM QN QO QP QQ QR QS QT QU QV QW QX QY QZ

RA RB RC RD RE RF RG RH RI RJ RK RL RM RN RO RP RQ RR RS RT RU RV RW RX RY RZ

SA SB SC SD SE SF SG SH SI SJ SK SL SM SN SO SP SQ SR SS ST SU SV SW SX SY SZ

TA TB TC TD TE TF TG TH TI TJ TK TL TM TN TO TP TQ TR TS TT TU TV TW TX TY TZ

UA UB UC UD UE UF UG UH UI UJ UK UL UM UN UO UP UQ UR US UT UU UV UW UX UY UZ

VA VB VC VD VE VF VG VH VI VJ VK VL VM VN VO VP VQ VR VS VT VU VV VW VX VY VZ

WA WB WC WD WE WF WG WH WI WJ WK WL WM WN WO WP WQ WR WS WT WU WV WW WX WY WZ

XA XB XC XD XE XF XG XH XI XJ XK XL XM XN XO XP XQ XR XS XT XU XV XW XX XY XZ

YA YB YC YD YE YF YG YH YI YJ YK YL YM YN YO YP YQ YR YS YT YU YV YW YX YY YZ

ZA ZB ZC ZD ZE ZF ZG ZH ZI ZJ ZK ZL ZM ZN ZO ZP ZQ ZR ZS ZT ZU ZV ZW ZX ZY ZZ

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Th 100.3 b (3.56%) He 86.7 b (3.07%) in 68.6 b (2.43%) Er 57.8 b (2.05%) An 56.0 b (1.99%) Re 52.3 b (1.85%) On 49.6 b (1.76%) At 41.9 b (1.49%) En 41.0 b (1.45%) Nd 38.1 b (1.35%) Ti 37.9 b (1.34%) Es 37.8 b (1.34%) or 36.0 b (1.28%) te 34.0 b (1.20%) of 33.1 b (1.17%) Ed 32.9 b (1.17%) Is 31.8 b (1.13%) it 31.7 b (1.12%) Al 30.7 b (1.09%) Ar 30.3 b (1.07%) St 29.7 b (1.05%) to 29.4 b (1.04%) Nt 29.4 b (1.04%) Ng 26.9 b (0.95%) Se 26.3 b (0.93%) Ha 26.1 b (0.93%) as 24.6 b (0.87%) ou 24.5 b (0.87%) Io 23.5 b (0.83%) Le 23.4 b (0.83%) Ve 23.3 b (0.83%) Co 22.4 b (0.79%) Me 22.4 b (0.79%) de 21.6 b (0.76%) hi 21.5 b (0.76%) Ri 20.5 b (0.73%) ro 20.5 b (0.73%) ic 19.7 b (0.70%) Ne 19.5 b (0.69%) Ea 19.4 b (0.69%) Ra 19.3 b (0.69%) Ce 18.4 b (0.65%) Li 17.6 b (0.62%) Ch 16.9 b (0.60%) Ll 16.3 b (0.58%) Be 16.2 b (0.58%) Ma 15.9 b (0.57%) si 15.5 b (0.55%) om 15.4 b (0.55%) Ur 15.3 b (0.54%)

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4 My original research question was “What does it mean to be a British typographer today?”, and the initial intent was to understand the purpose underlying the process of creation of a typeface, the evolution of the English alphabet, and to explore the nature of the practice today.

But thanks to the breakthroughs I had and in response to the feedback of the post-summer presentation, I decided that an historical comparison would be a better suited outcome, so I re-phrased my research question. In regards of the work produced so far and what to do next, if on the one hand, I had the very expressive letterforms of the script and gothic style, on the other I needed a plain set of letters which communicated the roman character development in Britain. The typefaces, combined with a specimen, defined the output. Looking at possibilities to communicate my letterforms I created artworks with the fonts so far in a composition with anatomical drawings (an old hobby of mine). The results weren’t very successful in communicating the letters, though impressive in appearance.

