OUGD401 - Context of Practice Lecture 5

Chronologies 1: The History of Type – Production and Distribution – Part 2

By knowing the principles of design we can reassemble them into our own practise and determine what is appropriate and relevant to our work. By understanding things from the past we can redefine the future.

The Bauhaus had key principles such as ‘Form follows function’ and ‘Less is more’. There was a belief in reductionism and determining the purpose of why something is being made. The clarity of which something portrays something or fulfils a function was important.

Commerce soon began to drive design. The function now became promotion which meant design had to communicate something.

In 1957 Max Miedinger created Helvetica which was an idealised expressionism of modernism. He created a neutral typeface with great clarity which had no intrinsic meaning.

People were now needed to design type which was primarily created through drawing and assembling up to this point.

In 1990 Steve Jobs created the first Apple Mac under $1000 which meant creatives had access to computers and this led to the democratisation of design. The Mac became a design tool which was accessible to everyone which opened up digital type design and allowed type to be created in any form. The discipline was no longer a specialised process.

In 1994 Vincent Connare developed Comic Sans for Microsoft which was designed for easier reading.

In 1990 Tim Berners – Lee created the World Wide Web which led to mass globalisation online. There was a democratisation of design and the distribution of print, paper was no longer needed to communicate something.

In 1995 Bill Gates created Internet Explorer which introduced template based layout to the internet. This restricted and shaped how design could be distributed online. The introduction of the internet changed the way we read. The interface of reading by scrolling down a screen meant that we couldn’t read as much so information is distributed in smaller chunks. 

It also impacted on other forms of communication such as phone calls which declined. Instead people sent emails or texts. However texting is also on the decline with the introduction of social media. Letters and words have been replaced by emoji’s. By using symbols instead of letterforms, we are going full circle in the evolution of written language. Language is fluid anything can become type, this allows for individuality but has it replaced the community in language if everyone has their own language?

In postmodernism, anything goes, complexity, contradiction, appropriation are some ideas associated with it.

In 1977 Jamie Reid created the punk graphics associated with the sex pistols. These grew to symbolise subcultures and teenage revolt. This anti graphics style of design was non-conformist and anti-corporate, showing that design can be used to show resistance. However, this handmade and handcrafted anarchic style was an evolutionary style.

David Carsons work (1992) showed an aesthetic drive to change what type is by getting rid of the grid in an anti-graphic design style.

Everything has been democratised and the idea of a single approach has gone.

It is now about what we choose to do not whether you can do it. We are responsible for shaping the world and a culture of questioning should be encouraged in order to know where we want to take things next.