COP1 Lecture - The History of Type (My brain went slightly mushy but yeah!)PPP

This week's COP lecture was definitely one of interest. There is so much I didn't know about the history of fonts... my mind is a bit like whaaaat?

We started off by looking at the features of Typography, Meta-communication, which is the way something is written, Para-linguistics, the way some thing is said and Kinesics which refers to the actions and physical enthusiasm that goes with it. I didn't realise there were so many type families such as Old Style / Modern / Transitional. 

After 1450, human culture in the West was especially effected due to the creation of Gutenberg's Printing Press. The first type faces were Gothic Fonts, coming from Gutenberg's Gothic Print. When it is used today it refers mainly to mediaeval culture.

Geoffroy Troy

It was quite strange hearing all of these different views and takes on the development of type. Geoffroy Troy for example, believed that each letter of the alphabet and its proportions should reflect the ideal human form. A lot of fonts from the Old Style, have a representation of classical order, and sophistication, so I guess thats why I found this so interesting because to be honest I didn't realise there was so much historical baggage with each font. A lot of the Old Style fonts can be related with The Renaissance. 

The Declaration Of Independence used the font Caslon which was actually the Modern font at the time, clearly showing how the chosen font can change the nature of a piece of text. This use of Caslon could have been an effective way of representing the step forward and change that America was taking. Put it this way, if they had used some super old Gothic Fonts it would have made NO SENSE. Just wouldn't be the same. 

John Baskerville 

After looking at some of the work from John Baskerville it became apparent that this was a chap who wanted to pay attention to the thinness and thickness of the letters. In my persona opinion I think these are in some ways more interesting to look at than some of the fonts before its time, because I love the fact that the stems of the letters are not aways the same width - It looks bold but elegant at the same time.

SLAB SERIF WAS ONE CREATED IN THE 1800'S, IT WAS USED A LOT FOR NEWSPAPER HEADLINES AND GETTING PEOPLE'S ATTENTION. CLEARLY BECAUSE ITS PRETTY BOLD AND IN YOUR FACE - not always a bad thing ya'll. 

Something interesting to know was that until 1941, the Third Reich used the Old Gothic Fonts. They were pretty dominating to look at and were a political signifier of German greatness. That'd be enough to make me run and hide to be honest with you..

Cooper Black, created by Oswald Bruce Cooper in 1921 and is still used for many things today, such as Easy Jet! Its pretty nice to look at in my opinion, definitely could make you feel caller about getting getting on that plane. Its like a "hug from a 70's friend"- Tutors are full of such wisdom.

This lecture definitely opened my eyes to the history of text and encouraged me to pay ore attention to this sort of thing. After all, all fonts have a lot of history behind them which deserves to have the recognition!