Research on Typefaces

Simple typeface research

At this point, you have only scratched the surface of the history of typography. You must do your own research and understand the theories and practices behind the type that we use today.  

For each typeface, write down:

• Why the font was created

• What influenced the design of the font?

TIP: Navigate to the student forum to engage in the discussion with your peers

For this challenge, you will be during research on each of the typefaces listed below:

Verdana: this is another Humanist Sans typeface invented by the Matthew Carter for the Microsoft Corporation.  This typeface was created to be easily read at all resolutions (on the computer) and is especially readable at low resolutions (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verdana).

Rockwell: This slab-serif (mechanistic) typeface goes under the sub-category of ‘Clarendon’.  A Clarendon typeface has bracketed (or curved) serifs, unlike the Egyptian typeface which has an unbracketed one.  The typeface came about during the industrial age, when advertising also came about and presses could handle larger areas of ink and heavier types.  These types are suitable for shorter texts and headlines, where the purpose is to attract the reader’s attention (see page 130 of Barnum et al).

Gill Sans: Invented by Eric Gill, this is a Humanist Sans typeface (it is not as Geometric as the Swiss or European fonts and has more parabolic forms) (Jones, 2013).

Helvetica Neue: another typeface based on the Swiss style and is one of the more famous typefaces (at the beginning of the 20^th century) (Jones, 2013); Helvetica came about in the 1950’s and was invented by Max Miedinger in 1957.  It is what is known as a Neo-Grotesque typeface (see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helvetica)

.

References

Barnum et al (2014): Graphic Design: Australian Style Manual, page 130

Sam Jones (2013): The History of Typography 5 Minutes, in http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2013/10/the-history-of-typography-in-5-minutes/

Wikipedia