Ashley Tann

Image found at TM Research Archive

This is the cover of a 1964 Swiss Typography Magazine, Typographische Monatsblätter. The purpose of the magazine was to examine Swiss typography and design and expose it to an international audience. The magazine has been used as an important tool in understanding the history and development of modern design. This particular issue was designed by Felix Burman in the typeface Univers. This design has a great sense of hierarchy. Even though the image takes up most of the page, it's clear that the information at the top is important. The rules help bring attention to the information and the different type sizes also indicate hierarchy. The design is sleek and organizes a lot of information in a very simplistic way. I love the longevity of Swiss typography. In the design world, there are a lot of trends and it always amazes me how modern and sophisticated 1960s Swiss design looks. 

Swissted

A neat project from New York Based Graphic Designer Mike Joyce. Combining a love of Swiss Graphic Design and Punk, he’s created a poster series of famous concerts from the time period, remixed in the Swiss style. I love how incongruous some of the design is to the tone of the music. I’m sure many purists of the music would vent that the energy and fury of the original has been removed in an experiment like this. But in it’s place you can see how Modernist principles were twisted themselves with the evolution of design in the early eighties.

See the full collection here.

Robert Johnson post 3

I found this image whilst searching for examples of Bauhaus typography in Google. The NY Metropolitan Museum of art used this poster as advertising for a general bauhaus exhibit, and of course is itself an example of bauhaus typography and style. The unique choices in angle and direction of the text causes ones eye to zigzag up and down the page, taking in items in order of a very successful type heirarchy. The title of the exhibition being the primary focus, leading into the website, location, and finally specific address of the event. Not really having much experience with this style I find myself drawn to the way color is used to section off the page, giving a very geometric feel to the entire design, along with the interesting patterns that make up the graphic design logo. These patterns seem random at first glance, but upon closer inspection reveal a profile view of a face. Once you see the face for the first time it almost feels like stumbling upon some clever little mystery that makes you part of an inside joke. Overall I found myself very surprised by this image and more willing to further explore this particular style of design even further.

Deyton Koch # 3

"The German typographic society Forum Typografie arranged a visit to the type & book art archive of the National Library in Lei[pz]ig, where most of the work-related sketches and materials of Jan Tschichold are currently stored. With some other type enthusiast I had the chance to browse through this amazing collection. Here are some pictures from that day …"

 These are hand-drawn "sketches"! Jan Tschichold was even mentioned in the text for our modern layout project as the designer who provided "the basis for what we now commonly term swiss typography". There are so many more awesome pictures of his sketching if any of you want to see more. I would love access to these archives. I was actually in Frankfurt about a year ago, I wish I had done more research on what to do. Here is what the museum's website had to say about their type and book archive:

The book has shaped our culture and civilisation like no other medium. For centuries our knowledge about the world and its peoples has been stored, handed down and updated in books. The task of the German Museum of Books and Writing (Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum) is to collect, exhibit and process evidence of book and media history. Founded in 1884 as the Deutsches Buchgewerbemuseum (German Book Trade Museum), it was integrated in the Deutsche Bücherei in 1950 following the loss of its building and some of its stock in World War 2. It is the oldest book culture museum in the world, and also one of the most important with regard to the scope and quality of its collection.

The main focus of the museum's work today is on the book and its myriad aspects: as an ingenious invention and as the product of economic and technical processes, as a social icon and the most important vehicle of culture, as a work of art and as a censored and burned repository of ideas. Even after the transition to the era of digital networks, the museum has two main functions. It is a museum which acts as an academic documentation centre for book and media history. But it is also an inviting and vibrant place of cultural education, aimed at bringing culture to a wider audience and attracting visitors with its exhibitions and educational programmes.

The opening of the 4th annex building of the German National Library in Leipzig sees the German Museum of Books and Writing enter a new era. Air-conditioned store rooms, expanded work areas and generously proportioned public areas provide optimum conditions for the long-term storage and use of the collection. A modern reading room houses the specialist library and more than one million museum objects for research, study and practical use. The new display vault features a small selection of special collection items, ranging from medieval manuscripts and early Bible prints through to unique artists' books. The museum gallery is aimed at younger users aged between 6 and 16 in particular, and provides them with an opportunity to learn all about writing, books and paper in a more informal environment.
Serving as a showcase for the German National Library, the museum's new permanent exhibition provides an insight into 5000 years of media history. Entitled "Characters - Books - Networks: From Cuneiform to Binary Code", it spans everything from the rise of early writing systems via bookprinting with movable type through to the digital online world, and also offers a light-hearted overview of the future of the information society. As a supplement to the permanent exhibition, the virtual exhibition features trenchant histories, pictures, films and sound recordings related to 5000 years of human and media history.

Cantara Ali Week 2

I have been drawn to Leanne Sharpton's hand-lettering and this book cover is an excellent example of how much emotion her work conveys without much help other than a simple illustration. She does some script style lettering, but my favorites are always of this sans serif-like lettering. I suspect she uses a steel brush nib on a pen holder because the strokes are too clean for a brush, but I could be mistaken.

The author of this book is British and this is a companion book to one of his earlier novels about an Irish revolutionary living during the 1920s. In this book, Henry becomes the unofficial manager of Louis Armstrong at some point, hence the trombone. It sounds like a very interesting series that plays around with history, "Forrest Gump" style, but it probably does a better job than that.

The leading and size of the lettering really conveys the emotion of the phrase, when you read it you imagine yourself saying it like you were listening to Louis Armstrong just, jammin'. If the leading were tighter you wouldn't get that sense of savoring a moment. The red "oh," is a nice subtle distinction for emphasis and really helps with how you read the phrase. I really want to get to a point in my lettering skills where I can do emotive type like this.

Jessica Prohl

The word document said to include a Bauhaus example (not sure if that was a note for you or us so I'm just being safe.) This one really caught my eye because of the colors and the balance of negative space. Not only does it display this typeface in an interesting way, but it includes subtle visual texture as well with the glyphs.

Kara Albe

This is the menu from Potbelly Sandwich Shop. All of the type looks hand-lettered, and I thought it was until I saw the same font on their website. The menu is pretty large and in two different places in the restaurant, on one wall by the line and on one behind the counter. Legibility is key, both primary and secondary information so customers know what to order and what's in it in a timely manner. There's a cohesive color scheme and they did a really good job of establishing hierarchy. The salad section is green and the new exciting (more expensive) flatbreads are in yellow. I like the grid they were able to create and how organized it is while remaining simple and beautiful. It gives off the chalkboard vibe while staying clean and informative. I really want to find the name of the typeface and use it in the future.