Typographers and

Designers

CHAPTER ONE

House IndustriesWRITTEN BY NAME OF HANNAH CHI

House Industries is an internationally known prolific type foundry and design

studio based in Yorklyn, Delaware. The company was created on March 1st, 1993

when Andy Cruz and Rich Boat quit their jobs and set up Brand Design Co.,

Inc. in the space rom of Rich’s apartment in Wilmington, Delaware. Despite its

garage startup, the company has manifested into making a considerable impact

on the world of design as its fonts are widely spread throughout billboards, greet-

ing cards, consumer product logos, and mainstream media—a few which include

VH1’s Best Week Ever, Mission Impossible, Nickelodeon’s TV Land, Anne Taylor

garment bags, Lucky Charms, and etc.

Behind the apparent success of House Industries is a team of impassioned House

artists who have mastered a large cross-section of design disciplines that acts as

an infrastructure for the mesh of cultural, musical and graphic elements within

in the mastered typography. From early forays into distressed digital alphabets

to sophisticated type and lettering systems, House Industries’ work transcends

graphic conventions and reaches out to a broad audience.

Within the realm of House Industries’ broad clientele is a wide variety of an un-

conscious House aesthetic of the studio’s ‘blue-collared’ designers. As House de-

signers draw from an exposure of areas in the American sub-cultural phenomena

of unsophisticated yet incredibly formative graphic design, despite the big names

of their clients, House designers ultimately create their own projects of design

and illustration. Each House Industries project attempts to administer a compo-

nent of an art history lesson of sorts by using their font collections to provide an

opportunity to draw attention to the impactful and under-appreciated art genres

that were a huge influence to the designer’s during their impressionable years.

The consistent element of art history embedded into the House aesthetics has

inevitably created a style that audiences identify House Industries with.

In accordance, because of the twentieth century metal type inspiration and the di-

verse references to popular cultural imagery, invariably, “retro” is always brought

up when discussing House’s work. Regardless of the indifferent categorization of

House aesthetics being “retro,” as the term is thoughtlessly used to describe any-

thing that from the past few decades, House designers focus solely in the craft of

everything they do. House Industries finds creating artwork by traditional means

to be more direct and efficient so ultimately, the hands-on approach preserves

the characteristic production techniques while drawing from personal interests,

which gives a unique flavor of making the House Aesthetic one of a kind.v

Jessica HischeWRITTEN BY WINNIW QUAN

Jessica Hische is a Pennsylvania-born, award-winning letterer, illustrator, and

graphic designer. Known for her ‘Daily Drop Cap’ project, ‘Should I Work for

Free’ flowchart, and beautiful type design and lettering skills, Hische is current-

ly based in San Francisco and works alongside friend and designer Erik Mari-

novich. While she’s not in her studio space creating and working on designs, she

can be found traveling the world attending and speaking at conferences, finding

ways to help others do what they love.

Having worked for wonderful clients such as Wes Anderson, American Express,

and Penguin Books, Hische continues to work independently from her studio,

designing for advertising, books, weddings, branding, and companies, while still

finding time to work on fun side projects for herself. One of her biggest projects

included designing book covers for a 26-book classics series with Penguin Books;

each with an elegantly-designed letter that pertained to a classic author, and an-

other working with Wes Anderson to create film titles for Moonrise Kingdom.

Hische is also greatly acclaimed, having been listed in Forbes’ Top 30 Under 30

in art and design twice, nominated as GDUSA’s person to watch in 2011, and fea-

tured in many major design and illustration publications. She is greatly admired

and respected by those in her industry and lettering-aficionados.

Her hand-lettering skills have been carefully practiced and refined for years,

mainly using the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator to develop a general skeleton and

adding decorations and ornamentations later on. While Hische’s work for her

clients is incredibly expansive and ample, her style is a common element in all of

her lettering and illustrations; her work can be described as both whimsical and

sophisticated, as she finds inspiration everywhere she goes and through all the

wonderful people she meets around the world. “Just when you think you figured

it out, you find some better way of doing things. The key is to always keep trying

to be better.”

Michael BierutWRITTEN BY JOHN LUNA

The Ohio-born Michael Bierut is a highly awarded and famous graphic designer

that is attributed with the creation of designs ranging from the environmental

graphics for the New York Times building to the development of a new brand

strategy for the packaging of Saks Fifth Avenue. However, his work does not only

result from his ability to design but also his identity as a designer. He describes

the difference between those who design and those who are designers. The de-

signer is also a participant in the design conversation and, as a designer; Bierut

is a leader in creating a design community. He has served as the national pres-

ident of the American Institute of Graphic Arts, acted as a senior critic at Yale

School of Art, and is a founding contributor for the Design Observer. His works

and didactic contributions have affected the language of typography and the field

of design overall. With his book, Seventy-Nine Short Essays on Design, Bierut

hopes to create a community for design conversation, which, he comments, was

fairly unavailable to a majority of designs despite the universality of design in the

world. He complains that, in the 1970s, there was only really one, inaccessible,

conference for designers to attend and that paid subscriptions to publications

tended to be costly – creating a very isolated world of design. He grants insight to

the importance, especially due to the ubiquitous nature of design, of the graph-

ic and of the associated text. Mentions of his mistakes and experiences during

his design career inform him and allow him to offer readers advice on spurring

conversations about design and challenging the established design normative. In

Bierut’s essay published in the Design Observer, he mentions that design is about

making connections between objects. Despite appearing to be an aggregation for

essays on design, he also comments on other topics such as politics or business.

