The History of Typography and Place

Home , Architecture, Clearview (typeface), Ellen Lupton, Signage, Trajan (typeface), Typography

Typography, Placemaking and Signs A Four-Part SFI White Paper Series By Craig Berger

Part I The History of Typography and Place

Four part white paper & webinar series profiling typography and dimensional typography in the 1 sign making industry.

Wrtitten by Craig Berger © Signage Foundation, Inc. Other Resources:

Four-Part Typography Typography Webinar White Paper Series. Series.

Download the other parts to this Visit the page below to view a calendar Typography White Paper Series. of the webinars we currently offer.

www.signs.org/EducationEvents/ www.signs.org/EducationEvents/ WhitePapers.aspx ISASignAcademy.aspx

Cover Photo Credits: Acumen, Adelphia Graphic Systems

2 This History of Typography and Place © Signage Foundation, Inc. Sponsored by:

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© Signage Foundation, Inc. This History of Typography and Place 3 he history of typography is as on monuments, though it had evolved over long as the 5,000-year history of the previous hundred years. The type style written languages and alphabets used simple serifs and all capital letters, but T that combined letter forms into it created a communication revolution in the words. Most of that history, however, was Roman Empire. Lettering was used to mark dedicated to the refi nement of written language political and historical events such as major on paper, which could be read by only a victories and landmarks. More important, it small minority of the most highly educated. communicated the location of stores, marked Typography in the environment began at the roads and street numbers. This began to dawn of the fi rst century A.D., bringing along rationalize Roman cities and promote simple with it the promotion of large-scale literacy and language skills. technological advancement in mobility and communication. In fact, there is a strong case to be made that environmental typography is The Printing Press and a natural outgrowth of the desire for people to explore and comprehend the outside world. the Development of Legible Type Trajan and the First The fl owering of typography during the Environmental Typeface Romans was short lived. The collapse of the empire reverted typography back to its key use The Roman Empire had been in existence in religious documents. Calligraphy became a for more than 500 years before the fi rst core academic skill, but produced documents experiments in environmental typography that were all but unintelligible. It was not began. The complexity of managing a far-fl ung until the 15th century, with the development empire had grown easier with the use of one of the printing press and moveable type, that language, a common currency and written typographical innovation resumed. Looking laws; but low literacy in the population made back to the clarity of the original typeface from communication diffi cult on a mass scale. the Romans, Nicholas Jenson developed one of the fi rst fonts designed for the printing press. The Romans resolved this with two inventions The advent of a designed legible font soon that pushed type from parchment into the became an industry with printers developing urban environment. Metal stamps allowed their own typefaces, many of which are still for the development of watermarks and coin used today. Unfortunately, literacy in this era currency with numerical values that could be was very low and cities and towns were still easily learned. In addition, stencils allowed too small to need the rationalization of letters for the consistent creation of type on posters, and numbers. Advances is metalworking and signs and carved landmarks. This fi rst Latin woodcarving did see the rise of commercial alphabet type style was termed Trajan, after signage utilizing a mix of pictograms and the emperor in power when it fi rst appeared simple messages.

4 This History of Typography and Place © Signage Foundation, Inc. Trajan’s Column in Rome is a good example of the many columns, arches and other monuments erected to tell the story of the emperor’s military victories in Dacia. Even though most of the storytelling is done through illustrative carvings, the dedication information is in a newly developed Roman typeface that would later become known as Trajan.

This recreated pub sign shows that, with limited literacy, signs before the Industrial Revolution had to combine iconography and typography to get the message across.

