Type Production and Distribution

"Type is what Language looks like" 
Thinking with type, Ellen Lupton

The first alphabet that we can trace back is to the Greek alphabet, adopted from Phoenician, and is arguably the foundations for todays alphabets in other cultures. We can trace back the start of written communication to Cuneiform which was developed from Mesopotamian.

• Johannes Gutenberg
  Invented the Gutenberg Letter Press which incorporated the use of metal cast type and was printed the first printed body of text, a bible, which was commissioned the Church. This was an revolutionary invention, through the aid of being able to print more than one copy of text, and not having to rewrite documents to create more than one. This was especially needed for monks as most spent their lives creating the bible, adding imagery and using blackletter.
  
• William Foster - 1870
  Brought forward elementary education act, the law to be taught to read and write. It wasn't just a luxury for rich people anymore and became a dramatic change for class. This gave so much more opportunities for the working class, more jobs and to be more creative.
  
• 1919 - Walter Gropius
  Lead to the beginning of Bauhaus (1919 -1933)
  It made artists think about the function of the art and product which would drive the form.
  
• 1957 - Max Miedinger
  Created Helvetica  which is used for advertising and can be said to define modernism.
  The type form is neutral and the purpose of what it was designed for drove the type more than any before. (25 years later Arial was released, which was created by Microsoft and holds similarities to Helvetica).
  
• 1990 - Steve jobs created the Apple mac - October 15th 1990 the 1st apple mac was released to sell for less than $1000 - this wasn't the first computer but it was the 1st time that working class could buy and use these, not inclusive for the rich.
  
  Type describes the theme of a product, it portrays the identity of the design.
  For example, the type Gotham is seen as masculine and powerful as it was the typeface used for Obama's campaign. It is now also used for advertising, companies such as McDonald's and Starbucks have used this for the same reasons as the Obama campaign, to show power.
  
  Type becomes an image in its own right
  
• 1990 - Tim Bernes - Lee created the Internet and first idea for a browser and gave it away for free.
  
• 1994 - Vincent Connare created comic sans and worked for Microsoft.
  
• 1995 - Bill Gates - invented/brought in the search engine, Internet explorer which uses mainly Arial and Comic Sans type. Certain set of type, formats, dictated by a set of people. 
   

 

Typography is Communication

"There is no single approach within typography that applies to everything"
- Shelley Gruendler.