This is the New Typography (and the Typefaces that Make it Work)

Gerry will tell a story about typography, and typefaces. In this story, Typography is growing up, entering its sixth era. It is growing as a space shared by many disciplines, gathering readers who see – often for the first time – type, and spatial arrangement, and interaction as decisions that somebody made. In this story we see fundamental assumptions questioned, some thrown out with a “why on earth did we do it like this?”, and others kept with a forced admission that the old guys did get some things right after all. The best part of the story is the bit where typefaces become the looking glass through which all this comes together. There’s no baddie in this story.
[presented at TypoLondon 2012]

Transcript

1. This is the new typography (and the typefaces that make it work) Sunday, 21 October 12
2. Gerry Leonidas Sunday, 21 October 12
3. Typography & Graphic Communication Sunday, 21 October 12
4. Sunday, 21 October 12
5. MATD TDi+ [MAResTD] Sunday, 21 October 12
6. ῥηθῆναι (aor.pass.inf.): see εἴρω2,ἐρῶ ῥηίδιος (also ῥῄδιος) ep.Ion.adj.: see ῥᾴδιος ῥηίζω Ion.vb.: see ῥᾱίζω ῥήιστος, ῥηίτατος, ῥηίτερος (also ῥῄτερος), ῥηίων: see ῥᾴδιος ῥηκτός ή όν vbl.adj. [ῥήγνῡμι] (of a person) able to be broken or rent (by a weapon or stones), vulnerable Il. AR. ῥῆμα ατος n. [εἴρω2; ἐρῶ] 1 something said or spoken, statement Hdt. +; saying by a wise person), maxim Pi. Pl. Men. 2 spoken word, word (usu.pl., sts. w.connot. of advice) Archil. + 3 spoken word, mere word (opp. actions, reality) Pi. + 4 (ref. to a word or phrase) expression Ar. + 5 (gramm.) verb (opp. ὄνομα noun) Pl. Arist.; phrase (opp. ὄνομα word) Pl. ῥημάτιον ου n. [dimin. ῥῆμα] little phrase Ar. ῥηματίσκιον ου n. [dimin. ῥῆμα] sort of little phrase Pl. ῥήν ῥηνός m. [reltd. ἀρήν; cf. πολύρρην] | only acc.sg. ῥῆνα, dat. pl. ῥήνεσσι | lamb, sheep AR. ῥῆξαι (aor.inf.): see ῥήγνῡμι ῥηξηνορίη ης ep.Ion.f. [ῥηξήνωρ] strength to break the enemy Od. ῥηξ-ήνωρ ορος masc.adj. [ῥήγνῡμι, ἀνήρ] breaker of men (epith. of Achilles, ref. either to killing of individuals or to breaking of enemy ranks) Hom. Hes. Demosthenes) Aeschin. 2 (of a person) practising rhetoric, good at oratory Isoc. Pl. Arist. ῥητορικῶς adv. in the manner of an orator, rhetorically Pl. Aeschin. Arist. Plu. ῥητός ή όν vbl.adj. [εἴρω2; ἐρῶ] 1 (of persons) spoken of, famed Hes. 2 (of a payment, a reward, a sum of money) stated, specified Il. Th.; (of a time, a day) Hdt. +; ἐπὶ ῥητοῖς on fixed terms Hdt. E. + 3 (of things) that may be spoken of or said, speakable (opp. what must be kept secret or unspoken) Trag. Isoc. D. Men.; (ref. to what may be said w. propriety or decency) S. D.; ( . ., ref. to what ought not to be spoken of, or cannot be adequately described) S. E.; that may be expressed in language, expressible Pl. 4 (of an answer) express, definite Plb. (math., of magnitudes and quantities) rational Pl. ῥητῶς adv. expressly, distinctly Plb. ῥήτρᾱ ᾱς Ion. ῥήτρη ης f. 1 verbal agreement Od. Call. 2 prescribed code of conduct, ordinance X. 3 (at Sparta) Rhetra (the unwritten law-code of Lycurgus) Plu.; (more gener.) decree, ordinance Tyrt. Plu. ῥήτωρ ορος m. 1 public speaker, orator Pl.; proposer ( . . burs tip o thro 2 bu 3 re ῥησι- ῥῆσις talk 2 (co 3 sp 4 de Ῥῆσο Tro ῥήσσ ῥητέ ῥη Pl. ῥητή ῥητῑ ΄ν ῥητο 2 (co ῥητο 2 || ῥητο the Arist Dem 2 (o Arist ῥη Aesc ῥητό Hes. 2 (o Il. Th 3 (o ὠμέγα [types of documents that interest me] Sunday, 21 October 12
7. Sunday, 21 October 12
8. [we look (and touch) original things, ] Sunday, 21 October 12
9. [and we look at type in use, in detail] Sunday, 21 October 12
10. [from Gabiel Bá and Fabio Moon’s Daytripper] Sunday, 21 October 12
11. [student drawings for themed toys] Sunday, 21 October 12
12. aaaanyway… Sunday, 21 October 12
