Volute Type by rwaugerman

Volute Type

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Volute Type Specimen By: Rebecca Waugerman

This book is solely for educational purposes.I retain no rights to the original font Times New Roman.

Table of Contents 1 Graphics 9 Intro 10 History 25 You’re Probably Asking “Why”? 32 Graphics

Times New Roman ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890 .,!?”’&-

Volute Type ABC D EFG HIJKL M NOPQ RST U V W XYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890 �� .,!?’�&-

“Critical Mass” is the topic I was given for my Senior Exhibition. I was tasked with taking a design of some sort that I could be critical of and redesigning it to be more appealing or to revive it for today’s day and age.

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History

Times New Roman is a legible, authoritative typeface that seems as though it has always been around to some dismay it has actually been around longer than the advent of the desktop computer. It is a typeface that could be considered old reliable or a workhorse font as its been described as open, robust, boring, proud, and gentlemanly, in that, it is always a reliable default font. Default may be understood in a positive or negative connotation, but to each his own, even in this case, begging the question whether its longevity is due to quality or ubiquity. Times New Roman was first released on October 2, 1932 for the British newspaper The Times, but its history dates even further back than that. In 1929 The Times hired typographer Stanley Morison, who was a typographic advisor of the time, after he criticized The Times in an article he wrote for the paper about it being outdated typographically and badly printed. His first responsibility upon accepting The Times offer was to redesign the paper. Once he accomplished what he thought was the end of the challenge laid before him, he came to the conclusion with his colleagues that there was no suitable typeface for the paper in existence. That is when The Times agreed to also hire Morison to create a new text font for them to use to print the paper. There were specifications given to Morison that he needed to meet in order for the typeface to be successful. It had to appear larger than its 13

predecessor, it couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t take up any more room than the previous typeface the paper used, it had to be a slightly heavier weight, and it had to be highly legible. Since the type was being designed for a newspaper the text had to be more narrow than other text fonts, it had to have an even boldness as well for easy reading. Newspapers like to fit as many characters onto one line as they can, so all of these characteristics of the typeface are equally important. Morison knew he would need back up for a job like this, so he brought in Victor Lardent. Lardent was an advertising artist and a Monotype designer of his time. He drew the letterforms and Morison supervised the operation. They worked together on the project for just over two years. Every memorable piece of art takes time and inspiration from somewhere and from something or someone that is equally as great. No work comes from mid-air or without research and interest. Morisonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interest was in a typeface that was created even farther back than the twenties. Morison and Lardentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s design for what would soon be The Times New Roman was based on Plantin, a traditional serif typeface designed by Fritz Stelzer and Frank Hinman Pierpont in 1913 which was based off a typeface Gros Cicero by Robert Granjon and was named after a Renaissance book printer Christophe Plantin. Gros Cicero broken down has quite a literal meaning. Gros referring to the proportions of the letters and Cicero being the contemporary term for the size of the type. Today cicero would refer 14

to 11.5-point size type. The Rare Book Division, a collection of books printed in America before 1801, has an example of Gros Cicero in Surius Commentarvis Brevis Rervm In Orbe Gestarvm which was printed in 1574. After doing their research and looking at other successful serif typefaces, Morison and Lardent decided what changes they needed to make to the examples they looked at to create something new from a solid base. Morison raised the x-height of the letterforms so portions of the lowercase letters that don’t include the ascenders grow vertically so the ratio is larger. He also reduced the tracking so the letterforms are closer together, creating more of a condensed appearance. By altering the letterforms’ shapes and widening the verticals, the strokes hold more ink and therefore appear darker in print contrasting against the white paper. By making the intersections of strokes thinner, for example, where the vertical strokes of letters meet their serifs this prevents the letters from appearing muddled or skewed on the page. The right combination of these alternations gives the type a rounder and more legible appearance. Morison tried to imagine what William Morris would have said in his typographic memoir “A Tally of Types” and concluded this, “As a new face it should, by the grace of God and the art of man, have been broad and open, generous and ample; instead, by the vice of Mammon and the misery of the machine, it is bigoted and narrow, mean and puritan.” 16