He mentions, “Design is not everything. But design is about everything.” Bierut

praises design for always being about “something else.” These connections allow

designs to become a universal entity that has driven Bierut’s inspirations. As a

result of his contemporary advice on breaking the design standard, Bierut has

become a major, and powerful, contributor to the entire design community.

Herman ZapfWRITTEN BY KEELY VEDANAYAGAM

Herman Zapf is a German type designer who was born in 1918 in Nuremberg

during the German revolution and is still alive today at age 96! He is married to a

fellow typeface designer, Gudrun Zapf von Hesse. Zapf grew up with an interest

in technical subjects; as a kid he experimented with electricity and even built

an alarm set for his house. At a young age, Zapf was already getting involved

with type, inventing cipher-text alphabets to exchange secret messages with his

brother.

He left school in 1933 with the ambition to pursue a career in electrical engi-

neering. However, Zapf was not able to attend the Ohm Technical Institute in

Nuremberg due to the new political regime in Germany at the time, so he took

up an apprenticeship position in lithography where he worked for four years.

During this time, Zapf attended an exhibition in Nuremberg in honor of the late

typographer Rudolf Koch. This exhibition gave him his first interest in lettering

and he began to teach himself calligraphy. In 1938, he designed his first printed

typeface, a fraktur type called Gilgengart.

One year later, Zapf was conscripted into World War II and sent to help reinforce

the defensive line against France. Not used to the hard labor, he developed heart

trouble in a few weeks and was given a desk job, writing camp records and sports

certificates. Due to his heart trouble, Zapf was dismissed early from his unit and

shortly thereafter began training as a cartographer. After his training, he traveled

to Bordeaux and became a staff member in the cartography unit where he drew

maps of Spain. Zapf enjoyed working in the cartography unit. His eyesight was

so excellent that he could write letters 1 millimeter in size without using a mag-

nifying glass – this skill probably prevented him from being commissioned back

into the army.

After the war had ended, Zapf was held by the French as a prisoner of war. He was

treated with respect because of his artwork and, due to his poor health, was sent

home only four weeks after the end of the war. Post-war, Zapf taught calligraphy

in Nuremberg before taking up a position as artistic head of a print shop.

Later in his career, he spent time developing two famous typefaces, Palatino and

Optima. He then worked for a while in developing computer typography pro-

grams before taking up professorship at the Rochester Institute of Technology

from 1977 to 1987. Today he is known as the artist of several famous typefaces

such as Palatino, Optima, Aldus, Venture, and of course, Zapfino – his most re-

cent typeface which was released in 1998.

Historical Letters

CHAPTER TWO

Bruce RogersWRITTEN BY RALEIGH WARD

Bruce Rogers was an American typographer and type designer that primarily

focused on book designers. Some claim that he was among the greatest book

designers of the twentieth century. He started his career as a political cartoonist

after graduating from Purdue in 1890. Later on, he worked as an artist for the

Indianapolis news which sparked his passion for book design. After falling in

love with Kelmscott Press edition books, Rogers moved to Boston, the center of

publishing at the time, and began his passion by producing fine books.

Rogers created his first typeface in 1901 when he worked for the Riverside Press

in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He started designing advertisements, and created

ornate designs, printed on handmade damped paper. He created the font “Mon-

taigne” which was a Venetian style type face, which was used in the book The

Essays of Montaigne. Rogers had a very clear style, and when the moderdism

trend began to spread across the art world, he continued to focus on his “classi-

cal” designs and avoided modern or sans serif fonts.

In 1912, Rogers then moved to New York City where he began his career as an

independent designer and house designer for the Metorpolitan Museum of Art.

Rogers was asked to design a limited edition of Mauric de Geurin’s The Centaur,

and he created his most popular font “Centaur” at this time. His new typeface

was recognized among the community and admired for its maturity and classic

design. From that point forward, Rogers specifically used Centaur for the rest of

his career.

Rogers became infatuated with book design. Whether he was overseeing other

designs or taking on his own special projects, he was always influencing the pub-

lishing world with his designs. One of his passion projects included a renovation

of the Odyssey. Rogers reprinted the book in Centaur type on gray handmade

paper and bound it with black Niger leather. He became obsessed with turning

iconic books into not only literary works of art, but design works of art as well.

Soon after, he spend six years producing the Oxford Lectern Bible. However, this

led to Rogers pairing up with Frederic Warde to develop an italic form of his

Centaur font.

Along with his typography and type design, Rogers spent a focus on his career

designing bookplate designs that showcased his type designs. His designs usually

included small images with ornate borders and his own types. Today, his book-

plates and books designed throughout his career auction at a very high value.

Overall, Roger’s impacted the book design world while finding a current way to

integrate serif and classic designs into the everyday world.