From 1550 onwards we see a decline in British printing, as the restraining tradition of Manuscripts had passed, the demand grew higher for cheaper books. Also, British printers came to realise the possibilities and limitations of movable type in trying to achieve a ‘modern look’. According to Mc Kerrow printing was in the hands of class masters, which were only looking at the commercial

* Mother Artwork to scale 41

side of the printing business. The books printed in England were mainly vernacular texts, whereas scholastic and classical books were imported. By 1557 no printing office or type-foundry was allowed outside of London, and Oxford and Cambridge university presses. Thus to meet the need of multiple typefaces, most printers would buy the type from abroad, copy it, and make it themselves. The decline was also due to the further censorship that King Charles I put on printing with the Star Chamber Decree of 1637 which made the print, sell or import of “any seditious, scismaticall, or offensive Bookes or Pamphlets” an offence.

This lasted until 1693, but in the meantime only four letterfounders were allowed in Britain, namely John Grismond, Arthur Nicholls, Thomas Wright and Alexander Fifield, and their respective successors, also known as the Polyglot founders (for printing “Walton’s Polyglot Bible”, 1654-57, in John Day’s type).

In the second half of the 17th century the Dutch style dominated in England, the Elzevier’s types - Dutch family of printers and type-founders - were the most in vogue. Updike believes that also the Royal court had impact on the style printing as they “have always been to some extent responsible for the evolution of taste.” In Britain the best type-founders were undoubtedly Moxon (and his successors Robert and Silvester Andrews) with a library which held Anglo-Saxon and Irish types; James and Thomas Grover owned John Day and De Worde types. The Oxford University press, which opened its doors in 1585, had the most extensive selection of languages available; Thomas Marshall was in charge of the purchasing of the fonts, the most important of them being the Fell Types,

Initial studies of Anatoma 42

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which dominated the English scene of the time for their modernity. They were bought in Holland from French Punches that were in German possession, in the Luther foundry in Frankfurt.

“The roman typography of the 17th century differed very little from that of the 16th century, at least for the body of types. Large and heavy caps were used for titles, and there were considerable changes in the formula for book production, but in the history of the development of typeforms the century is almost a blank”. A.F.Johnston

Though the various letter traditions (of the Jenson, Garamond and Aldine roman) were brought forward by a few exponents on the continent - such as Fleischmann, Luce and Fournier - when Caslon released his type in 1734, 14 years in the making, its success had little to do with the skeleton of the individual letters. Caslon was modelled on Dutch letterforms, but thanks to Caslon’s type-cutting skills, in the process of making a better type he achieved a higher level of delicacy in the modelling.

This gave an harmonious appearance, yet not monotonous thus increasing its legibility. Individual letters may not be beautiful but according to Bernard (from Updike) they are “thoroughly English” as they are not so elegant and of a taste which is typically Anglo-Saxon: sturdy, logical, legible and following common-sense. Caslon single-handedly overthrew the type trade, his foundry was expanded and became the main provider of types throughout England and the Empire. Later joined by his son, William II, they produced their first specimen in 1763. Johnston attests that “he owes his success, not to any originality, but to the fact that he was the first really competent engraver and caster of types in the country”. * Anatoma test.03 Character set and Line 45

According to Updike “What Caslon did for types, Baskerville did for printing, aided by the novel form of his letters, his black ink, and hot pressed rag paper.” Though the repercussions of his work, he continues, are far greater.

It is to be said that his woven paper, well known on the continent, allowed for the modern face to be developed; the higher quality of paper allowed for finer definition of the type when printed. He also achieved “the simplicity of typographic art” and his process of creating letterforms narrowed the gap between calligraphy and typography, which almost disappeared in the romans of the time.

Visible in his type with the inclined serifs, the open loop on the ‘g’, and especially in his italic, I was very inspired.

I appreciated the similarity in technique with E.Johnston and Eric Gill’s work and the philosophical likeness with William Morris, according to Updike: “Baskerville was a great printer, because he had something individual to say and he had the courage to say it, and say it persistently.

He was not amongst the worlds greatest printers, because what he had to say was not great in itself. When we look at his books we think of Baskerville; while we look at work of Jenson is to think but of his beauty, and almost to forget that it was made with hands.”