Fonts were continually refi ned for the next The messiness and clutter of the commercial 300 years, paralleling a continuous rise in new city was disturbing to many designers and technologies for printing and a need for printed intellectuals in Europe. Design movements media in the environment. The trend started in developed to integrate design disciplines 1757 with the development of the Baskerville to better refl ect the greater mechanization font by John Baskerville. This typeface of of society. This culminated in the Bauhaus varying thick and thin elements, high contrast movement of the 1920s, where designers like and variable spacing allowed type to be seen Walter Gropius, Mies Van Der Rohe and Josef from greater distances, increasing its utility for Albers infl uenced architecture and design environmental communications. for the next 40 years. In 1927, Paul Renner developed Futura, a font stripped of all classical At the same time the Industrial Revolution adornment that could seamlessly integrate created many new tools that expanded with the modular and simple modern buildings printing, while making it more fl exible. being proposed by the Bauhaus. The tracing pantograph and router made the creation of new and different fonts much easier, In the United States, the Art Deco movement while expanding the ability to create unique established sleek and streamlined typography signs. Color lithographic printing brought to fi t with designs of airplanes, trains and cars. color to mass production printing by the mid- Thin Art Deco typography fi t perfectly with 19th century, providing all the tools needed to the advances in metal routing and cutting create large-scale printed billboards and signs. and the commercialization of neon lighting for signs. Commercial signage for stores and These technologies came at a perfect time restaurants soon followed the sleek lines of when mass production brought about the skyscrapers and government buildings. By the need for product advertising and promotion. 1950s, the sleekness of the Modern Movement Cities began to fi ll up with posters, handbills, met Art Deco to produce Moderne, a sign and banners and print billboards, all featuring building typography that still adorns hotels in multiple fonts and styles. At the same time, Miami Beach. cities exploded in size, with the addition of new building types. Offi ce buildings, train stations and municipal buildings now required Highway and Roadway signs for identity and wayfi nding. Typography was further simplifi ed to meet these new sign Environments types, though typography was still following customized versions of classical fonts until the The introduction of the automobile into 20th century. everyday American life also infl uenced

6 This History of Typography and Place © Signage Foundation, Inc. Billboard Clutter circa. 1890

The Bauhaus worked closely to integrate typography and architecture

Miami Beach Art Deco

© Signage Foundation, Inc. This History of Typography and Place 7 the push for more legible environmental Helvetica and the typography. In the 1920s the Manual and Specifi cations for the Manufacture, Display, Typography of Brands and Erection of U. S. Standard Road Markers and Signs—a precursor to today’s Manual on Uniform Traffi c Control Devices–mandated Modern typographical development went specifi c typefaces for road signs. This type hand-in-hand with the modern design was usually modern San Serif characters that trends of the first half of the 20th century could be easily painted on signs and easily in art, architecture and publishing, but read at high speeds. After World War II the had yet to penetrate products and services. introduction of an interstate highway standard These categories still focused heavily on promoted Highway Gothic which was also print advertising and packaging to convey adopted by a number of other countries with brand identity. The post-war years saw the only minor changes. California developed a development of completely new classes bolder version to utilize refl ective buttons. of buildings to support rapidly growing multi-national companies. These companies The British went about things a little needed type and identity approaches that differently by employing a research study could communicate to a wide variety of on type legibility. The result was the cultures as well as different print and development of British Transport by Jock environmental conditions. Corporate Kinneir, which had more rounded letters and iconography and typography both became was in upper and lower case, both attributes mediums to convey messaging. that tested well at high speeds. With the use of refl ective vinyl, American highway In the 1950s, type foundries in Europe signs needed a new typeface that could worked to develop fonts that could be minimize the blurring and hazing that came applied to the varied needs of advertising along with refl ectivity. The development and branding. Drawing inspiration from of Clearview by Donald Meeker advanced Akidenz-Grotesque, an early modern many of the concepts found in Kinneir’s typeface developed in 1898, Adrian British Transport and after years of testing Frutiger designed Univers, which used and advocacy, received approval from the numerical designations to identify Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) in different line weights, faces and position 2004. The typeface is also used in a number combinations. Helvetica, developed by of wayfi nding programs in airports and Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann train stations where legibility is important. was a font developed to be truly neutral Today legibility testing is an integral part and focused on legibility. Corporations of typography design. New fonts like such as American Airlines®, GM® and 3M® Wayfi nding Sans Pro have been developed incorporated the Helvetica font family into directly from legibility testing of comparable their branding in the 1960s, followed soon font types. after by retailers like Target®.

8 This History of Typography and Place © Signage Foundation, Inc. British Transport uses both upper and lower case type as well as more rounded letterforms, which made it both highly legible and more easily able to squeeze onto typically dense English signs.

Clearview was developed for high-speed and spacious American highways.With a taller “x” height, lower case letters are easier to read, but take up more space than the denser British Transport.

Alvin Lustig’s work at the Northland Mall near Detroit pioneered the use of type to establish a branded place.