13. 1/3 students media and graphic design [the composition of TypoLondon’s audience] Sunday, 21 October 12
14. typefaces? typography? [terms that this audience may receive with a…] Sunday, 21 October 12
15. WTF! Sunday, 21 October 12
16. typo graphy Sunday, 21 October 12
17. 117 slides more, 2 stories, 1 dedication Sunday, 21 October 12
18. typeface design is a mirror [to the way people communicate with texts, and the people involved] Sunday, 21 October 12
19. technology modes of reading [typography responds to changes in these two things] Sunday, 21 October 12
20. Six stages of typography Sunday, 21 October 12
21. 0 Me-too documents Sunday, 21 October 12
22. [© image of a manuscript with generous use of colour and uniform hierarchy ] Sunday, 21 October 12
23. [© image of a manuscript with copious marginal annotations] Sunday, 21 October 12
24. [marginal inscription at Delphi] Sunday, 21 October 12
25. [‘marginal annotation’ in Athens] Sunday, 21 October 12
26. 1 Monochrome typography Sunday, 21 October 12
27. [inescapable material properties] Sunday, 21 October 12
28. [typography prescribed by…] Sunday, 21 October 12
29. [the typesetting (and type-making) technologies] Sunday, 21 October 12
30. Sunday, 21 October 12
31. [which drive typographic hierarchies based on space and type style] Sunday, 21 October 12
32. [proccesses that allow immitation] Sunday, 21 October 12
33. [preamble to specification] Sunday, 21 October 12
34. 2 Iron, and early mechanisation Sunday, 21 October 12
35. Sunday, 21 October 12
36. Sunday, 21 October 12
37. [responses to new readers, and new modes of reading] Sunday, 21 October 12
38. [still constrained by economies of material properties and manual labour] Sunday, 21 October 12
39. [19C technologies reaching well into the 20th] Sunday, 21 October 12
40. The Long Nineteenth Century: 1789–1914 [tip o’ the hat to Hobsbawm] Sunday, 21 October 12
41. The Really Long Nineteenth Century: 1789–1957 [the typographic ‘long century’] Sunday, 21 October 12
42. 3 Mechanical typesetting Sunday, 21 October 12
43. Sunday, 21 October 12
44. Sunday, 21 October 12
45. [an industrial process that relies on precision, specification, documentation] Sunday, 21 October 12
46. [typesetting manufacturers with global reach and dominance] Sunday, 21 October 12
47. 4 Photo-electric and early digital typesetting Sunday, 21 October 12
48. Sunday, 21 October 12
49. Sunday, 21 October 12
50. Sunday, 21 October 12
51. [one of many insightful comments of the period:] Sunday, 21 October 12
52. Sunday, 21 October 12
53. 4.1 Platform- independent digital Sunday, 21 October 12
54. Industry change [collapse of major industries, questions over IP, career and gender impacts] Sunday, 21 October 12
55. Role change [designer and draftsperson meld] Sunday, 21 October 12
56. 4.2 Globalisation and a rethinking of documents [longform writing booms; paragraph- level typography evolves] Sunday, 21 October 12
57. Unicode OpenType Sunday, 21 October 12
58. [the backbone of fluid information interchange…] Sunday, 21 October 12
59. [with the potential for rich typography] Sunday, 21 October 12
60. [but still only the beginnings of support for global type] Sunday, 21 October 12
61. [blogs helped reading on screen, but are typographically shallow] Sunday, 21 October 12
62. [whereas newspapers and magazines demand rich typographic hierarchies] Sunday, 21 October 12
63. 5 Content maturity on the web Sunday, 21 October 12
64. [online is the primary location of content, and an interconnected state is assumed] Sunday, 21 October 12
65. [live, typographically rich, accessible, on a global scale] Sunday, 21 October 12
66. [as familiar document structures give way to…] Sunday, 21 October 12
67. [opaque structures that disguise nature and length of content] Sunday, 21 October 12
