Discuss
the evolution of digital type, from early experiments to more recent designs.
Include at least three designers and discuss their typefaces. Include names of
influential foundries and identify relevant software.
Font design software such as Fontographer, allowed designers to not only design but also market their own original typefaces. This led to a large amount of new releases in the 1990s. Sumner Stone designed the Stone type family while type director of Adobe Systems. Two of the original typeface designers at Adobe are Carol Twombly and Robert Slimbach. They created digital adaptations of classical typefaces as well as original typefaces. Some examples of their typefaces are Twombly’s Charlemagne, Lithos, and Cronos and many more. In 1992, the idea of multiple- master typefaces was created (two or more master designs combined to generate extensive variations in weight, width, style, and optical size). One major example was Myriad, designed by Twombly and Slimbach. Another example of a designer is Matthew Carter. He has designed type faces like Bell Centennial, Galliard, and a variety of others.
Is Fontographer still popular today? I don't know much about creating typefaces, or the programs people use to do it. It seems like a lot of the early digital typeface designers worked for Adobe, and Adobe is still an industry leader today.
I think it's interesting how classical fonts were not forgotten with the progress of technology, and designers adapted them to be used on computers. No matter how much the technology advances, we still draw inspiration from the past.
Katie, I think people do still use Fontographer. At work, when the designers really want to make a display type for short projects such as commercials, they use Fontographer so that in case changes need to be made during production, it can be easily done without the designers having to create new letters as needed.
Digital type started with new font design software like Fontographer that allowed designers to create typefaces easily and cheaply. This caused a wave of new typefaces in the 1990s. Some designers used the new technology to design new typefaces, like Sumner Stone. Stone designed Bodoni and Stone, named after himself, while he was working for Adobe. Later on in his career, he founded the Stone Type Foundry and designed more typefaces: Arepo, Sator, Silica and more.
Other designers converted classic typefaces to a digital form, so it can be used with graphic design software. Two other Adobe designers, Carol Twombly and Robert Slimbach, created the digital counterparts of Charlemagne, Lithos, Trajan, Minion, Jenson and Cronos. Carol Twombly was unique because she was one of the five people to graduate from a digital typography program at Stanford University. Although it wasn’t a widespread class, it says something about this new field that there was a college program for it. Later, Carol Twombly collaborated with Robert Simbach, another designer at Adobe, to create the first multiple-master typeface, Myriad.
(1) Megg’s History of Graphic Design (2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumner_Stone (3) http://www.stonetypefoundry.com/ (4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Twombly
Carol Twombly and Robert Slimbach are such an outstanding designers at Adobe. I love Twombly's typefaces how they were inspired by historical lettering. My favorite is the Lithos which was inspired by the monoline simplicity and even textured economy of Greek stone inscription.
I find Lithos to be very interesting as well, even though it might not be one of my favorites I do count the fact that this typeface was created in a historical context. I believe many of the designer employed this method which is great since the digital type period opened the possibility to explore more and experiment.
It is interesting to think that only 5 people graduated from the digital typography program in Stanford at that time. These days, many people try to make their own typefaces and go into school for type. To be one of the first people to go into digital type must have been an experience. The typographers from this time were truly one of a few to accept this new way of design at this time.
The evolution of digital type evolved from the invention of the computer. The computer as well as programs such as Photoshop and Quarkexpress allowed for design and type to be created easily as well as edited just as easily. These programs allowed for type designers to experiment with type forms as well as to create type faces quickly. Though there were many advances throughout the years that allowed for design and type to be created easily, the beginning of digital type was not always so smooth.
One type designer was Summer Stone. He created Stone Sans, Stones Humanist Sans, Stone Serif and Stone Informal in 1985. He was one of the first few to create their type family digitally. He used Bezier curves on these programs to create the curves of the type and to fill them in.
Another designer from this time period is Carol Twombly. She worked for Adobe from 1988 and created various typefaces like Trajan, Charlemagne, Lithos, and Adobe Caslon. These typefaces were inspired from early Greek inscription and typefaces of the 1700s. She used traditional typefaces to create new typefaces.
Robert Slimbach worked with Twombly, joining Adobe in 1987, developing new typefaces. During this time he went to the Plantin-Moretus museum in Antwerp, Belgium, to study the original Garamond typefaces. This inspired Adobe Garamond. He also helped to create typefaces widely used today such as Myriad Pro and Minion Pro.
1. Megg's History of Graphic Design 2. http://www.stonetypefoundry.com/itcstoneoverview.html 3. http://store1.adobe.com/cfusion/store/html/index.cfm?store=OLS-US&event=displayDesignerInfo&code=TWOM 4. http://www.identifont.com/show?17Z
I think it is great to learn that these designers used historical inspirations in creating their typefaces. It is important to know your history, many things still today are inspired by things already created, many classical, or traditional techniques. We as designers should always use our knowledge of history to try and recreate our own designs with a little inspiration.
I think it's cool that so many of the typefaces that were designed in the early years of digital type is still used now. I think Myriad Pro is one of the default fonts for Windows.
Digital Typography was one of the many advances that designers had from the invention of the computer. The computer allowed designers to move past handmade type to a new era that allowed them to share globally their own typefaces. Just like adobe design programs a program was created that allowed designers to create, publish, and share their own typefaces called Fontographer. Most type designs also took a technological asetic as well. With this new, easy, and cheap program for designer to use a new generation burst of design began in the 1990's.
Sumner Stone is one of the most known designer for the Stone Type Foundry. He created two famous type families Bodoni and Stone, and implemented adobes type program. Carol Twombly was part of the Adobe type designers. She worked there for 11 years until retiring to focus on other design. She is most known for her adobe Caslon typeface, but has worked on many different typefaces that are still used today. Herman Zapf is a notible designer for his beautiful design and typography. He worked with handmade fonts until the digital era began. He created many typefaces such as Optima and Palatino.
1. Megg's History of Graphic Design 2. http://www.stonetypefoundry.com/ 3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Twombly 4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Zapf
While Fontographer allowed new typefaces to be created more easily than ever before, it also may have allowed people with little or no training in good typography to publish typefaces. Before digital, one was most likely forced to go through rigorous training that demanded research, passion and hard work to create something beautiful and effective. While good typefaces are still incredibly time-intensive and demanding to create today, desktop software may have made it easier than ever to create a bad one. It makes you wonder about the good of digital type vs. the bad– but I, for one, whole-heartedly prefer it this way!
I'm surprised that programs like Fontographer were low-cost when created. I would've thought that they would try to keep the prices up since it was so new and exclusive - I definitely think designers still would have paid for it, although I'm glad they were reasonable about the cost.
I agree with Dana, you would think the program fontographer would be a little more expensive since it was the new "thing". SumNER stone was definitely one of the most pronoun designers when it comes to typeface.
I think it is interesting to think that most type designers at this time had to make the switch from handmade into digital. To be a designer at this time must have been exciting and confusing at the same time with all these advances.
Digital typography has been evolving since the 1980s. When computers replaced typesetting machinery, it became cheaper to design type and distribute it as electronic files. Adobe Systems played an important role in the development of early digital typography.
An early type family developed for its PostScript page-description language was Stone, designed by Sumner Stone. Contemporary typeface designers create fonts adaptable for use on many output devices, including low- and high-resolution display screens, inkjet and high-resolution printers, as well as output systems that do not yet exist. Moreover, the environment in which type is used has expanded dramatically, as individuals in many fields, not just designers and typesetters, make typographic decisions and create typeset documents. Carol Twombly and Robert Slimbach emerged as outstanding staff typeface designers at Adobe, creating original designs and respected digital adaptations of classic typefaces. Twombly’s typefaces include three masterful families inspired by historical lettering. (1)
It is interesting that even in the Age of technology type designers still took inspiration from classic typography. Stone, for example, was trained as both a calligrapher and a mathematician. Slimbach draws inspiration from classical typefaces as he designs text faces for digital technology. As a master calligrapher, he also creates vibrant fonts based on calligraphy and handlettering. Slimbach’s fonts are hailed for maintaining the spirit of the original while making adjustments and refinements appropriate to digital technology. (1)
(1) Megg’s History of Graphic Design
Stone’s work - http://www.stonetypefoundry.com/fontgalleries.html
Twombly’s work - http://store1.adobe.com/cfusion/store/html/index.cfm?store=OLS-US&event=displayDesignerInfo&code=TWOM
Slimbach’s work - http://www.linotype.com/578/robertslimbach.html
I agree with you, I think it is really interesting how inspiration is always drawn from the thing that we are trying not to do or use. Slimbach drew inspiration from classic calligraphy while creating typefaces for the computer. It is really nice when the two (digital and classical) are mixed together.
Coming into the era of the digital age typography took drastic turn, instead of the traditional way of making type by handing and shaping it out of metal blocks type could now be made on the computer. The first type to arise was the “bitmap” fonts, the creation of bitmap fonts are comparable to laying a graph over a drawn type and refilling the boxes (pixels) where the lines of the type fall. Bitmaps were great because it was easy to adjust the readability and quality, however bitmaps unfortunately required a separate font for every size and resolution taking up memory in the computer. (1) Eventually during the 1980’s digital type-design systems such as pre-PostScript Ikarus systems were developed and being used by typesetting machinery manufacturers and were extremely expensive. (2) When Fontographer , a font-design software for desktop computers, became accessible it gave type designers the ability to design and market original typefaces through electronic files stored on computer disks. (3) Another influential digital type foundry was Adobe Systems, who developed Stone, the first type family for its PostScript page-description language. (4) Stone was developed by Summer Stone, type designer and graphic designer, the typeface Stone has three versions, serif, sans-serif, and informal, each sharing basic letterform proportions and structure.
