Day 3

NOTES

Rococo type review.

transitional typeface created

Copper plate designs let artists do as they pleased. (loopy typeface shown)

lettering for copper carving allowed for grater difference of think and think

(out of context) “Upon ascending the throne, Charles V ordered to only have 20 printing press people and to get ride of the others by death or other means.”

Giambattista Bodoni (1771) created Bodoni typeface

influenced by rococo

redesigned to be geometric and mechanical

believed letter form should be built with limited number of interchangeable units

Giambattista Bodoni said, “I only want magnificence and I don’t work of the common reader,” which wasn’t true since he was sloppy, clumsy, and a bad speller.

1800’s - Neo-classicism

Bodoni turns into Fat Face type (a display typeface)

Industrialization leads to consumerism

rise of the middle class

large amount of people who suddenly have money

those people don’t know what to do with it

Industrialization - BAD

long days

low wages

mass unemployment

tenements as housing

unsafe jobs

Industrialization - GOOD

growing literacy

public education

*Watch clip from Gangs of New York*

more demand = more printmakers

(teacher says, “think of printers like weed.”)

a need to sell items leads to ‘war’ in making larger text

wood type pieces comes as solution due to panograph, router, and machiens

Egyptian typeface comes...

...then 2 line Egyptain renamed San-Serif

Major types families

Old Style

Transitional

Modern

Egyptain

San-Serif

Other types

Display

Black Letter

Handwriting (teacher paused to rant about his hatred for it)

Script

Ding Bats

Things that come along...

Atuskin face (cowboy-like look)

shadows

knockout letters

crazy fill-ins

ephemera - printed material not meant to be kept like ticket stubs

poster houses made but were only compiled not designed

leading - the space between each line

leading is about type size + 20%

Thoughts

It was an entertaining class today with the teacher making jokes and wild gestures when annoyed at a type that did nothing but exist. Unfortunately, the day was mostly about typography, and I can care less about the subject which isn’t really good with the major I’m going into. My introduction to the subject was at my last college with a man who LOVED the subject and gave the class a 3 hour lecture on the different types of type that was very boring. Then I was subjected to it the following semester when I had the teacher again for a different class. It’s most likely just a case of a bad first impression, but I still find it boring topic and have to force myself very hard to be able to pay attention.

Questions

Is there anyway to make the subject of type more interesting?