Typography In London

Typography in London

by Emily Wilson and Olivia Gibbs

Typography in London

Your Project Page Picture Caption

Abstract

The paragraph should give a three to five sentence abstract about your entire London HUA experience including 1) a summary of the aims of your project, 2) your prior experience with humanities and arts courses and disciplines, and 3) your major takeaways from the experience. This can and should be very similar to the paragraph you use to summarize this milestone on your Profile Page. It should contain your main Objective, so be sure to clearly state a one-sentence statement that summarizes your main objective for this milestone such as "a comparison of the text of Medieval English choral music to that of the Baroque" or it may be a question such as "to what extent did religion influence Christopher Wren's sense of design?"

Introduction

I suggest you save this section for last. Describe the essence of this project. Cover what the project is and who cares in the first two sentences. Then cover what others have done like it, how your project is different. Discuss the extent to which your strategy for completing this project was new to you, or an extension of previous HUA experiences.

As you continue to think about your project milestones, reread the "Goals" narrative on defining project milestones from the HU2900 syllabus. Remember: the idea is to have equip your milestone with a really solid background and then some sort of "thing that you do". You'll need to add in some narrative to describe why you did the "thing that you did", which you'd probably want to do anyway. You can make it easy for your advisors to give you a high grade by ensuring that your project milestone work reflects careful, considerate, and comprehensive thought and effort in terms of your background review, and insightful, cumulative, and methodical approaches toward the creative components of your project milestone deliverables.

PLEASE NOTE: this milestone template has only a few sections as examples, but your actual milestone should have many relevant sections and subsections. Please start to block out and complete those sections asking yourself "who, what, when, where, and why".

Remember, as you move toward your creative deliverable, you're going to want/need a solid background that supports your case, so you want it to paint a clear and thorough picture of what's going on, so that you can easily dissect your creative component and say "This thing I did is rooted in this aspect of my background research".

Section 1: Background

Now you're on your own! Your milestone must include a thorough and detailed background section with detailed subsections; if additional articles are required to be referenced in this background section, create those as well and link to them (the creation of all pages is tracked by the wiki site and attributed to your username). Remember to use rich multimedia whenever possible. Consult the Help page as needed! Remember, if you don't see an article on this site that is an integral part of your project, create it! Your entire page-creating/page-editing history factors into your overall grade.

Defining Typography and Calligraphy

The definition of Typography is the style, arrangement, or appearance of a type set matter. It is a word that encompasses all the types of writing and print that we see around us everyday. Calligraphy is artistic, stylized, or elegant handwriting or lettering. Each brushstroke of written text, weighs and conveys a different message. Master calligraphers not only write but they draw what they observe. Calligraphy is the reproduction of rhythms and movements of the world.

What is Typography?

Typography has changed a lot over the years, especially with the introduction of digital technology. With this change, typography has become something that everyone does almost every single day, even though most do not realize it. From the definition above you can see how typography is generally associated with the design and printing industry. The word "typography" itself is used to refer to the arrangement of any written material. Thanks to the advancements of technology everyone can be a typographer! The discipline of typography is the professional practice that is the mediator between the contents of the message and the readership. An example of this is when is come to the authority of typography. When a sign is put up by the government, such as road signs, and parking notices, they have consistent lettering which gives it authority. The consistency of the spacing and sizing of the letters is what gives it the authority. When someone writes something on a piece of paper, or on the wall such as no parking, and the spacing is off, the letters are different sizes, the inconsistency gives it a lack of authority. The same thing happens when a sign is not maintained, if letters are peeling off or it is faded it loses authority.

Conventions of Typography

While some typography is taught in schools, there is not usually and explanation of where all the conventions came from, and what the purpose of them is. Some of the conventions of typography include but are not limited to, how to draw and write letterforms clearly, how to present words, sentences, paragraphs, how to arrange text on paper, and how to provide emphasis. There are so many basic principles of typography that are often ignored, people realize the importance of these conventions when they go to make a flyer or poster, and see that they are not easily able to get the message across that they wanted to.

In the past many typographers believed that the discipline they participated in was an activity in which it was not possible to produce something that was correct. Typography used to be considered a discipline, where standards were set by professionals, and the goal was to reach that standard. When working this way, it does not leave much room for creativity, and therefore creates a right and a wrong way to do things. This process actually made the work of typography more complex. Efficiency however became of importance, and any changes you could make to speed up the process would save a lot of time. After World War II is when changes started to be made in the way the rules were followed. It was encouraged in schools to question the conventions, and people started to realize that there was not a need for rules and formulas in typography.