Other influential type designers are Matthew Carter and Ralph Oliver du Carrois. Matthew Carter is a London-born type-designer who is regarded as the most important type designer of modern time who developed fonts such as Elephant, Walker, Mantinia, Sophia, and others. (5) Ralph Oliver du Carrois is a Berlin based graphic type and product designer whose work most focuses on corporate and type design. He also has collbarted with other well known type designers Erik Spiekermann and Erik Blokland to develop the Axel type family for Fontshop. (6)
(1) http://www.fonts.com/content/learning/fyti/using-type-tools/digital-format (2), (3), (4),(6) Meggs’ History of Graphic Design (5) http://www.aiga.org/medalist-matthewcarter/
I think its important for designers to know their history. It extremely interesting to see how things were done in the earlier days of type work and how far we have come. It makes you appreciate how things are now compared to how the creation process took place back then.
I agree with John about how it is really important that as designers we know the history of typography to truely understand the form and beauty of it. I really enjoyed that you didn't just jump into the fontgrapher program but gave a base description of what led up to that. Its very important to know the advances that were made to get wehre we are today. Typography is a lovely art form that has evolved from handmade to digital at a quick pace that designers forget how it all started.
Digital type had evolved with the invention of the computer. Computer users wee empowered by greater control over the design and production process. When computer software called Fontographer became available, it allowed designers to design as well as market original typefaces as electronic files on computer disks, it was now cheaper and more affordable to distribute fonts.
A type designer by the name Summer Stone created his own type family called, Stone. This type family was developed for its Post-Script page-description language. Summer Stone was trained in both calligraphy and as a mathematician. He was the type director for Adobe Systems before he had opened his own type foundry in 1990. The Stone family had three versions–serif, sans-serif, and informal, all sharing basic letterform proportions and structure. Contemporary typeface designers create fonts adaptable for use on many output devices, including low- and high-resolution display screens, inkjet and high-resolution printers.
Another two type designers that go by the names, Carol Twombly and Robert Slimbach emerged as outstanding staff typeface designers at Adobe, both creating original designs and respected digital adaptations of classic typefaces. Twombly's typefaces, inspired by historical lettering, include three masterful families, Charlemagne, Lithos and Cronos. Slimbach was one who would seek inspiration from classical typefaces as he designed text faces for digital technology. He also creates vibrant fonts based on calligraphy and hand lettering. Slimbach's fonts are hailed for maintaining the spirit of the original while making adjustments and refinements appropriate to digital technology. (1)
I think it is so great that great type face designers like I mentioned looked to classical lettering. Each had a background in an area that helped them create their type faces. Stone, a mathematician as well as a calligrapher, Twombly, inspired by historical lettering, and Slimbach, a master calligrapher that was also inspired by classical type faces. All three created their type faces with an inspiration in mind, they tried to maintain the original as well as tweak to make it what they needed.
I agree that looking to the past is what great type designers of the digital age so great. The digital truly marries the best of traditional type design and makes it inexpensive and convenient to use. I can only imagine what designing and choosing a typeface must have been like before the days of choosing one from a drop-down window in InDesign; having to market and sell type hardware as well as trying to be informed and contemporary as a designer must have been a real challenge!
I agree. The work that they had to go through in order to achieve the maximum achievement of a perfect font must have been exhausting. Once new software came into the picture, their flexibility stretched and it gave type designers more wiggle room to experiment with typefaces. The fact that it gave them the opportunity to design new fonts with inspiration from original classical typefaces is amazing.
It's pretty interesting noticing how some designers take from the old and create the new. Their versions of the past reflect and transform into fonts the honor the traditional ways of type. I wonder if designers int the future will honor past designers as they have now.
This makes me think how in our very own graphic design and typography classes, a lot of us students really like to add our own hand drawn aspect or type to our work. Even with all this technology and the slew of typefaces at our finger tips, we'd still like to put our own personality into it.
It's so intriguing to think about handmade typography versus computer created typography. The differences between the style and overall aestic of the designs. I liked how you talked about designers who are inspired from old lettering and the orgins of display font that were created by hand. It gives digital type that personal aspect that is lost.
I also think it's interesting to look at how typefaces have evolved since the first ones that were created. So many were influenced by classical hand drawn fonts and now so the most popular ones used, such as Helvetica and Univers, are sans-serif and more modern. It makes me wonder what the next popular typefaces will be and how they will evolve from what we already have.
The evolution of digital type grew with the introduction of the computer, which allowed designers to develop designs with greater ease by utilizing new software. Early experiments in digital type began with “bitmap” fonts that were created by controlling the matrix of dots of the first Macintosh computers, Susan Kare is an example of an early designer who created bitmap fonts. (1) Adobe designs programs played an important role in this evolution but the most relevant program was Fontographer. This program allowed for designers to not only create but market their own original typefaces, which resulted in an explosion of new digital type in the 1990s. Influential type foundries include Emigre and Stone Type Foundry. Emigre is accredited as being one of the first type foundry to design original fonts for and on the computer. Emigre emerged in time when the graphic design world was adjusting to the introduction of the Macintosh, and their fonts’ were influenced by the computer rather than imitating letterpress fonts. Publishing its own magazine from 1984 to 2005, this foundry is known for its role in creating important typefaces and licensing over 300 original typefaces by other designers. (2) The founders of Emigre were husband and wife team, Rudy VanderLans and Zuzana Licko. Zuzana Licko as a type designers has created over 27 fonts, some of her most popular ones include Mrs. Eaves and Filosofia. Stone Type Foundry is another important type foundry that was responsible for establishing Adobe’s typographic program in he 1980s, and was founded by Sumner Stone. He was among the first to create full type families digitally by using Beizer curves on the software to create the necessary curves of the letterforms. Stone has created about 29 font families, including Stone (named after himself) and Magma which has 48 type variations. Other notable type designers include Matthew Carter who first began his career as a type designer by cutting metal type by hand and evolved to creating digital type as typographic technology grew.(3) He has created 55 font families, two of his most popular fonts include Galliard and Bell Centennial. Many have called Carter to be “the most important type designer of modern time, his work is used daily by millions of people.”
Matthew Carter is a great example. He is responsible for creating such a variety of fonts. After doing some reading on him it was really interesting to find out about how he would cut the metal to create type. Its crazy to think about how much easier creating type has become.
I think Matthew Carter biggest achievement was to establish Bitstream Inc. with his friend, Mike Parker. I mean isn't it the highest level for a type designer to create a digital type foundry which is the largest supplier of types on Earth? Of course, designing for Apple and Microsoft computers is not bad either! :)
Matthew Carter is definitely someone to look up to as an example. From his days of cutting metal to create type to establishing Bitstream Inc. like John and Sofia said in their comments, it's amazing to see how much work it went into to finding the perfect type for future generations to come.
Something very interesting about Matthew Caster is that we can actually see some of his works in our daily routine. Companies such as apple and Microsoft have been responsible in the last years to introduced us to a world of digital media. It is amazing how much time we spend utilizing these products and how much we are exposed to this fonts but we give little appreciation to the designer's work.
I'm glad you used Matthew Carter as an example because it shows a connection between his inspiration and that of Carol Twombly and Robert Slimbach. All of these people were somewhat inspired by carved or cut out type. I think this is so interesting because these are the designers that created some of the most well known fonts today and many derived inspiration from the same things.
With the burst of technology in the most century, digital type has evolved far beyond what many people imagine, benefiting graphic design along the way. From the use of phototype in the ‘60s, in which you had typesetters, production artists and camera operators to name a few in order to produce one single form art, to digital technology in the ‘90s, allowing all these jobs to merge— the digital revolution had begun. With the birth of the World Wide Web in the ‘90s, the internet help spread design across oceans more quickly and more efficiently.
Software game changers during this time period, who are notably still going strong today, are Adobe and Macintosh. Whereas before, designers were forced to use multiple software brands during design, Adobe was able to merge them all under their brand. Macintosh was able to reinvent the way in which we interact with design with the product Macbooks, iPads, iPods and more. This is important because designers design with the audience in mind, and how the audience will receive or communicate with what is being creating.
Designer Sumner Stone went on to develop Stone, a page-description language for Adobe’s PostScript. It was three versions— serif, sans-serif and informal with three roman and three italic fonts. Lastly, designers Carol Twombly and Robert Slimbach, who were also apart of Adobe; Twombly created typefaces Charlemagne, Lithos and Trajan. While Slimbach created Minion, Caflisch and Poetica to name a few.
Digital type enabled designers to design and market original typefaces as electronic files on computer disk, with significant reductions in the high cost designing and contributing fonts. A virtual explosion in the release of new typefaces occurred in 1990’s, as a large type vendors were joined by independent type manufacturers. Summer Stone trained as both a calligrapher and a mathematician; Stone was type director of Adobe Systems before opening his own type foundry in 1990. The stone family has three versions: serif, san-serif, and informal.
