Modular Font

modular font JULIA KLINE VISC 202 ANDREA HERSTOWSKI

PROJECT BRIEF A modular typeface is an alphabet constructed out of a limited number of shapes or modules. The Modular Font Project allowed for the creation of a modular typeface through the use and construction of simple shapes that make up a whole.

At first, the idea of creating my own typeface or font sounded very hard and intimidating, but through the use of grids and shapes, I was able to get the hang of it. By sketching ideas and lots of them, it was easy to get a variety of different ideas for typefaces. I narrowed my fonts down to one typeface and from there created a theme or mood for my font, Proxi. Not only did we work with modules, we also were able to get a grasp of animation techniues.

2

FUNCTIONALISM & THE GRID Functionalism: 1960s Dutch movement •Switzerland was the only country in Europe where functionalist graphic design was being used as a national visual language, everywhere else was infatuated with Swiss Style •The designers’ purist ideals did not include strong sense of beauty (Karle Gerstner, Josef Muller-Brockman, and Max Bill) Benno Wissing: painter, architect, film-lover, advocate for integration of architecture, art, and design •Developed a Dutch pragmatic version of a functionalist working method of typography and the grid- called Total Design •He let typography do most of the work, sparsely illustrated •Used an underlying grid; typographic work was straightforward and clear with a dynamic layout Total Design: easily programmed arrangement of info within a modular system so that mutual relationship, inter-connection, clustering, and related industrial production would not need follow up care •Applicable to architecture, industrial design, and graphic products •Birth of the grid •Trademark in the 60s and 70s was modular structuring and grids •Authorship of the grid was given to Wim Crouwel who was nicknamed the “system general”; had most complex attitude towards rationalizing and structuring design •Wissing was “system ideologist” Ahoy: “Ahoy” was Total Designs most systematic typeface conceived by Wissing •Hartmut, Kowalke, and Wissing designed a system of gridbased alphabets based on logos •Resulted in the possibility to produce letterforms in all kinds of ways without the loss of characteristics William Crouwel: Dutch province known for its down-to-earth mentality and ethic of hard work •Attracted the ideals of Nieuwe Zalkelijkheid movement meaning “objective” and “business-like” •Swiss design’s sense of order, and aesthetics of the elemental provoked a “shock or recognition” in him •“I have such a compulsion to create a certain order in everything” •His purist attitude can be traced back to Calvinism, a Dutch brand of Protestantism

3

FUNCTIONALISM & THE GRID •Spirituality is the primary thing that fascinates him about Functionalism •Experimental typography and functional typography are opponents of each other •Typefaces are the bricks of any typographical solution •1957-on letterforms appeared in Crouwel’s designs that were hand-drawn; they were simplified letters constructed from shapes New Alphabet: typeface made public in 1967 in an issue of the Kwadraatbladen; Crouwel developed as a personal project •No capitals, was rectangular, constructed with only horizontal and vertical lines with 45-degree corners; half the characters were unrecognizable •More suited to the composing system than the traditional typefaces using the cathode-ray tube •Fast transition from metal type to typesetting, from mechanics to type reproduction at the speed of light •The scientific grid system in which the typeface was created on was made for a high-tech advanced world •got more coverage than Total Design had, people criticized it for not being realistic

4

LETTER HISTORY PART ONE THE EARLY WRITTEN SCRIPTS

Proto Writing Symbols- representing. A very limited number of concepts; intention to deliver info but it’s not quite clear from the receivers POV because it wasn’t standardized back then True Writing- reader can reconstruct original message from the written message Kanaya Form- 3200 BC, one of the earliest systems of writing; used with a stylus poked in clay Rock Scribble- Proto script; proof that alphabet came from Egypt- predates the Phoenicians Hieroglyphics- image forms that were not very efficient; reserved for royal and religious texts Egyptian Hieratic/Demotic Script- hieroglyphic change to hieratic, the need for simpler writing that was more casual than hieroglyphics for documents, correspondence or transactions Rosetta Stone- monumental stone; allowed cryptographers and archeologists to decode the Egyptian Hieroglyphic and Demotic Script compared to Ancient Greek scripts Phoenician Alphabet- traders in the Mediterranean so they spread their alphabet in order to trade including the Greeks Greek Capitals- no distinction between upper and lowercase, prototypes of the letters we use today Roman Formal Scripts- different tools caused there to be writing for different purposes (ex: royal & religious- large & visible in public spaces using the best tools to preserve because they are the literate ones) Rustics- condensed Capitals for a different aesthetic Capitals- ancient Roman inscriptions Roman Cursive- old (used up until 200 AD) and new (used up until 600 AD); what people use for daily correspondence and documents, basis of what ascenders and descenders become later on Half-Uncial- not from uncials at all only have capital as same ancestor; Insular Half-Uncials- Book of Kells, very established form of wedge serifs Uncials- developed from late rustic capitals; one case in majuscule form & invention of inter-word spacing & using bigger letter to start paragraphs Carolingian Minuscules (800)- Charlemagne reform of standardized handwriting; resemblance to insular half-uncials, legibility enhanced with more letter spacing; inspires Italian Renaissance lettering

