Deck the Halls with typographical designs

Found this on Tumblr via some place called Scoutie Girl, and it is a very interesting compilation of various fonts. I would totally not mind having this hanging in my apartment. I have no problem displaying my inner nerd / geek out in the open for all to see.

Futura is of course my favorite. Love that font. I think I have been using it entirely too much lately. Like when I was younger and used Comic Sans for everything, and now I see all these jokes about it and laugh because people really do HATE Comic Sans. But I get it I guess - it's not a very regal font.

I think I have also been over-using Verdana in web design of late. I used to always use Arial, but I think Verdana does look better and is easier to read when rather small, but then again - that's what it was designed for!

I can't remember where I have seen Univers before, but I like it. Though I don't think I have it on my computer.

an historical Danny Boy

This is an historical newspaper. I found it in a book that I bought years ago when I lived in London, to write a research paper about the Irish Revolution: Ireland: A History (new edition), by Robert Kee. I saved this scan larger than I normally would for the web, so that you can click on it and see the details.

There is more going on that just the type, but my focus was  of course the typography in the newspaper clipping in the top right of the image. This is a London paper from 1916. They have a logotype as what I believe is called a "mastheading" on newspapers. They have used both serif and san-serif. I have to say, compared to the types of contemporary typography designs I've seen, even on newspapers, I think this looks kind of sloppy. The headlines look oddly justified on the left. On the right, the bigger column that says "Sir Roger..." just looks like a big old mess to me. I definitely think newspapers are design much better these days, both in the layout and the typography. Granted, we have years of technology helping us along now...

I Love the business side of Rock N' Roll

This was found on the side of a building in Portland, Oregon. I had absolutely no idea what it was when I found it. I just thought it looked really cool, how the 'u' is all surrounded by the squarish object.

I had been thinking about using this as a logotype awhile back, but decided against it and went with something else. So I decided to Google 'Unitus Plaza' since I had the photo edited already. Turns out it is a bank! Which conveniently happens to be another type of typography we could find.

I really like how they've used two different kinds of type here - both sans serif, but the one is all lowercase and the other is all uppercase. I think it is interesting how the 'i' does not have a dot on it. No idea what the reason is for that, but I think it turned out quite aesthetically pleasing, at least to me.

I Think I'm Turning Japanese

I'm not precisely sure where I found this, either through Google image search or on deviantART.com. Since the CAPCAM logo is in the bottom corner, I'm thinking this is probably an official image, and therefor came from a random Google image search at some point in time...

Okami is one of my absolute most favorite video games of all time. It originally came out on the Playstation 2 and then was re-released for the Wii some time ago. The controls on the Wii are awesome - you paint your way through the game. I chose this as an "Asian" typography because it's kind of out of the ordinary. I wasn't sure if we were supposed to be finding actual characters from a language (i.e. Japanese, Chinese, Korean) or something influenced by the type of characters that they have.

I went with this typography because it is anglicized, because you can read what it says, but it is reminiscent of the brush strokes of Japanese characters. The video game is essentially set in Japan, though arguably a different type period - the land is called Nippon. There are a lot of plays on Japanese history and mythology and it all ties in to the essential part of the game - the brush strokes. I.e. how the "typography" is formed. Although, arguably, Japanese characters like Kanji are probably more like calligraphy than typography. I'm actually not sure what calligraphy would be considered.

A Lack of Color treatment is not seen with this text type

A couple weeks ago I got a fountain soda at Royal Farms for the first time in ages and was astounded and delighted by the design of their new cups (though I'm not sure exactly how new they really are, they could have been out for two or more years now and I wouldn't be the wiser). I had a sprite in it, so I really got to see the popping colors. I went earlier today after looking through to see what other types of type I could capture for this assignment and thought it would be a great example of the text type with interesting color treatment.

The words are all jumbled together, but they are still distinctly different simply because of the color treatment. They've used bright, vibrant colors that still kind of stand out even when filled with a dark soda (like my Dr. Pepper from earlier). I washed the cup out and put water in it though, so that I could really show the colors when I photographed it. Definitely one of the coolest cups I've ever seen. They should have gotten the same designer to work on redoing their hideous coffee cups, too.

Knockin' on Heaven's Door historically in a contemporary design

This historical type reused in a contemporary design was found on my desk via the local Royal Farms store via possibly Virginia, as that is where the tobacco might come from, but I'm not entirely sure. It could be somewhere else. When the idea first struck me that this might be a neat typography example to use, I Googled Camel and got to the wikipedia page where they had an image of an advertisement for Camel cigarettes from 1915. Back then, this was still the typeface they used for their logo.