Another two designers were Carol Twombly and Robert Slimach, they emerged as outstanding staff typeface designers for Adobe, creating original designs and respected digital adaptations of classic typefaces. Twombly’s typefaces include three masterful families inspired in historical lettering. These were the first three display fonts of Adobe Original typeface program, a series of new designs created for original technology.Charlemagne is freely based on the decorative capitals used as versals and titling in Carolingian-era illuminated manuscripts. Lithos was inspired by the monoline simplicity and even-textured economy Greek stone inscriptions, but he transformed the carved letters into highly original family of five wights. Slimbach seeks inspiration from classical typefaces as he designs text faces for digital technology. He also creates vibrant fonts based on calligraphy and hand lettering. His fonts are hailed for maintaining the spirit of the original while making adjustments and refinements appropriate to digital technology. Source: (1) Meggs' History of Graphic Design
The radical shift toward digital graphic design in the 1980s and 90s has been compared to the revolution spurred by Gutenberg’s movable type in the fifteenth century. There were many different kinds of technologies that contributed to this shift, really beginning with the Macintosh computer introduced in the 1980s along with the first laser printer. Adobe Systems invented Postscript, the programming language, which allowed for the creation of electronically-generated type. Also made possible by Postscript was Pagemaker which allowed pages to be designed on-screen. Susan Kare is credited with designing early bitmapped fonts and Pierre Bezier (creator of Bezier curves, the underlying theory of the pen tool) allowed for complex, smooth vector shapes. By 1990, with Apple’s Macintosh II that was color-capable, the platform of technology that enabled design as we know it today had been established. During the 1990s, QuarkXPress (which, I must admit, I have never used or even seen throughout my design education) and Adobe Photoshop pushed design even further. Just like any significant movement in art, digital design coincided with a renewed interest in handmade and expressionistic lettering, but personal expression still gave way to much computer experimentation. Font design software such as Fontographer allowed designers with desktop computers to create and market their own typefaces, undoubtedly the origin of the hundreds of pre-loaded computer fonts that many of us have never used or given a second look. There are a handful of talented and well-known type designers and foundries that are responsible for many of the most well-known and widely-used typefaces. These innovators included Matthew Carter, founder of Verdana, Galliard, and Bell Centennial; Erik Spiekermann, creator of Meta and Officina; and Hoefler & Frere-Jones, responsible for original type for Rolling Stone, Harper’s Bazaar, Sports Illustrated, and Esquire, as well as Gotham and Hoefler text.
Beginning in the 1960s, graphic design saw progressive steps being taken in the digital direction. As desktop computers were made available to individuals, new software and developments were created. In the 1980s, digital type foundry Adobe Systems developed PostScript and Aldus created PageMaker. PostScript and programs such as PageMaker helped push typography onto the digital screen with page layouts and electronic type (1). Bitmapped fonts were designed and “letterform design was controlled by the matrix of dots in these early fonts” (1), but PostScript allowed for fonts that were stored as “graphical commands and data” (1). Other important foundries included Stone Type Foundry and Émigré (1).
More and more updates, research, and development lead to progress in these areas. For example, in 1985 PageMaker and Apple worked together to produce a new version that could “alter type size, choice of font, and column dimensions… It integrated type with other elements” (1). Fast forwarding to the early 1990s, programs such as Quark Xpress and Adobe Photoshop propelled digital type forward with acute manipulation possibilities to type (2).
Type designer Carol Twombly worked at Adobe (3). She is known for created Charlemagne, Lithos, and Trajan, which were the first display fonts in the Adobe Originals type program (1). Charlemagne was “based on the decorative capitals used as versals and titling in Carolingian-era illuminated transcripts,” (1), Lithos was “inspired by the monoline simplicity and even-textured economy of Greek stone inscriptions” (1), and Trajan was inspired by Trajan’s Column. Robert Slimbach also worked for Adobe and created fonts based on calligraphy and hand-lettering, such as Adobe Garamond, yriad, Minion, Caflisch script, Poetica, Adobe Jenson, and Cronos (1). Sumner Stone, who created Stone Type Foundry, created the Stone type family and Magma, which has 48 variants within the family (1).
1) Megg’s History of Graphic Design, p531-5 2) http://www.fonts.com/content/learning/fyti/using-type-tools/digital-format 3) http://www.myfonts.com/person/Carol_Twombly/
In the 1980's Apple introduced the Macintosh computer Adobe released the Postscript program, which included electronically generated topography. This started the evolution of digital type. "Adobe Systems' Postscript page description language enabled printed to output text, images and graphic elements, and determine their placement on the page. Postscript fonts are not simply made up of bitmapped dots; rather they are stored as graphical commands and date. Type characters are generated as outlines that are filled in as solid forms." The digital type era allowed for bezier curves in the letters, creating a more natural shape. Pierre Bezier was a French mathematician who invented them and they are useful mainly with creating letterforms and computer graphics.
2 One of the first posters printed using digital computer graphics was by April Greiman, for Design Quarterly in 1987. The poster was extremely pixelated and printed on a low-resolution computer. It was 2 feet by 6 feet. The poster consisted of elements from videos layered over one another and integrating the text and images into a single computer file.
In 1992 Adobe released its first multiple master typefaces. Twombly and Slimbach, master calligraphers, (3) executed the actual drawing and digitization of the font Myriad over a two year period. It was one of the first multiple master fonts.
The digital evolution came to desktop of individual graphic designers as a result of affordable but powerful hardware and software created primary by three companies. Apple created the Macintosh computer. The first launched Macintosh computer (in 1984) displayed bitmapped graphics, what mean the information was screen presented as dots called pixels, 72 dots per inch on a black and white screen. Its interface with the user was achieved via the mouse. The user was able to control the computer intuitively and focus on creative work rather than machine operating and programing. Adobe Systems invented the PostScript programming language underlying page-layout software and electronically generated typography. Aldus created PageMaker, an early software application using PostScript to design pages on computer screen. An early type family developed for its PostScript page-description language was STONE designed by Sumner Stone. The Stone family has three versions – serif, sans-serif and informal. – that shared the basic letterform proportion and structure. Each version three roman and three italic fonts for a total of 18 typefaces in the family. Carol Twombly, Adobe worker designed three masterful families inspired by historical lettering: CHARLEMAGNE, LITHOS and TRAJAN. These were the first display font in the Adobe Originals type program, a series of new design created for digital technology. Robert Slimbach seeks inspiration from classical typefaces as he designs text faces for digital technology. He also creates vibrant fonts based on calligraphy and hand lettering. His fonts are hailed for maintaining the spirit of the original while making adjustments and refinements appropriate to digital technology. Apple second biggest invention was the portable technology. Apple first invented iPod and then the iPhone and iPad. The minimalist design of the devices, and the closed system of application development has influenced the design of applications and the way users interact with them. Apple changed the way how we communicate with each other.
i never realized how long Apple products really have been around for. I feel like modern culture underestimates a lot of what the digital types have impacted in our community. I also feel like Apples second big inventions proceed their first. And perhaps their IPods, IPhones, and IPads are what actually make types more important when communicating with each other.
Font design software for desktop computers, such as Fontographer, enabled designers to design and market original typefaces, which led to an explosion of new releases in the 1990’s. The 1992, Adobe released a new concept in type design, multiple-master typefaces, in which two or more master designs combined to generate extensive variations in weight, width, style, and optical style. The advances in digital type design have allowed for the mechanization, stylization, and standardization of traditionally handwritten letter forms and calligraphy. In recent years, there has been great interest in the design of font families that not only include characters from the Roman alphabet, but from Cyrillic, Greek, and Arabic alphabets as well. (1) Small independent type foundries also emerged, and the wide variety in type design led to a division between those who believed traditional values should be maintained and those who advocated experimentation. One of the most successful independent foundries is Émigré Fonts. (1) Robert Slimbach was a staff typeface designer at Adobe, he sought inspiration from classical typefaces as he designs text faces for digital technology. His fonts are hailed for maintaining the spirit of the original while making adjustments and refinements appropriate to digital technology. Adobe Garamond, Myriad, and Adobe Jenson are some of his most popular designs. (1) Matthew Carter, now of Carter & Cone Type, is an outstanding and prolific type designer. His designs include Bell Centennial, designed for legibility in telephone directories; Galliard, an adaptation of a sixteen-century design by the Renaissance painter Andrea Mantegna; and Sophia, an original display face inspired by capitals, Greek letterforms, and uncials from sixth-century Constantinople. (1) In Germany, Erik Spiekermann designed FF Meta, FF MetaSerif, ITC Officina, FF Govan, FF Info, FF Unit, LoType, Berliner Grotesk, among many others. In 1979, he established MetaDesign and in 1988 he founded FontShop, a firm specializing in creating distributing electronic fonts. He left MetaDesign in 2001 to form Edenspiekermann. (1)
The Digital evolution of type all started to project for designers with the origins of the computer. It’s kickoff really started to emerge around the 80’s thanks to the lost costs and powerful software form Apple, Adobe systems, and Aldus. Designers such as Summer Stone contributed to the early digital type family. He used 3 versions of serif, sans, and informal types in her “Digitized Date for Stone Medium.” He also used Bezier curves to contribute in creating the types. Carol Twomby and Robert Slimbach were both successors in reinventing digital type. Twomby’s influence in Adobe in the late 80’s introduced new types such as Trajan, Charlemagne, Lithos, and Adobe Caslon. Her inspirations reach from more traditional types to create new ones. Later when more font design software’s for desktop computers were created, such as Fontographer, it became much more simpler and inexpensive fro designers to create original typefaces. Designer likes Mathew Carter created type designs from classic qualities with modern aesthetics such as Galliard, Mantinia, Sophia, and Big Caslon. (1)
I like how you talked about expense and cost because I think it has a big thing to do with the digital evolution of type but people don't really talk about it. It was very cost and labor efficient to turn to digital type because of the time and effort it took to manually create typefaces. This is interesting to look at. Now we are all trying to go back to the nondigital area of design and look at the whole process and struggle it took to get us here.
