投稿者: Saori

After writing a bibliography and critical analysis, I decided to further research the notion of revivalism in Victorian typography as it is evoke in many design styles today. When I searched the term ‘vintage’ at Shutterstock website, most of the images were somehow Victorian in style (Fig. 1). I think it means that much of vintage style typography whether in the vein of William Morris or other general Victorian typography strongly resonates with commercial tastes today.

Fig. 1

According to one article I consulted on howdesign.com, revivalism of Victorian typography according to Tiffany Wardle deSousa represents a return to craft design of the nineteenth century. There Victorian type is recognised as a pendulum and antithesis to the modernism typography. Victorian type is visually joyful with decorative flair and very dense to use as all the space for messaging that is opposite to the modernism style where white space is considered as important a factor. Victorian type might be not rational from the standpoint of legibility, but it might be aesthetically meaningful, especially in the aspect of typography as an illustration. deSousa sees this revivalism as a trend, and after experiencing a century, people look into something interesting and modern than just a pastiche.

Fig. 2

The authors emphasize how Victorian type is preferred in the farmer’s market and I can see a good example of design for the food industry in Louise Fili’s works (Fig.3). Also, I see some of Gemma O’brien’s work to be the modern version of this strand of design. Her big wall paintings are eclectic and street style with full of details. However, her typography mainly uses sans serif, as Fig.4 shown below, organic streamline shape, motif and very dense typographic illustration have the common characters to the Victorian type.

Fig. 3 Fili’s package design

 

 

Fig. 4 O’brien’s hand drawings

Reference:

Gruendler, S. (2013) ‘The Comeback of Victorian Typography’. Howdesign.  [Online] June 2013. Available from: http://www.howdesign.com/design-creativity/fonts-typography/victorian-typography/

Louise Fili. (2017) [Online] Available from: http://www.louisefili.com

On the 6th December, I went to see the Postgraduate Shows: Show 2 held at London College of Communication, UAL. There were several thematic strands on display including Graphic Media Design and Graphic Branding and Identity.

Fig.1

After scrutinizing the work, it appeared that this postgraduate student exhibition’s final outcome was based on issue-based and aesthetic questions and again I recognised the importance of such probing in the design making process. There were many themes that became the basis of their different studies, but the overarching interrogation of social relations was on prominent display: for example, SNS and digital culture to urban poverty as well as sexuality, politics and mental conditions rounded out the show. Many of the students gave unique visual solutions and I was interested in their outcomes in various devices – many kinds of paper, original book making, plastic, knit, stamp and so on were used to express and articulate these social conditions.

Fig.2

What was of particular interest to me was the piece ‘Blackletter as a touchpoint of the European Medieval state brands.’ This work was made by the postgraduate student Iñigo Angulo (www.inigoangulo.com). It was a hand-bound book related to the study of blackletter from the branding aspect. Starting from history, the usage of the blackletter in politics and religion until modern age was captured from the viewpoint of branding. Looking at old-style typography from today’s aspect gave me a suggestion of the way in which we are continuing to treat retro style today.

Fig.3

While I was researching revivalism in typography, I realised that Louise Fili is one of the most important designers in this area. Her passion for letters, according to her biographer, started at the age of four years old (Martin, 2016) which set in motion a prolific career with thousands of book designs to her credit. Fili’s work is also historically important because it generated an original retro style especially in the early 20^th-century Italian, a cultural foundation that influenced her style in profound ways. Her revivalism has had a strong influence on the current design industry and there are so many Fili-esque (resembling) designs in the commercial field today.

I tried to analyse her design’s popularity via four interrelated assertion, they are:

1) The Roaring Twenties – or 1920s denotes a high period of her work and corresponds to one of the most glorious time of culture and design with the advent and global rise of Art Déco and Jazz music. It was during this inter-war period that culture of that time had contradictory messages embedded in imagery which promoted affluence and nationalism and egalitarianism and peace.

