The Evolution of Type: A Graphic Guide to 100 Landmark Typefaces - Hardcover

Seddon, Tony

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1770855041 ISBN 13: 9781770855045

Publisher: Firefly Books, 2015

Synopsis

The Evolution of Type examines 100 landmark typefaces from the history of font design, from the type used by Johannes Gutenberg to produce his 42-Line Bible, to the latest digital typefaces. It reveals the meaning behind typographic characters and shows how the use of type has changed over time.

A full spread is devoted to each typeface and its origins. Concise text describes the design history and usage of the face, and its long-term impact on the development of typefaces. Annotated enlargements show the new features that the typeface introduced and highlight its most important design characteristics.

The book is organized in six chapters:

• 1455-1700 The start of it all: The first typefaces are designed in Germany, Italy, France and the Netherlands
• 1700-1890 The emergence of literacy: The popular desire for reading material drives invention
• 1890-1920 The first technological age: Type foundries become big business and mass production becomes reality
• 1920-1960 Type meets art: Typographic originality and creative culture embrace on an industrial scale
• 1960-1990 Type become cool: Type influences international style
• 1990-today The second technological age: Typesetting for the masses.

The Evolution of Type has practical applications in many fields of graphic design. General readers will enjoy learning about something that they encounter every day. They will gain an appreciation for the unique characteristics of a word beyond its dictionary definition.

About this title

About the Author

Tony Seddon is a freelance designer, art director and writer. He has authored and co-authored five books on graphic design, art direction and typography, including Thou Shall Not Use Comic Sans: A Designer's Almanac of Dos and Don'ts. He lives in East Sussex, UK.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Foreword

Type is a fundamental part of written language in the modern world, and yet it is commonly treated as a static thing. Once cast into metal, it is fixed in time.

But type is alive!

Each typeface has an individual history. It is often born out of specific necessity, influenced by the artistic world in which its creator lives or designed to solve a particular problem. Some typefaces die soon after they fulfill this initial purpose, but others can live on far beyond their designers' intentions. They can travel through design movements, traverse formats and substrates both analog and digital, and evolve into the typographic offspring that we refer to as revivals and reinterpretations. If a typeface survives these journeys it can continue to live on as a tool in the hands of future generations, producing work its creator never imagined.

And just as music has its archetypical artists or composers who represent a given genre (be it classical, blues, folk or rock), so does type. Certain typefaces define their classification or style; they set a standard, becoming the forebears by which all their followers are judged and compared. We know many of these classics well, whether its from the pages of our design-school textbooks (Bodoni, Garamond, Caslon, Futura) or the default font menus on our computers (Gill Sans, Times, Palatino, Helvetica). But how much do we really know about them? What was the context of the design world in which they were drawn? Were they in competition with other typefaces of the time? What life did they live after they were released? How did they survive the transition from metal to film to digital? Did they survive at all? Which typefaces followed in their shadow?

In this book, Tony Seddon makes a daring and worthwhile attempt to answer these questions. The Evolution of Type is a biography of these living things we call typefaces. It tells their individual stories, and while at it, tells the story of typography as a whole.

Stephen Coles

Edition details

• Publisher: Firefly Books
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1770855041
• ISBN 13: 9781770855045
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256