Digital type represented an open door for a new era. However the value of “analog” letterforms of metal and wood was not lost in time, instead type was converted to a variety of digital formats. Digital type gave design around the world an opportunity to improve applications, speed results and experiments new parameters. Digital fonts allowed having a wide range of composition, including kerning pairs.(1)
Sumner Stone a type designer and graphic designer opened his first Stone Type Foundry company for digital type design in 1990. His most famous fonts are Arepo™, Scripps College Old Style™ (1997), Stone® Family (1987), Stone Print (1991), Stone Phonetic, Silica™ (1993), Bodoni™ Ornaments (1994), Bodoni™ Six (1994), Bodoni™ Twelve (1994), Bodoni™ Seventy Two(1994/1995), Scripps College Old Style™(1997), ITC Stone® Sans II (2010). (2)
Gerard Unger, a graphic designer and type designer. His typefaces have been featured internationally, on newspaper, magazines and publications of that nature. Some of his most famous fonts are, Argo, Gulliver, Amerigo, Oranda and Vesta
Matthew Carter a professional in digital typography and founder of Bitstream Inc. has had an outstanding contribution to the innovative world of the printing industry. Carter has produced works for some of the most important companies in today’s world such as Apple and Microsoft, he has done world on the screen shots of font such as Verdana, Tahoma and Georgia. (3)
It's very true how you say the value of analog letterforms of metal and wood was not lost in time. There are still people who like to do things the old fashioned way, and many people who appreciate these methods. Remember that video we watched in typography last semester? It was about the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum. These people were keeping the tradition methods alive, and trying to prevent their museum from being shut down. It was actually really interesting and kind of sad. Here's a link to their website. http://woodtype.org/
It seems like Matthew Carter is the designer to aspire to, for to have made as many typefaces as he has and to transition from hand drawn type to digital is a good example of how to adapt.
The origin of digital art started as a revolution brought out by three major creations: Macintosh computer; PostScript, created by Adobe; and PageMaker, created by Aldus. Another creation that made a huge leap in digital design was the creation of Bezier curve. Although Pierre Bezier made the practical application for this idea, the mathematical formula was created by Paul de Casteljau. Bezier first used it to design automobiles, and Adobe borrowed this idea for their software, which made them really popular. Summer Stone would use the Bezier to create typefaces with smooth curves, totally different from the low-res format of Macintosh’s earlier fonts. Macintosh computer would be instrumental in expanding the field of digital art; they lead the way for the next generation of graphic design. Susan Kare created screen fonts for Macintosh, and its typefaces were very digitized and pixilated. PageMaker by Aldus was created for Macintosh, and it made editing newspapers very easy and efficient. Fonts could be changed, redesigned resized very easily. However, Adobe merged with Aldus, and it released InDesign, the latest generation of page-editing software. According to Megg, one of the early digital hardware was digital typesetting systems. They included Scitex, Quantel Video and Graphic Paintboxes. They were accessible in Macintosh computers, and early designers used them to their fullest potential. One of the artists included April Greiman: http://idsgn.org/images/design-discussions-april-greiman-on-technology/design_quarterly__full.jpg
I like how you point out the three major creations of digital art as well as the creation of Bezier Curve. You are right about Macintosh computers and how they would be instrumental in expanding the field of digital art. I never realized how long it has been around and with each new device or software they keep improving. I like the example you gave of April Greiman, you can tell that her design was created in a very unique process, one that might have taken her a long time to piece together.
In the 1960's you start to see a development in the digital world. With the creation of computer desktops, type design and manufacturing entered a new era. Letterforms and photo type turned into a variety of digital formats. The first were called "bitmap" fonts. These had the advantage of carefully being edited for quality and readability. the digital generation then moved onto "scalable" outline fonts. (smaller in memory size, faster to process)
April Greiman was one of the first designers to embrace computer technology as a tool. her poster for design Quarterly was one of the first posters using digital computer graphics. The poster was very pixelated.
Carol Twobly is an american calligrapher and typeface designer. She designed many typefaces such as Trajan, Myriad and Adobe Caslon. She also worked as a type designer for Adobe systems.
Sumner Stone is a typeface designer and graphic artist. He designed ITC Stone while working for Adobe. He also designed Stone Print, Silica, Arepo, Cycles, and Basalt typeface families.
Type design and manufacturing entered a new era with the arrival of desktop publishing. The “analog” letterforms of metal and photo type were converted to a variety of digital formats. The first generation of technology resulted in “bitmap” fonts. This was comparable to superimposing a sheet of graph paper over a drawn letter and coloring in the boxes (pixels) that fell within the outline of that letter.
Our current generation of digital font technology provides for “scalable” outline fonts. They are smaller in memory size and faster to process. Analog drawings of letters are plotted with a mouse or stylus to create an outline representation (made up of curves and straight lines). These digitized outlines are made into a font that is installed in a computer operating system.
Matthew Carter is a type designer and the son of the English typographer Harry Carter. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. He designed the early 1.0 web fonts Verdana and Georgia, as well as several others.
Megg's History of Graphic Design
Erik Spiekermann is the author, information architect, type designer and author of books and articles on type and typography. He designed several typefaces like FF Meta, ITC Officina, FF Info, FF Unit, LoType, Berliner Grotesk and many corporate typefaces. He was founder of MetaDesign, Germany’s largest design firm with offices in Berlin, London and San Francisco. He is responsible for corporate design programs for Audi, Skoda, Volkswagen, Lexus, Heidelberg Printing, Bosch and way-finding projects like Berlin Transit, Düsseldorf Airport and many others.
Jonathon Hoefler is an experienced American type designer with a studio, The Hoefler Type Foundry, in New York City, working alongside Tobias Frere-Jones. During the September 2002 ATypI conference in Rome, he was awarded the prestigious Prix Charles Peignot, given to outstanding type designers under the age of 35. He designed many typefaces such as Hoefler Text, Ziggurat, New Amsterdam, and many more.
Digital type would not have been possible were it not for the invention of the font-design software, Fontographer. This enabled designers to design and market original typefaces as electronic files on computer disks with significant reductions in the high cost of designing and distributing fonts. One of the earliest digital fonts created was Stone by Sumner Stone. The release of this typeface with its three different versions made possible the design of "superfamilies" of type.
Two other type designers that made a huge impact during this time were Carol Twombly and Robert Slimbach. Twombly's most famous typefaces are Charlemagne, Lithos and Trajan which all reference carved letters. Slimbach sought inspiration from classic typefaces for his design of text faces for digital technology. Slimbach's fonts are, "hailed for maintaining the spirit of the original while making adjustments and refinements appropriate to digital technology." His most famous fonts were Garamond, Myriad, Minion, Caflisch, Poetica, AJenson and Cronos.
As time has passed, more and more advances in digital type design have allowed for the mechanization, stylization, and standardization of traditionally handwritten letterforms and calligraphy. More recently, there has been a huge interest in the design of font families that include both Roman alphabet as well as Cyrillic, Greek and Arabic.
Sources: Megg's History of Graphic Design Examples: blogs.adobe.com www.identifont.com www.fonts.com
With the advent of computer technology, all areas of human life underwent drastic change, with graphic design being no different. What was once a laborious process requiring several different specialists was now reduced to a few clicks of a mouse. The first attempt at digital type was by Apple in the form of PostScript, allowing the Linotron laser printer to output texts and images. In the dawn of computer technology, many small feats were made gradually by the designers able to grasp the capabilities on the horizon. But it wasn’t until truly innovative thinkers like David Carson to push the culture of graphic design forward.
Carson created typefaces that could be described as avant garde. Carson brought his erratic imagination to life through print by blending text and images in an unprecedented manner, even to the point of perceived disarray. He pushed legibility to its limits, under the notion that expressionism attracts and engages readers far more than tradition.
Martin Venezky was just as outside of the box as Carson. Venezky played with the harmony of handwork and technology while experimenting with the structure of letterforms. Summer Stone was a bit more traditional but innovative in the same right. With Adobe Systems, Stone developed a type family of eighteen typefaces, ranging from serif, sans-serif and informal. The Stone font family was foundational for digital typefaces and especially for Adobe in the years to come.
Font design software such as Fontographer, allowed designers to not only design but also market their own original typefaces. This led to a large amount of new releases in the 1990s. Sumner Stone designed the Stone type family while type director of Adobe Systems. Two of the original typeface designers at Adobe are Carol Twombly and Robert Slimbach. They created digital adaptations of classical typefaces as well as original typefaces. Some examples of their typefaces are Twombly’s Charlemagne, Lithos, and Cronos and many more. In 1992, the idea of multiple- master typefaces was created (two or more master designs combined to generate extensive variations in weight, width, style, and optical size). One major example was Myriad, designed by Twombly and Slimbach. Another example of a designer is Matthew Carter. He has designed type faces like Bell Centennial, Galliard, and a variety of others.
ReplyDeleteSources:
Megg's History of Graphic Design
Examples:
http://www.myfonts.com/person/Carol_Twombly/
http://www.myfonts.com/person/Robert_Slimbach/
http://www.myfonts.com/person/Matthew_Carter/
Is Fontographer still popular today? I don't know much about creating typefaces, or the programs people use to do it. It seems like a lot of the early digital typeface designers worked for Adobe, and Adobe is still an industry leader today.
DeleteI think it's interesting how classical fonts were not forgotten with the progress of technology, and designers adapted them to be used on computers. No matter how much the technology advances, we still draw inspiration from the past.
