History of Type Lecture

The lecture began with illustrating the importance of type. This was shown through a series of powerpoint slides showing the aims of the lecture. Each slide contained the same information but different typefaces and designs. This immediately showed how important type is in practice and the difference it can make:

We began to learn about the basic elements of typography and I looked their definitions up- 

Meta-communication- Communication that indicates how verbal information should be interpreted; stimuli surrounding the verbal communication that also have meaning, which may or may not be congruent with that of or support the verbal talk.

Paralinguistics- Paralinguistics are the aspects of spoken communication that do not involve words. These may add emphasis or shades of meaning to what people say. Some definitions limit this to verbal communication that is not words.

Kinesics-the study of the way in which certain body movements and gestures serve as a form of non-verbal communication.

Here we can see how the elements of type can change its communication and how the elements can be used incorrectly: 

As you can see, type is incredibly important and defines what is communicated. A calligraphic, ladylike font is highly inappropriate for an Iron Maiden concert and communicates the wrong message.

Then we began to explore the history in detail. It is clear that some of the most used type today was created centuries ago. These typefaces appear to have a timeless quality. I feel that this is down to their readability.

We looked at where the earliest writing began. Many modern typefaces are based on the first roman letterforms found on buildings, architecture and more. 

Around 1450 the age of print began with printing presses allowing the process of creating type and writing to be much quicker. From this, more typefaces were developed and types began to be put into categories: 

Sans-serif typefaces where a favourite of the modernist graphic designers. They believed that form followed function and they felt that sans serif fonts achieved the communication and readability required. I feel that the simplicity of modernism was taken too far with the creation of typefaces such as Bayer, an all lowercase typeface. I feel that this can make communication difficult! 

Of course, how could there be no mention of the 'perfect' typeface helvetica. Again, a favourite of modernists. This was supposedly ripped off by Microsoft for this reason: 

Another reason to hate Microsoft is that the designer of Comic Sans worked for them! 

Then came the creation of internet explorer. This laid the foundation of standard fonts for browsers worldwide- including arial and comic sans...

Design is subjective, but I feel we can all agree that comic sans is a disaster font!