Design Principles - An introduction to type

In the introduction to type seminar we looked at how a letterform can have many different meanings and connotations. We analysed a capital 'A' and looked at how to us this connotes a sound. However the letterform itself only connotes this sound because it has been agreed upon in the past. There is nothing in the symbol which displays an 'a' sound. A quote that was shown really interested me as I have never thought about it before but it seems really obvious. It was 'for a language to exist all that is necessary is for a group of people to agree that one thing stands for another.'

We looked at how typography today has been influenced by the production methods used to produce type historically. The production methods we looked at were: stone, sable, bone, wood and silicone. By looking at typefaces we can see where their origins lie by analysing which production methid we think was originally used for the type. For example, letters with serifs that use brackets were probably originally made of stone as serifs were used to ensure the stone didn't chip when carved into.

Prior to the session were asked to print out letterforms from 3 typefaces that we felt were completely different. We weren't given any more information than this. I chose Gotham, (a modern sans serif typeface) Georgia (a much more formal serif typeface) and Mitsral (a chalkboard style script typeface.)

We were put into groups and in these groups took each typeface and tried to categorise them by production method. This task was more difficult than you would imagine as lots of the typefaces had characteristics that could have originated in various production methods.

We then showed the typefaces in the categories to the whole class and looking at the difference in opinion between the groups was interesting. We were told how looking at the production method of a font was vital when analyzing typography. I feel this session gave me a better understanding of typography and its origins.