History of Type: Distribution and Production

Typography is a method of communication - Shelley Gruendler

Typography is a language which has developed from oral communication to visual communication in the form of type. 

1919:

Bauhaus allowed for the combination of making an idea physical and industrialising craft. This allowed new connection between new technology to be made resulting in different discipline coming together to create new ideas, trends on of which was form follow function which is still popular today. Form follows function meant that what an object  was supposed to do drove what the design resulting in a minimal approach to design. This lead to the development of promotion as the industrial aged had its own visual language and commerce started to drive design. This is interesting as it links back to the first written words which where driven by trade. Consequently showing that nothing has gone away instead we've added to and reinvented ideas, principles and practises.

1957: Modernism

Helvetica was created by Eduard Hoffman and Max Miedinger and quickly became the typeface of the Swiss Style movement due to its simplistic and neutral nature which allowed Helvetica to be interpreted in many ways which lead to its use across promotional material for mass communication. Helvetica quickly became the benchmark for modern type. 25 years after Helvetica was released Microsoft released Arial a slight variation of Helvetica. This indicated the development of type as there where now type designers who focused on finding a better way to communicate an idea. However type design was still very mechanical and focused on hand drawn type.

1990:

First Mac was now available for less than $1000 which shifted typography and the way its produced as designers now had access to computers which saw the introduction of the digital age within type design. Consequently this democratised type and design as it allowed individuals to create typefaces as the computer became a design tool. As a result type became the forefront of visual culture as it became something everyone could use. Typography was no longer a specialist practise. 

By making itself evident, typography can illuminate the construction and identity of page screen place or produce - Ellen Lupton

1990:

Tim Berners-Lee created the world wide web and gave it away for free which created a way of communicating without paper allowing for the democratisation of design and distribution. Consequently in 1995 internet explorer was released which laid the foundations fro template based layout however this also restricted design due to the use of certain templates and only 8 fonts. The creation of these templates however shaped the way we design online as people realised we read and communicate differently online causing people to stop speaking and start typing, highlighting the move from spoken to written word. This development of language has gone even further as we move from written word back to using symbols though the use of emojis which have become there own visual language. 

Postmodernism: 

1997: 

Jamie Ried created the visual culture that surrounded punk by not conforming to modernism, getting rid of the grid. His destructive approach to modernism has become embedded into a language style that can be reused in contemporary design to reference a point of defiance/rebellion. 

1979: 

Barbra Kruger started to look at a modernist view to communication in the style of form follows function as type moved across into the gallery system. She explored the relationship between feminism and commerce using type to communicate her message. 

1992:

David Carson had a modernist approach to redefining typography that representing surf, music culture in America by undermining the grid and how that reflects subculture within music scene in America. His ideas our based on heritage dating back to Bauhaus showing different ways about thinking about type and design resulting in aesthetic evolution. 

Typography now works across a range of disciplines and products as there is no longer one single approach to design. Design is driven by what we can do and how we choose to distribute this which begins to shape our individual practise which shapes the visual culture everyone engages with as well as how they interpret the world.