Museum of Contemporary Typography Presents...
MAX HUBER Graphic Designer
Museum of Contemporary Typography
MAX HUBER 1919-1992 On June 5, 1919, Max Huber was born in Baar, Switzerland. Similar to his contemporary, Josef MĂźller-Brockmann, he also received his education from Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich, under Hans Williman. He had the opportunity of making acquaintance with major artists of his time in his formative years. The artists included Carlo Vivarelli, Werner Bischof, Hans Falk and Josef MĂźller-Brockmann. Huber always worked as a freelance designer, collaborating directly with each client. He tried to find a balance between the needs of his clients and his own need to experiment. He loved innovatory research. He would not hesitate to withdraw when a client made a ridiculous request, but if the suggestion was useful he was willing to adapt his plans. He never used his images in a strict sense. He often mixed unframed flat photographic and typographic elements with strips of colour to convey a certain feeling of dynamism and speed. He used recognizable elements in his design, without having them tell a story. Huber favoured clarity, rhythm and synthesis. He used succinct texts, composed from different hierarchical groups; a large title with secundary information in a smaller type, a sequence of levels. Throughout the years he was not influenced by fashion, but held onto his basic ideas.
Type is everywhere – street signs, magazines, the web. Every typeface you see around you has been painstakingly and carefully planned out, and each has its own personality and vibe. But have you ever stopped to wonder how the typefaces we encounter everyday came to be? Who invented them, and why? If you’re interested in learning more about typography, you’ve come to the right place. TERMINOLOGY EXPLAINED What’s the difference between a typeface and a font? Before you jump in, let’s clarify the terminology used. Typography is the art of creating the letters we use everyday. It’s designing them and creating them and making them real. A font is a collection or set of letters – they’re the mechanism you use to get your message across to your reader. Every letter and dash and semi colon would be considered part of a specific font. A typeface is the design you see – the style and look of a specific font. Throughout history, typefaces have been influenced by technological advances, culture shifts, and just general boredom with the state of typography. Here’s how it all went down:
1400
Guttenberg invented movable typefaces, giving the world a cheaper way to obtain the written word. Up until this point, all written materials were done by hand, and were very costly to purchase. Guttenburg also created the first typeface, blackletter.
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B 1470
Nicolas Jenson created Roman Type, inspired by the text on ancient roman buildings. It was far more readable than blackletter, and caught on quickly.
1501
Italics begin to be used as way to fit more words onto a page, saving the printer money. Today, we use italics as a design detail or for emphasis when writing.
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1734
William Caslon created a typeface which features straighter serifs and much more obvious contrasts between thin and bold strokes. Today, we call this type style ‘old style’.
1757
John Baskerville created what we now call Transitional type, a Roman-style type, with very sharp serifs and lots of drastic contrast between thick and thin lines.
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Present
1920
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1780
Firmin Didot and Giambattista Bodoni created the first ‘modern’ Roman typefaces (Didot, and Bodoni). The contrasts were more extreme than ever before, and created a very cool, fresh look.
1815
Vincent Figgins created Egyptian, or Slab Serif – the first time a typeface had serifs that were squares or boxes.
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1816
William Caslon IV created the first typeface without any serifs at all. It was widely rebuked at the time. This was the start of what we now consider Sans Serif typefaces. During this time, type exploded, and many, many variations were being created to accommodate advertising.
Frederic Goudy became the world’s first full time type designer, developing numerous groundbreaking typefaces, such as Copperplate Gothic, Kennerly, and Goudy Old Style.
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1957
Swiss designer Max Miedinger created Helvetica, the most loved typeface of our time. This was a return to minimalism, and many other simplistic typefaces such as Futura surfaced around this time period.
With the internet, we have such a vast variety of old and new typefaces available for us to peruse and use. We’re not limited by just one or two typefaces like we would have been a few hundred years ago.
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About the Museum
The Broad is a contemporary art museum founded by philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Gensler, the museum offers free general admission and presents an active program of rotating temporary exhibitions and innovative audience engagement. The Broad is home to more than 2,000 works of art in the Broad collection, which is one of the world’s most prominent collections of postwar and contemporary art. The 120,000-square-foot building features two floors of gallery space and is the headquarters of The Broad Art Foundation’s worldwide lending library, which has been loaning collection works to museums around the world since 1984. Since opening in September 2015, The Broad has welcomed more than 2.5 million visitors. Generous support is provided by Leading Partner East West Bank.
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about this brochure
Baskerville Blackletter Caslon Copperplate Didot Helvetica Helvetica Bold Times New Roman
design by Holly Lundby
Museum of Contemporary Typography 21 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90012 www.themuseumofmoderntype.com