OUGD404 - An introduction to type : Part 1

What is the difference between a rule and a principle?

Rule - Can't be broken
Principle - Can be explored and challenged

What is typography?

The origin of type

Stone
Sable
Bone
Wood
Lead
Silicone

All materials that affect how we create type

STONE - graves, memorial walls

SABLE - brush, oriental

BONE - middle east, quill

WOOD - hard, straight edge, crisp, controlled

LEAD - letterpress, melted down and cast

SILICONE - basis of a microchip, digital

Digital typefaces have taken inspiration from the above list.

For example - brush strokes

The Bauhaus

Brought together arts and crafts with the industry.

FORM & FUNCTION IN TYPOGRAPHY

we now look at the relationship between form and function

TIMELINE!!!

John Gutenberg 1450

Gutenberg Press

Printed bibles

up until 2000 we were driven by printed type

GLOBALISATION

Fonts or Typefaces have to change now due to other languages and countries such as:

Arabic

Urdu

South East Asia

Orient

As a previous task we had to collect 5 fonts from the college system with different characteristics. We were split into groups and asked to put the fonts into different categories.

My group chose :

Serif
Sans Serif
Handwritten
Typewriter
Modern
Traditional

After we had categorised the typefaces we put together a class list :

Serif
Sans Serif
Handwritten
Typewriter
Modern
Traditional
Western
Contemporary
Digital
Script
Decorative
Bold
Light

Fred asked us why we had chosen the fonts, most of us answered 'because we liked it', Fred then asked why do you like the font? As a group we came up with..

Methods of production
Character
Familiarity

We were then told to re-categorise our typefaces into methods of production using the origin list from the start of the session.

Afterwards we had to categorise them on the basis of the character of the letterform.
(Results shown below)