Max MiedingerWRITTEN BY JOSHUA KIM

In the discussion of most influential people in history, we throw out names like

Aristotle, Jesus, Louis Pasteur, Leonardo di Vinci, Alexander the Great, and Walt

Disney, but there is one man oft forgotten: Max Miedinger. Yes, I just compared a

typographer to Jesus, and I’m not ashamed.

Max Miedinger was born in the most neutral place on Earth, Zurich, Switzerland,

but he was far from anything neutral. In fact, Max was a go-getter from the begin-

ning. It was widely rumored that when he was born from his mother’s womb, he

was already rearranging his umbilical cord into various shapes and letters. Hav-

ing discovered his precociousness at the moment of birth, Max’s parents decided

to allow him freedom to become his own man, and become his own man he did.

At the age of 16, when plebeians like you and I were still sucking our thumbs and

just barely getting by basic calculus, Max was already beginning his apprentice-

ship as a typesetter. For the next four years, Max worked by day at the worth of

an unpaid intern and attended class by night at Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich.

By age 26, Max evolved into a full-fledged typographer for Globus department

store’s advertising studio. For the next 10 years, he perfected his art. During

this rather uneventful period the Swiss typically call “the grind” or in German,

zerkleinern, Max was only able to travel the globe once, spreading the good word

of typographism throughout the four corners of the world. It should be noted

that he did successfully perform a cardiac bypass surgery in the jungles of Africa

and recreate the most famous stolen Rembrandt painting, Jacob de Gheyn III

in France. It should also be noted that those latter accomplishments are based

purely on rumor.

In 1956-57, he became a freelance graphic artist, and with Eduard Hoffmann,

they gifted the world the most important creation of the 20th century in the form

of the Haas-Grotesk typeface. Over the next two years, roman and bold version

were created, and in 1960, the typeface was renamed from Neue Haas Grotesk to

HelveticaTM. If you don’t know what Helvetica is or looks like, finish this sen-

tence and then maybe consider exploring that place the rest of us call “outside”.

Read some signs, look at some advertisements, glance over a book cover and

you’ll have probably already experienced HelveticaTM. It is only the most widely

used typeface of the 20th century, and many sans-serifs that came after can thank

HelveticaTM for laying the way. Helvetica is the Jesus Christ, the Neo, the Dark

Knight of typography, it wasn’t the typeface we deserved, but the typeface we

needed. It came down from the snowy mountains of the Swiss Alps to save us

from our sins of using so many damn serif fonts.

Of course, haters gon’ hate. Erik Spiekermann said:

“Neue Haas Grotesk was a redesign of (surprise!) Haas Grotesk, which in turn

was partly based on Scheltersche Grotesk from Schelter&Giesecke in those days,

type was also quickly assimilated, copied, emulated, ripped-off; the success of

Akzidenz Grotesk had alerted Haas to the fact that they were missing sales be-

cause all the Swiss designers were specifying AG from Germany.”

This is coming from the guy who thought Michael Jordan was overrated and the

Beatles would never amount to much. The fact of the matter is, HelveticaTM has

proliferated beyond all expectations and continues to be the standard in typeface

for advertisers and designers throughout the world. Whoever marketed Helvetica

is a genius and should seriously consider hiring me to wherever firm he works at.

Paul RennerWRITTEN BY RAJIV RAMAKABIR

Paul Renner was a world famous German type designer. Renner can be seen as a

bridge between the traditional 19th century and the modern 20th century design.

He attempted to fuse the gothic and the roman typefaces. While he was never

directly affiliated with the Bauhaus movement, he became an advocate of its aims

and principles and became a leading proponent of the “New Typography”. Ren-

ner sought to influence culture by designing, writing and teaching and he spent

most of his life in applied art, trying to bring high cultural standards to material

objects for use – typefaces and books. Although Renner was not associated with

the Bauhaus, he shared many of its idioms and believed that a modern typeface

should express modern models, rather than be a revival of a previous design.

Renner’s design rejected the approach of previous sans-serif designs, which were

based on the model of traditional serif typefaces and condensed lettering, in fa-

vor of simple geometric forms: near-perfect circles, triangles and squares. It is

based on strokes of near-even weight, which are low in contrast. In relation to

typography, many people know Renner as the creator of Futura, one of the most

successful and most-used typefaces of the 20th century. In some respects, Futura

can be seen to reflect his views on the appropriate style for letterforms designed

in Germany – an alternative solution to the choice of gothic or roman. When cre-

ated in 1927, Futura was based on geometric shapes that became representative

of visual elements of the Bauhaus design style of 1919–33. In designing Futura,

Renner avoided the decorative, eliminating nonessential elements, but used his

knowledge of how people perceive lines and shapes to make subtle departures

from pure geometric designs that allow the letterforms to seem balanced. His

creation of the sans serif typeface Futura marked a revolutionary change in ty-

pography. Futura is still used today because it is so bold and distinctive to ty-

pographers and graphic designers. Paul Renner’s work is a good example of how

form follows function. Every mark Renner made, he had a reason for making it,

not making any arbitrary marks or decisions just because of the style during the

19th and 20th century. Renner, as one of the most influential type designers of

the 20th century has successfully created a bridge from traditional typography

to modern.

Saul BassWRITTEN BY ERIN NOGLE

“Design is thinking made visual.”