2) Many of the organic shapes and colours that she originally made by hand – especially for the food industry would become their signature logo and thus brand. Many of the companies desired images for their food that is authentic, of a good quality, safe, delicious and fashionable, and her design represented those values.

3) Her typography’s warm inviting connotations are very different from our computer-based design today, and we are in need of more organic and modernist practices in our digital age.

4) Her exquisite aesthetic and the elegant feel of her designs exemplifies over her distinguished career life and career, if we borrow the phrase from the ‘How Graphic Design Legend Louise Fili Became “The Envy of Every Designer” (ibid.) seems to encapsulate her profound influence on designers for more than 90 years.

Fig. 1 Fili’s works for the food industry

From the all those reasons I assumed above, she has fame clearly different from others. The number of her works and clients means the popularity of her retro style, and that itself might be a proof of the meaning of the existence of revival typography in the present.

Fig.2 Fili’s book design about food

Bibliography:

Martin, S. (2016) ‘How Graphic Design Legend Louise Fili Became “The Envy of Every Designer”’. Ceros [Online] December 2016. Available from: https://www.ceros.com/blog/design-legend-louise-fili/

After reading the article about ‘Designer Nostalgia in Honk Kong’, I decided to research the cited designs of Shanghai Tang and Alan Chan. Shanghai Tang’s specialism in design is brand paper design (Fig.1) which is a combination of modern vivid colour and detailed calendar poster designs originating in the 1920s to 1930s. In effect, I feel there is an influence from communist proletariat design via the design’s bold, sans serif typography, an aesthetic that is manifest through the depiction of luminous buildings that seems to be from the British colonial period. This has had a good response in terms of fashion items that merges Maoist-era Chinese visual culture into modern China dress design. The commercial fusion of commercial tastes and communism iconography might have a relationship with the economic situation in Hong Kong and wider China today, a design allegory to the high periods and glorious pasts of Shanghai and Hong Kong (Fig. 2).

Fig.1

Fig.2

To move to Alan Chan, his designs more directly articulate a sense of vintage style – whereas he rearranges old commercial design through a use of sepia colour (Fig. 3). His style does not only evokes a sense of nostalgia through design but also conveys an aesthetic updating through its contemporariness. In other words, he uses the traditional elements like brush writing or old modes used to create logos that both reflect an Asian modernity and an authenticity to explore those aspects in the present (Fig. 4).

Fig.3

Fig.4

I assume the need for nostalgic design here is to ‘regain a lost era’ and to celebrate the aesthetic values and dictates of the past. That might be different from the past itself, but people pursue something that does not exist in our perceived present. I think this aesthetic pursuit is the same as future orientation in the meaning of ‘not now, not here’. I guess people can claim to have a fantasy or dream that might be a motivation for consumer activity more than it means a genuine concern for heritage in that ‘far from here’ design ethos.

I personally believe that to know the cultural history of popular retro design is invaluable because it deepens how such material is branded via its ‘commodification of the past for the present to project.’ (Higson 2003: 12)  Although I am not from China and I do not have a personal connection to the High Period of Maoism in China or the British colonial period in Hong Kong, I do possess a genuine interest in this epoch and that might come from my personal experience having travelled and consumed many Sinophone cultural products (i.e., films, art exhibitions, design books and typographical histories). Thus, through the regional influence of wider China on Japan, I have gained especially through television and film in the 1980s and 1990s what Huppatz calls a “nostalgia fever” (Huppatz, 2009), and what Breathnach and Dermody argue that “Designers themselves are not exempt from such a generational attachment.” (2013) In this instance, my scholarly and personal affinity for retro designs.

