Elements of well working typography:
Paralinguistics
Para-linguistics are the nonverbal aspects of communications in different languages, such as body language and wordless expression. Examples are smiling,gestures or body movements, laughing, and more specifically, English-language examples include "um," "erm", "aha," and "mm-hmm."
Kinesics - creates impact
inesics is the interpretation of body language such as facial expressions and gestures — or, more formally, non-verbal behavior related to movement, either of any part of the body or the body as a whole.
meta communication can change communication
These indicate how the verbal communication should be understood and interpreted.
Eric Gill- the creator of Gill Sans.
The 6 families of typography:
- humanist
- slab serif
- sans serif
- old style
- traditional
- modern
'The late age of print'
'...If a new technology extends one or more of our senses outside us into the social world, then new ratios among all of our senses will occur in that particular culture. It is comparable to what happens when a new note is added to a melody. And when the sense ratios alter in any culture then what had appeared lucid before may suddenly become opaque, and what had been vague or opaque will become translucent' - Marshall McLuhan, The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man.
Built in around 113AD, Trajans column clearly exhibits modern lettering.
In around 1450, the Gutenberg press made print readily available to a wide audience, powering the renaissance era of type and communication.
Gutenberg's gothic script from 1450 was inspired by medieval handwriting.
Nicholas Jenson in 1475 realised the more elegant humanist typefaces.
Geofroy Tory believed that letterforms should reflect the ideal human form.
'old style' fonts are those that reflect the fonts gone before them but are more refined and less calligraphic. (palentino, garamond, perpetual, goudy old style)
'Romain du roi' is a roman font. Literally meaning 'roman for the king' it was commissioned by king louis XIV for the imprimerie royale in 1693.
William Caslon and John Baskerville, creators of the typefaces Caslon and Baskerville, were contributors to the transitional age of type.
The modern age of type began in 1794 with Firmin Didot's typeface 'Didot' and 'Bodoni' (Vogue). It was around the time of the French revolution.
The slab serif/ Egyptian style of type originates from the 1800s/Victorian era. It was created for billboards to stand out to passing crowds.
(the typeface 'fat face' has elements from Bodoni but is still an egyptian font)
In 1932 Stanley Morison oversaw the refinement of a roman typeface to the well known typeface we know today: Times New Roman. It was commissioned by the Times newspaper after it was publicly criticised by Morison for having inadequate type in it's print.
In 1921, Oswald Bruce Cooper created the typeface: Cooper Black.
The postmodern era of type was shaped by artists such as David Carson and Rudy Vanderlans by ignoring the rules of type that had gone before.
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'The Crystal Goblet' by Beatrice Warde
" You have two goblets before you. One is of solid gold, wrought in the most exquisite patterns. The other is of crystal-clear glass, thin as a bubble, and as transparent. Pour and drink; and according to your choice of goblet, I shall know whether or not you are a connoisseur of wine. For if you have no feelings about wine one way or the other, you will want the sensation of drinking the stuff out of a vessel that may have cost thousands of pounds; but if you are a member of that vanishing tribe, the amateurs of fine vintages, you will choose the crystal, because everything about it is calculated to reveal rather than hide the beautiful thing which it was meant to contain.
Bear with me in this long-winded and fragrant metaphor; for you will find that almost all the virtues of the perfect wine-glass have a parallel in typography. There is the long, thin stem that obviates fingerprints on the bowl. Why? Because no cloud must come between your eyes and the fiery heart of the liquid. Are not the margins on book pages similarly meant to obviate the necessity of fingering the type-page? Again: the glass is colourless or at the most only faintly tinged in the bowl, because the connoisseur judges wine partly by its colour and is impatient of anything that alters it. There are a thousand mannerisms in typography that are as impudent and arbitrary as putting port in tumblers of red or green glass! "
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