Saul Bass was an incredibly versatile American designer who forged a career in

designing everything from corporate identity logos to movie title treatments and

filmmaking. Throughout his 40+ years in the industry Bass worked with leading

corporations such as, United Way, Continental Airlines, AT&T, Warner Brothers,

and the Girl Scout Organization. Bass’ logos are dynamic yet streamlined, and

creative yet informative. Bass was one of the most prominent designers of the 60’s

and 70’s. The logos and brand identity guidelines of which most of these major

corporations still use today, decades after their creation. Additionally, a study in

2011 proved that the average lifespan of a Saul Bass corporate logo was 34 years,

an unusual longevity. Additionally, this analysis cited the most common end to

a logo was the merge or demise of the company, not a corporate re-branding.

Discussing his logo designs, Saul Bass once stated, “If I do my job well, the iden-

tity program will also clean up the image of the company, position it as being

contemporary and keep it from ever looking dated.”

Although Bass’ work in logo design is impressive, his innovations in title credits

for movies left an impression on the film industry forever. Prior to Bass’ title

treatments movie titles were used solely to display information. The revolution-

ary idea to use title credit sequences in movies as an opportunity to introduce

viewers to a films’ deeper themes was, in fact, Saul Bass’. Creating a compelling

title sequence can make a first impression on an audience by providing a short

visual metaphor to viewers and overall they can contribute to the effectiveness

of a film. Bass designed for Hollywood’s most established filmmakers, such as:

Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, and Billy Wilder. Bass’ last title sequence was

for modern director Martin Scorsese, in his film Casino. Regarding his sequence

for Casino, Bass stated, “The intent of this opening was to create a mood spare,

gaunt, with a driving intensity… [that conveyed] the distortion and jaggedness,

the disconnectedness and disjointedness of the addict’s life the subject of the

film.” Bass designed titles for over 30 films.

Aldus ManutiusWRITTEN BY SHIRLEY SUN

If asked about the functional purpose of this soft covered book you are currently

reading, what would you say is its main advantage compared to a hardcover?

Similarly, reflecting on a time you bought a paperback, what was it that drove you

towards this purchase? If the affordability and portability attracted you, then you

have Aldus Manutius to thank. What he called libelli portatiles, or portable little

books, had soft covers, were small in size and of great use to travelling scholars at

the time, and for the masses today.

Aldus Manutius was born 1449 in Bassiano, Papal States (Italy), and passed away

in Venice, 1515. During this time, typographical art was in its very early stages of

development. Designs and text were crudely etched into wood.

Growing up, literary texts were scarce, and many elementary books were pain-

fully dry and unintelligible. “Doctrinale Alexadri de Villa-Dei,” was a grammar

study that Manutius was said to have despised reading. His future works may

have been influenced by just this.

Manutius became a printer and publisher, whose printing press changed the di-

rection of book formatting and typography at the time. His focused was on print-

ing inexpensive editions of classic texts, Aristotle, Dante, and Homer to name a

few, with the hopes that all may have access to literary works.

The italic type was first used by Manutius to print an edition of Virgil in 1501.

This slanted design was critical for the production of his pocket sized books; the

format allowed letterforms to fit in narrow and compact spaces. Whereas italics

are more contemporarily used to emphasize and/or bring attention to a certain

word and/or phrase, Manuthius had a much more economic intention. By using

italics, smaller pages could hold more words, meaning fewer pages and decreased

production costs.

This smaller format in book production revolutionized the availability of knowl-

edge, similar to how laptops and smartphones have influenced lives in the twen-

tieth-twenty first century. Aldus Manutius helped mobilize information.

The Contemporary Wordsmith

CHAPTER THREE

Donald KnuthWRITTEN BY JACOB ROTH

Often when we think if new technology, we automatically think that it will make

our lives better. Sometimes this is true, but in the world of typography new tech-

nologies actually made print quality worse. Typesetting was traditionally per-

formed on printing presses where metal stamps were meticulously and pains-

takingly arranged to achieve the best product. Because the printing press was

labor intensive and required extensive training, publishers were excited about a

new technology, phototypesetting, which drastically reduced the time and skill

required to typeset books.

While the technology was initially limited to low quality publications like news-

papers and magazines, the price eventually forced the new technology into more

premium products like text books. Donald Knuth, a professor of computer sci-

ence at Stanford University, in 1978 received a gallery print of his second edition

textbook. Compared to the original version, he lamented, “The quality of typeset-

ting was abominable. It was a pain to read. You couldn’t look at this because they

had changed printing technology.” In retaliation, Mr. Knuth decided to create a

computer program to typeset his new book instead of using the phototypesetting

method he loathed.

Just like any self-respecting typography student would, Mr. Knuth began his re-

search by tracing out the letters from existing typefaces onto paper. After many

hours of studying the shapes he came to the conclusion that the phototypesetting

system failed because, whereas letters were designed by human beings which

something in mind for them, the typesetting process had no way to capture the

intelligence or intentions of the type designer. Mr. Knuth decided that in order

for a computerized system to produce beautiful text, it must preserve the past tra-

ditions of typesetters instead of throwing them out like current technology had.