DeleteVery true Olya, everything especially in art is recycled ideas with different interruptions.
DeleteI agree Olya, the past is something that is always going to be with us no matter what we do.
DeleteKatie, I think people do still use Fontographer. At work, when the designers really want to make a display type for short projects such as commercials, they use Fontographer so that in case changes need to be made during production, it can be easily done without the designers having to create new letters as needed.
DeleteDigital type started with new font design software like Fontographer that allowed designers to create typefaces easily and cheaply. This caused a wave of new typefaces in the 1990s. Some designers used the new technology to design new typefaces, like Sumner Stone. Stone designed Bodoni and Stone, named after himself, while he was working for Adobe. Later on in his career, he founded the Stone Type Foundry and designed more typefaces: Arepo, Sator, Silica and more.
ReplyDeleteOther designers converted classic typefaces to a digital form, so it can be used with graphic design software. Two other Adobe designers, Carol Twombly and Robert Slimbach, created the digital counterparts of Charlemagne, Lithos, Trajan, Minion, Jenson and Cronos. Carol Twombly was unique because she was one of the five people to graduate from a digital typography program at Stanford University. Although it wasn’t a widespread class, it says something about this new field that there was a college program for it. Later, Carol Twombly collaborated with Robert Simbach, another designer at Adobe, to create the first multiple-master typeface, Myriad.
(1) Megg’s History of Graphic Design
(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumner_Stone
(3) http://www.stonetypefoundry.com/
(4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Twombly
Carol Twombly and Robert Slimbach are such an outstanding designers at Adobe. I love Twombly's typefaces how they were inspired by historical lettering. My favorite is the Lithos which was inspired by the monoline simplicity and even textured economy of Greek stone inscription.
DeleteI find Lithos to be very interesting as well, even though it might not be one of my favorites I do count the fact that this typeface was created in a historical context. I believe many of the designer employed this method which is great since the digital type period opened the possibility to explore more and experiment.
DeleteIt is interesting to think that only 5 people graduated from the digital typography program in Stanford at that time. These days, many people try to make their own typefaces and go into school for type. To be one of the first people to go into digital type must have been an experience. The typographers from this time were truly one of a few to accept this new way of design at this time.
DeleteThe evolution of digital type evolved from the invention of the computer. The computer as well as programs such as Photoshop and Quarkexpress allowed for design and type to be created easily as well as edited just as easily. These programs allowed for type designers to experiment with type forms as well as to create type faces quickly. Though there were many advances throughout the years that allowed for design and type to be created easily, the beginning of digital type was not always so smooth.
ReplyDeleteOne type designer was Summer Stone. He created Stone Sans, Stones Humanist Sans, Stone Serif and Stone Informal in 1985. He was one of the first few to create their type family digitally. He used Bezier curves on these programs to create the curves of the type and to fill them in.
Another designer from this time period is Carol Twombly. She worked for Adobe from 1988 and created various typefaces like Trajan, Charlemagne, Lithos, and Adobe Caslon. These typefaces were inspired from early Greek inscription and typefaces of the 1700s. She used traditional typefaces to create new typefaces.
Robert Slimbach worked with Twombly, joining Adobe in 1987, developing new typefaces. During this time he went to the Plantin-Moretus museum in Antwerp, Belgium, to study the original Garamond typefaces. This inspired Adobe Garamond. He also helped to create typefaces widely used today such as Myriad Pro and Minion Pro.
1. Megg's History of Graphic Design
2. http://www.stonetypefoundry.com/itcstoneoverview.html
3. http://store1.adobe.com/cfusion/store/html/index.cfm?store=OLS-US&event=displayDesignerInfo&code=TWOM
4. http://www.identifont.com/show?17Z
I think it is great to learn that these designers used historical inspirations in creating their typefaces. It is important to know your history, many things still today are inspired by things already created, many classical, or traditional techniques. We as designers should always use our knowledge of history to try and recreate our own designs with a little inspiration.
DeleteI think it's cool that so many of the typefaces that were designed in the early years of digital type is still used now. I think Myriad Pro is one of the default fonts for Windows.
ReplyDeleteDigital Typography was one of the many advances that designers had from the invention of the computer. The computer allowed designers to move past handmade type to a new era that allowed them to share globally their own typefaces. Just like adobe design programs a program was created that allowed designers to create, publish, and share their own typefaces called Fontographer. Most type designs also took a technological asetic as well. With this new, easy, and cheap program for designer to use a new generation burst of design began in the 1990's.
ReplyDeleteSumner Stone is one of the most known designer for the Stone Type Foundry. He created two famous type families Bodoni and Stone, and implemented adobes type program. Carol Twombly was part of the Adobe type designers. She worked there for 11 years until retiring to focus on other design. She is most known for her adobe Caslon typeface, but has worked on many different typefaces that are still used today. Herman Zapf is a notible designer for his beautiful design and typography. He worked with handmade fonts until the digital era began. He created many typefaces such as Optima and Palatino.
1. Megg's History of Graphic Design
2. http://www.stonetypefoundry.com/
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Twombly
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Zapf
Hermann Zapf's typography is really beautiful, and it's interesting that it looks classical and modern at the same time
DeleteWhile Fontographer allowed new typefaces to be created more easily than ever before, it also may have allowed people with little or no training in good typography to publish typefaces. Before digital, one was most likely forced to go through rigorous training that demanded research, passion and hard work to create something beautiful and effective. While good typefaces are still incredibly time-intensive and demanding to create today, desktop software may have made it easier than ever to create a bad one. It makes you wonder about the good of digital type vs. the bad– but I, for one, whole-heartedly prefer it this way!
DeleteI'm surprised that programs like Fontographer were low-cost when created. I would've thought that they would try to keep the prices up since it was so new and exclusive - I definitely think designers still would have paid for it, although I'm glad they were reasonable about the cost.
DeleteI agree with Dana, you would think the program fontographer would be a little more expensive since it was the new "thing". SumNER stone was definitely one of the most pronoun designers when it comes to typeface.
DeleteI think it is interesting to think that most type designers at this time had to make the switch from handmade into digital. To be a designer at this time must have been exciting and confusing at the same time with all these advances.
DeleteDigital typography has been evolving since the 1980s. When computers replaced typesetting machinery, it became cheaper to design type and distribute it as electronic files. Adobe Systems played an important role in the development of early digital typography.
ReplyDeleteAn early type family developed for its PostScript page-description language was Stone, designed by Sumner Stone. Contemporary typeface designers create fonts adaptable for
use on many output devices, including low- and high-resolution display screens, inkjet and high-resolution printers, as well as output systems that do not yet exist. Moreover, the environment in which type is used has expanded dramatically, as individuals in many fields, not just designers and typesetters, make typographic decisions and create typeset documents. Carol Twombly and Robert Slimbach emerged as outstanding staff typeface designers at Adobe, creating original designs and respected digital adaptations of classic typefaces. Twombly’s typefaces include three masterful families inspired by historical lettering. (1)
It is interesting that even in the Age of technology type designers still took inspiration from classic typography. Stone, for example, was trained as both a calligrapher and
a mathematician. Slimbach draws inspiration from classical typefaces as he designs text faces for digital technology. As a master calligrapher, he also creates vibrant fonts based on calligraphy and handlettering. Slimbach’s fonts are hailed for maintaining the spirit of the original while making adjustments and refinements appropriate to digital technology. (1)
(1) Megg’s History of Graphic Design
Stone’s work - http://www.stonetypefoundry.com/fontgalleries.html
Twombly’s work - http://store1.adobe.com/cfusion/store/html/index.cfm?store=OLS-US&event=displayDesignerInfo&code=TWOM
Slimbach’s work - http://www.linotype.com/578/robertslimbach.html
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DeleteI actually scrolled through Sumner Stone’s font galleries and I think Magma stood out to me the most. It’s a very universal font.
DeleteI agree with you, I think it is really interesting how inspiration is always drawn from the thing that we are trying not to do or use. Slimbach drew inspiration from classic calligraphy while creating typefaces for the computer. It is really nice when the two (digital and classical) are mixed together.
DeleteComing into the era of the digital age typography took drastic turn, instead of the traditional way of making type by handing and shaping it out of metal blocks type could now be made on the computer. The first type to arise was the “bitmap” fonts, the creation of bitmap fonts are comparable to laying a graph over a drawn type and refilling the boxes (pixels) where the lines of the type fall. Bitmaps were great because it was easy to adjust the readability and quality, however bitmaps unfortunately required a separate font for every size and resolution taking up memory in the computer. (1) Eventually during the 1980’s digital type-design systems such as pre-PostScript Ikarus systems were developed and being used by typesetting machinery manufacturers and were extremely expensive. (2) When Fontographer , a font-design software for desktop computers, became accessible it gave type designers the ability to design and market original typefaces through electronic files stored on computer disks. (3) Another influential digital type foundry was Adobe Systems, who developed Stone, the first type family for its PostScript page-description language. (4) Stone was developed by Summer Stone, type designer and graphic designer, the typeface Stone has three versions, serif, sans-serif, and informal, each sharing basic letterform proportions and structure.
ReplyDeleteOther influential type designers are Matthew Carter and Ralph Oliver du Carrois. Matthew Carter is a London-born type-designer who is regarded as the most important type designer of modern time who developed fonts such as Elephant, Walker, Mantinia, Sophia, and others. (5) Ralph Oliver du Carrois is a Berlin based graphic type and product designer whose work most focuses on corporate and type design. He also has collbarted with other well known type designers Erik Spiekermann and Erik Blokland to develop the Axel type family for Fontshop. (6)
(1) http://www.fonts.com/content/learning/fyti/using-type-tools/digital-format
(2), (3), (4),(6) Meggs’ History of Graphic Design
(5) http://www.aiga.org/medalist-matthewcarter/
I think its important for designers to know their history. It extremely interesting to see how things were done in the earlier days of type work and how far we have come. It makes you appreciate how things are now compared to how the creation process took place back then.
