Typefaces

Type Classification was created in the 19th century when printers were trying to make it easier to identify the text. The artist wanted to create a heritage for their own craft like that of art history. There are three main groups; Humanist, letterforms that are closely connected to calligraphy, then there are traditional and modern which are more abstract.


Old Style type is based off of the handwriting of early Italian scholars and scribes. They are characterized by thick and thin strokes, and are more refined. Some examples of Old Style are, Adobe Jenson, Garamond, and Bembo.





Transitional fonts were created by Jacques Jaugeon also known as the Romain du Roi or King’s Roman, commissioned by Louis XIV for the Imprimerie Royale in 1692. The fonts were created by a committe set up by the French Academy of Science. The fonts are made of vertical lines with a greater contrast between thick and thin strokes. Some examples of the fonts are, Baskerville, Bookman, Cheltenham, and Joanna.


Slab Serif fonts began in the earl 19th century, mainly in Britain. Many of the early versions were called "Egyptians" which may have something to do with Napoleon's army had facing off against the British there and hieroglyphics were popular. The difference with this group of fonts is that they are thicker versions of the letterforms. The picture to the left illustrates some examples of the Slab Serif fonts such as, Clarendon, Breugel, Beton, and Figaro.



The first Sans Serif Typeface was produced in 1816 by an English type foundry. It was 'naked' compared to other fonts until bold antiqua weight and light sans serif were produced. Some examples are, Helvetica, Frutiger, Potima, and Futura.





Modern is a style developed in the late 18th century which consists of a high contrast between think and thin strokes and flat serifs. They are much harder to read then other typestyles. Some examples are, Bodoni, Didot, and Bernhard Modern Roman.




Script typefaces are based upon the varied and often fluid stroke created by handwriting. They are organized into highly regular formal types similar to cursive writing and looser, more casual scripts. Some examples are, Alexa, and Saltino which are calligraphic scripts and Brusch Script and ITC Clover which are casual Scripts.


The forceful visual presence of blackletter typestyles evolved from the early handwritten forms of liturgical writings and illuminated manuscripts. Blackletter typefaces, sometimes referred to as Gothic or Old English are characterized by a dense black texture and highly decorated caps. The lowercase consists of narrow, angular forms with dramatic thick-to-thin strokes and serifs. They are highly stylized, yet legible. Some blackletter fonts are Crusader, Blackmoor and Lucida Blackletter.

As grunge type designer Carlos Segura of T-26 says, ``Typography is beyond letters. Some fonts are so decorative, they almost become 'visuals' and when put in text form, they tell a story beyond the words--a canvas is created by the personality of the collection of words on the page.'' Grunge typefaces and typography are seen in magazines such as RayGun. Some examples of grunge typography are the work of Barry Deck (Template Gothic, Cyberotica, Truth), Nguyen's Droplet, Goren's Morire and Lin's Tema Cantante.

Monospaced fonts are typefaces in which every glyph is the same width. The first monospaced typefaces were designed for typewriters, which could only move the same distance forward with each letter typed. Their use continued with early computers, which could only display a single font. Examples of monospaced typefaces are Courier, Prestige Eliete, Fixedsys, and Monaco. E

I Love Font
Cheltenham
Slab Serif
Sans Serif
Modern
Script
Blackletter
Grunge
Monospaced

House Industries

Andy Cruz and Rich Roat began House Industries in 1993 and have made a considerable impact on the world of design. Their typography deftly melds cultural, musical and graphic elements. From early forays into distressed digital alphabets to sophisticated type and lettering systems, House Industries’ work transcends graphic conventions and reaches out to a broad audience. Their displays concists of any visual quirk -- scribbbly, blobby, jaggedy font.

As house industries has grown so has their font library and products. Their merchandise ranges from modest T-shirts to funky pillows, and different packaging.

They have over 30 fonts that they offer and each one has its own style and character. Studio lettering really caught my eye because I am drawn to the free flowing, soft lined fonts but I also liked the artist proof that they offered which is sold as 100 different images.













The packaging and projects that House Industries work on are amazing. They are "out there" and catch the eye. You can not help but to stare at the brillant colors and read more about the poster, t-shirt, or sign. Some of my favorite projects I found are below.




































Alexander Girard amassed a huge collection of nativities, most of which he spent the last years of his life. This nativity is based on a Girard illustration.


This pillow is with a Neutraface Slab font that was designed to remember the type designers Christian Schwartz, Kai Bernau, Susana Carvalho, Ken Barber and Ben Kiel spent countless hours seated at their desks and toiling over our forthcoming Neutraface Slab font collection.





