In todays highly visual society we are often bombarded by brands and their communications, offering to solve all our human needs and desires.
What connects all these communications is the combined nature of words and images.
Images are super manipulative to create emotional responses, amazing looking food or exotic holiday destinations. Words that tell us directly what something is or words that suggest desires to us that will result in sales of products and merchandise that we simply ‘must have’.
The shape of words and their constructed forms can be described as typography, typos from the Greek meaning ‘form’, graphein meaning ‘write’. The making of seals and punches has been a human way to indicate ownership or authority, which stems from thousand of years ago in Mesopotamia (Iraq), and leads into the printing processes of the 1440’s of the Gutenburg Bible.
In this article I will reflect on the nature of typography and what it means to us as a society and where it may lead us in the future.
32,000 years of mark making
Ever since humanity has existed we humans have wished to communicate our existence. I show my students an image of cave paintings dating back 32,000 years ago, showing men on horses and with wheeled carts (found in a Spanish cave). So this urge to communicate about ourselves is part of our human being, we want to matter, we want to be remembered.
Todays typography is built upon the forms and constraints experienced by our pre-descendants. The influence of Roman stone carvers to be able to draw and paint letterforms onto Roman temples and buildings is still evidenced in today’s newspaper type – Times New Roman.
Playing with type
People often feel put off using type in expressive ways as they feel the type is too ‘fixed’, but in reality the type is just meant to be played with - this playfulness is a human quality, one which we adults seem to disregard too readily, we give up too easily.
The works of Canadian designer/artist Marian Bantjes are prime examples of typographic works done with utter simplicity of means: with sugar, with petals, with bits of pasta, to create vivid and playful visual images. I frequently challenge my students to experiment with physical objects to create type forms and communications that they can initiate and have agency to express themselves.
Type can take many forms and can be expressed along a broad spectrum ranging from very formal to very daft, with everything in-between. To say I am a ‘Typographer’ is a very grand-sounding term which I personally would not feel comfortable accepting. I would accept the title graphic designer though, as that seems more concerned with the overall impact of the visual design process, not just the type.
Typography in education
Typography was a much more demanding area of graphics when I was being trained in the early 1980’s. Type specification and sizing were critical aspects of the process. I remember vividly the detailed preparation required to size and position where exactly the type would be in a piece for printing.
Being able to draw a visual with fully rendered – hand drawn – type in the right size and weight of character could take many hours, but was essential before ordering a typesetter to print off the type for you – and any mistakes could be very expensive to put right. Much merriment ensued from peers if you got the type wrongly set!
London Underground and typography
History was made in 1916, Edward Johnston formulated the London Underground typeface and the roundel design later in 1919. Johnston was a very capable calligrapher and draughtsman and highly regarded by Frank Pick of London Underground, who knew the value of consistent communications.
In 2016, Frank Pick’s contribution to the London Underground was acclaimed by a special installation at Piccadilly Circus Station by artists Langlands & Bell, which featured words from Pick’s own lecture notes: “Beauty < Immortality, Utility < Perfection, Goodness < Righteousness, Truth < Wisdom”. Pick understood the need for quality in the built environment as it influences the daily lives of Londoners and coming out of the First World War, the need for a better future.
I personally designed the Track & Signs Guidelines for the London Underground back in 1998 which followed on from works done with them whilst I was Projects Director at Henrion Ludlow & Schmidt in 1990. Getting type right on signs is important for many reasons, health and safety being the principal criteria, followed swiftly by effectiveness and understanding in the viewers mind, as to what the sign is telling them.
What may not be widely known is the origin of the diamond on the top of ‘i’ and the ‘j’ letters, is a calligraphic creation made by the downward, diagonal stroke of a flat head paintbrush. To this day all London Underground notices, signs and type feature the diamond, rather than a dot. Eric Gill, a student of Johnson’s, developed his later Gill typeface which is very like Johnston’s but used a dot rather than the calligraphic diamond for his font.
Power of calligraphy
Talking of dots, calligraphy was also credited by Steve Jobs in his Stanford University speech (2005) as having helped him see that the Apple computer should have well designed type fonts and spacings, as he had done calligraphy at Reed College, Portland, USA.
My own calligraphy training was a central aspect of my first year studying graphic design at Leicester Polytechnic, being taught by a master calligrapher, David Howells. David had a passion for calligraphy and scuba diving, which left a very strong impression on all who met him.
Students who are given the opportunity to create calligraphy often comment on the nature of the mark making that is strangely therapeutic to their mood and sense of wellbeing.
Type in design layouts
Working with students to help them use type well, I frequently point out that the default position for most people untrained in type use, is to try to centre everything. For that very reason, I avoid centred typography as much as I can. When you use type you expose something of yourself in how you choose the type, the position within a set space and how that impacts on the viewer.
Being brave in how you position and use type is a creative process, and so experiments and trials will help you make better decisions with your designs. My simplest advice is to articulate the ideas on paper as scribbles, but beware of getting too big, too soon. As you don’t want to waste time on drawing something out large if you can draw it out small, you will travel faster on your creative explorations and have a lot more fun!
I always show my scribbles to clients as well, as that is part of the creative journey and provides a clarity to your own design thinking, developments and solutions later on.
Poetry and word play
I also enjoy students being given the agency to create typeforms out of any objects or materials that they choose - lentils or cherry tomatoes - all can be put to good use.
I challenge students frequently to write poems for themselves, as it is a different communication process than ‘normal’ prose. Having encountered Maya Angelou in New Orleans in the 1990’s, I frequently advocate her poetry writings to my students, to create interesting visuals with self-made typeforms at City Lit, but also to educate them as to the nature of freedoms that place social responsibilities on us all.
In design, people often worry that they don’t know everything about a piece of software, but the reality is that you will never know everything – it changes every few months. That shouldn’t put you off from trying to use systems if it is appropriate to your visual ideas, as it is in doing that we learn and develop.
Creating a visual difference
Renowned graphic/type designer Jonathan Barnbrook makes an interesting observation on the nature of graphic design...
That clashing of styles can be dynamic and visually stimulating in the same way that punk music departed from accepted norms of ‘pop music’ in the late 70s, designers should experiment and not just repeat existing norms.
Mistakes are helpful as well, in that you can learn from them and perhaps that can contribute to how you may create in the future, but don’t erase them as it can develop as a trail of experiments, some will work well, others less so. Life is full of ups and downs – that’s what makes it interesting!
Brand values
One of the oldest brand names in the world is Coca-Cola, it has kept its relationship with a hand drawn flowing ‘signature’ since the 1886 original drawn by Frank Robinson.
Why? Because, the argument goes, it has over a hundred years of recognition embodied in it, it evokes an idea of relaxation through its flowing lines. It is also visually tied to the red and white colouring whether on cans or bottles. The flowing forms reflect the bubbling liquid product and the sense of fun is tied in to those happy letterforms. No matter that it may also rot your teeth – it’s the real thing!
Creating the new
The type we use is reflective of the present society, but in design we are always seeking fresh ways of creating and making communications. In recent typography classes at City Lit, we experimented with Fontstruct and Calligraphr, as these enable font constructions for free, and are worth checking out if you wish to make your own typefaces. Fontself is also an interesting software – that is about £26 – which works as an extension to Adobe Illustrator, in terms of quickly creating a font for your own use or for sale of your designs.
I hope that this blog may inspire you to check out what you can do with typography within your own works and creative practice, at CityLit or on your own. The future is to be made - Type on!
Study at City Lit
Our graphic design courses offer practical experiences with an emphasis on creative thinking, idea generation and experimentation, in both traditional and digital formats.