I began experimenting in creating roman letterforms for the Anatoma family, though I incurred some friction at the beginning. Focused in trying to emulate the characteristics of individual letters I lost track of the overall look and feel of the type, and I struggled in achieving a plain set of letters as discussed during tutorials. Furthermore I wasn’t focusing on distilling the architecture of the letter, rather its appearance.

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Anatoma Sans 21 Sept. 2015

{Imaginary Muscle # 3}

Type: Grotesk

Anatoma test.02

anatoma

Weight: Regular

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I was recommended to look at contemporary equivalents which tried to achieve my same aim, and to look at sansserif examples that were plain by nature. The Marian project, by Paul Barnes for Commercial type, “imagines the classics of the typographic canon reinvented for the contemporary world”, extrapolating the basic skeletal forms in typographic history, rendering them to a hairline. Another issue at hand was that many typefaces seen, from the 16th to the 18th century, shared the architecture and proportions in comparison to the gothic types. In addition many gothic examples seen included various different glyphs, such as the long ’s’, a different ’e’ or ‘g’. Euclid Flex, by Swiss Typefaces, showed me the very interesting possibilities of having stylistic alternates, which in turned defined the management of the additional glyphs for each typeface in Fontlab. Similarly the work of Jonathan Barnbrook on the Doctrine typeface was very inspiring. But the key stone development came by looking at the work by Eric Gill and Frutiger. What struck me was that in creating Gill Sans, Gill also defined what was for him a formula of proportions.

His typefaces (Gill Sans, Perpetua, Joanna) gave me the impression that they shared the same architecture, yet held different stylistic and visual features which answer a specific need, that defines their use. Looking closely at the preparatory sketches at the St. Bride’s Library, I saw in them a similar process to my letter construction. Thus I began drawing again.

Anatoma Sans looks at the narrow architecture of early old-face romans, the Dutch tradition and Caslon’s work.

The type initially wasn’t very harmonious: the squared nature of the ‘a’ versus to the very geometrical ‘o’; the neogrotesque characteristics, in the inclined endings of the ‘c’ and ‘e’ against the straight ending of the ’s’; humanist features, in the ‘u’, ‘y’, and narrow proportions on some of * Anatoma Sans 480 pt.

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the uppercase, opposed to the smoother ‘m’ and ’n’, and rounder ‘G’. The overall horizontal rhythm of the letters is successful as I took into consideration the repetitiveness of each character from the very beginning. According to Nick Shinn “Inertia generates invisibility” and his Neology typeface (almost) randomly mixes neo-grotesque and geometric letters to achieve better legibility. Though I was intrigued at the possibility of using this method of one of the styles of Anatoma, I felt that it didn’t answer my research question per-se but it could have been an additional feature once the type was finished. So I decided to organised the contrasting features found in the four styles that would compose the roman-inspired weights of Anatoma: Anatoma Sans (from old-face roman), Anatoma Book (from the modern face), Anatoma Grotesk (from neo-grotesk and geometrical sans-serifs) and Anatoma Humanist (from humanist and early sans-serifs).

Anatoma Sans is a very neutral and plain set of letters.

Inspired by shapes found in Neue Helvetica and Akkurat, it has a squareness that asks to be valued at large sizes.

It is meant to be used for display, the short ascenders and descenders help it achieve the aim though the large width counteract, slightly, the condensed effect the display size sometimes requires. The numerals sit well in the space, their large bowls and width help them to be read at a glance. The character set includes the standard latin accents, punctuation and basic ligatures, ‘fi’ and ‘fl’. Its simplicity is the main feature, and the difficulty now is to better achieve it in analysing the horizontal rhythms further, though they are already visible in the relationship between two lines.

