The Art of Typography - Example

Typography PART A Introduction Typography may be described as the art and technique of arranging certain types in order to make language. This particular arrangement mainly involves line spacing, line length, point size, typefaces, and kerning which is basically adjusting space between groups of letters. With todays information age, typography has been incorporated into online broadcast, television programs, and film in order to enrich emotions in mass communication. The art of typography is performed by different people such as clerical workers, graffiti artist, comic book artists, art directors, graphic designers, typographers, compositors, typesetters and any other individual who wishes to arrange types for a certain product. Before the advent of digital technology, typography was a specialized discipline, but digitalization delivered typography to modern generation of visual and lay users, and as a result, typography is something that everyone can do today. History This particular art boasts of a very rich history that can be traced back 1600 B.C when punches and dies were used to develop seals and currencies during ancient times. The first typographical principle was accomplished when a complete text was developed by reusing identical characters, and this particular art was performed by Phaistos disc who is a Greece nationality. There are also indications from reliable sources that Roman lead pipe inscriptions were created by movable printing type. Come 15th Century the modern mechanical printing press was invented courtesy of goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg, whereby type pieces are from lead based alloy that are suited for printing purposes. There has been very many other historical examples as well and this includes the Egyptian hieroglyphs. This is a formal writing system mainly used by ancient Egyptians and it integrates both logographic and alphabetic elements. Egyptians employed cursive hieroglyphs for religious literature on papyrus and wood. The word hieroglyph is derived from the Greek word (hieroglyphikos), and this particular word has transformed itself as a noun in English language. For very many years the earliest hieroglyphic inscription was “namer pallet” and this was discovered during excavations at Hierakonpolis during the period 1890. Just recently in 1980, a German archaeological team managed to discover a tomnb of a Predynastic ruler, and alongside other items recovered were three hundred clay labels inscribed with proto-hieroglyphs. However, the first full sentence that was developed in hieroglyphs that has so far been discovered was found on a seal impression found in the tomb of “Seth-Peribsen” in Umm el-Qaab, dating back from second dynasty during the era of the old, middle, and new kingdom. By the Greco-Roman period, there was almost 5,000 hieroglyphs. We also have the Gutenberg bible that is referred to as the 42 line bible and this was the first kind of a major book that was printed with movable type in the west. This particular edition marked the start of the Gutenberg revolution and also the age of printed book in the west. Gutenberg bible is developed in Latin language and an edition of the Vulgate. The bible is printed by Johannes Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany. So far there are 48 copies that survived and these are considered to be the most valuable books in the world. This particular bible is 36 lines and also beign believed to be the second printed version of the bible. As of 2009, there are only 48 42-line copies of bible that are existing, however, amongst these, it is only 21 that can be classified as complete. There are some bibles with just some leaves, or even an entire volume missing. IN addition to the above, there are also some fragments, and small individual leaves that are likely to represent almost another 16 copies. There is also the Trajan’s column which is a roman triumphal column in Rome that commemorates Roman Emperor Trajan’s victory in Dacian wars. This structure was constructed under the supervision of architect Apollodorus of Damascus. Trajans column was completed A.D 113 and this particular freestanding column is famous of spiral bas relief that artistically describe epic wars between Romans and Dacian, and the columns design has inspired numerous victory columns during modern and ancient times. The structure is 89feet high and 35 metres wide at the base. The structures shaft is developed from a series of 20 colossal Carrara marble drums that weighs approximately 32 tons. Ways in which fashions in typography have affected commercial design practice To begin with, going with ancient history you will find that individuals such as Herod are being out-heroded every week through some fancy writing in from of letters. It is a fact that most modern fancy letters are graceful, and some of them are in good taste, and some come with certain level of beauty in them. In regard to plain or standard face, a perfect model of a letter is altogether imaginary and arbitrary, because an individual who is out there to craft a letter does not have his/her copy but that one left to him/her by former artists. The eyes of a letter make must furnish the criterion, and if the work from former artist do satisfy the criterion then the artist himself copies the exact criterion. If the criterion is short, the letter maker shall correct it. Now, what is this criterion then, I personally think that it is the legibility and beauty of the character. There are scholars who are arguing it out that the various forms of letters can be properly compared and studied when we go back to elementary or things such as sanserif font type. It is by going back that it becomes possible to retrieve excrescent developments that disguise typical forms, and a very astonishing fact is that most European alphabets today contain certain identical forms, and even in certain instances representing the same sound and even occupying the same position in the alphabet, resembling characters of Moabite stone which was available some 2,800 years. For instance, there is that “A” that differs from our very own in being laid sidewise rather than upright, and even it the most primitive form the letter has survived maybe somehow distorted “a” We also have modern typography that is associated with the works of Jan Tschichold and Bauhaus. Modern typography reflects a modern universal method for communication, and this particular design concept assumes a passive and an almost automatic subconscious visual experience. The design concept mainly counts on rationality of both the graphic designer and developer of the message. Often the act of perception that is involved is simply seeing; and the reader is passive, emotionally detached, and objective. This implies that typographic style and layout do not obstruct the transmission of meaning. Sans serif typeface or rather font can be described as the hallmark of modern typography. Due to the fonts simplicity and aspects such as weight of lines and nicely balanced proportions, sans serif forms pleasing and easily distinguished word patterns which is an important element in legibility. Modern typography is mandated to come up with an objective that develops visible form out of the various functions of text. Modern design engineers are thus providing pure and direct expression to contents of whatever is being printed out. Just the way it is with technology, the ‘form” has to come out from a function, and this is the only way that we can achieve and express the spirit of a modern man because even the main function of printed text is communication and logical sequence of the contents. However, modern trend in typography is calling for simplicity and legibility. Interpreting messages in a modern way assumes objectivity and neutrality, and graphic design that has been processed courtesy of print technology, directly translates problems and experiences into a visual linear order. This happens in such a manner because the designer believes that he/she should control what is going to be seen. This particular model of vision rejects the interplay between a viewer and image, and affirms that the persons internal makeup does not alter the impressions received in the eye. he modern designer’s objective is to control the viewer’s detached visual component so that information is transmitted seamlessly. In attempting to control the eye, modern design dismissed the creativity of viewing. In case you are a designer who has a passion for typography, the odds are high that you will regularly try to explain to someone the importance of typography. Web designers are being faced with such questions day in day out which have also plagued graphic designers, but due to web technologies such as @font-face and CSS3 typography features things are today much easier. PART B http://blog.teachbook.com.au/index.php/computer-science/graphic-design/typography-101/ http://abduzeedo.com/45-amazing-type-faces-typographic-portraits Typography is the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible. The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading (line spacing), adjusting the spaces between groups of letters (tracking) and adjusting the space between pairs of letters http://designyoutrust.com/2012/08/30-beautiful-examples-of-typography-design/ Read More