The systems Mr. Knuth developed changed typesetting from a problem with met-

allurgy to a problem of mathematics. In contrast to previous methods, his sys-

tem does not rely on static characters but instead digitally creates each character

based on the parameters given such as point size and weight. The advantage of

using digitally created characters is that each character is a perfect reproduction

of the designer’s intentions whether printed on paper or displayed on a computer

screen. Additionally, because text was represented in an abstract way inside a

computer, Mr. Knuth applied complex algorithms, such as automatic river reduc-

tion, that where time and labor prohibitive on traditional presses.

The typesetting systems that Mr. Knuth developed made great progress towards

digital publishing but the systems were not perfect. Specifically, the system re-

quired many different commands to achieve the desired results. While many ac-

ademics were able to effectively use the system, graphic artist publishers found

the system difficult because they had little computer experience. In the end, Mr.

Knuth’s digital publish system never gained much acceptance outside universi-

ties. All of his work in not in vein, however, because many of the algorithms and

principals he pioneered are now integral parts of the most widely used software

packages.

EmigreWRITTEN BY JT WANG

Emigre was a magazine about “the global artist who juggles cultures, travels

between them, and who is fluent in the cultural symbols of the world.” It was

founded in 1984 in Berkeley, CA by wife and husband Zuzanna Licko and Rudy

VanderLans, who created the type foundry. The word émigré, which often refers

to a person who has “migrated out” of of something, perfectly defines the found-

ry’s take on art and design. Emigre resisted typical design rules that had existed

during its beginning and used its wild creations to offset long-accepted imbalanc-

es between form and content.

The foundry was the first of its kind to create and distribute fonts made for and

by a computer, and their work was made possible the advent of the Macintosh

computer. Licko and VanderLans used the magazine to explore and experiment

with new and radical pieces that were created by computers using bitmap design,

dot matrix printing and vector-based design, rather than by hand and letterpress.

This wasWr a surprise to the design community whose convention at the time

placed a high value on calligraphy; the norm was to create typestyles by hand be-

fore manipulating them on the computer. However, for Zuzanna Licko, the com-

puter’s tools opened a variety of opportunities because she was left-handed and

thus had never been able to do calligraphy.Though the pair of designers had not

intended to break rules, Emigre started a typographic rebellion as a result of their

explorations of the new tools and capabilities created by the computer.

Emigre’s radical design choices drew a great deal of attention from designers and

critics alike, and in the beginning, they faced severe opposition. Some critics

saw the creations as barbaric and described Emigre’s postmodern design as “the

degradation of culture” and “The Cult of the Ugly.” However, after awhile, the

arguments subsided and Emigre grew to become an influential record label, mer-

chandise vendor, and journal for design dialogues, and since then, the foundry

has designed and licensed over 300 different typefaces from a variety of artists.

Erik SpiekermannWRITTEN BY SARAH ANNE NAKAMURA

Erik Spiekermann is a German typographer and designer who started his edu-

cation at Berlin’s Free University studying art history. During his stay at the uni-

versity, he funded himself by running a letterpress printing press in the basement

of his house. He later went on to establish FontShop, in 1988, the first mail-order

distributor for digital fonts, with his wife Joan. This later evolved into many other

companies that strived to publish and distribute fonts to artists and designers all

over the world. During this time, he worked at MetaDesign, a global design con-

sultancy. He currently holds an honorary professorship at the Academy of Arts in

Bremen as a board member of German Design Council.

As an established designer, he has written many books such as Stop Stealing

Sheep & Find Out How Type Works and redesigned the magazine The Econo-

mist, a publication based in London. Through out his career, he has created many

commercial typefaces such as Berliner Grotest, Lo-Type, ITC Officina Sans, FF

Govan, and FF Meta Serif.

Spiekermann had achieved many milestones in his career, one of them being a

Honorary Doctorship for his contribution to design in April of 2006 from Art

Center College of Design. He later collaborated with designer Christian Schwartz

where they successfully designed the Deutsche Bahn family typeface. This won

them the Gold Medal at the German Federal Design Prize in 2006. The following

year, he was elected into the European Design Awards Hall of Fame.

Erik Spiekermann has the opportunity to participate in First Things First 2000

Manifesto, a collaboration of a group of international graphic designers in 1999

that followed the publication of First Things First Manifesto in 1964. The goal

was to generate discussion about the education and press exposure in the design

profession. Erik Spiekermann was one of the thirty-three designers to sign the

manifesto with the concerns of “free design” and the right to take a stand on who

and what they are designing for.

Spiekermann is currently residing in Germany and runs his own company called

edenspiekermann. Fun Facts include: His first love when it comes to typefaces is

Reklameschrift Block; He believes FF Info Office is underrated; One of his proud-

est projects is making the buses and trams in Berlin as well as designing the Ger-

man Railways corporate design.; He believes Arial is the most overrated font in

the world.

Modern Masters

CHAPTER FOUR

Herb LubalinWRITTEN BY DAWN LEE

Recognized for his unique contributions to the world of design, Herb Lubalin is

one of the most successful and foremost American graphic designers and typog-

raphers of the twentieth century. Although he is colorblind and started working

back in the day when designers utilized drawing boards and workstations, Lub-

alin’s design is still perceived as futuristic and innovative. As the creative mind

behind the culture-shocking magazines of the 20th century, including Eros, Fact,

Avant Garde, and U&IC, the designer introduced a fresh and groundbreaking

style to his audience. In fact, his logotype for Avant Garde magazine was so high

in demand that he later released the complete set of the font called, “ITC Avant

Garde.”