© Signage Foundation, Inc. This History of Typography and Place 9 In the early 1960s, these new typefaces were development of a number of interlocking released to the design community through software innovations in the 1970s and the Linotype corporation with cast metal 1980s created the biggest leap yet in the type and transfer stencils like Letraset. development of environmental typography. In signage, advances in vinyl, neon and A range of desktop publishing software fluorescent lighting led to a major move to solutions began with the development of both internally illuminated and cut vinyl the Apple Macintosh and complementary signs. These signs were most effective with software for the manipulation of pictures, simple typography and high-color contrast. type and graphics. The rapid evolution of These advances promoted the beginning of this software led to the creation of True a new type of designer–the environmental Type Fonts in 1991, which could be scaled graphic designer–who works closely with to multiple sizes without a loss of clarity. architects to integrate modern brand tools Combined with early drawings programs like into buildings. This development started in Corel Draw and Freehand, even the smallest the 1950s with the work of Alvin Lustig and design firms could have access to tools for his wife Elaine Lustig Cohen on projects like incorporating type into their work. the Northland Mall, the first enclosed mall in the country, and the Seagram Building, Along with tools for the designer, the one of the first modern office towers. introduction of commercially available Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Designers including Paul Rand, Chermayeff manufacturing software brought specialized & Geismar and Unimark International routing and cutting to thousands of small continued to evolve typography from fabrication firms. When combined, guidelines developed for advertising into Computer Aided Design and manufacturing fully developed programs for everything improvements increased design flexibility so from business cards to buildings. This significantly that it is difficult to comprehend. approach was also applied to the overall Routed raised letters and Braille made environment, including transit systems and accessible signage possible and created an government buildings. entirely new industry and set of government codes. Computer controlled industrial tools brought high-powered methods to even the Apple, CAD, ADA and the smallest sign shops, expanding custom and stylized typography to small communities Type Accessible to the around the globe. Finally advances in fabrication and lighting combined with a Masses greater ability of designers to visualize the end product added immeasureable visual In a century of design advances, the effects to signs.

10 This History of Typography and Place © Signage Foundation, Inc. The work of Chermayeﬀ & Geismar and Michael Manwaring. Typography as Architecture.

Helvetica was not the ﬁ rst typeface used for the New York Subway but it was the one that succeeded in tying the system together.

The work of Paula Scher of Pentagram. (Shake Shack and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.)

© Signage Foundation, Inc. This History of Typography and Place 11 This book released in 2012 by perhaps the The Future foremost combination of Environmental Graphic Designer and intellectual today, and covers many With the ability to create, adapt and apply of the design themes discussed in a graphic, yet type in a variety of ways, the future of type in in-depth format. the environment can move in any number of directions. But this may not yield greater design Learning from Las Vegas, Robert Venturi freedom. Increases in legibility research have Yes the book is old. Yes it is hard to read. But created more effective typefaces but have also very few books have had a greater infl uence in led to more restrictive design codes. Digital analyzing the role of symbol, type, identity and sign technology has dynamic type, yet in brand in the environment. many transportation systems this has resulted in even greater efforts at standardization. The Signage and Wayfi nding Design, Chris Calori, creation and use of type is the combination and Signage Systems and Information of technological innovation with systemic Graphics, Andreas Ubele rationalization and that balance will always exist The 21st Century version of signs and even in a future of limitless possibilities. architecture, these books serve as a great basic text for the new generation of sign designers. Learn more about the practices and research that defi ne the way we use type in Wayshowing, Per Mollerup the environment in Part 2 of Typography, If you like design commentary this book provides Placemaking and Signs: Dimensional wonderful riff s on design and wayfi nding in the Typography Best Practices. environment in all its forms.

Helvetica and the New York City Subway Great Books on System, Paul Shaw A great story of how a single typeface can Typography and Signage permeate our everyday life.

Architectural Signing and Graphics, The Development of the Wayfi nding Typeface John Follis Wayfi nding Sans Pro, Ralf Hermann John Follis started one of the fi rst dedicated This article shows the development of a modern environmental graphic design fi rms and his book typeface used in signage and is a good guide to on the subject, released in 1978, established nearly the varied legibility issues found in vehicular sign all the early best practices for the development of systems. wayfi nding and identity programs. A hard book to fi nd, but well worth it. Thinking with Type, Ellen Lupton One of the greatest design thinkers of the last Graphic Design and Architecture: A 20th twenty years brings an understanding of type to Century History, Richard Poulin the masses with this book.