OUAN401 Context of Practice : lecture 4 : History of type (Part II )

Continuing from last lecture , we now go into the early modernism and post-digital periods within the timeline of type development , starting from the introduction of Bauhaus in the early 1920s. A project to bring together all form of arts and connect them with each other for the first time ever , Bauhaus has a tremendous impact on all forms of modernist designs , which also includes typography. One fact that was the most interesting to me from this was it was this drive to a more industrial form of art that led to the concepts of "forms follow functions" and "less is more" . I studied graphic design for my A-level , and indeed my teacher really drilled these concepts into my head and every project that I did , so much so that it bled into my outside art and other forms of work, and even my daily life . Even now in animation , I can relate a certain aspect of it being closely related to the idea of less is more ,  that is subtle actions of a character can sometime tell a bigger story than a bigger ,  more dynamic one.Being a very practical animator myself , and having what you called a relatively modernist thinking , It was really interesting to see how this idea that have been so influential in not only mine creative process but the art industries as a whole , started from one thing , one idea.

 

With those concepts in mind , once again we see how trade played the crucial role of revolutionising type, with the introduction of new technologies bringing new ways and standards to create type and fonts. The new industrial and pre-digital world emphasise on practicality , accuracy and effectiveness, which demands clearer forms of communication, and within typography , the Helvetica font was the epitome of this idea. Created by Swiss designer Max Miedinger , Helvetica's neo-grotesque and realist designs leave the font to be extremely dynamic and open to different interpretation and context, with it forms "following" the functions it want to deliver. This propelled the font to be THE hallmark of The international typographic style, becoming one of the most popular font of the 20th century with numerous variants based upon it , one of them is the all to familiar Arial font by Microsoft. Before this , I had no knowledge of Helvetica and its impact on typography, so it was definitely an interesting fact to learn that the font that had been so familiar with me was to simply put,a plain rip-off

Speaking of the devil, it was really funny to see Fred's just laid it in to Bill Gates and Mircosoft on how they steal other people's idea and destroy the process of democratising type production and distribution and all that typography represents , among those was the heresy that is the creation of Comic-sans. That sense of drama indeed did lifted the entire lecture right up and was the perfect way to bring us to the modern age of post-digital designs and put a temporary close to the brief history of type. It's been really inspiring to have some sense of the evolution of what is considered to be one of the most important aspect of designs and culture in general, yet taken for granted so much nowadays. With the ever advancing technologies , such as the introduction VR ,it brings to question what more changes will the future bring to not only type but all forms of design as well ( 3D ? )