Serif typefaces are easier to read and therefore used more often for text purposes such as documents, books or advertisements, however at this point using Times New Roman for any of them might read to some viewers as a sign of apathy. It appears the author or designer decided not to pick a different or more fitting typeface than a default when using Times New Roman or it might also show a lack of a choice being made. The name Times New Roman originated from the newspaper title as one may assume. Beginning in October of 1932 the new typeface was displayed to the public and just a year later it was released commercially for use. When more people began to purchase computers for personal use Times New Roman became more accessible to the everyday person, not just designers or printers. In the creation process Monotype and Linotype machines were used, however, over the years Times New Roman has been translated into photo type and digital fonts. It did however become more popular among printing companies to recommend or mainly print in that type because it was more economic and took less ink per page. The fact that it was already used in a well-known, professional, and credible company it made others more apt to use it without questions. The Times used Times New Roman for forty years but would switch it now and then since newer technology was becoming available and therefore new typefaces were also becoming available, 18

though the majority were based off Times New Roman. Unfortunately for Morison and Lardent The Times newspaper is no longer using Times New Roman in their publications. The typefaceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s family is large enough that visual hierarchy is not an issue, however some find it too straight-forward or bland for headlines or logos especially at a large scale. Between Times New Roman and Helvetica, the public has two fairly solid default fonts they can rely on to get the job done the majority of the time, since chances are they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t look deeper into the importance and effectiveness of a good typeface. Thank goodness when Times New Roman was being produced it was tested by the British Medical Research Council. The council published a report on the Legibility of Print where they recommended typefaces that are better for the readersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; eyes and easier to process. Even though that may be the case Helvetica has still seemed to get more media coverage and interest, especially after its 2007 documentary feature. Times New Roman had a short film made on it where the speakers address the ability of fonts to add legitimacy to the words they depict and how the geometry and proportions of a letter can give a notion of command, seriousness, and trustworthiness. The differences of all three typefaces Gros Cicero, Plantin, and Times New Roman can be seen in comparison in a pamphlet which The Times published. 19

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Typography is a minor technicality of civilized life.â&#x20AC;? Stanley Morison 21

Lettering is a precise art and strictly subject to tradition. The New Art notion that you can make letters whatever shapes you like is as foolish as the notion if anyone has such a notion that you can make houses any shapes you like. You canďż˝t unless you live all by yourself on a desert island. Stanley Morison

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You’re Probably Asking “Why?”

Volute started out as a challenge because â&#x20AC;&#x153;Critical Massâ&#x20AC;? sounds to me like an attempt to start a problem rather than fix one. I guess I took that interpretation quite literally though since I decided to be critical of something people know across America as a standard. Times New Roman has a rich and elaborate history so not only did I start out by being critical of a typeface but I was also in turn being critical of its background and process which ironically enough came in handy later on in my own process. My original idea for the challenge was to do a redesign of Times New Roman as an educational experience. I was overly focused on the fact that most people donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know the differences between typefaces and the difference between a typeface and a font. Just for the record, a typeface is the particular design of the type whereas a font is the family of typefaces including regular, italic, bold, condensed, etc. I quickly ran into a problem approaching the topic this way though. Just because I educate people and make an attempt to design something different or better than the original does not mean that everyone is going to get on board and adhere to this new standard. Times New Roman has been around too long for that to happen. Another issue I ran into was who will care? How will my typeface change anything or influence the community in any way? What is the goal I am trying to achieve with my redesign? After asking myself these questions I had to take a second look at the objective and goal for my project. 27

I began to ask myself new questions rather than focusing on the educational aspect of my goal, I started looking at what exactly I am looking for the type to do or say on its own. What exactly is the issue I have with Times New Roman? I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like Times New Roman at a large scale. The larger it gets the more obvious its flaws become but I guess that is the case with anything we decide we want to be critical of. It is always possible to find a flaw in something we over-analyze or evaluate closely. What do I want my typeface to achieve? I decided that because of my possibly unpopular opinion that I wanted to create an alternate to Times New Roman that is more decorative and could pair well with the original at a larger scale. This typeface would be used more for headline styles of type or a logo rather than in mass amounts of small text. Stanley Morison, one of the designers of Times New Roman, achieved his goal by originally making Times New Roman a text font for newspapers, documents, and books but now that it is overused it is not considered a wise choice for large scale even though it was designed to be used small or large. Making this change altered my entire outlook and process of my project. Throughout my research I looked at previous designerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s processes especially that of Stanley Morison, one of the designers that made Times New Roman. He took a previously designed typeface and edited it to create his own. He used Plantin, a typeface from 1913 that he was inspired by and one that he felt had a good structural base to lay the foundation for Times New Roman 28