Deletei like the variety of artists you used to show how development of technology influenced designers to create typefaces.
DeleteI agree with John about how it is really important that as designers we know the history of typography to truely understand the form and beauty of it. I really enjoyed that you didn't just jump into the fontgrapher program but gave a base description of what led up to that. Its very important to know the advances that were made to get wehre we are today. Typography is a lovely art form that has evolved from handmade to digital at a quick pace that designers forget how it all started.
DeleteDigital type had evolved with the invention of the computer. Computer users wee empowered by greater control over the design and production process. When computer software called Fontographer became available, it allowed designers to design as well as market original typefaces as electronic files on computer disks, it was now cheaper and more affordable to distribute fonts.
ReplyDeleteA type designer by the name Summer Stone created his own type family called, Stone. This type family was developed for its Post-Script page-description language. Summer Stone was trained in both calligraphy and as a mathematician. He was the type director for Adobe Systems before he had opened his own type foundry in 1990. The Stone family had three versions–serif, sans-serif, and informal, all sharing basic letterform proportions and structure. Contemporary typeface designers create fonts adaptable for use on many output devices, including low- and high-resolution display screens, inkjet and high-resolution printers.
Another two type designers that go by the names, Carol Twombly and Robert Slimbach emerged as outstanding staff typeface designers at Adobe, both creating original designs and respected digital adaptations of classic typefaces. Twombly's typefaces, inspired by historical lettering, include three masterful families, Charlemagne, Lithos and Cronos. Slimbach was one who would seek inspiration from classical typefaces as he designed text faces for digital technology. He also creates vibrant fonts based on calligraphy and hand lettering. Slimbach's fonts are hailed for maintaining the spirit of the original while making adjustments and refinements appropriate to digital technology. (1)
I think it is so great that great type face designers like I mentioned looked to classical lettering. Each had a background in an area that helped them create their type faces. Stone, a mathematician as well as a calligrapher, Twombly, inspired by historical lettering, and Slimbach, a master calligrapher that was also inspired by classical type faces. All three created their type faces with an inspiration in mind, they tried to maintain the original as well as tweak to make it what they needed.
(1) Meggs' History of Graphic Design
I agree that looking to the past is what great type designers of the digital age so great. The digital truly marries the best of traditional type design and makes it inexpensive and convenient to use. I can only imagine what designing and choosing a typeface must have been like before the days of choosing one from a drop-down window in InDesign; having to market and sell type hardware as well as trying to be informed and contemporary as a designer must have been a real challenge!
DeleteI agree. The work that they had to go through in order to achieve the maximum achievement of a perfect font must have been exhausting. Once new software came into the picture, their flexibility stretched and it gave type designers more wiggle room to experiment with typefaces. The fact that it gave them the opportunity to design new fonts with inspiration from original classical typefaces is amazing.
DeleteIt's pretty interesting noticing how some designers take from the old and create the new. Their versions of the past reflect and transform into fonts the honor the traditional ways of type. I wonder if designers int the future will honor past designers as they have now.
DeleteThis makes me think how in our very own graphic design and typography classes, a lot of us students really like to add our own hand drawn aspect or type to our work. Even with all this technology and the slew of typefaces at our finger tips, we'd still like to put our own personality into it.
DeleteIt's so intriguing to think about handmade typography versus computer created typography. The differences between the style and overall aestic of the designs. I liked how you talked about designers who are inspired from old lettering and the orgins of display font that were created by hand. It gives digital type that personal aspect that is lost.
DeleteI also think it's interesting to look at how typefaces have evolved since the first ones that were created. So many were influenced by classical hand drawn fonts and now so the most popular ones used, such as Helvetica and Univers, are sans-serif and more modern. It makes me wonder what the next popular typefaces will be and how they will evolve from what we already have.
DeleteThe evolution of digital type grew with the introduction of the computer, which allowed designers to develop designs with greater ease by utilizing new software. Early experiments in digital type began with “bitmap” fonts that were created by controlling the matrix of dots of the first Macintosh computers, Susan Kare is an example of an early designer who created bitmap fonts. (1) Adobe designs programs played an important role in this evolution but the most relevant program was Fontographer. This program allowed for designers to not only create but market their own original typefaces, which resulted in an explosion of new digital type in the 1990s.
ReplyDeleteInfluential type foundries include Emigre and Stone Type Foundry. Emigre is accredited as being one of the first type foundry to design original fonts for and on the computer. Emigre emerged in time when the graphic design world was adjusting to the introduction of the Macintosh, and their fonts’ were influenced by the computer rather than imitating letterpress fonts. Publishing its own magazine from 1984 to 2005, this foundry is known for its role in creating important typefaces and licensing over 300 original typefaces by other designers. (2) The founders of Emigre were husband and wife team, Rudy VanderLans and Zuzana Licko. Zuzana Licko as a type designers has created over 27 fonts, some of her most popular ones include Mrs. Eaves and Filosofia. Stone Type Foundry is another important type foundry that was responsible for establishing Adobe’s typographic program in he 1980s, and was founded by Sumner Stone. He was among the first to create full type families digitally by using Beizer curves on the software to create the necessary curves of the letterforms. Stone has created about 29 font families, including Stone (named after himself) and Magma which has 48 type variations.
Other notable type designers include Matthew Carter who first began his career as a type designer by cutting metal type by hand and evolved to creating digital type as typographic technology grew.(3) He has created 55 font families, two of his most popular fonts include Galliard and Bell Centennial. Many have called Carter to be “the most important type designer of modern time, his work is used daily by millions of people.”
Examples:
http://www.myfonts.com/foundry/Emigre/
http://www.myfonts.com/person/Sumner_Stone/
3. http://www.myfonts.com/person/Matthew_Carter/
Sources:
Megg’s History of Graphic Design
http://www.emigre.com/AboutEmigre.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Carter
Matthew Carter is a great example. He is responsible for creating such a variety of fonts. After doing some reading on him it was really interesting to find out about how he would cut the metal to create type. Its crazy to think about how much easier creating type has become.
DeleteI think Matthew Carter biggest achievement was to establish Bitstream Inc. with his friend, Mike Parker. I mean isn't it the highest level for a type designer to create a digital type foundry which is the largest supplier of types on Earth? Of course, designing for Apple and Microsoft computers is not bad either! :)
DeleteMatthew Carter is definitely someone to look up to as an example. From his days of cutting metal to create type to establishing Bitstream Inc. like John and Sofia said in their comments, it's amazing to see how much work it went into to finding the perfect type for future generations to come.
DeleteSomething very interesting about Matthew Caster is that we can actually see some of his works in our daily routine. Companies such as apple and Microsoft have been responsible in the last years to introduced us to a world of digital media. It is amazing how much time we spend utilizing these products and how much we are exposed to this fonts but we give little appreciation to the designer's work.
DeleteI'm glad you used Matthew Carter as an example because it shows a connection between his inspiration and that of Carol Twombly and Robert Slimbach. All of these people were somewhat inspired by carved or cut out type. I think this is so interesting because these are the designers that created some of the most well known fonts today and many derived inspiration from the same things.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteWith the burst of technology in the most century, digital type has evolved far beyond what many people imagine, benefiting graphic design along the way. From the use of phototype in the ‘60s, in which you had typesetters, production artists and camera operators to name a few in order to produce one single form art, to digital technology in the ‘90s, allowing all these jobs to merge— the digital revolution had begun. With the birth of the World Wide Web in the ‘90s, the internet help spread design across oceans more quickly and more efficiently.
DeleteSoftware game changers during this time period, who are notably still going strong today, are Adobe and Macintosh. Whereas before, designers were forced to use multiple software brands during design, Adobe was able to merge them all under their brand. Macintosh was able to reinvent the way in which we interact with design with the product Macbooks, iPads, iPods and more. This is important because designers design with the audience in mind, and how the audience will receive or communicate with what is being creating.
Designer Sumner Stone went on to develop Stone, a page-description language for Adobe’s PostScript. It was three versions— serif, sans-serif and informal with three roman and three italic fonts. Lastly, designers Carol Twombly and Robert Slimbach, who were also apart of Adobe; Twombly created typefaces Charlemagne, Lithos and Trajan. While Slimbach created Minion, Caflisch and Poetica to name a few.
Source:
Megg’s History of Graphic Design
Digital type enabled designers to design and market original typefaces as electronic files on computer disk, with significant reductions in the high cost designing and contributing fonts. A virtual explosion in the release of new typefaces occurred in 1990’s, as a large type vendors were joined by independent type manufacturers. Summer Stone trained as both a calligrapher and a mathematician; Stone was type director of Adobe Systems before opening his own type foundry in 1990. The stone family has three versions: serif, san-serif, and informal.
ReplyDeleteAnother two designers were Carol Twombly and Robert Slimach, they emerged as outstanding staff typeface designers for Adobe, creating original designs and respected digital adaptations of classic typefaces. Twombly’s typefaces include three masterful families inspired in historical lettering. These were the first three display fonts of Adobe Original typeface program, a series of new designs created for original technology.Charlemagne is freely based on the decorative capitals used as versals and titling in Carolingian-era illuminated manuscripts. Lithos was inspired by the monoline simplicity and even-textured economy Greek stone inscriptions, but he transformed the carved letters into highly original family of five wights. Slimbach seeks inspiration from classical typefaces as he designs text faces for digital technology. He also creates vibrant fonts based on calligraphy and hand lettering. His fonts are hailed for maintaining the spirit of the original while making adjustments and refinements appropriate to digital technology.
