ANALYZING TYPOGRAPHY

Why analyze?
Typography is as much a visual

element as images
Words link image and meaning

THE AGE OF PRINTING Johannes Gutenberg inventor of the first printing press

Gutenberg created the famous 42 line Bible, mimicking the hand lettering of scribes
210 copies were produced, only 47 remain BUT only 32 are c0mplete

No copy acknowledge Gutenberg, and no royalties

Personal Perspective
Look at the: style, color size, length justification kerning leading

README

READM E

READ ME REA D ME

Historical Perspective
Evolution of typography:

PAINTING WRITING HOT TYPE COLD TYPE

Historical Perspective
PAINTING - Cavemen - Not all knew how to draw - No standards - Own interpretation

Historical Perspective
WRITING - Sumerians - Egyptians - Chinese - Phoenicians - Greeks - Romans

 The Sumerians wrote on clay tablets

Pictographs - literal Ideographs implied

The Egyptians developed hieroglyphics

Hieros holy, gluphein to engrave: writing of

the gods Wrote on tomb walls and on papyrus

The Chinese came up with the calligraphy and

logograms pictures that represent words

From 40,000 characters to 1,000 basic characters
Difficult to print

 The Phoenicians linked to one of the greatest advances in the history of communication: the ALPHABET The Greeks improved on the Phoenician alphabet, reducing it to 22, then 24 letters
Greeks invented the imaginary horizontal line

26 letter alphabet began as a twenty two

character Greek alphabet

 Continued to evolve from the 11th cebtury B.C all the way to the middle ages
The Romans created their characters inspired

by their architecture They were the inspiration for the most common font we use today (serif) ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ The Celtics combined their Gaelic uncials with the Roman characters (Book of Kells)

Hot type
INK
TYPE PRODUCTION PAPER

PRESS

Cold type
Creating typefaces without the metal
Photo typesetting principle of the typewriter Digital typesetting generate dots to create forms

Technical Perspective
Typeface Families
Blackletter Blackletter used by Gutenberg Roman Old style Claud Garamond Transitional John Baskerville Modern Giambattista Bodoni Script

Elegant Script for Weddings and Formal Writing Miscellaneous Anything goes like Serif Roman Style
bleeding cowboys

Serif
Sans Serif

William Caslon

Technical Perspective
Typeface Families
Blackletter Blackletter used by Gutenberg Roman Old style Claud Garamond Transitional John Baskerville Modern Giambattista Bodoni Script

Elegant Script for Weddings and Formal Writing Miscellaneous Anything goes like Serif Roman Style
bleeding cowboys

Serif
Sans Serif

William Caslon

DECORATIVE / NOVELTY
Highly specialized usage
Sometimes difficult to read Customized for specific uses (brands / labels)

A B C D E F G

Technical Perspective
Typeface Attributes
Size - measurement in points (72 points = 1 inch)

Note: 6 - 12 pts. for body text 14 pts and up for display Color typecolor and background Font typeface, a set of letter forms, numbers and symbols unified by a common visual design

Technical Perspective
Text Block columns
Justification alignment White Space letterspacing

Leading spaces between letters in a word Kerning space between two letters with same kerning

 Type styles italics / bold / condensed / black etc. that extend the use of a typeface without losing the original visual character of the typeface
Type family a whole related group of type

styles based on a single type face

Design Elements begins with stroke weight &

contrast, width weight

Characterizing Fonts giving fonts a distinct

character / details for specific design purposes

Ethical Perspective
Utilitarian easy reading Hedonistic - when it calls attention to

itself Pirated typefaces Using DADA ART as inspiration

Cultural Perspective
Pre-Gutenberg
Gutenberg Industrial

Artistic
Digital

5 major typographical eras:

Pre-Gutenberg combining form and function

was the goal; text was functional and made attractive

Gutenberg golden age of typography; rise of literacy Industrial dark ages; chaos with types and styles; also the beginning of advertising and mass communication

 Artistic (1890 1983) typography became and integral part of graphic design; no longer just text
Digital (1984 present) the dawn of the Macintosh; designers have learned to create typefaces for hedonistic purposes

Critical Perspective
Viewed as a LARGE and INTEGRAL part of HISTORY, words become more expressive, have more meaning, increase value
Words have the potential to express

emotions

We have done
Non-representation free form composition
Hand lettering - alphabet Word play literal / lateral

Combining typefaces - Shakespeare

Type as image GO Visa Type as identity Spoof brands

These exercises prepare artist-designers in utilizing type as a creative expression