68. [which focus design challenges at the level of section access] Sunday, 21 October 12
69. [and whether a paper edition exists or nor] Sunday, 21 October 12
70. [discovery and navigation on smaller screens are the key design challenge] Sunday, 21 October 12
71. [where familiar typographic structures and document metaphors persist ] Sunday, 21 October 12
72. [and fundamental typographic para- meters survive across techologies] Sunday, 21 October 12
73. [such as the stroke-counter rhythm, and line spacing] Sunday, 21 October 12
74. [looking beyond typeface details, Didot and…] Sunday, 21 October 12
75. […Emigre share textural and spacing decisions] Sunday, 21 October 12
76. [where tablets are and extension of octavo-scale typography] Sunday, 21 October 12
77. 6 Designed for users, and purpose Sunday, 21 October 12
78. [the personal, edited, annotated, connected trajectory through texts is the futture] Sunday, 21 October 12
79. [new publishing models rely on this extended typography…] Sunday, 21 October 12
80. [for consistency of use, and identity across screen scales] Sunday, 21 October 12
81. [publication-level navigation, and customisation] Sunday, 21 October 12
82. [where complex distinctions rely on type and colour for differentiation] Sunday, 21 October 12
83. [reviving solutions with roots in the manuscript era] Sunday, 21 October 12
84. dedication [interlude for a special friend removed] Sunday, 21 October 12
85. typefaces! [typeface commentary withheld] Sunday, 21 October 12
86. All must quit talking while Fred plays jazz vibes Times Sunday, 21 October 12
87. All must quit talking while Fred plays jazz vibes Georgia Sunday, 21 October 12
88. All must quit talking while Fred plays jazz vibes Arial Sunday, 21 October 12
89. All must quit talking while Fred plays jazz vibes Verdana Sunday, 21 October 12
90. All  must  quit   talking  while  Fred   plays  jazz  vibes   Cambria Sunday, 21 October 12
91. All  must  quit   talking  while  Fred   plays  jazz  vibes   Calibri Sunday, 21 October 12
92. All  must  quit   talking  while  Fred   plays  jazz  vibes   Candara Sunday, 21 October 12
93. All must quit talking while Fred plays jazz vibes Skolar Sunday, 21 October 12
94. namides bonuper Sunday, 21 October 12
95. namides bonuper Sunday, 21 October 12
96. All must quit talking while Fred plays jazz vibes FF Tisa Sunday, 21 October 12
97. namides bonuper Sunday, 21 October 12
98. All must quit talking while Fred plays jazz vibes Elena Sunday, 21 October 12
99. namides bonuper Sunday, 21 October 12
100. All must quit talking while Fred plays jazz vibes Katari Sunday, 21 October 12
101. All must quit talking while Fred plays jazz vibes Capucine Sunday, 21 October 12
102. All must quit talking while Fred plays jazz vibes Fenland Sunday, 21 October 12
103. Sunday, 21 October 12
104. All must quit talking while Fred plays jazz vibes Ideal Sans Sunday, 21 October 12
105. All must quit talking while Fred plays jazz vibes (enough already!) Sunday, 21 October 12
106. 100 Ultra Light only > 60 mm 200 Light pullquotes 300 Light-ish nothing 400 Regular Body text 500 Medium Subheadings Sunday, 21 October 12
107. Sunday, 21 October 12
108. Sunday, 21 October 12
109. [moving towards being able to have very complex typography live, everywhere] Sunday, 21 October 12
110. [where reading may primarily happen on a small screen] Sunday, 21 October 12
111. Industry change, again [type globalisation is local: world-class designers working locally, not in the NW] Sunday, 21 October 12
112. So, now what? [questions for the design students in the audience] Sunday, 21 October 12
113. a grounded opinion, on top of an impulse [creativity becomes worthwhile when it is supported by research and reflection] Sunday, 21 October 12
114. thank you @gerryleonidas @typefacedesign Sunday, 21 October 12