 

Bibliography:

Breathnach, T., and Dermody, B. (2013) ‘The Appeal of the Past: Retro Type and Typography’. InPrint. [Online] Vol. 2, Iss. 1, Article 4. Available from: https://arrow.dit.ie/inp/vol2/iss1/4

Higson, A. (2003) English Heritage, English Cinema: Costume Drama since 1980. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Huppatz, D. (2009) ‘Designer Nostalgia in Hong Kong’. Design Issues. [Online] Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 14-28. Available from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20627803?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

In spring of 2017, I attended a short course devoted to the study of Typography at Central Saint Martins, UAL. I was eager to learn more about typography beyond its formal and aesthetic attributes in design and explore newer conceptual and cultural contours that complicate this expressive form of letter making. It actually started with making the collage using printed letters, one abstract and one forming shapes using letters.

Fig. 1

On the course, we were taught to interrogate not only handprint letters as introduced in the article, The New Relevance of Basel Basics, but also to think about the arrangement of existing letters to find better layouts in conceptual and aesthetic terms. Experimentation and the physical aspects of rearranging letter type was a new pedagogical practice introduced to me. It was exciting to think more fulsomely about design in this way. In other ways, this course taught me to think about the arrangement of typeface from many spatial orientations, thinking in terms of hierarchy, especially focusing on one stand out point.

Fig.2

I believe this methodology presented at UAL has taught me to think about how square plain vertical and horizontal typography is a new starting point to spatially arrange more compelling and exciting design projects. Informed by the Basel School style, this short course stressed that designers should be experimental in their practice and more holistic in their views of the world to better inform their aesthetic styles and approach to design. Despite being a short course and it providing a limited type of engagement in relation to full term teaching, I gained a wider appreciation for newer pedagogies for teaching design and that openness and critical inquiry are part of this creative discipline. It is my hope that I will transform into a more capable and erudite designer based on this proven method generated by great pioneers in the field at UAL and those I am newly encountering at this MA course.

Fig. 3

Bibliography:

Berbic, A., and Grant, R. (2008) The New Relevance of Basel Basics. [Online] Available from: https://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/29131

I have set this blog vaguely on the theme of ‘How the messages are expressed in the poster design typographically in the twenty-first century’ as I was interested in the typography in the square plain. However, after reading and choosing materials, I realised that my interest is in the relationship between the past style and its application today.

I would like to change it to ‘The meaning of the revivalism in typography today’.  I would like to research the use/appropriation of styles of the 20th century since 2001, mainly European design and posters as a medium. The reasons are stated below:

1) I realised that my interest is mainly revivalism and its current application in the way of my study.

2) I found ‘messaging’ is too subjective of both the designer and receiver because it can be different between them (see my first Bibliography of ‘Helvetica as a trend’) and difficult to be objective. The research about this issue tends to be conducting the research of the perception toward a number of test subjects. This kind of research is interesting but not my main purpose of this study. Also, Lupton stated “Graphic designers can use theories of user interaction to revisit some of our basic assumptions about visual communication.” (eds. Bierut, Drenttel  & Heller, 2007).

3) The meaning of ‘messaging/communication’ is becoming different to what I had expected before I started reading. For example, the meaning of current ‘universal’ design is “not a clear line of Helvetica but rather the spread of software such as Photoshop,”(Lupton, 2009).

4) In this digital age, posters are just one of the mediums of ‘transmedia’ and I should focus more on the new ways as well. But posters are an old style of communication and it is possible to compare now and then in the same way, so I decided to go on mainly posters.

5) My past posts along the original theme are almost about past styles.

 

Reference:

Lupton, E. (2007) THE BIRTH OF THE USER. Bierut, M., Drenttel, W. and Heller, S. (ed.) (2007)  Looking Closer Five. [Online] Available from:https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=looking+closer+5+pdf&rlz=1C1CHBD_en-GBGB730GB730&oq=looking+closer+5+pdf&aqs=chrome..69i57.6510j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Lupton, E. (2009) ‘Univers Strikes Back’. Ellen Lupton. [Online] Available from: http://elupton.com/2011/12/univers-strikes-back/

 

The question about current Swiss style which I posted in my Bibliography made me decide to examine their works to reach an understanding of what determines style.

