I found this week's lecture much more riveting and interesting than last weeks, possibly because it involved more about the technological side of typography, which is relevant to my COP quote, and also my personal interests.
Type is not a natural concept - it's manmade, roots in spoken language. It is necessary, but not found anywhere else in the natural world. The durable visual form is a huge part of human history.
Following the first world war, there was an opportunity to rebuild the world creatively, especially in Germany, where so much had been flattened.
The modern concept of form following function was highly important in developing the fonts we know and use today, as well as other aesthetics and design of the time (around the early and mid 1900s). The graphic design from the Bauhaus turned to promotional, using commerce to drive design. The birth of graphic design.
Additionally, theatre, costume, new technologies, all were adopted into design - all areas of creative practice being threaded in.
With the birth of technology to a wider commercial audience, along came fonts that we are still familiar with today - one notable one being Helvetica. This font was free of elegance or complications. It is clear, clean, basic. It isn't a political font, or a font that is trying to emulate anything but clarity. In this way, it is the epitome of 20th Century design.
Also, comic sans. Which I am writing this blog post in, to make a point. Or just to maybe get on my lecturer's nerves. I don't have much hatred towards the font itself, at all. More annoyance at the people who use it wrongly. But! I would advise Fred Bates and other comic sans haters watch this video.
Type became forefronted in our visual culture, by the 1990s onwards. The introduction of the Apple Mac allowed every creative designer their own personal computer, to do with what they pleased. Type became democratised with the birth of computers and the internet.
Today, we see almost a "full circle" of type, with emojis. These hark back to the traditional methods of pictorial communication, using images to convey meaning. This was what interested me most in this lecture, something I had never really considered.
Ultimately, font is integrated and collaborative. It is visually collaborative.
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