COP LECTURE 5 - The History of Type - Production and Distribution PART 2

Bauhaus
Shift in production of 'stuff' created an opportunity to rebuild and a new way to think. They focused on the relationship between form and function, what an object does influences the way it is designed. This focused on reducing an object to it's simplest form and removing any unnecessary detailing. Commerce began to drive design.

1957
Max Midler created Helvetica, a modernist idea of type. Created to be as clear and concise as possible, any unnecessary detail was removed relating back to the idea of 'less is more' which was a prominent motto enforced by Bauhaus and influenced their designs. 25 years after Helvetica was published Microsoft released Arial which is a subtle modification on Helvetica which allowed them to use a similar typeface with similar values and design ideas without having to pay for Helvetica.

1990
The first Mac computer came available to buy for less than 1,000 dollars making them widely available to everyone, not just the limited few. People were now able to use a computer as a design tool and could now access and use typefaces as well as being able to make their own.

1994
Vincent Connare who worked for Microsoft created comic sans MS.

1990
Sir Tim Berners-Lee
The world wide web was invented which forms the basis of the internet. The creator released this for free and didn't want to make any profit from it.

1995
Bill Gates
internet explorer was released as an internet browser. All webpages created had to follow a certain layout and only 8 fonts were available to chose from which included Arial and comic sans which restricted this new found freedom people had developed from being able to own their own personal computer.

1999
Emojis were first created
An international language that anyone can understand, gone back to the days of drawing symbols to communicate rather than letters and words.

Post Modernism
anything goes, no set way
1977 Jamie Reed
Visual culture surrounding punk, non conforming and reinventing meaning.

1979
Barbara Kruger
Delivering a message clearly, type merging across to a fine art gallery.

1992
David Carson
Shift in how designer thinks, it was thought he was completely going against the grain and going against graphic design 'rules' and 'norms'. However when you look at his work for raygun it has links back to bauhaus and has a unique structure. It highlights the fact that there is no longer a certain way to do things and anything goes.