The expressive typography of “ITC Avant Garde” is reflective of Herb Lubalin’s

vision in his design. The form of the tight, all-majuscule, and sans-serif typog-

raphy is slanted to the right, as if headed towards the future and embracing the

futuristic context of its existence. By giving the letterforms the shape and voice of

the meaning of the word “Avant Garde” itself, Lubalin manipulated the form into

an inseparable part of the word’s meaning.

Herb Lubalin was a designer who constantly sought for ways to create typograph-

ic innovations. His wildly illustrative typography is a result of his imagination

and insight, combined with his talent. His inventive typographic designs go be-

yond the twenty-six alphabet characters; by bringing a new aesthetic that empha-

sizes the shock of meaning to the world of design, publishing and advertisement,

Lubalin has changed the course and constraints of design for those who were to

follow. Lubalin’s typography is significant because it is a representation of how an

idea is conveyed from one to another—how meaning is communicated through

its form. The designer’s ability to incorporate sensitivity and meaning into his

typography has profoundly influenced young designers and continues to inspire

those who desire to push the boundaries of contemporary design.

Ed BenguiatWRITTEN BY ALBERT MONTGOMERY

Ed Benguiat is a scrapper - Ex-military, musician, Illustrator, typography. Sup-

posedly,

after walking into the musician’s union one day saw other older musicians, who

played wedding receptions and bar mitzvahs. He was like “screw this I want to

be an Illustrator!” Fortunately for Benguiat, his father was a lead illustrator for a

New York department store so he was around those type of tools, influence, and

opportunity, since the age of nine.

Ed Benguiat became a prolific lettering artist and became the typographic design

director at a company called Photo-Lettering, which failed by the way. But Ben-

guiat’s impact on the type community involves more than just design. He played a

critical role in establishing the International Typeface Corporation, the first inde-

pendent licensing company for type designers. Ed jump-started the type industry

in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.Eventually he became known for logo designs for

Esquire, The New York Times, Coke, McCall’s, Ford, Reader’s Digest, Sports Illus-

trated, and Estee Lauder. He created new ITC typefaces such as Bauhaus, Tiffany,

Korinna, Panache, Modern No, 216, Bookman, Caslon No. 225, Barcelona, and

Avant Garde Condensed to name some of them. At some point, “The Ed Benguiat

Font Collection” came into being, which is listed as a casual font family, named

after the designer, which includes not only five typefaces

but a series of dingbats, or what House Industries staff dubbed, during an in-

terview, “bengbats.” This was a collection of glyphs bases on his jazz percussion

background. Benjuiat laments that student designers now show more interest in

learning the computer rather than mastering the art of designing letterforms.

“Too many new designers substitute technology for talent, thinking they’ve got

a Mac and now they can draw a logo or a typeface. You have to learn to draw

first. The computer won’t do it for you.” He’s convinced that showing a font in

an A-B-C format is not the best way to sell it. You’ve got to SEE IT in action,

typographically arranged exactly the way the designer had in mind. Each piece of

designed typography should be, so to speak, a beautiful work of art within itself.

That’s what typographic communication is all about, “Liberating the

Letter!”

Ed Fella WRITTEN BY VICTORIA HORNG

Ed Fella was born in 1938. He grew up in Detroit Michigan and studied at Cass

Technical High School where he studied hand lettering, illustration, and com-

mercial art. After that he went into the graphic design industry where he did a lot

of work for automobiles. He then went back to school and studied at Cranbrook

Academy of Art where he was able to experiment and explore art and design

together.

Today, he is an extremely well recognized graphic designer, artist, illustrator and

educator. His work is very different from what we usually expect from graphic

design in our time, which is expected to be clean and structural. He deconstructs

and distorts letterforms, using various different shapes, forms, spaces, and thick-

nesses. His hand lettering is an outburst of fun movement and combinations of

aspects belonging to different categories. Although at first glance his work may

look disorganized or too free, each part of it is done extremely skillfully.

He combines serifs with san serifs, dingbats, scripts and much more. Since he

pushes so many boundaries of people’s common perceptions of design, he is

known as a controversial designer. Nevertheless, his design has a great influence

in the industry, is extremely well received, and is followed by many people.

His way of mixing and matching, creating work that looks perhaps crazy, very

quirky, and extremely eccentric really changed how the current generation of

designers think and work today. In a world where the definition, methods, and

role of design are continuously changing with the transformation of society and

culture; his work helps us to once again question what exactly defines good de-

sign by pushing the boundaries of innovation and creativity, yet still creating

work which communicates and gives purpose.

Neville BrodyWRITTEN BY KATHERINE VUONG

Neville Brody is perhaps one of the most popular graphic designers of his gen-

eration. He studied graphic design at the London College of Printing and first

worked on record cover and magazine designs, establishing his reputation as one

of the world’s leading graphic designers. In particular, his innovative artistic con-

tribution to The Face brought his artistry to another level. Brody also won much

public acclaim through his ideas on incorporating and combining typefaces into

design. Later on he took this a step further and began designing his own typefac-

es, thus opening the way for the advent of digital type design.