While one could argue that Camel has been using the same design forever, and therefore it makes it not contemporary, these cigarettes, the Camel Crush, have only recently come out. I believe it was sometime in 2008. I think it's interesting that they are mixing their historical logo/type in with their contemporary design. "Crush" is written in a san serif that looks almost space-like. I was thinking just the other day that this is one of the prettiest cigarette box designs I have ever seen. 

The Digital Type Revolution: A Swedish Scandal

One could say that modern is digital. Most people are completely surrounded by technology everyday; few people can set foot out their door without a cell phone and computers are frequented both at work and at home. And while technologies are not limited to being digital, the majority of technologies we consider modern have some kind of digital aspect to them. Even the field of design can be split up into two groups – print and digital. When designing for these two groups, there are different rules that apply, varying standards, and even specific elements that can, or at least should, be used for one but not the other. Such is the case with the element of typography. Just as there has been a digital revolution in culture, there has been a digital revolution in the design and use of typography, an example of which can be seen in the case of the Swedish home goods store IKEA.

Among Robin Nichols typography designs is one with “specially drawn weights of a geometric sans face,” called IKEA Sans (Ascender Corporation). This IKEA Sans font is a variant of the Futura font designed by German designer Paul Renner in the 1920s (Garfield). Though Futura is over 80 years old, many consider the font to still look modern (Garfield). In the summer of 2009, IKEA released the 2010 edition of their yearly catalog. As fans of the store opened up their mailboxes and logged onto the website to view the digital version, they were met with a great change that brought shock and anger to many. The 2010 IKEA catalog was filled not with their specially designed font, IKEA Sans, not even with the original version, Futura, but with the overly used and common place Verdana.

The Verdana type face was designed by Matthew Carter in 1993, specifically for use as a screen font on the computer. It has wide letterforms with generous spacing to allow for optimum legibility at the smallest of sizes (Abend). It could be said that Verdana is the go-to font for when one does not care “how their work looks to others” (Garfield).

Great controversy arose from what some might consider a minor change. Angry comments and rants flooded the social media Twitter and an online petition was created by one designer (Abend). Discussions ensued regarding the failing of IKEA’s branding and with it their reputation in the field of design. Many designers felt betrayed (Abend).

When asked why the need for change, Monika Cocic, an IKEA spokeswoman, stated, “It’s more efficient and cost-effective…. Plus, it’s a simple, modern-looking typeface” (Abend).

But what, one might ask, does any of this have to do with the digital type revolution? For starters, the most obvious and simple answer is the pure fact that IKEA switched from an historically grounded type face to a more modern one designed specifically for digital use. With web presence being such a significant tool in commerce these days, one could say IKEA was just moving to the next level; however, the fact remains that they have had a website for years and yet never changed their catalog font in the past.

One of the most important issues regarding the IKEA font change is what it means for the impact of digital type design on print design in the 21st century. IKEA is well-known; upon landing on their website, one can enter through over 30 countries. If such a well-known and well-branded company can get away with changing their entire image, will others try to follow suit? Will other companies start to use web fonts in their print pieces in order to save money and time on design? Will the aesthetics of design be brushed aside for ease of commerce, for what some consider modernity, for simplicity?

These are questions that are not easily answered, but well worth asking. Centuries of training and thought have gone into creating the aesthetics of design. With the digital revolution in culture, one could say the daily lives of humans have been made easier. But with the digital revolution of type, is it possible that instead of improving upon the past, we have actually destroyed one of the oldest aspects of culture, our art.

Pictured:
(from first to last)
Futura type face
Verdana type face
IKEA 2010 catalog online
IKEA Sans type face


Bibliography:

Abend, Lisa. “The Font War: Ikea Fans Fume Over Verdana.” TIME. 2009 Aug. 28. http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1919127,00.html. (accessed Dec. 2, 2009).

Ascender Corporation. “Robin Nichols.” 2009. http://www.ascendercorp.com/designers/robin-nicholas/. (accessed Dec. 2, 2009).

Bauhaus-archiv Museum of Design. 2009. 2 Dec. 2009. <http://www.bauhaus.de/english/index.htm>.

Garfield, Simon. “Verdana: Ikea's flat-pack font: Ikea is changing its font to Verdana - causing outrage among typomaniacs. Should the rest of us care? Absolutely.” Guardian.co.uk. 2009 Sept. 2. http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/sep/02/ikea-verdana-font. (accessed Dec. 2, 2009).

IKEA. 2009. 2 Dec. 2009. <http://www.ikea.com/>.

Microsoft. “Verdana.” 2009. 2 Dec. 2009. <http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fonts/family.aspx?FID=1>.

MyFonts.com. 2009. 2 Dec. 2009. <http://new.myfonts.com/>.

Stockholm Design Lab. “Ikea Sans.” 2009. http://www.stockholmdesignlab.se/#/1112/projects/clients/ikea/ikea/. (accessed Dec. 2, 2009).