Lecture: The History of Type PART TWO (OUAN401)

As a continuation of our last lecture, we were taught about all things type-y from the 1920s up to the bold modern era of 2011 or whatever we're at now.

Man, the Bauhaus is rad.

My favourite part of the lecture was learning more about the Bauhaus and how it brought about a whole new era of design and typography based around the philosophy that less can be more. I find it difficult to visualise the thought process that it must've taken to strip everything away that was previously accepted about good design and build it again from the ground up. It's very impressive. I can apply that lessons of the Bauhaus to all sorts of aspects of animation, be it aesthetically by using bold, simple design to best convey information on screen to an audience, or by using colour cleverly. Too much detail can be overbearing, I guess. Also, sometimes some subtle movement, like the raising of an eyebrow, can convey more than something more exaggerated.

I also learned in this lecture that Microsoft is bad. This was because Microsoft ripped off the Helvetica typeface in 1987 when it became public domain and forged the very similar "Arial" typeface which was free of copyright law because it changed JUST ENOUGHT for it to be considered a new typeface. Also, our speaker expressed his distaste for Comic Sans. It doesn't really bother me so much. As a 21st century boy I was born and bred with Arial and I enjoy Comic Sans. You have to pick and choose your battles, I suppose.

This lecture also cemented for me the idea that truly brilliant and iconic typography can bring about change in society. It sounds rather pretentious at first to say that it does, since there are other things that I think have much more of an impact. However, there are certain fonts that have become universally representative of trends, ideas and cultures and have left a historical mark.

The punk rock graphic designs by Jamie Reid are a widely recognised emblem of the subculture

And everyone associates this one with whimsy and magic. It's like a security blanket.

This lecture seemed to harken back to our earlier one on the language of design and how we are a very visually literate generation in terms of how we interpret symbols. It goes hand in hand with typography.