Work as a Typographer

There are many specialists in the area of typography who study the varying aspects of typography. There has been analysis of the letters of the alphabet and the forms that the letters take. The specialists include a wide range of people from type designers, art and design historians, manufacturers, etc. A typographer deals with everything on the page or screen and everything that many contribute to the effectiveness of the typographic information. They have to look at shape, weights, and sizes of individual letter forms, diacriticsdefine, punctuation marks and special symbols, the amount of space between characters, words, punctuation, the space between lines, the size of margins, the position, size, and weight of page headings and associated page numbers inside them, the selection figures, and reference material. A typographer not only looks at just characters, but also tables and diagrams, which can also require captions. The typographer goes even beyond the characters themselves and chooses the method of printing, the paper, and all the finishing elements including laminates, varnishing, creasing and binding.

When a typographer is trying to create the arrangement of text for a science textbook, or business card, they have to look at the relationship of social practice and spoken language to typography. How effective text comes across, or the understanding of why so many people hate filling out forms, is all a part of the work of a typographer. - Joseph Moxon wrote in Mechanick Exercises, “ A good [typographer] is ambitious as well to make the meaning of his author intelligent to the reader, as to make his Work shew graceful to the eye, and pleasant in reading: Therefore if his Copy be Written in Language he understands, he reads his Copy with consideration; so that he may get himself into the meaning of the Author, and consequently considers how to order his Work the better both in the Title Page, and in the matter of the books: As how to make his Indenting, Pointing, Breaking, Italicising &c. the better sympathise with the Author’s genius, and also with the capacity of the Reader.” add reference. In this quote Moxon had intentional capitalization, and punctuation that we are not used to seeing. When reading that quote those "mistakes" throw you off, and it shows the importance of the work of a typographer.

Aspects of Typography

With the many different aspects of typography including the terminology, the technology, the rule-bound conventions and micro-attention to details; it give people the impression that it is a discipline of much precision. Surprisingly though, there is very little about typography that is actually precision based, as there is not much written down about what is considered "necessary" when it comes to typography. If you want a very comprehensive font there is a basic range of characters that is used in any lengthy text that you will need. The characters include, capitols, lowercase, lining and nonlining numerals, punctuation, small capitals, diacritic characters, mathematical characters, currency symbols, referral characters, graphics such as bullets and braces, and ligatured define characters. They need to be in at least roman and italic, and at the very least in two weights. While it may require all those characters to make a very comprehensive font, there is no standard that describes what might be considered a font. A font could just be 26 characters and a few punctuation marks. If you want a comprehensive font, it could easily add up to more than 1,000 characters. Some fonts can contain more and some can contain less, which shows how every font is different. There are no standards having to do with the weight of characters, how many different weights needed, or how to measure and describe the weights. Even the angle of the italicized characters can differ slightly from font to font, there are some cases where the italicized version is just a sloped version of the roman characters.

While knowledge, experience, and practical limitations are what have “regulated” typography, there is a lot of room for interpretation. Typography is often known for precision and exactness, and many people appreciate that fact as it is something they can understand. Nowadays many typographers are taught that texts can be designed with a passion, and it is not all about exactness.

Using Fonts

Every time a typographer sees a new message they have a new problem to solve. They need to figure out what to use for the typeface, size, fit and arrangement, and its not easy as the typeface must fit with is purpose. The nature of font design is the result of a few factors including, historic, cultural, and technological advancements. Most of them however relate to the function for what the font was designed.

Speaking, Reading, and Writing Typography

Speaking is known as an informal activity, because you do not really pay attention to the efficient use of language when you are talking. The meaning of what you say can be repeated, rephrased, and elaborated using facial expressions and physical gestures, which cannot be done over written correspondence. Writing is known as a formal activity because it requires the efficient use of language, and should be able to function by itself, as you will not be able to see a visual response to show whether or not what you have written was understood. This is why often times over a message, if there is not correct typography chosen, there can be misunderstandings and confusion. Because writing is more formal, it is used in the cases of relaying and displaying very important information. Because the reader can go back to it as many times as they want written material can cover more complex subjects. Typographers have to be aware of how we use inflections, pace, and volume in our voices to show emphasis, expression, and even clarification in the printed word.

Studies that look into how we read are often seen as controversial as it is not easy to obtain information on what exactly is happening. When you test people after they have read something they can tell you about what they have read, which shows what material was retained but not how they read it. One thing that has been established though is that while we are reading our eyes do not follow a line of words in a straight, smooth, paced patters. Our eyes actually move in what is called saccades, or “the flick of a snail”. This is shown by looking at where the eye lands, which is called a fixation. When reading, the reader usually makes three or four fixations per second. Even though fixations are short, studies have shown that the eye and brain can recall between three or four letters, or a few short words, in just one hundredth of a second. Typographers take this into account when deciding which size type they should use. Readers are more efficient when they can identify more letters in each fixation, which tells typographers that the size font they use should not be any larger than necessary. Research shows that the agreed upon size for continuous text is between 10pt and 12pt font.

Calligraphy is the art of handwriting, or hand written typography. In Greek Calligraphy means “ beautiful writing” and is a huge art form in Asia, China, Korea, Japan, and Arabic speaking countries. In order for typographers to communicate effectively through handwriting, it is generally expected that the text will be conventional. Unique and complex text, will slow down the reader, which is why it is not often seen.

