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marksinn · 4 years ago

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Contemporary Typographic Design

The past year of design study has shown me that everything from the past has its place in influencing the present and the future. Multiple names have shone through in previous research pieces, all of them important and influential in their own fields. With specific regard to typography I’ll re-reference Jonathan Hoefler (Abstract, 2019) who spoke about the creation of a typeface being seen as “designing oxygen”: it’s something that is just everywhere, and to the untrained eye is a fact of life.

Like air, text at its base structure, is functional and common. But in the hands of typographers and designers it is a medium to expressive diversity and, over time, show the progression of how we can get information across through not only the words, but through their appearance as well.

Wim Crouwel – structure

“A message that should be explained on paper to other people should be as straightforward as possible without coming in between my personal ideas and thinking. I am the one who is structuring the message and not mixing it with my personal feelings.” - Crouwel, 2015

A Dutch-born designer who worked through the middle of the 20th Century to bring identity to multiple public venues – from museums, to post offices to airports. Known for his creation of New Alphabet, a self-proclaimed experimental yet unusable font (online), it allowed him to start the consideration of design changing to meet the developing technology of the 1960s. Crouwel has works in various collections and museums for his artistic spin on what had been such a functional part of art until this time period. A follower of Josef Müller Brockmann, Max Bill, Karlt Gerstner he worked with a grid system to perfect his typefaces. Through the 1950s he met and worked with many of these influencers, translating their styles into his own interpretation. When struggling to find the typefaces his Swiss colleagues were using, he would cut it out of magazines imported from Germany and Switzerland, and when Univers came on the scene in 1958 it represented a new way of thinking to Crouwel (2015). It was during this period, from 1958-1963 that he found himself experimenting with typography: using sans-serif fonts, more straightforward designs, considering the aesthetics and combating this against the function of the text. The function was always the driving force, but he worked to find out how much of his own opinion or style should come across in his work.

GAIL ANDERSON – diversity

“It’s time to embrace what are no longer just grey roots.” - Anderson, 2018

Known for her work at Rolling Stone, with the US Postal Service and for the multiple books she has co-authored, Gail Anderson is a pre-eminent black designer who, despite winning multiple awards in the genre, sees herself as a “master type obsessive more than a master typographer” (2018). In looking through many of her works, a theme I’m noticing is her tendency to mix typefaces. Her partner in design, Stephen Heller, goes into great detail describing her eclectic styles utilising “old and new forms” to create something “which is neither modernist nor post-modernist” (2008), to me allowing her work to seem utterly timeless. Posters for modern Broadways shows that wouldn’t look out place in a wild West saloon, Rolling Stone covers that look as enticing today as they did when they were created 25 years ago. Another thing that strikes me in almost every interview I read from her, is her desire to pay it forward. This is a phrase that’s overused as a term for people pushing others to be better than themselves, but Anderson seems to mention is as a justification for what she does naturally. As a female African-American designer she has won awards and immediately used the platform to push the mentality that “It’s all about talent and your ability to communicate effectively” (Rawsthorn, 2011), something she credits the creative industries as understanding already.

HAMISH MUIR – progression

“It is a fact that typography is rarely noticed and of little interest to most people, including some graphic designers: perhaps the raw material, the type forms, are too familiar.” - Muir et al, 1986b

In reading the typography journals Octavo curated by Muir between 1986 and 1992, the progression element of his work was clear. Solid, clear columns delivered information in the early editions, by 1990 the text was being rotated and played with, and by the final edition in 1992 huge letters were being utilised to make huge statements. A quick wander down the ‘Selected Work’ on 8vo’s website shows how his style developed with the time, showing work from the late 90s and early 2000s that now feels stereotypically late 1990s and early 2000s. Rounded, computerised letters represent the blossoming digital age that the world was coming into, bringing life to the concept that “typography is the point where content and form meet” (Muir et al, 1986a). His work seems to push forward at all points, he talks of having a set structure and intentionally seeing how far it can be pushed before you see some potential in what it is at its limit (2017). His posters and type-uses seem to have a very futuristic edge, many of the fonts created by MuirMcNeil in the past eleven years are clearly based in grid-systems influenced by Wim Crouwel and Karl Gerstner (2017), but have a very futuristic edge. Using geometric shapes or glyphs to represent the “too familiar” letter shapes Muir and McNeil show their willingness to push type into the 21st Century, not seeing themselves as “type designers so much as designers making type” (2014). This partnership is another massive part of Muir’s success, he feels that working along as a hindrance to the creative process – with collaboration comes challenge, freedom and a force that helps you to adapt.

966 words. I’m as surprised as you are.

REFERENCE

Hoefler, J. Netflix.com. (2017). Abstract: The Art of Design. [online] Available at: https://www.netflix.com/title/80057883

www.designculture.it. (n.d.). Designculture • Wim Crouwel. [online] Available at: http://www.designculture.it/interview/wim-crouwel.html.

‌ www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Wim Crouwel interview: Wim Crouwel – A Graphic Design Odyssey exhibition | Design | Dezeen. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYGRAAgYhpM [Accessed 9 Apr. 2021].

‌Talking About Swiss Style: Wim Crouwel. (2015). YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQCZuN1khPk.

PrintMag (2018). Gail Anderson Receives National Design Award for Lifetime Achievement. [online] PRINT. Available at: https://www.printmag.com/post/gail-anderson-national-design-award-lifetime-achievement [Accessed 11 Apr. 2021].

gailycurl.com. (n.d.). About / Contact - Gail Anderson. [online] Available at: https://gailycurl.com/About-Contact [Accessed 11 Apr. 2021].

‌Heller, Stephen (2008) AIGA | the professional association for design. (n.d.). 2008 AIGA Medalist: Gail Anderson. [online] Available at: https://www.aiga.org/medalist-gailanderson/.

‌Rawsthorn, A. (2011). Design Gets More Diverse. The New York Times. [online] 20 Mar. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/21/arts/21iht-DESIGN21.html?pagewanted=all [Accessed 11 Apr. 2021].

Muir, H., Johnstone, S., Holt, M. and Burke, M. (1986a). Hamish Muir | Octavo 86.1. [online] Available at: http://hamishmuir.com/8vo/work/octavo-86-1 [Accessed 12 Apr. 2021].

Muir, H., Johnstone, S., Holt, M. and Burke, M. (1986b). Hamish Muir | Octavo 86.2. [online] Available at: http://hamishmuir.com/8vo/work/octavo-86-2 [Accessed 12 Apr. 2021].

‌ Muir, H (2014) interviewed by Andy Butler at Architecture & Design magazine. (2014). interview with hamish muir and paul mcneil (muirmcneil). [online] Available at: https://www.designboom.com/design/interview-with-designers-hamish-muir-and-paul-mcneil-muirmcneil-12-17-2014/.

Muir, H (2017). Interview: Hamish Muir, Graphic Designer | Big Conference. [online] Available at: http://bigconference.co.uk/2017/04/hamish-muir-graphic-designer/ [Accessed 12 Apr. 2021].

‌muirmcneil.com. (n.d.). Two Type System «MuirMcNeil. [online] Available at: https://muirmcneil.com/project/two-type-system/ [Accessed 12 Apr. 2021].

#gms_hncgd1 #wim crouwel #gailanderson #hamishmuir #typography

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