s ign
WITH
OUT
Craftsmen
how typography
known as a craft
be DESIGN CAME
/
DESIGN
wo
by ronald cortez
Throughout the ages of time communication has been the key to civilization. Man has been on this Earth for millions of years, but historians do not mark the beginning of a true civilization until Mesopatamia.
craftsmen
Mesopotamia was the first culture to create a written language; sanscript. Historians mark Mesopotamia as the first civilzation because with written language they could gain insight into how culture between the Indus and Euphridies rivers ran. For any cultures before, Historians had very little to go on. Maybe artifacts that depicted images, which if analyzed could only bring up assumptions, but not facts. However, the most significant invention that helped revolutionize the way of life in the Western world was Johannes Gutenberg’s movable type. Gutenberg was credited with bringing about the printing press. The printing press and movable type allowed all of Europe access to the written word. Gutenberg achieved this movable type by making hand made molds and putting metal alloys to fill them (Ruari McLean. “Typography�). These molds allowed Gutenberg to mass produce type. Huge cabinets of letters could be found in printing
shops. In the United States, the most popular or standardized version of organizing typefaces became known as the California Type Case. The previous method of writing books had been individually written pages done mostly by monks. Monks were some of the few people back then that were educated enough to read and write. However, many regions of the world had begun to form styles of their script. For instance, in Germany script was known to be of black letter or of the gothic variety. However, as the Renaissance began to flourish in Italy, script headed towards being Roman lettering. These one of a kind, handwritten books took a long to make and thus, were expensive.
This left masses of people all around the world illiterate. However, with the invention of the printing press, books could now be made at a faster speed. This allowed Gutenberg to brings books to the masses along with educating the Western world (Ruari McLean. “Typography.”).
Gutenberg’s first book printed was the Gutenberg Bible also known as the forty two lines bible. When taking into account the time of Gutenberg, printing a Bible was a logical choice on his part. During his time, Christianity ran through the Vatican and Rome. And even though, the Roman empire and the Latin language had been all, but wiped out. The Vatican and Christianity still passed their sermons and Bibles in the Latin language. So even if you were a Christian in Spain, France, or Germany your Bibles were in Latin.
42 LINE BIBLE
This also helped deter the literacy rate throughout Europe. With the use of the printing press technology, not only did Gutenberg have the ability to make many Bibles, but Bibles that were in the common language of the people. With this new ability of the printing press, many typographers came about to fill the needs of the people.
i talic t ype
been a stable every since; it is still in use today. The introduction of an italic typeface came around the 1500’s with a man called Aldus Manutius. He influenced to make a type that resembled cursive script. Manutius was to print many classical texts and felt that the new cursive script would suit the piece. One the first books of importance that was printed using Roman type was the Eusebios of Caesarea’s tract De praeparatione evangelica printed by Nicolas Jenson. Jenson’s type had been readible. The letterforms and the way the color had filled the page helped attribute to its readability. Jenson’s roman letterforms have
was meant to
no t u n t i l
years
later
t h at it was t h o ugh t t o use it alic as a me an s o f e mph asis w it h t h e R o man t ype face
So originally, the italic type was meant to stand on its own. It was not until years later that it was thought to use italic as a means of emphasis with the Roman typeface. Typefaces even became known for regions. For instance, William Caslon and his self named typeface Caslon became a stable in British and colonial printing. So much so, that the saying “when in doubt, use Caslon” came about. One huge supporter of the Caslon typefaces was Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was a well-known printer and writer, who apparently swore by the Caslon typefaces. The Declaration of Independence used Caslon (Ford, Margaret. “typography.”).
One of the first typography manuals printed in English was by Joseph Moxon; it was called the Mechanick Exercises on the Whole Art of Printing (London, 1683–4). In the manual Moxon helps coin the term “typographer” with this following statement: By a Typographer, I do not mean a Printer, as he is Vulgarly accounted … I mean such a one, who by his own Judgement, from solid reasoning with himself, can either perform, or direct others to perform from the beginning to the end, all the Handy-works and Physical Operations relating to Typographie.’ Mechanic Exercises…was intended for craftsmen (Ruari McLean. “Typography.”) In his statement, Moxon refers to typography as something more than just cranking the press back and forth. He explains that typography is more than that. Moxon is implying the idea of design and layout. It is from this idea that a new profession came about.
in the 20th Century, in the here and now, typography and design are professions not a craft. Some of the first influential people in the worlds of typography and type design were Frederic Goudy and Bruce Rogers. In 1917 Rogers had come to advise Cambridge University press on typography. In his teachings and statements, Rogers points out that typesetting by machiine was superior to the hand. Which at the time was a controversial statement since a Daniel Updike whose book Printing Types had been totally handset.
MECHANICK
EXERCISES WAS INTENDED FOR
CRAFTSMEN joseph moxon
Germany supported Roger’s ideal the most. Where they believed the SanSerif was the ultimate typeface. To them Serifs were arbitrary items that should be taken away. Type should be strictly functional.The first SanSerif was designed by William Caslon IV in 1816. It was then considered modern. Later many other SanSerif’s followed: Paul Renner’s Futura, Rudolph Koch’s Kabel, and in 1957 Adrian Frutiger designed Univers, which at one time was the most used typeface in the world. With Univers, Adrian Frutiger introduced a class system to help explain the weights and set-widths of the fonts. Before this, fonts were classified by name; Roman, Italic, Bold and etc. However, this caused much confusion amongst many fonts. This naming system was not consistent among all fonts. With the numbering system Frutiger aimed to bring order to typefaces.
Especially since many new fonts were coming out everyday. At the beginning the numbering system consisted of two numbers. The first number identified the weight. This number ranged from 3 to 8; where 3 was the lightest. The second number indicated the width and position to the baseline the type landed. Another important name in the world of typography at the time was Stanley Morison.
STANLEY BRITAIN’S LEADING DESIGNER Work Cited Ruari McLean. “Typography.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. 4 May. 2010 <http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T086759>.
Ford, Margaret. “typography.” The Oxford Companion to Western Art. Ed. Hugh Brigstocke. Oxford Art Online. 4 May. 2010 <http://www.oxfordartonline. com/subscriber/article/opr/t118/e2641>.
Morison had become Britain’s leading desginer and voice on typography. He printed a book called the Fleuron in 1936, which many used as insight into how to deal with type. Morison created the Times New Roman typeface for the Times Newspaper, which not only did he add this new
MOR ISON typeface, but redesigned the whole look and feel of the publication. Times New Roman is the American standard typeface used for scholar writings (Ford, Margaret. “typography.”). Present day there are still many type foundrys that produce type. Also, many professional typographers, however with the progress of technology the ability to make your own typeface is much easier than before. If one wants to become a typograher all they have to do is buy a labtop and the appropriate software. This accesibility to a field of work has broughten about many new “type foundrys” to the world. Some may argue that the level of work that is being produced now is overall degraded due to the influx of amateur work. Which to a level is true because now there are typefaces can be created by people that have no training in the design world. However, the many new typefaces also brings countless new possibilities to what can be done with type.
Designer Ronald Cortez Project Making and Breaking the Grid: Multi-Page Booklet Design Instructor Francheska Guerrero Class Typography II
De