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5 A.F.Johnston said “the whole question of evolution from Old-Face Roman to Modern Romans is largely a question of technique, rather than the rejection of one style over another on a definitive principle. In typography we shall find that mechanical improvements in the printing press and changes in the texture of paper allowed the engraver of types to produce effects which could have been impossible in the early days”. And it goes to support the previously discussed influence of Baskerville on printing. The modern romans which derive from the change can be categorised by having three main characteristics: flat un-bracketed serifs, abrupt and exaggerated modelling and vertical shading (stress). Also, some of these features derive from calligraphy. The new letters were mathematically produced by the Imprimerie Royale. Commissioned by Louis XIV, the Romain du Roi - the “King’s Roman” - was produced in 1692 and it was illegal to copy. The restriction gave rise to a trend of attempts, until Francois Didot printed Tasso’s “Gerusalemme Liberata” in 1784 with the first modern Didot type. Later perfected by his son, Firmin Didot. Didot became the hallmark of classical type, and the standard French letter. The letters were very rigid and formal, mechanical in appearance.

In Britain we see the first modern design in 1788.

Bell, cut by Richard Austin for John Bell, is according to Stanley Morrison “Our first independent design (...) while maintaining a predominantly old - face character (it) exhibits * Anatoma Sans vs Anatoma Book 480 pt.

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tendencies towards the modern face.� Though Austin went on to design several modern faces, he wasn’t a supporter of the style and was solely answering the demand of the market. The following letterform development, which left a mark on both British and continental typographic history, was Robert Thorne’s Modern Face developed in 1800. This became the first popular modern type in Britain and he was the main sponsor of the style in the country.

Historically the period is marked by the industrial revolution, and the increased numbers in production brought about a need to sell more products to a larger market. The obvious repercussion on typography is that the type now needed to attract attention and be printed (or painted) at big sizes. Thorne, on the basis of his Modern Face, produced the first Fat-Face which influenced printers like Thorowgood, the Caslon foundry and Didot, which fattened its Modern face in response. Of remark was one of Richard Austin later types, the Scotch Roman. Definitely modern in appearance, it is strikingly readable, as the shapes take more into consideration transitional types of Baskerville and Vincent Figgins. The roman had massive influence in the United States and it became closely associated with math and science academic papers.

Its use spread out to the continent, so much that whilst digging for old books in my attic I came across a Bible in Italian which was printed in London in 1867.

The reason for me to choose to make Anatoma Book (thus intended to be used as a book face) resemble the architecture of modern types came to me while looking at the economic, social and typographic reality of

* Anatoma Book 480 pt.

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Victorian England. I find the period to be historically (and typographically) the most similar to today in: the economic boom due to the introduction to a new technology and the housing crisis; the rise of the press and the access of information by a larger number of people...

Typographically we are, as they were then, in the period past the ‘golden’ age of the technology at hand - or in the moments just before the next. The computer, as the letterpress, was introduced and with it we produced the first and most innocent attempts at answering the need and potential of the new method. We achieved the best screen fonts at the beginning of the 21th century, just as the best book face was produced before the 19th century. Like woodblocks in Victorian England, the use of the computer allowed the making of typefaces and graphic composition to be accessed by the many. As we can see the rise of brutal and ugly typefaces, on websites such as DaFont. com, so we see a rise of overly decorated typefaces in 19th century Britain.

The Modern Face together with Old-Style (typeface developed in 1860 by Miller & Richard in Edinburgh) became the standard of printing for text books, literary book, academic papers, newspapers, and most of the printed page. It was not generally recognised to be difficult to read; as it was written everywhere Modern became something one got used to understanding. I find this story to be similar to the rise in use and readability of Helvetica and the Sans-Serif: initially contested for book use they are now, due to their popularity on screen, some of the most readable fonts even when printed.

Analysing the modern face letter I saw little difference in

* Anatoma Book 480 pt.

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the architecture in comparison to the old-face roman, the most evident difference stood in the calligraphic nature of the forms. Thus I adapted Anatoma Sans to have more stature and width, making it more legible at small sizes.