He was one of the founding members of FontShop in London and over time has

designed 24 font families. A distinctly notable font is the updated font Times

Modern for the Times newspaper. In addition to pouring himself into design,

he was also partly responsible for starting the FUSE project, holding conferences

to bring together speakers from design, architecture, sound, film and interactive

design, and web.

What resonated with me more than his multiple decades of provoking design

and typographic work are his views on creativity and the future of innovation.

Brody believes that designers should take more risks and help draw attention to

social issues. He advises that with regards to politics, young designers have to find

their own platform. The point he makes is that it’s more about being a conscious

designer than anything else. Some designers don’t think about the consequence

of their work, they are just motivated by money and making things look ‘nice’.

Then there’re others who are only interested in designing for other designers. He

hopes to teach by giving context and getting students to engage with the idea that

everything they do will somehow affect the society that they live in.

He admits that for a time graphic design had lost its relevance with many design-

ers halting experimentation and simply conforming. Their work became a case

of style over substance. Brody that the main medium holding designers back is

the digital screen. Digital is becoming a utility. A few decades ago when people

first started thinking about the potential of the internet, he expected much more

innovation and experimentation by now, and so he tries to push out from being

boxed in in order to be great and hopes the same from other designers.

Designer Mayhem

CHAPTER FIVE

David CarsonWRITTEN BY TREVOR THORPE

Despite his indisputable influence in graphic design, David Carson manages to be

a controversial designer to this day. Compared to many influential typographers,

Carson does not come from any ordinary formal art school background. Rather,

into his mid-twenties, Carson was a professional surfer in California. It was not

until he was twenty-six and enrolled in a short design course that exposed him

to the wonders of typography. This unorthodox entry into the field is quite likely

responsible for his unique impact. He experimented with type in ways that other

artists with more formal typography education did not, manipulating text and

throwing letters around that often rendered them illegible. Hence, Carson’s most

distinguished work was the source of debate seeing that it destroyed much of the

communicative value of typography that many hold to be its primary purpose.

However, at this expense he enhances the expressionistic qualities of type before

a viewer even reads the text.

Carson has worked on a variety of publications over the course of his career, and

his first role as an art director was for Transworld SKATEboarding in the 1980s.

Over the course of his time there, he refined and began to gain notoriety for his

distinct style of design. The covers he designed demonstrate early decisions to

manipulate and combine different typefaces, type sizes, and colors into individ-

ual headlines. In doing so he successfully captures the youthful and countercul-

tural idealizations of skater culture. Similarly, his other work facilitates its own

messages through the messy layouts of text. He became the first art director of

Ray Gun, a surf and music magazine in 1992. Seeing that the beginnings of this

publication were rooted in Carson’s vision, it very much had a distinct style, add-

ing to the cutting-edge aesthetic that the magazine embodied. His work in par-

ticular building elaborately chaotic typographical designs for Ray Gun garnered

him enough fame to be featured in publications such as the New York Times.

After Ray Gun Carson went on to found his own design agency, David Carson

Design, which still operates today. As the head of the agency, Carson revisited

his passion for publications and created his own travel magazine, Blue which cir-

culated for three years. David Carson Design has done work for companies with

as high of profiles as NBC, American Airlines, Pepsi Cola, and Toyota amongst

many more. His agency has maintained his unique aesthetic, with text all over

the place and designs with aesthetics reminiscent of collage. Carson relays the

significance of his upbringing and unique background to be a driving force in his

typographic work. Today, he largely lectures including appearing on a TED Talk,

and he emphasizes the importance of the individual voice, and that each person’s

own unique experiences should shape what he or she produces. Ultimately, Car-

son’s work is admirable not only in its own inventiveness, but also that it encour-

ages peers and other type designers to think about communication in new ways.

Vincent ConnareWRITTEN BY BRANDON SINGH

The Story Behind the Typeface You Probably Hate The Most

Comic Sans MS is one of the most polarizing typefaces in the design community.

Even people who aren’t designers have learned to dislike the typeface. It’s almost

a force of habit for most to despise Comic Sans. While the typeface itself is rel-

atively known by many, neither the man behind the it nor the story of Comic

Sans have been brought to light. The history behind Comic Sans and its designer

provides interesting insight about the typeface and can perhaps enlighten many

on a typeface that they have grown to dislike.

Vincent Connare designed Comic Sans when he was working for Microsoft in

1995. Connare is also the designer behind Trebuchet MS as well as one of the de-

signers behind Webdings. He began working on Comic Sans in 1994 after seeing

a beta version of Microsoft Bob, a personal assistant software being developed by

Microsoft in the ‘90s to appeal to younger users. The software featured cartoon

characters with word balloons and messages set in Times New Roman. Connare

found the typeface to be inappropriate for the given context of the software, so he

started to design Comic Sans. As implied in the name, the typeface was based on

the lettering style in comic books that Connare had in his office, namely The Dark

Knight Returns and Watchmen. He was careful not to copy the lettering used, but

instead pay close attention to the shapes the letters made considering that comic

letterforms were usually manually written at the time.