Source:
(1) Meggs' History of Graphic Design
The radical shift toward digital graphic design in the 1980s and 90s has been compared to the revolution spurred by Gutenberg’s movable type in the fifteenth century. There were many different kinds of technologies that contributed to this shift, really beginning with the Macintosh computer introduced in the 1980s along with the first laser printer. Adobe Systems invented Postscript, the programming language, which allowed for the creation of electronically-generated type. Also made possible by Postscript was Pagemaker which allowed pages to be designed on-screen. Susan Kare is credited with designing early bitmapped fonts and Pierre Bezier (creator of Bezier curves, the underlying theory of the pen tool) allowed for complex, smooth vector shapes. By 1990, with Apple’s Macintosh II that was color-capable, the platform of technology that enabled design as we know it today had been established. During the 1990s, QuarkXPress (which, I must admit, I have never used or even seen throughout my design education) and Adobe Photoshop pushed design even further. Just like any significant movement in art, digital design coincided with a renewed interest in handmade and expressionistic lettering, but personal expression still gave way to much computer experimentation. Font design software such as Fontographer allowed designers with desktop computers to create and market their own typefaces, undoubtedly the origin of the hundreds of pre-loaded computer fonts that many of us have never used or given a second look. There are a handful of talented and well-known type designers and foundries that are responsible for many of the most well-known and widely-used typefaces. These innovators included Matthew Carter, founder of Verdana, Galliard, and Bell Centennial; Erik Spiekermann, creator of Meta and Officina; and Hoefler & Frere-Jones, responsible for original type for Rolling Stone, Harper’s Bazaar, Sports Illustrated, and Esquire, as well as Gotham and Hoefler text.
ReplyDeleteBeginning in the 1960s, graphic design saw progressive steps being taken in the digital direction. As desktop computers were made available to individuals, new software and developments were created. In the 1980s, digital type foundry Adobe Systems developed PostScript and Aldus created PageMaker. PostScript and programs such as PageMaker helped push typography onto the digital screen with page layouts and electronic type (1). Bitmapped fonts were designed and “letterform design was controlled by the matrix of dots in these early fonts” (1), but PostScript allowed for fonts that were stored as “graphical commands and data” (1). Other important foundries included Stone Type Foundry and Émigré (1).
ReplyDeleteMore and more updates, research, and development lead to progress in these areas. For example, in 1985 PageMaker and Apple worked together to produce a new version that could “alter type size, choice of font, and column dimensions… It integrated type with other elements” (1). Fast forwarding to the early 1990s, programs such as Quark Xpress and Adobe Photoshop propelled digital type forward with acute manipulation possibilities to type (2).
Type designer Carol Twombly worked at Adobe (3). She is known for created Charlemagne, Lithos, and Trajan, which were the first display fonts in the Adobe Originals type program (1). Charlemagne was “based on the decorative capitals used as versals and titling in Carolingian-era illuminated transcripts,” (1), Lithos was “inspired by the monoline simplicity and even-textured economy of Greek stone inscriptions” (1), and Trajan was inspired by Trajan’s Column. Robert Slimbach also worked for Adobe and created fonts based on calligraphy and hand-lettering, such as Adobe Garamond, yriad, Minion, Caflisch script, Poetica, Adobe Jenson, and Cronos (1). Sumner Stone, who created Stone Type Foundry, created the Stone type family and Magma, which has 48 variants within the family (1).
1) Megg’s History of Graphic Design, p531-5
2) http://www.fonts.com/content/learning/fyti/using-type-tools/digital-format
3) http://www.myfonts.com/person/Carol_Twombly/
I must say Apple has really played an important role in the beginnings of digital type and the opinions people have for type.
DeleteIn the 1980's Apple introduced the Macintosh computer Adobe released the Postscript program, which included electronically generated topography. This started the evolution of digital type. "Adobe Systems' Postscript page description language enabled printed to output text, images and graphic elements, and determine their placement on the page. Postscript fonts are not simply made up of bitmapped dots; rather they are stored as graphical commands and date. Type characters are generated as outlines that are filled in as solid forms." The digital type era allowed for bezier curves in the letters, creating a more natural shape. Pierre Bezier was a French mathematician who invented them and they are useful mainly with creating letterforms and computer graphics.
ReplyDelete2 One of the first posters printed using digital computer graphics was by April Greiman, for Design Quarterly in 1987. The poster was extremely pixelated and printed on a low-resolution computer. It was 2 feet by 6 feet. The poster consisted of elements from videos layered over one another and integrating the text and images into a single computer file.
In 1992 Adobe released its first multiple master typefaces. Twombly and Slimbach, master calligraphers, (3) executed the actual drawing and digitization of the font Myriad over a two year period. It was one of the first multiple master fonts.
1. Meggs page 531
2. Meggs page 532
3. Meggs page 533
The digital evolution came to desktop of individual graphic designers as a result of affordable but powerful hardware and software created primary by three companies.
ReplyDeleteApple created the Macintosh computer. The first launched Macintosh computer (in 1984) displayed bitmapped graphics, what mean the information was screen presented as dots called pixels, 72 dots per inch on a black and white screen. Its interface with the user was achieved via the mouse. The user was able to control the computer intuitively and focus on creative work rather than machine operating and programing.
Adobe Systems invented the PostScript programming language underlying page-layout software and electronically generated typography.
Aldus created PageMaker, an early software application using PostScript to design pages on computer screen.
An early type family developed for its PostScript page-description language was STONE designed by Sumner Stone. The Stone family has three versions – serif, sans-serif and informal. – that shared the basic letterform proportion and structure. Each version three roman and three italic fonts for a total of 18 typefaces in the family. Carol Twombly, Adobe worker designed three masterful families inspired by historical lettering: CHARLEMAGNE, LITHOS and TRAJAN. These were the first display font in the Adobe Originals type program, a series of new design created for digital technology. Robert Slimbach seeks inspiration from classical typefaces as he designs text faces for digital technology. He also creates vibrant fonts based on calligraphy and hand lettering. His fonts are hailed for maintaining the spirit of the original while making adjustments and refinements appropriate to digital technology.
Apple second biggest invention was the portable technology. Apple first invented iPod and then the iPhone and iPad. The minimalist design of the devices, and the closed system of application development has influenced the design of applications and the way users interact with them. Apple changed the way how we communicate with each other.
Source:
Megg’s History of Graphic Design
i never realized how long Apple products really have been around for. I feel like modern culture underestimates a lot of what the digital types have impacted in our community. I also feel like Apples second big inventions proceed their first. And perhaps their IPods, IPhones, and IPads are what actually make types more important when communicating with each other.
DeleteFont design software for desktop computers, such as Fontographer, enabled designers to design and market original typefaces, which led to an explosion of new releases in the 1990’s. The 1992, Adobe released a new concept in type design, multiple-master typefaces, in which two or more master designs combined to generate extensive variations in weight, width, style, and optical style. The advances in digital type design have allowed for the mechanization, stylization, and standardization of traditionally handwritten letter forms and calligraphy. In recent years, there has been great interest in the design of font families that not only include characters from the Roman alphabet, but from Cyrillic, Greek, and Arabic alphabets as well. (1)
ReplyDeleteSmall independent type foundries also emerged, and the wide variety in type design led to a division between those who believed traditional values should be maintained and those who advocated experimentation. One of the most successful independent foundries is Émigré Fonts. (1)
Robert Slimbach was a staff typeface designer at Adobe, he sought inspiration from classical typefaces as he designs text faces for digital technology. His fonts are hailed for maintaining the spirit of the original while making adjustments and refinements appropriate to digital technology. Adobe Garamond, Myriad, and Adobe Jenson are some of his most popular designs. (1)
Matthew Carter, now of Carter & Cone Type, is an outstanding and prolific type designer. His designs include Bell Centennial, designed for legibility in telephone directories; Galliard, an adaptation of a sixteen-century design by the Renaissance painter Andrea Mantegna; and Sophia, an original display face inspired by capitals, Greek letterforms, and uncials from sixth-century Constantinople. (1)
In Germany, Erik Spiekermann designed FF Meta, FF MetaSerif, ITC Officina, FF Govan, FF Info, FF Unit, LoType, Berliner Grotesk, among many others. In 1979, he established MetaDesign and in 1988 he founded FontShop, a firm specializing in creating distributing electronic fonts. He left MetaDesign in 2001 to form Edenspiekermann. (1)
(1)Megg’s History of Graphic Design
The Digital evolution of type all started to project for designers with the origins of the computer. It’s kickoff really started to emerge around the 80’s thanks to the lost costs and powerful software form Apple, Adobe systems, and Aldus. Designers such as Summer Stone contributed to the early digital type family. He used 3 versions of serif, sans, and informal types in her “Digitized Date for Stone Medium.” He also used Bezier curves to contribute in creating the types. Carol Twomby and Robert Slimbach were both successors in reinventing digital type. Twomby’s influence in Adobe in the late 80’s introduced new types such as Trajan, Charlemagne, Lithos, and Adobe Caslon. Her inspirations reach from more traditional types to create new ones. Later when more font design software’s for desktop computers were created, such as Fontographer, it became much more simpler and inexpensive fro designers to create original typefaces. Designer likes Mathew Carter created type designs from classic qualities with modern aesthetics such as Galliard, Mantinia, Sophia, and Big Caslon. (1)
ReplyDelete(1) Megg's History of Graphic Design
I like how you talked about expense and cost because I think it has a big thing to do with the digital evolution of type but people don't really talk about it. It was very cost and labor efficient to turn to digital type because of the time and effort it took to manually create typefaces. This is interesting to look at. Now we are all trying to go back to the nondigital area of design and look at the whole process and struggle it took to get us here.