One of the curators of ‘Swiss Style Now’ and designer exhibited works was Erich Brechbühl from Switzerland and his dynamic style seemed interesting to me. Brechbühl creates many typographic posters and uses the advantage of computer graphics including the use of illustrations made with the mesh of Adobe Illustrator. His works are truly bold in shape, use of strong colour and concept (see, Fig. 1). His typography is not as easy to read as his letters at a glance. Although he uses dimensional effect and some layers in a plain and such a contrive makes the design complicated, type itself tends to be clear lined san serif. In this term, his works are not clear in information but clear in the shape of typography, so it still could be categorized as Swiss style. The original Swiss style aimed easy understanding of the letters, but his works are basically difficult to read and opposite to the ‘Christal Goblet’ typography. On the other hand, his complexed works may attract an interest of the viewer to satisfy their curiosity and his work needs longer time to understand in front of the poster. It might have the effect on the viewer to interact the meaning or message of the poster more. In an interview (Moya & Bähler, 2016), he stated “always searching the essence of a play to create an eye-catching poster” to explain his projects. In my opinion, this is an important element to communicate for poster typography which is set to the public space. Brechbühl’s work does not look old as he uses conventional typography in the new way or mixes with the new idea but his solid typography and parody design still have the scent of the modernist of the 50s and being considered as Swiss style of less legibility.

Fig. 1 – Works of Erich Brechbühl

Brechbühl mentioned about Felix Pfäffli in the interview. Pfäffli’s style is also categorized as Swiss style. The way of manipulation of type – bend, cut, layered, use of computer graphics, unity with conceptual image and 3D effect – is similar to Brechbüh’s style but Pfäffli’s typography tends to have roundness, brighter colour, utilization of whitespace and simplicity compared to Brechbühl’s (see, Fig. 2). Works of Brechbühl are more industrial, masculine and radical. I assume that Pfäffli’s works are more similar to the original Swiss style at the point of clarity, legibility and structure.

Fig. 2  – Works of Felix Pfäffli

Reference:

MOYA, D. & BÄHLER, T. (2016) ‘ERICH BRECHBÜHL – Interview’. LIGATURE. [Online] Available from: http://ligature.ch/2016/06/erich-brechbuhl-interview/

 

Bibliography:

Butler, A. (2013) ‘felix pfaffli (feixen) interview’. Designboom.  [Online] Available from: https://www.designboom.com/design/sudpol-posters-by-feixen/

On the 10th November 2017, I visited the Wolpe Collection run by Monotype. They exhibit the original Berthold Wolpe’s works, his original fonts and several digital fonts based on his works including Albertus Nova.

There I could see how they created fonts with delicate care and how they did the layout before the computer age (Fig. 1). There were also many typographic examples of posters, books or signages. He created great typographic designs in the age of hand drawing and technical limitations. This provided me with useful information such as the layout to make the message stand out, the device of layout, colour and organic design based on handwriting which is popular in recent years (Fig. 2).

Fig. 1  Type and cover plan

Fig. 2  Book and poster design by Wolpe

What was interesting for me was a guideline about the street sign of the City of London (Fig. 3). In this blog, I have mentioned about public signage and bold san serif typefaces that were used. However, they made it with the bold Albertus typeface which uses a bit of a round stroke and slight serif. Serif type is the older style than sans serif and tends to be considered as a classic. This slight serif typeface is still recognisable even from a distance but it also has a peculiar taste compared to modern typefaces such as Helvetica. I believe street signs are the face of the city which represents the city itself – it appears in the street signs of Paris as well – and this Albertus font gives a classic atmosphere to the old city matching the City crest (Fig.4).