5

LETTER HISTORY PART TWO THE LATER WRITTEN SCRIPTS

Carolingian: Gothic- refers to the style & qualities of the middle ages, similarities between letterforms & architecture (Gothic arches) Proto-Gothic- Carolingian gets compressed into straighter thicker forms; had to conserve material; their paper was expensive because it was made of animal skin Textura- Gutenberg inspiration for type, diagonal diamond, cheaper & faster Rotunda- Italian style of Gothic script; rounder and wider forms; closer to Carolingian and is compressed, dark, and dense on the page Printing Press- comes along when books are in high demand, because Europe is becoming more literate; blackletter fontblack, dense, and dark German Fraktur- invented after the invention of printing; associated with German emperor Maximillian showing very great German values Humanistic Minuscules- Italians took Carolingian manuscripts and model their hand on; 15th century Renaissance Humanistic Cursive- more slanted & informal; separate categories yet they develop around the same time; eventually turns into italic Chancery Formal- Chancery Script from gothic script Informal- Chancery cursive Italic- stems from Italy; Chancery Script from gothic script just written fast and slanted

6

LETTER HISTORY PART FOUR THE EARLY TYPES

•Used stamps to press shapes & seals into soft clay- correlates to the invention of movable type Movable Type- type made up of individual engraved stamps each carrying usually a single letter or other character so that the pieces can be freely assembled or reassembled developed by Johannes Guttenberg in Germany Johannas Guttenberg- goldsmith who invented movable type & press, using oil-based ink, wooden printing press contraption Claude Garamond- inspired by Griffos, one of the early printers to establish italic capitals should slope just like lowercase does; known for Greek typefaces •Garamond Typeface- ended up replacing Griffos typeface during press; ITC used by apple computers in early years; old style typeface designs with very straight crossbars William Caslon- Britain’s first type founder instead of using Dutch typefaces; established British value of aesthetics •Typefaces- used for the Declaration of Independence Roman du Roi- refers to “the Kings Roman” or the sun king Louis XIV; another attempt to standardize type by grid using compasses & rulers Early German Types: Shwabacher- influenced by Textura & Rotunda; more compressed with gothic qualities; based on handwriting more than Textura Fraktur- similar to Textura calligraphy both dense and compressed; similarities to Shwabacher; closer to typefaces than to handwriting Italic: 1500, smaller type was better used because it was compressed, and the books were smaller because of itcheaper Font Classification- serifs, sans serifs, scripts and decorative styles

7

LETTER HISTORY PART FIVE 19TH & EARLY 20TH CENTURY TYPES

19th Century: Slab serif- born in the 1800s, reinterpreted from old style Greek letters •Nobody used slab serif as body texts-meant for headlines •Vincent Picken’s used the term slab serif first •1845 typeface- Egyptian antiques •First sans serif appears in 1816 in William Caslon’s specimen book Ionic types- slab serif with a little bit of bracketing; soft transition to the bracket American Wood Type Book- Rob Roy Kelly, shows shapes and how you can make those into letterforms, no limit to the decoration The Early 20th Century: William Morris- “first graphic designer”; British textile designer, poet, novelist, and socialist activist; •established Kelmscott press in 1891 •didn’t dive into type design until his late 50s •inspired by medieval manuscripts and against the 19th century typefaces •known for the golden Type (Roman type), Troy type, and Tosser type The Rise of Sans Serif- originally thought to have no place in an artistic group or not serious enough for books •cut from Etruscan typefaces Elizabeth Colwell- only female type designer during the time Unicase- one alphabet that would require one set of 26 letters that would represent both uppercase and lowercase •experimented with and developed by Herbert Bayer •influenced by Bauhaus movement and geometry Futura- Paul Runner 1927 •starts to represent ideas of modern features to society Eric Gill- made a sans serif based off of Johnston 1931 •coined the name “British Helvetica” •morally doubtful Rudolf Koch- German type designer who created the sans serif Cabella in 1927 •admired William Morris

8

LETTER HISTORY PART SIX MODERN TYPES & INFLUENCES

• Revival of the Sans serif • Type with different styles in the same family was born • Helvetica born 1957 Questions: 1.What led to the revival of the Sans serif?