DeleteDigital type represented an open door for a new era. However the value of “analog” letterforms of metal and wood was not lost in time, instead type was converted to a variety of digital formats. Digital type gave design around the world an opportunity to improve applications, speed results and experiments new parameters. Digital fonts allowed having a wide range of composition, including kerning pairs.(1)
ReplyDeleteSumner Stone a type designer and graphic designer opened his first Stone Type Foundry company for digital type design in 1990. His most famous fonts are Arepo™, Scripps College Old Style™ (1997), Stone® Family (1987), Stone Print (1991), Stone Phonetic, Silica™ (1993), Bodoni™ Ornaments (1994), Bodoni™ Six (1994), Bodoni™ Twelve (1994), Bodoni™ Seventy Two(1994/1995), Scripps College Old Style™(1997), ITC Stone® Sans II (2010). (2)
Gerard Unger, a graphic designer and type designer. His typefaces have been featured internationally, on newspaper, magazines and publications of that nature. Some of his most famous fonts are, Argo, Gulliver, Amerigo, Oranda and Vesta
Matthew Carter a professional in digital typography and founder of Bitstream Inc. has had an outstanding contribution to the innovative world of the printing industry. Carter has produced works for some of the most important companies in today’s world such as Apple and Microsoft, he has done world on the screen shots of font such as Verdana, Tahoma and Georgia. (3)
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typeface#Digital_type
(2) http://www.as8.it/handouts/20th_century_type_designers.pdf
It's very true how you say the value of analog letterforms of metal and wood was not lost in time. There are still people who like to do things the old fashioned way, and many people who appreciate these methods. Remember that video we watched in typography last semester? It was about the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum. These people were keeping the tradition methods alive, and trying to prevent their museum from being shut down. It was actually really interesting and kind of sad. Here's a link to their website.
Deletehttp://woodtype.org/
It seems like Matthew Carter is the designer to aspire to, for to have made as many typefaces as he has and to transition from hand drawn type to digital is a good example of how to adapt.
DeleteThe origin of digital art started as a revolution brought out by three major creations: Macintosh computer; PostScript, created by Adobe; and PageMaker, created by Aldus. Another creation that made a huge leap in digital design was the creation of Bezier curve. Although Pierre Bezier made the practical application for this idea, the mathematical formula was created by Paul de Casteljau. Bezier first used it to design automobiles, and Adobe borrowed this idea for their software, which made them really popular. Summer Stone would use the Bezier to create typefaces with smooth curves, totally different from the low-res format of Macintosh’s earlier fonts.
ReplyDeleteMacintosh computer would be instrumental in expanding the field of digital art; they lead the way for the next generation of graphic design. Susan Kare created screen fonts for Macintosh, and its typefaces were very digitized and pixilated. PageMaker by Aldus was created for Macintosh, and it made editing newspapers very easy and efficient. Fonts could be changed, redesigned resized very easily. However, Adobe merged with Aldus, and it released InDesign, the latest generation of page-editing software.
According to Megg, one of the early digital hardware was digital typesetting systems. They included Scitex, Quantel Video and Graphic Paintboxes. They were accessible in Macintosh computers, and early designers used them to their fullest potential. One of the artists included April Greiman:
http://idsgn.org/images/design-discussions-april-greiman-on-technology/design_quarterly__full.jpg
I like how you point out the three major creations of digital art as well as the creation of Bezier Curve. You are right about Macintosh computers and how they would be instrumental in expanding the field of digital art. I never realized how long it has been around and with each new device or software they keep improving. I like the example you gave of April Greiman, you can tell that her design was created in a very unique process, one that might have taken her a long time to piece together.
DeleteIn the 1960's you start to see a development in the digital world. With the creation of computer desktops, type design and manufacturing entered a new era. Letterforms and photo type turned into a variety of digital formats. The first were called "bitmap" fonts. These had the advantage of carefully being edited for quality and readability. the digital generation then moved onto "scalable" outline fonts. (smaller in memory size, faster to process)
ReplyDeleteApril Greiman was one of the first designers to embrace computer technology as a tool. her poster for design Quarterly was one of the first posters using digital computer graphics. The poster was very pixelated.
Carol Twobly is an american calligrapher and typeface designer. She designed many typefaces such as Trajan, Myriad and Adobe Caslon. She also worked as a type designer for Adobe systems.
Sumner Stone is a typeface designer and graphic artist. He designed ITC Stone while working for Adobe. He also designed Stone Print, Silica, Arepo, Cycles, and Basalt typeface families.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Twombly
www.fonts.com/content/learning/fytiusing-type-tools/digital-format
http://www.identifont.com/show?18I
Type design and manufacturing entered a new era with the arrival of desktop publishing. The “analog” letterforms of metal and photo type were converted to a variety of digital formats. The first generation of technology resulted in “bitmap” fonts. This was comparable to superimposing a sheet of graph paper over a drawn letter and coloring in the boxes (pixels) that fell within the outline of that letter.
ReplyDeleteOur current generation of digital font technology provides for “scalable” outline fonts. They are smaller in memory size and faster to process. Analog drawings of letters are plotted with a mouse or stylus to create an outline representation (made up of curves and straight lines). These digitized outlines are made into a font that is installed in a computer operating system.
http://www.fonts.com/content/learning/fyti/using-type-tools/digital-format
Matthew Carter is a type designer and the son of the English typographer Harry Carter. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. He designed the early 1.0 web fonts Verdana and Georgia, as well as several others.
Megg's History of Graphic Design
Erik Spiekermann is the author, information architect, type designer and author of books and articles on type and typography. He designed several typefaces like FF Meta, ITC Officina, FF Info, FF Unit, LoType, Berliner Grotesk and many corporate typefaces. He was founder of MetaDesign, Germany’s largest design firm with offices in Berlin, London and San Francisco. He is responsible for corporate design programs for Audi, Skoda, Volkswagen, Lexus, Heidelberg Printing, Bosch and way-finding projects like Berlin Transit, Düsseldorf Airport and many others.
http://www.fontshop.com/fonts/designer/erik_spiekermann/
http://luc.devroye.org/ErikSpiekermann-FFMeta.gif
Jonathon Hoefler is an experienced American type designer with a studio, The Hoefler Type Foundry, in New York City, working alongside Tobias Frere-Jones. During the September 2002 ATypI conference in Rome, he was awarded the prestigious Prix Charles Peignot, given to outstanding type designers under the age of 35. He designed many typefaces such as Hoefler Text, Ziggurat, New Amsterdam, and many more.
http://www.myfonts.com/person/Jonathan_Hoefler/
http://www.hobartsprinting.com/images/fonts/print/display/hoefler_text.gif
Digital type would not have been possible were it not for the invention of the font-design software, Fontographer. This enabled designers to design and market original typefaces as electronic files on computer disks with significant reductions in the high cost of designing and distributing fonts. One of the earliest digital fonts created was Stone by Sumner Stone. The release of this typeface with its three different versions made possible the design of "superfamilies" of type.
ReplyDeleteTwo other type designers that made a huge impact during this time were Carol Twombly and Robert Slimbach. Twombly's most famous typefaces are Charlemagne, Lithos and Trajan which all reference carved letters. Slimbach sought inspiration from classic typefaces for his design of text faces for digital technology. Slimbach's fonts are, "hailed for maintaining the spirit of the original while making adjustments and refinements appropriate to digital technology." His most famous fonts were Garamond, Myriad, Minion, Caflisch, Poetica, AJenson and Cronos.
As time has passed, more and more advances in digital type design have allowed for the mechanization, stylization, and standardization of traditionally handwritten letterforms and calligraphy. More recently, there has been a huge interest in the design of font families that include both Roman alphabet as well as Cyrillic, Greek and Arabic.
Sources: Megg's History of Graphic Design
Examples:
blogs.adobe.com
www.identifont.com
www.fonts.com
With the advent of computer technology, all areas of human life underwent drastic change, with graphic design being no different. What was once a laborious process requiring several different specialists was now reduced to a few clicks of a mouse. The first attempt at digital type was by Apple in the form of PostScript, allowing the Linotron laser printer to output texts and images. In the dawn of computer technology, many small feats were made gradually by the designers able to grasp the capabilities on the horizon. But it wasn’t until truly innovative thinkers like David Carson to push the culture of graphic design forward.
ReplyDeleteCarson created typefaces that could be described as avant garde. Carson brought his erratic imagination to life through print by blending text and images in an unprecedented manner, even to the point of perceived disarray. He pushed legibility to its limits, under the notion that expressionism attracts and engages readers far more than tradition.
Martin Venezky was just as outside of the box as Carson. Venezky played with the harmony of handwork and technology while experimenting with the structure of letterforms. Summer Stone was a bit more traditional but innovative in the same right. With Adobe Systems, Stone developed a type family of eighteen typefaces, ranging from serif, sans-serif and informal. The Stone font family was foundational for digital typefaces and especially for Adobe in the years to come.
Sources:
Meggs' History of Graphic Design