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TYPOLOGICAL ACCESS, Not Just An Akzide

The State of Typography

from the Industrial Revolution

to the Twenty-First Century

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 W.R. Martin Company rotary press, 1928.

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THE HISTORIC Baseline

The mass production of the Industrial Revolution brought about the need for poster

advertising at an unprecedented level. Businesses

needed their advertising posters to be read at a

distance, thus business sought highly competitive

typefaces that were bold and loud. The new

demands of advertising inspired the creation of the

typeface Egyptian Slab in Britain (Annand 103).

Egyptian Slab letterforms evolved from fat-face

types to be comprised of thick stems and thinner

serif weights (97). While the san serif took predom- inance in the twentieth century, san serifs actually

started appearing in the nineteenth century. William

Caslon IV is credited with the creating the first sans

serif printing typeface in 1816 (Alessio). Caslon’s

typeface contained only capitals and was called

Egyptian (despite early slab serifs also being

marketed as Egyptians).

However, in addition to

Egyptian, the names used

for the early san serif type-

faces also included Gothic, Grotesque and Antique

(Stock-Allen). The Egyptian

name was likely attached

to slab serif type around

the Egyptian craze of the

1830’s, when the Egyptian

artifacts from Napoleonic

conquest were sweeping

the western world.

 

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Advertising for Oxbridge Fair 1878.

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Much like Egyptian Slab

typefaces, san serifs before

World War II were ini-

tially based on classical

proportions. In 1913,

the Underground Electric

Railways Company of

London commissioned

Edward Johnston for their

transportation system. Similar to the Egyptian Slab typefaces, the Johnston typeface designs focused on legibility at a distance, thus the letterforms

were based on the proportions of the capitals of the Trajan Columns.

Humanist typefaces have a more organic san serif structure. Analogous to

Egyptian Slab letterforms, the humanistic san serif Johnston contains line

strokes of varied width, based on Johnston’s calligraphic skills. Just prior

to World War II, designers began to use modernism and the avant garde

to experiment with san serifs. By the 1920’s Paul Renner had been influ-

enced by the Bauhaus (Stock-Allen). He sought to devise an alphabet with

geometric shapes and lines and thus created the typeface Futura. Unlike

Egyptian Slab and Clarendon typefaces, Geometric typefaces are based on

geometric shapes. After World War II, the design of san serifs were based on a harmonious gray line. In contrast to the disharmony of Egyptian Slab

and Clarendon typefaces, these san serif letterforms when placed in a row

aligned to a harmonious gray line. Adrian Frutiger crafted the Univers type-

face based on geometry, but with such complexity and organic qualities that

allowed for a smoother fit on the line.

The Egyptian Slab typefaces first

appeared in 1815 with the Antique type-

face by Vincent Figgins. By 1821, Six Pica

Egyptian, with its strong square strokes,

became a standard display typeface.

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A TYPE OF Reaction

Artistic movements that reacted to impacted type- face design of the nineteenth century to twentieth century.

The Industrial Revolution began in Britain and led to the

production of shoddy mass-produced consumer goods

(Harskamp). Traditionally manual workers learned their trade

by progression through apprenticeship under a craftsman.

However,the critical eye and skill of the craftsman was sacri-

ficed for speed, lower cost, and inferior products (Stock-Allen).

Likewise, type and graphic design also went into decline

during the Industrial Revolution. The Arts and Crafts

Movement, a loosely linked group of artisans, craftsmen,

architects, and designers; sought to elevate the applied arts

in a revolt against Victorian tastes and industrial manufac-

tures. While the movement began in the late 1800s in

England, the movement spread to the United States in the

early 1900s. Medieval designs provided a model for the Arts

and Crafts Movement’s craft production and type design.

William Morris was a prominent figure in the Arts and Crafts

movement. Morris was particularly influenced by the early

Roman letterforms of French designer Nicholas Jenson.

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George W. Jones,

Dorothy decorative caps.

The typefaces of Arts and Crafts

and Art Nouveau movements both

sought to reconcile the

decrease of craftsmanship during

the Industrial Revolution.

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Morris photographed and enlarged Jenson’s letter-

forms in order to use them as a structural basis for his

Golden Type. Similar to the Arts and Crafts Movement, Art Nouveau was an art movement that existed from

the late nineteenth until the early twentieth century

(Barnhart). Although Art Nouveau means “new art”,

much like the Arts and Crafts movement, it borrowed

elements from medieval manuscripts and Persian

pottery. The Art Nouveau style had a significant impact

on graphic design, specifically posters; which allowed

for a greater accessibility of the art movement to the

general public. The curved linear patterns found in the

posters were a hallmark of the Art Nouveau style and

the typography served an integral part of the design. The Art Nouveau style was inspired by the curved lines

of organic shapes and had a calligraphic look. Art

Nouveau typography often contained letters that were

elongated and embellished.

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The Ideal Book

by William Morris.

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MORE THAN Justified

Whereas the industrial

mechanization brought

out ideals of organic line

and craft in the Arts and

Crafts Movement, war

mechanization created

ideals of simplicity and

free thought.

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Artistic movements that reacted to the World Wars, impacted the typeface design of the twentieth

century. World War I, from 1914-1918, killed two million

Germans and left Germany’s large economy in shambles

(Davis). By 1918, the German Empire had become the

German Republic, although turmoil between political parties

and police still persisted. Thus the cooperative aspects of

artisans and utilitarianism approach to design make sense

in the context of war and revolution. Similar to Arts and

Crafts and Art Nouveau Movements, the Bauhaus art

school in Germany sought to bridge the gap between art and industry (Stock-Allen). While Arts and Crafts and

Art Nouveau celebrated the countryside and fought against

mass production, the Bauhaus embraced the urban land-

scape and industrial process. Although Arts and Crafts

and Art Nouveau Movements were influenced by medieval

design, the Modern Style’s visual reduction had erased

links to historical traditions and avoided any references to

culture or geography. After an extensive Pop Art exhibition at

the Sidney Janis Gallery in New York in 1962, was seen as

the end of modernism and the beginning of the postmod-

ern era. In contrast to the Arts and Crafts Movement, Postmodernism embraced deskilled means of making

artwork and focused more on the concept. The freedom of

the Postmodern art movement aligned with the digital

freedom of electronic type.

Postmodernist typogra-

phers started a movement

where the designer’s hand

was more prominent in

each letter (Righthand).

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April Greiman ‘Does it Make sense?’

Herbert Bayer design for a poster, 1923.

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Slab serif wood type.

Type set on a Vandercook press.

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PRESSING Matters

Letterpress and Lithograph technology were pre- dominant means of printing from the nineteenth to twentieth

century. William Morris succeeded in establishing a profitable

private press, which led to the creation of a breadth of private

presses throughout England and Europe (Harskamp).