Fig. 3  The City of London signage guideline

 

Fig. 4  Display of street sign and Guildhall sign today

Besides the type designer Toshi Omagari of Monotype revived and updated the Wolpe’s fonts from the original works, he created lost letters, small caps, letters of other languages such as Greek and different weight (See Fig. 5). In the interview, Omagari stated “If had a problem with one typeface, the way Wolpe drew characters for other typefaces sometimes offered a solution,” (Tucker, E. 2017). He appropriated not only the same font of Wolpe’s work but also all of Wolpe’s creations to interpret Wolpe’s intention and make something new in today’s context.  This methodology of appropriation was intriguing to me.

Fig. 5 Poster with new digital Wolpe Collection

 

Reference:

TUCKER, E. (2017) ‘The Wolpe Collection celebrates a quiet legend of design, Berthold Wolpe’. MONOTYPE. [Online] Available from: http://www.monotype.com/blog/font-stories/the-wolpe-collection-celebrates-a-quiet-legend-of-design-berthold-wolpe/

After writing the Bibliography about 3D type, I decided to conduct research about the practical uses of 3D type, not just the artistic uses shown in the book. I thought I might get insight into how to apply it effectively in the making of posters.

3D object type

(1) Lights –These are used inside the buildings. It is an existential object, luminous, big and it gives an accent and characteristic to the typical office buildings (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1  Large floor light in the building

(2) Neon light –Typography Neon light is a typical example of the real 3D type. The glow colour enhances the message even in the daytime but more in dark places (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2  Neon display of London Design Festival 2017

(3) Surface- It is not an independent object, but I included it in the 3D object type as it is a part of the real object. The example below (Fig. 3) is a large carved number, where sizes such as 130cm may have a great impact. Also, the small carving painted with gold attracts attention.

Fig. 3

(4) Other examples of 3D type objects (Fig. 4)

Fig. 4

I found Yuni Yoshida’s new 3D type work of the photograph of a comedian (Fig. 5). She is one of the prominent Japanese designers who mainly makes unique designs and tends to use photography for her work. This is a 3D object photographed in the 2D plane, but I think it is still holding the impact that the real 3D typeface has. This suggests that 3D object type in a poster can still draw some attention different to the typewriting type. Type as an image can also contain its meaning so 3D type might suit to address the meaning of the poster, although what kind of type is good is determined by the project.

Fig. 5  Yoshida’s human type

3D effect type

In the ‘fake’ 3D type, we can find many examples of the posters (Fig.6). Computer graphics has evolved and nowadays 3D effects are becoming closer to reality. Even if it is an illusion in 3D, we perceive it in three dimensions and it is considered effective in messaging similar to the 3D objects. This is one of the reasons the 3D effect typography is seen often today, especially in advertisement posters (other reasons might be simplicity – no need for photo sessions, no need for preparing objects, and creation of fiction – it is possible to make things that do not exist in the actual world).

Fig. 6

After reading the Philippe Apeloig’s interview in Print on the 24th October 2017, I searched for a practitioner close to his style to further understand it. In another interview in designboom, Apeloig who is popular with modern, minimal and experimental design, responded to questions in connection with Paul Rand, an American designer who is famous for many company identities of the mid 20th century. Apeloig expressed Rand’s work as simple and sober because his style of using clear lines, dynamic typography based on the philosophy of modernism and the challenge to legibility are similar to some of Apeloig’s work (see Fig.1, 2).

Fig.1 Apeloig’s posters

 

Fig.2 Rand’s works

Although Apeloig is highly evaluated for his clear modernist style, his works are not only categorised in it. He also makes different styles as seen below (see Fig. 3). His experimental style involves a postmodernism approach where obscure shape letters were seen more in that era. From a distance, those letters look like dissolved shapes but the detailed shape is still solid and I assume that this is today’s modernism, in term of a complex mixture of experimental styles and methods gained from mid 20th century modernism – solid shape, sans serif typefaces or take advantage of white space.

Fig.3 Apeloig’s experimental typography

 

Fig. 4 Hofmann’s Graphic Design Manual

 

I looked for a similar style to his design online.

