Talking Typography
When we refer to ‘fonts’, we basically mean typefaces. Typeface decides the particular characteristic way the alphabets in that family look and feel. The general width, spacing, relative heights of the letters, etc are characteristics of typefaces. However, on the other hand, font refers to the variations like size, weight (eg light/ bold/ thin/ ultrathin), etc of the same typeface.
Now type as we see it, has changed over time due to the changing world, based mostly on the needs based on the era. The correlation between the history of the world and the typefaces thus created is quite interesting to know. Mostly because it gives us a direction in which the typefaces may progress in the future and prepare us for the new trends (or even stay ahead of them !)
This is a very short rundown of the history of type that includes an overview of the most important moments in the rich history of typography.
Black Letter
As the world progressed, there was a need for documentation. This need led to the rise of typefaces that had very little spacing to fit a lot of characters in a given space. The very first of the typefaces was called the Black Letter. Contemporarily known as Gothic Script or Textura, it had a very heavy influence from Roman Scriptures. This was an imitation of the scribes of Northern Europe.
It originated around the 1100s and was the most popular typeface around for a good long while.
Bembo — Humanist Letters
In the late 1400s, printing technologies started moving south from Germany to Italy and especially to the prosperous port cities of Venice. Type designers now started designing types that imitated the writing style of southern European scribes. This came to be known as the Roman Script or the Humanist Minuscule. It had heavy calligraphic influence and very distinct yet subtle flavors of the Renaissance. Print now was not only for the elite but for the common people too.
One of the most successful and widely known typefaces here was Bembo. Originating in the year 1495, it is the typeface that defines old-style serif fonts today. We now tend to associate Bembo with literature, classicism, and the Middle Ages.
Usage: Penguin Books, Oxford and Cambridge University Press
Didot- Enlightened Refinement
The typeface, often called the modern/ didone serif takes inspiration from Baskerville with increasing stroke contrast and a more condensed armature. Didot is described as neoclassical, and evocative of the Age of Enlightenment. It was created and used during the late 1600s to early 1700s. Being a rationalist font, it fits well with the commercial needs of type.
Usage: Vogue Magazine
Baskerville — Transitional Serif
The bold quality of Baskerville’s print derived from his use of highly glossed paper and truly black ink that John Baskerville himself invented around 1757. His typography was much criticized in England, and after his death, his types were purchased by the French dramatist Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais. The Baskerville type has been revived and turned into several variants (like Bodoni). Its clarity and balance make it a good type for continuous reading even today.
Usage: documents issued by the University of Birmingham (UK) and Castleton University (Vermont, USA)
Clarendon — Type for the masses
In the 1800s, with the backdrop of the Industrial Revolution, people now needed a type that could be used in Adverts, promotions, banners, etc. In 1823, Darius Wells developed a process for manufacturing types out of wood that reduced cost, was easier to handle, and created much more detailed types.
Over the course of the 19th century, people experimented with type to create the new ultra-bold modern serifs called fat faces. The most successful in this genre Egyptian typeface is Clarendon designed around 1845 by the English designer Robert Besley. It had a very industrial robust look.
Usage: Sony, the National Park Service, Wells Fargo
Futura — Typographic Avant-Garde
The 20th century saw the rapid modernization of the western world. However, all of this came to a catastrophic head at the outbreak of the 1st World War in 1914. In the world of fine art, movements like cubism, expressionism, and later futurism and constructivism, responded to these changes by rejecting and deconstructing traditional representation. Reconfiguring the building blocks of expression, typefaces that made a really radical break were created. The most successful was Futura designed in 1927, by the German type designer Paul Renner influenced by the very famous Maholy-Nagy (from the Bauhaus school of Designing — the cradle of European Modernism)
Because of its minimal almost childish forms, we today associate Futura with simplicity, transparency, and sometimes naivety.
Usage: Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen
Helvetica — International Modern
After the Second World War in the 1950s, designers associated with the Basel School of Design created a clean sans serif called Azkidenz Grotesque (quirky but better than most). The demand for the new clean Sans serif gave rise to Helvetica — the neo-grotesque or rationalist sans serif. It is so clean and modern that it has become the ultimate default and still dominates the corporate landscape.
Usage: NASA, Apple, Nestlé
Takeaway
It is important to see and remember that although now, standards have been put in place to ensure the typeface that can be used in a particular place, however, when creating a personal identity, there are no such rules. There is no such thing called “trendy” because trends keep circling back or already exist in some variant.
It is actually better to set your spirits free rather than lose yourself in the crowd trying to fit standards.