More info on House Industries can be found at http://www.houseind.com/

I highly recommend looking at it!

Adventurous Typefaces

Roger Excoffon was born in Marseilles in 1910 and is known for designing some of the most adventurous typefaces of the 1950's. Excoffon was a succesful French graphic designer whose typefaces shook up French advertising. He went to Paris to study painting and then later became design director of a small type foundry in Marseilles, the Fonderie Olive.

His Antique Olive family of types is regarded as his masterpiece. Other typefaces such as - Calypso, Choc, and others - became symbolic of the stylish modernity and exuberance of post-war nouvelle vague France, and a benchmark for French graphic design.

Most of his fonts are very free flowing and linear. The two that caught my eye because they were very loose and curvy were Choc and Banco. I like how all of Excoffon's fonts have a certain similarity to them but are also very different at the same time.











The first image is Banco Light which is more linear then the second example, Choc. I really like how both of these fonts give off a care free feeling and are unique.







http://www.identifont.com/show?181

Morris Fuller Benton

Morris Fuller Benton began working at the company his father established, American Type Founders, in 1896. Benton was the chief type designer from 1900-1937 at ATF. He created over 200 typefaces which include many extensions of the type families.

He designed a great many typefaces, ranging from renewals of historical originals, such as Garamond and Bodoni, to new faces such as Goudy and Cheltenham, to bold and original designs such as Hobo, Stymie, and Broadway.








In addition, his “gothics” such as Franklin Gothic and Alternate Gothic are much more similar to modern sans-serif fonts such as Helvetica than the crude, grotesque versions of his contemporaries.



typedia.com/explore/designer/morris-fuller-benton1/
http://www.danielmall.com/archives/2006/08/22/bank_gothic.gif

Making Koalas...

The last set of 50 koalas for Vis. Concepts was a little easier until it came to the alternative marking part... I took it as using random objects to create the animal which made me really think outside the box. Got a few good results from the wire and yarn version and learned not to use toothpaste... if I do then I need thicker paper or something to prevent it from turning into a blob ha.

One of the best-known type-designers was born in 1928 in Interlaken, Switzerland. Adrian Frutiger has produced many well-known and commonly used typefaces. He began working at the age of 16 as an apprentice for a printer near Interlaken. After attending the Zurich School of Arts and Crafts, he moved to Paris and began working at a type foundry while exploring the creation of fonts himself.
In 1952 Frutiger came out with his first typeface, President. He produced this fond while working at Deberny & Peignot type foundry and it was a critical part of his development as a designer because he learned much about the letterforms which he applied later to his future designs. He created Méridien in 1955 and this is supposed to be thought of his first significant typeface, and inspired by 16th-century Jenson. Univers was released in 1956 and during the 1990s, Frutiger worked with Linotype to expand his classic Univers family. When they were finished, Linotype Univers consisted of 63 different weights, which were each compatible with each other.
President, Méridien, and Univers are just three of the many fonts that Frutiger has created between the 1950’s to 1990’s. Frutiger is still alive and some of his recent projects include designing a new watch face for a limited-edition line of watches for a Swiss watchmaker. The National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, India hired him to design a word mark and they actually changed their name to match the NID logotype he came up with.

Why is Univers unique?

Univers was designed in 1956 and features optically even stroke weights and a large x-height to improve legibility. The 21 different styles and varities of weights and widths included in the family set it apart from other font families. Univers was the first type family to have a numbering system rather then using names.

http://www.typophile.com/node/12118
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Frutiger

Baskerville

The English engraver John Baskerville was born in 1706. He began his career at an early age of seventeen, when he was engraving tombstones. Three years late, he was teaching writing and bookkeeping while still running an engraving business.
At the age of forty-four, Baskerville created medium capsBaskerville. He applied his uncommon engraving skill to printing and typography. After four years' work, he produced the first of the elegant Baskerville fonts. He ignored the invention of woven paper and developed a new and better ink where he brought fine printing to new heights.
Even though Baskerville was an atheist, in 1763, the Cambridge University Press hired him to produce a bible. It took him five years of hard work to produce what some consider to be the most beautiful bible made.
Benjamin Franklin, a fellow member of the Royal Society of Arts, greatly his fonts and took the designs back to the United States of America where they were adopted for most federal government publishing.
He died on January 8, 1775 and was buried in his own garden sense he was an atheist.

What makes Baskerville unique is the use of thick and thin line strokes the create contrast within the font. When Baskerville was created, it was more legiable and readable in books. Not many people used Baskerville when it was created but it is more popular now.

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0806405.html
http://www.micropress-inc.com/fonts/bamath/balogo.gif