Fig.5 Apeloig’s minimal style and J. R. Rieben

Apeloig’s Typorama book cover is similar to John R. Rieben’s ‘conventional capital’ poster work – cut of letters or geometrical shapes which resembles the letter and its rotation and arrangement in entire space with comfortable white space. As seen in Typorama, some of his styles are minimal, but bespoke letters are exquisite (see Fig.5).

Finally, I went to a shop in the Whitechapel Gallery and searched for book covers which bear similarity to Apeloig’s works (see Fig.6). I think those were a somewhat simpler style of his works, characterised by an irregular arrangement, unusual orientation and cut of letters (see Fig.7).

Fig.6 Book covers (gallery shop of Whitechapel Gallery)

 

Fig.7 Apeloig’s works for comparison

Comparing Apeloig’s work to the other works on book covers, even though devices are different in poster and book cover, Apeloig’s works seem to have more depth. I assume this is because Apeloig uses plural visual manipulations to express intricate and complex images based on a firm concept.

Reference:

KONGUR, A. (2010) ‘An interview with Philippe Apeloig’. Creative Review [Online] Available from: https://www.creativereview.co.uk/an-interview-with-philippe-apeloig/

Bibliography:

BROCKMANN, J. (1999) Grid Systems. Salenstein: Niggli.

BUTLER, A. (2012) ‘Philippe Apeloig Interview’. designboom. [Online] Available from: https://www.designboom.com/design/philippe-apeloig-intervi

In my previous bibliography, I posted about a negative usage of Helvetica. I also tried to find an example of a positive usage of Helvetica in poster design where were film posters of Trainspotting (1996) and T2 Trainspotting (2017). There are variations in these poster campaigns (see Fig.1), but all these use orange as a key colour and it makes monotone photos stand out. Orderly typography done with Helvetica is arranged on photos or just by itself and it was such a powerful and unique effect in the 90s.

Fig. 1 Posters of Trainspotting

I found an interview with Mark Blamire and Rob O’Connor about the design process for this campaign (LUCAS, G., 2011). This interview illustrates how they developed that iconic poster and typography. Helvetica was consciously chosen after a research of typography on both train and airline information. Also included were chemical packages to interpret the film theme such as young people heading somewhere, drug references and the uniqueness of the characters in typography (see Fig.2).

Fig. 2 Pharmaceutical package, year unknown (Photo taken by me at Wellcome collection)

They referred to the British Rail design based on Modernism which is highly visible to aim good usability in the time of mass transport. Although the New York subway employed the original Helvetica, British Rail adopted a tailor-made Rail Alphabet based on Helvetica Bold. British Rail design is quite similar to the poster design of Trainspotting – hue of the colour, usage of blank space, simple typography and good legibility of bold San Serif (see Fig.3). I think it was an infographic approach and it appears more in the use of the square table, numbering brought from the original book and highly contrasted colours.

British Rail Corporate Identity Manual, 1965Fig. 3 Signage design of British Rail and National Rail today

In the first film, this style was created to convey the message of the film theme. The new posters of the sequel went on obviously in the same way as the original. I think it depicts being “Trainspotting” itself which many people have already experienced in the last film.  In addition, I felt that they dared to use the same typography style to evoke the nostalgic feeling of the past 20 years.

Fig. 4 T2 Trainspotting posters, 2017

 

Reference:

LUCAS, G. (2011) ‘How Trainspotting’s poster campaign was made’.  Creative Review [Online] Available from: https://www.creativereview.co.uk/trainspottings-film-poster-campaign-15-years-on/ [Accessed: 29^th Oct 2017]

SHAW, P. (2008) ‘The (Mostly) True Story of Helvetica and the New York City Subway’. AIGA  [Online] Available at: http://www.aiga.org/the-mostly-true-story-of-helvetica-and-the-new-york-city-subway [Accessed: 29^th Oct 2017]