Anatoma Book appears to be reminiscing of Courier types, yet it shares more grounds with the regular cuts of Neue Helvetica and Akzidenz Grotesk. The endings are straight and the majority of the characters share characteristics with Anatoma Sans. The ascenders and descenders are longer for lighter appearance and the letters are overall larger. To note are the double-story ‘g’ , ‘a’ and ‘i’. The punctuation for the Anatoma family is drawn on the basis of these letters. Overall the appearance, is grey and the lines are well balanced. When working on the layout for the documents with the font I was inspired by Victorian botanical and scientific books. I think they communicate most effectively to any reader - I especially liked the annotated images - and the fluidity of layout with many images and equations to be included, is in my opinion largely made possible by a type which you feel present, yet tidily hidden within the line.

Of the same period I was inspired by the rise of the Egyptian letter and the first attempts at a sans-serif typeface (Caslon, 1816). Robert Southey described them with these words: “They are simply the common characters, deprived of all beauty and all proportion by having all strokes of equal thickness, so that those which should be thin look as if they had the elephantiasis.” Their architecture can be distilled to geometric forms and we can see it in modern display and decorative faces.

As human-beings we have always been attracted by

* Anatoma Grotesk 480 pt.

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symmetry and mathematical geometry. Today, this is most visible in Google’s new typeface, Product Sans, and the Gotham typeface, developed for President B.Obama during his U.S. presidential campaign in 2012; both of which are popular and of great inspiration for Anatomy Grotesk. I believe there to be an ongoing trend towards geometric typefaces, and a process of streamlining into the very generic sans-serif style. Although I don’t agree with the fashion, Anatoma Grotesk plays on the notion of the (often unnecessary) heightened playfulness in advertisement by the use of neo-grotesk. Overall the type is very readable and other than some kerning issues it remains balanced. Of interest are the ‘a’, that plays on notion of painted display type, and the lowercase and uppercase ’s’ and lowercase ’t’ for their fluidity. The ‘G’, ‘C’, ‘O’ are very geometric, The ascenders and descenders are long, as this typeface is meant for readable headlines, or in my case, the use in quotes.

* Anatoma Grotesk 480 pt.

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6 A.F.Johnston states “The ordinary publisher as yet certainly did not believe that the old-faces were more legible. They were alright for books which might or might not be read, but they were not going to use them for sensible reading matters.” But in 1851 we see a shift, supported largely by the printing done by the Chiswick press, to revive the oldface roman for book use. The movement which initiated then, was progressed further by the Kelmscott Press and the work of William Morris, and the private press movement. The Doves press is to be mentioned as I was inspired by their fine printing and the simplicity of their design. The peculiar use of the dots over the ‘i’ and ‘j’ was of inspiration for the making of Anatoma Gothic.

These were not new experiments yet revivals, so for my research I decided to not take them much into consideration. Although I found in William Morris’s philosophy on work, and his process of creating letterforms much inspiration at the beginning of my work. The first new design by the movement was the Basle roman, cut by William Howard for the Chiswick Press, which was also used by William Morris for “A Tale of the House of the Wolfings”, 1889.

Overall the movement is a product of the alienation to the social and economic condition of Victorian England.

Similarly as we see a rise in Gothic revival in architecture, of fine art in painting with the Pre-Raphaelites, and of Romanticism in prose and art, in typography we see a

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return to the calligraphy. The importance of the work of Edward Johnston, and his influence on the development of typography is immeasurable. A calligraphic master for the private presses in the west of London, he was well known for his skill in drawing letters and his knowledge of the history of typography. Especially of interest for him was the study of Illuminated Manuscripts and the construction of letterforms as derived from calligraphy. He was teacher to many, notably Eric Gill, he collaborated in the typographic discussions of the time and has worked for projects for the Monotype corporation. His main achievement was Johnston Sans, 1916, for the London Underground and Bus network, still today one of the most recognisable feature of London, and Britain. For J. Barnbrook it is “emblematic of the riches of the cultural and historical continuities to be found in England”. One may say that with Eric Gill we see the pupil surpass the teacher. His contributions to the consolidation of my project were previously discussed.

His work and the work of Adrian Frutiger were the primary inspiration for Anatoma Humanist.

