Week 3 (1-24-12)

Notes Week 3

Rococo types were known as Transitional type faces. Typography done by copper plate engravers allowed for thin line font faces. During the Rococo there was civil war.  A royal decree was enacted restricting printers to 20.

Giambattista Bodoni noted for Saggio tipografico(typographic essay), 1771. Neoclassicism a renewed interest in classic styles. 1790, Bodoni redesigned roman letter form with a more geometrical, mechanical(precise and reusable) shape. He also reinvents the serif by taking the brackets off of the serif. He believed that the letter forms should be built from a limited number of interchangeable units. Bodoni is one of the five historical typefaces. He modernized the old typeface through a slow transition from old style to neoclassicism. Develops fat face, which is a title version(Display Face) of Bodoni.

Industrialization comes into full swing. Population booms, society shifts from an agrarian living to an industrial life style, giving way to commercialism. People need to buy products in order to support the new industries. A good many people come into money and they now need someone to tell them how to spend it. With all this new buying breeds envy and contempt.

There is a social cost to industrialization. Mass unemployment, tenements, and extremely difficult working conditions. On the upside, there is growing literacy and more public education.

Industrialization leads to competition among the printer’s and their own typefaces.

The invention of the router and pantograph speeds the production of letter forms. A new face is born called the Egyptian face. Identified by the big slab serifs. It was so called simply because Egyptian things were in style at the time. Two-line Egyptian was also developed; now known as sans serif.

Tuscan face developed that looked like old west cowboy style type. It came about because of competition in the industry all looking to attract new customers. From this we got shadows, pictures inside letters, faux embossing, etc.

Ephemera are printed material not meant to be saved or collected. (There is actually a National Ephemera Society. It is passing/of the moment; Taking things that you’re not supposed to see and making it visible.

At this point, there is a boom of ephemera and a mass explosion of print shops. Poster houses spring up. Turf wars ensue. Laws are created regulating the conduct of the industry.

Size and composition is limited in this kind of typeface. It is also limited by storage space, due to such large letters.

Typography Characteristics:

A type face is measured from it’s lowest point to it’s highest pont(point size). X-height is the top of the lowercase letters. Baseline is the common lower edge of the text. Leading is measure from base line to base line. Leading is generally 20% over the base height from line to line.

The five historical typefaces: Old Style(easy to read, flowing), Transitional(more ridged, smaller brackets), Modern(no brackets), Egyptian, Sans Serif.

Following are: Display, Black letter, Handwritten, Script, Dingbats.

Personal Thoughts

The thing I liked better last week was the personal stories of the people behind the fonts. Not as many stories this week. The thing I enjoyed most was when we were shown a clip from Gangs of New York. It gave a powerful visual to illustrate the times we’re studying. It got more interesting when we got into the industrial revolution. Talking about the living conditions and how the printing industry went through a dramatic shift during this time. It was a new and interesting look at industrialization and the growing commercialization that came from it.

I never imagined that there would be turf wars between printers. However, it makes sense that any industry would be fighting to get customers. Still seems to be a strange thing to fight over, but when you are struggling to pit food in your children’s mouth, I guess you would be willing to do anything it takes.

Another part I found interesting was the battle between print shops to create the most interesting poster typefaces. I liked the illustrations of the wild fonts that were created during this period. I might be interesting to experiment with some of these one day; especially knowing the history behind them now.

Questions

Was there a printmaker during the industrial revolution that left behind a story? I would be very interested to hear that person’s account of the time and the struggles that were endured.

Who came up with the name for the Egyptian typeface? How in the world did that name get so widely accepted, being that it looks nothing like any Egyptian script or symbols?

What is Bodoni’s story? How did he become a printer? Background?

I would like to see a demonstration of the pantograph. What exactly does it look like? Are there any still in use and for what?