A Brief History of Typography

While there is no precise starting date when is comes to typography what we do know is that what was being taught in the 1900s was the result of publications that were seen half a century earlier. Handwriting is influenced by parent sand teachers, so in typography you will see the past continually repeat itself. In a survey by Reginald Piggot, he found that 43% of people today still write in a civil service hand which is a simplified model of the Copperplate handwriting, which is a type of cursive handwriting. This type of handwriting was introduced to Great Britain in the 1860's and was taught in schools beginning in the 1920's. The handwriting we use today can be traced bace to the letters and writing of Roman times and beyond. While typography has not changed drastically over time, it has changed to suite our current needs. Professor Julian Brown stated, “ The successive cursive scripts of western Europe have all been generated out of set scripts by the need to write quickly: pen-lifts have been eliminated, and new letter-forms have evolved more or less automatically. Once in being the cursives have been promoted from the world of day-to-day affairs and correspondence into the formal worlds of books and the solemn diploma; and when this has happened they no less than the set scripts, have been subjected to stylization, systematization and elaboration.”

Learning Typography

There are three colleges for calligraphy in Britain, the East Surrey College, Regiate, Digby Stuart College, and the City of Guilds of London Art School. In order to effectively teach lettering you have to look at the person using it, and what the purpose is. Some lettering might be great for an adult, but very difficult for a child to use. A student can sit down with a copy book in front of them and learn a model type if a teacher helps them. When a student learns in this way though it then becomes difficult for them to break the mold that they learned and create a style that works well for them. In personal writing there are many shortcuts you can take, but they will vary depending on the person. When it comes to teaching typography and handwriting there are not guidelines for good or bad handwriting as that all depends on the eyes of the reader. There are also two professional associations for Calligraphy in Britain. There is the Society of Scribes and Illuminators which was founded in 1921 for “the advancement of the crafts of writing and illuminating by the practice of them for themselves alone” and the Letter Exchange which was formed in 1988 and is a group of designers, artists, and craftspeople who are “devoted to the professional expression of fine and imaginative lettering, to all its forms, to a wider audience”.

The Effects of Changing Pens and there Holds

Typography, in a written form is greatly dependent on the writing utensil you use. As a pen changes, you might need to change the way you hold the pen. Ink flows differently in different types of pen and this is why the grip may need to change. When a quill or nib was used for the Copperplate-based writing the hand was not firmly on the writing surface with the only support coming from your pinky finger. The light pressure allows you hand to glide more freely. The way it is taught to hold pens now is to have the hand resting on the table, this slight change in support created the need to use print script and semi cursive models. Copperplate-based cursives do not work well today for a combination of reasons including the fact that they do not work well with free flowing pens, and the fact that we need to have our hand firmly supported in order to hold modern pens. When switching from pencil to pen, the change in how you hold them becomes evident. You cannot hold a pencil the same way as a pen, because of the amount of pressure needed to use them differs, resulting in two very different holds.

Recognition of Lettering in Britain

When it comes to using letters in a public place there is a lot of thought that has to go into it. The text needs to give information but also be direct, warn, divert, excite, and if badly positioned can confuse people. Letters need to function in a variety of situations, and they need to be easy to read despite everything from weather to lighting conditions. The Spirit of the Letters featured several British Letters and talked about how they try to get across the importance of lettering. Richard Kindersley is an architectural letterer, and his projects focus on lettering in public places which allows him to show people that architectural lettering should not be an afterthought. Sally bower created banners for protesting at the Chunnel routes in London. She created a design that was described as accurate and sympathetic in an intense atmosphere. Bryant Fedden uses the art of lettering as a decorative element in furniture and craft objects. He has become successful by integrating the decoration with the form of the object.

Edward Johnston

...and so on and so forth...

Subsection 6

...and so on and so forth...

Section 2: Deliverable

Additional Image

In this section, provide your contribution, creative element, assessment, or observation with regard to your background research. This could be a new derivative work based on previous research, or some parallel to other events. In this section, describe the relationship between your background review and your deliverable; make the connection between the two clear.

Subsection 1

...use as many subsections or main sections as you need to support the claims for why what you did related to your Background section...

Subsection 2

...and so on and so forth...

Gallery

• 

  Caption 1

• 

  Caption 2

• 

  Caption 3

• 

  Caption 4

Conclusion

In this section, provide a summary or recap of your work, as well as potential areas of further inquiry (for yourself, future students, or other researchers).

References

Add a references section; consult the Help page for details about inserting citations in this page.

Attribution of Work

For milestones completed collaboratively, add a section here detailing the division of labor and work completed as part of this milestone. All collaborators may link to this single milestone article instead of creating duplicate pages. This section is not necessary for milestones completed by a single individual.

External Links

If appropriate, add an external links section

Image Gallery

If appropriate, add an image gallery