2.Why was 1957 a big year for typefaces?

3.What was William Morris inspired by in terms of type?

4.How was Alfred Fairbank’s Handwriting Manual Influential?

5.It is frequently mentioned that type designers have to research and teach themselves how to resemble calligraphy, why might that be?

6.How was George Saltar influential?

9

SKETCHES Round 1 Sketches

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

10

11

12

13

14

15

11

FONTSTRUCT

16

17

18

19

20

12

21

22

23

24

25

13

ILLUSTRATOR VARIATIONS

14

15

16

TOP THREE DIRECTIONS

17

TINA SMITH’S FOOD FOR THOUGHT Experimental Typography- creating type out of new thingsstarted drawing the type not using computers “Find the thing that lights you up” *Small teams and small projects really make you grow- learning a lot *Do not take internships that don’t even pay minimum wage *Get invested in a place *Don’t take your skills for granted, but still expand your skillset *Motivating yourself through structure goes a long way

18

FONT MOOD

Why did I pick this font?

I chose this font over my other two fonts because I liked the many possible moods and settings I envisioned it could have.

I wanted to go past my comfort zone and try something new.

I love how it is so diverse- it could look medieval and old but also modern and edgy.

Tone Words: Edgy Medieval Gothic Sharp Dramatic Eccentric Grunge Mysterious Where you could find this font: Horror Film Rome Medieval Times Camelot Castle Harry Potter Batman

19

MEDIEVAL

20

GOTHIC

21

GRUNGE

22

EDGY

23

GLYPHS

24

abcdefghijklm nopqrstuvwxyz .,-

25

FONT SIZE TEST

proxi

10

Smallest Text SMALLEST TEXT

Smallest Text SMALLEST TEXT

12 Smallest Text SMALLEST TEXT

Smallest Text SMALLEST TEXT

Smallest Text SMALLEST TEXT

Smallest Text SMALLEST TEXT

Smallest Text SMALLEST TEXT

Smallest Text SMALLEST TEXT

Smallest Text SMALLEST TEXT

Smallest Text SMALLEST TEXT

14 Smallest Text

Smallest Text SMALLEST TEXT

Smallest Text SMALLEST TEXT

Smallest Text SMALLEST TEXT

Smallest Text SMALLEST TEXT

Smallest Text SMALLEST TEXT

Smallest Text SMALLEST TEXT

Smallest Text SMALLEST TEXT

16

Smallest Text SMALLEST TEXT

Smallest Text SMALLEST TEXT

Smallest Text SMALLEST TEXT

Smallest Text SMALLEST TEXT

Smallest Text SMALLEST TEXT

Smallest Text SMALLEST TEXT

Smallest Text SMALLEST TEXT

SMALLEST TEXT

Smallest Text SMALLEST TEXT Futura PT

26

p22 underground

Elido

Proxima Nova

PATTERNS

27

TOOL KIT

edgy streetstyle DESCRIPTIVE WORDS: EDGY ECCENTRIC SHARP DRAMATIC PERSPECTIVE CUTTING EDGE INDUSTRIAL

proxi SECONDARY FONT: PROXIMA NOVA

the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy river dog.

28

29

ANIMATION SKETCHES

30

FRAME BY FRAME ANIMATION

31

TIMELINE ANIMATION

32

BEHANCE FINAL

33

PROJECT REFLECTION This project allowed me to understand the anatomy of letterforms and solve specific problems that my font typeface gave me. It also allowed me to design a whole theme to brand my font. I used a new program I had never used before called Glyphs and I learned a lot of new tips and tricks about the grid. I also feel that I improved on how to methodically layout a document such as my behance post and what looks best.

Throughout my process, I can see how my typeface progressived visually and structurally and with the help of a tool kit.

I became more organized after each day of working which helped me show my process a little better.

34