Anatoma Humanist is reminiscing of Gill’s shapes and pointy-ness but early stages of the typeface held more similarity to the Frutiger typeface. These shapes are now visible in Anatoma Gothic Book. Anatoma Humanist has an overall edgy grey-ness appearance. Its calligraphic heritage allows it to be used effectively for multiple purposes and to hold features successful both at large and small sizes. The capital and lowercase ‘g’ are in my opinion really successful and the ’s’ holds its shape very effectively. The increased roundness of the ‘b’,’d’,’p’,’q’and ‘o’ make it approachable, in contrast to the sharpness of the ‘w’,’v’,’z’. At small sizes the diamond shaped dot over the ‘i’ and ‘j’ becomes a dot that doesn’t distract the reader. * Anatoma Grotesk 480 pt.

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7 I have learned so much. At the beginning of the course I would have not thought to gain all the necessary skills that I needed to produce the work. The dive in history and its interpretation through the programmatic typographic approach used, was for me the vehicle for the consolidation of my work and design philosophy; I suppose it all started with my submission for UNIT 1.2 “The Philosophy of Communication: a Manifesto”.

I believe that Anatoma, in all its shapes and forms can tell a story and has been for me a successful answer to my initial intent. The problem and the beauty of typography, as our ‘classmate’ Beatrice Warde suggested in 1932, is to maintain the type’s invisibility on the page. Thus, if not for the Anatoma Uncial, Gothic and Gothic Book, which reflect distinctively historical features, odd to us, the rest of the styles of Anatoma have subtler changes in their letter forms and are less easily communicated to the average reader. The ‘live’ work produced during the course envisions and achieves the possibility of dismantling the barriers of educational graphics. And I was surprised and pleased by it.

As I said, I hold quite dear the possibility of using typographic means to inform and educate the reader on typographic matters, and at the end it is always #matteodoingthings: Anatoma communicates what it was like to study British typographic history for the last nine months.

* Anatoma Book 480 pt.

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Johnston’s underground type / Justin Howes. / Howes, Justin. / Harrow Weald : Capital Transport, [2000] One hundred years of type making, 1897-1997 : a series of essays covering the history of type making at Monotype in its first 100 years, with a chronology of key events in Monotype’s history / edited by Andrew Boag & Lawrence W. Wallis; with a foreward by / / Redhill, Surrey, England : Monotype Typography, [1997] Stanley Morison, 1889-1967 / by James Moran. / Moran, James Charles, 1916-1978. / [London] : Monotype Corp., [1968] Holy tradition of working : passages from the writings of Eric Gill / introductory essay by Brian Keeble; foreword

by Walter Shewring. / Gill, Eric, 1882-1940. / Ipswich : Golgonooza, [1983] Barnbrook bible : the graphic design of Jonathan Barnbrook / with contributions by Kalle Lasn [and others] ; and three paragraphs by David Bowie ; [edited by Edward Booth-Clibborn]. / Barnbrook, Jonathan. / [London] : Booth-Clibborn Editions, 2007.

Alphabet and image : a quarterly of typography and graphic art / Edited by Robert Harding. Volume 1, Original issues 1-4. / / New York : Arno Press, 1975.

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Bibliography Gray N., Nineteen Century Ornamented Types and Title Pages, 1938, London: Faber & Faber Alphabet : a key to the history of mankind / David Deringer. Vol. 2./ London : Hutchinson, 1968.

Modern typography in Britain : graphic design, politics and society / Paul Stiff. / / London : Hyphen Press, [2009] Type designs of the past and present. With upwards of sixty illustrations. /Morison, Stanley, / The Fleuron, limited [Printed by W. Lewis at the Cambridge university press] (1926) Type designs : their history and development./Johnson, A. F. (Alfred Forbes)./ Series: Grafton book:/ London : AndrĂŠ Deutsch, 1966.

Printing types, their history, forms, and use : a study in survivals / by Updike, Daniel Berkeley/Publisher: Cambridge : Harvard University Press; 1922.

Printing types, their history, forms, and use : a study in survivals / by Daniel Berkeley Updike./New York : Dover Publications 1980.

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