Comic Sans wasn’t actually completed in time for the launch of Microsoft Bob.

A rough copy was made when Microsoft Bob was finished, but the typeface was

larger than Times New Roman, so it interfered with the metrics of the program.

While it was too late for Microsoft Bob, the programmers of Microsoft 3D Movie

Maker--which also used cartoon characters and speech bubbles--began to use

the font in their software. Comic Sans was later included in the Windows 95 Plus!

Pack and then became a standard font for Windows 95. The typeface eventually

became one of the default fonts for Microsoft Publisher and Microsoft Internet

Explorer.

Interestingly enough, such inclusion of the typeface in other programs was not

what Connare had intended. Connare designed Comic Sans for applications that

were primarily targeted toward children, which was what Microsoft Bob was at

the time. It was the widespread inclusion of the typeface in so many programs

that allowed it to gain popularity among people of all ages. Connare believes

that people liked the font because it was fun and simple. Apple even used Comic

Sans as the default font for Apple iCards when they were first released. Ironically,

this lead to wider use of the typeface, perhaps overuse of it in appropriate situa-

tions, similar to the situation that lead to Comic Sans being created. According to

Connare, the main designer of Twitter said that the most server space is used by

complaints about airlines, Comic Sans, and Justin Bieber--in that order.

Lawrence WeinerWRITTEN BY ANDREW HURLBURT

Lawrence Weiner was a leader of the Conceptual Art movement of the 60s. Thus,

in order to understand Weiner as an artist and typographer one must understand

the Conceptual Art movement as a whole. Conceptualism, like its counterpart

Minimalism, is more easily described as a philosophy than as purely an artis-

tic movement. As a reaction of the Contemporary and High Modern art scene

during its time, Conceptualism was arguably born through Marcel Duchamp’s

works known as readymades. These readymades have made it possible for the art

world to expand its mind into accepting more conceptual works.

Weiner is most well known for his typographic pieces. One of the initial pieces

that he made based in typography was his book “Statements” which contained

exactly that, statements, throughout the entire book. Weiner’s work despite being

made primarily in text has been described as embodying every aspect and di-

mension of physical art. Weiner’s most famous works use a phrase or statement

and typographically lay them out onto a wall or site. Through his typography he

was able to transcend his art from a conceptual realm into a metaphysical one.

One other approach that Weiner uses is site-specificity to encapsulate the site as

a whole and adding his statement into the site thus creating a new meaning for

the site as a while.

Lawrence Weiner’s “Bits and Pieces” piece spells the line “bits and pieces put to-

gether to present a semblance of a whole” on the side of a building with a crevice

going through the middle of the text. Weiner uses crevice as a guide for his work

by aligning some words to it and more cleverly kerning evenly but also words are

not obstructed by the crevice. Other pieces he has made use this same method of

combining site and type to create a piece that is greater than each individually.t

Comic Sans and HelveticaWRITTEN BY IVY LI

Comic Sans has been the most hated font of this era by designers, and Helvetica,

too, is receiving a rising controversial reaction from the design community, and

there are historical, technical, and subjective reasons to account for the phenom-

enon.

First of all it is the exposure. Comic Sans is a casual, non-connecting script

font that was made by Vincent Connare for a very specific situation—a friendly

speech bubble for Windows 95. And it was then carried out by Microsoft as one

of the default fonts in its operating system, and very soon it was largely cele-

brated by the public, and reached its high time of misuse. It quickly appeared

everywhere and on any publications, as it seemed to draw more attention from

the general public in the pool of traditional fonts. The exposure resulted in back-

lash, especially when they are used in inappropriate situations like formal emails,

legal documents and serious notifications. Helvetica, at the same time, is used

massively around the world as a professional Swiss font since 1957, when first de-

veloped by Max Miedinger. It was so loved and there is even a film for it. Its wide

popularity makes it one of the most used fonts in the entire planet, and several

large companies have used it for their brand identities.

These two fonts also have technical reasons for the controversial reactions they

are getting. Comic Sans has very poor kerning when used as the body copy. And

in terms of font design, it is constituted of inconsistent edges and weird angles.

Besides, it may not even be a good comic font due to its awkward and unnatural

strokes. However, it is often praised for its legibility. Helvetica, despite that it is

a professionally designed sans serif typeface that follows design principles, has

strokes that are too ubiquitous that barely communicate to the contemporary

audience at all.

And sometimes we designers just hate popular things, especially design related

stuff that are mindlessly used by “the average people”. When some fonts are used

too much, they are perceived emotionally different in the social context. Comic

Sans would imply “bad taste” and everyone knows immediately that you are not

are well-trained designer. Helvetica, on the other hand, means “tasteless” ‘’bor-

ing” and “playing safe”. Partially due to these implications, Comic Sans and Hel-

vetica are generally not favored as much by contemporary designers.

Interestly, there is a revival of Comic Sans going on right now. The Comic Sans

Project includes some very impressive examples to use Comic Sans the “right”

way, which really emphasize its playfulness and try to avoid some technical issues

it may have. Overall, the conversation around type showcases the awareness not

only from within the design community but also the general public, which is an

achievement by itself.