In this class we looked at the history of type, and how it is the clothes for words. We also looked into one of the most influential people in the type world, Gutenberg and how his printing press had a massive impact on typography and design.
Johannes Gutenberg was a craftsman from Mainz, Germany born late in the 14th century and around 1428 his family moved to Strasbourg, France due to being forced out for being a Patrician family. In 1436 Gutenberg invented the printing press which back then was as impactful and influential as the invention of the internet.
Johannes Gutenberg
Gutenberg Printing Press
China are credited to being the first to use printing, as they used wood-block printing, and this was way back in the year 700, long before Gutenberg arrived on the scene. So although Gutenberg invented the printing press, different methods of printing had been around before him. What I found quite interest is the impact that Gutenberg had on the Reformation in the 16th century as I have an interest in the history of Christianity as it has had a big impact on my life and it was cool to learn more about how the printing press had a big impact on this time period in church history. In 1455 Gutenberg printed around 180 copies of the Bible in a year. That was unheard of back then, and there are 48 of these copies left today. Overall because of Gutenberg’s invention thousands of people had access to printed text which allowed people to voice their opinion to a wider range of people which is a very good thing and has a positive impact on millions of people today.
Next we looked at Typography and understanding the different types of typography, and what makes each of them effective and unique. Here is a piece I sketched using Helvetica as the typeface, and highlighting some of the key aspects of a typeface.
Height & X Height: Height and X Height is the how tall the lower case letters are. A good way to understand this is by looking at the letter ‘x’ and seeing how tall it is, and that will be the hight for most lower cases letters that don’t have an ascender or descender.
Cap Height: Cap Height is the height of capital letters in the typeface. This is different to maximum height as that is only for certain letters go slightly above the cap height, such as the letter ‘f’.
Baseline: Baseline is the bottom of a line that the typeface rests on. All letters stay on this line expect for letters that have a descender such as ‘g’ or ‘y’.
Letter Spacing: Letter spacing is the horizontal space between each letter in the typeface. It is recommended when using capital letters to increase the letter spacing by 5%-12%.
We looked at how typefaces can represent what a product is trying to show, so when choosing typefaces it must be a process that is done with careful eyes and thoughtfulness. An example we looked at was an insurance company and how different typefaces can either represent it as an insurance company or not. As you can see, the left example does represent an insurance company well, and the one on the right doesn’t, simply because of the typeface. It is mighty important to use typefaces correctly and thoughtfully, with research into what the brand/product is trying to show and represent. A knowledge of a wide range of typefaces is very useful.
There are a few main types of typefaces that are used commonly. Here are some of them:
Serif - This typeface has a small line or stroke regularly attached to the end of a larger stroke, and is commonly used in books, and when trying to represent something more sophisticated.
San-Serif - This typeface is the opposite of serif, with the strokes removed. “Sans” in french means without. These typefaces are commonly used for logos, and appear more striking than serif.