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to be built from. I decided that that was how I would structure my decorative typeface. I figured, what better way to create a typeface that pairs with the original than using the bones of the original? A way that Morison altered Plantin was by making the thin parts where strokes came together thinner than they already were and making the connection of the verticals meeting the serifs thinner as well. Being that the x-height, (the vertical height of the lowercase letters, not including the ascenders that usually match the tops of the capital letters) is already over half of the cap height, (the overall height of the capital letter) I decided not to increase it any more than what it was in order to not skew the overall look of the type since it may make it look too condensed. I also maintained the thickness of the vertical strokes but made the connection points where verticals meet serifs and where stroke connections were made thinner. By doing this it may create problems when making the type too small because it drastically effects the readability, but at a large scale it will make the typeface look more dramatic. I sketched a lot of preliminary options for ways to edit Times New Roman to make it more decorative. There was a lot of trial and error. I knew from the start I wanted to make the tails and the terminals (the curve of any stroke that doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t include a serif) larger and more pronounced as seen in the diagrams throughout this book. I have always found them 31

charming and an interesting detail to include in decorative type. By making some of the connection points of strokes thinner while maintaining the same vertical stroke width, it made some of the counters (the area of a letter that is entirely or partially enclosed by a letter form or symbol) larger which also in turn made the letterform look more dramatic. It took a lot of renditions, sketching, erasing, and redrawing to come to the final decisions of how I wanted the typeface to look especially after changing the goal I wanted the typeface to achieve. There was a lot of background work that the viewer may not realize. Starting out by hand is how the process always begins. Morison and Victor Lardent, a typography designer, started out building Times New Roman by hand on paper. They didn’t have the technology we do now, however, they still started out with the basics the same way we do today. Most people that aren’t familiar with the way artists work sometimes may think that they didn’t do much when only seeing the final product rather than the months of process they endured to reach that final product. The changes I made may look simple and minor but that is part of the point. If I had made too many changes, then it wouldn’t pair well. Fanciful letterforms and ornamentation typefaces in the fonts family are supposed to pair well with the others like wine and cheese, not stand out like a red blot on a white page. The subtlety is necessary in this process. 32

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If I was going to be completely honest, I think that naming the typeface I created was the most difficult part of the project. For the longest time I named it Times Newer Roman because in my head that made sense and would keep it related to the original family but over time that idea faded and became less appealing. I got outside opinions on the name and it was agreed it needed changed. It was recommended that I look into Greek and Roman gods and goddesses for inspiration. After going this route none of the names or related terms were resonating with me. I decided to transition into looking at Roman architectural terms and see where that took me. That is when I found the term “volute”. It is a spiral or scroll-like ornament that forms the basis of the Ionic order and is found in the capital of the Ionic column. It is derived from the Latin term “volute” which means scroll. That term was derived from the natural spiral found in a common species of clover in Greece. I thought that the connection of scrolling and spiraling fit well with the terminals and curved balls that I included on my letters. Once this decision was made everything else began to fall into place. Throughout the time I have worked on this project I was always focused on how I could educate people rather than just give them something nice to look at. This type specimen book is how I hope to pass something on to the public to teach them something new that may give them a new appreciation for a small portion

of what graphic designers do. It is one thing to be critical but it is another to be critical and actually do something about the flaws we are critical of. Producing this typeface has also been somewhat therapeutic as it has given me something to focus on when I need to release steam or be more critical of something and avoid doing that in other areas of my life. It may look like we slap something together quickly and with ease but that is not always the case. We spend days, weeks, and months working on artwork. Our job is sometimes as simple and complex. If you can read the text without issue or struggle visually, you may not realize it but we have done a great job with something that was almost illegible previously. We make things visually appealing so people canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t pick out things that are wrong with it because that is when we have achieved our goal. There is no pleasing everyone which is why we are all a critical mass in our own ways, but the less the public can find fault with our final outcome, the better job we do. That means the most complex art may be gorgeous but even the simplest things can also be beautiful if they are appreciated effectively.

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