Sunday, November 23, 2008
Questions Answered
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Helvetica the Movie
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Giambattista Bodoni Final Paper
Giambattista Bodoni was an avid typographer who greatly contributed to the typography industry. He was born 1740 in Turin, Italy and died 1813 in Parma, Italy. Bodoni moved to Parma, Italy to become the appointed printer to the Parma court. One of Bodoni's greatest achievements was the typeface that he named after himself.Although Bodoni's typeface was considered modern it clearly played off of an already existing typeface called 'Romains du Roi.' This type was specifically designed for the French king Louis's printing. This type boasted flat, unbracketed serifs. the use of the type was
In the year 1770 Bodoni opens his own type foundry. After working ten years as the head of the printing house set up by Duke of Parma, Bodoni had enough experience to set up his own type foundry. Not many typographers during this time period could afford to live solely off of this occupation. Bodoni however broke into the industry at an early age and was able to progress to the head of his peers. With the money he earned working as the head of the printing house he could finally started his own foundry.
The Duke of Parma after seeing Bodoni progress even further into the typography business he released him from the Duke’s printing house. He allowed Bodoni to open his own printing works, called Tipi Bodoni. The first books that were published in this new printing house were volumes of Greek, Roman and Italian classics. In the year 1806 “L’Oratio Dominica in CVL lingual versa” is produced. The new typeface book contained 215 typefaces.
Bodoni was very talented not only as a typographer but also as a business man. He found financial support in a noncommercial way, nowadays we’d call “smart sponsoring.” Bodoni found support with the Duke of Parma, the Spanish royal family, the Vatican and ultimately the French Empire. Bodoni alone established himself and Parma as the premier center for typographic design and printing of typefaces.
Bodoni’s fame lasted due to the Nationalists and the Fascists. A century after his death the Nationalists and the Fascists hailed him as “one of the greatest Italians, with the vision of a great, unified, strong Italy” along with other great and accomplished figures such as Verdi. Unlike John Baskerville, Giambattista Bodoni’s work was never underrated.
Bodoni finally settled down to marriage when he was fifty years old. Men during this era would normally marry much earlier because the normal life span is shorter then it is now in the twenty first century. Giambattista Bodoni obsession with his work kept him from a more “normal” life then his peers. Bodoni also did not do much work for a more commercial nature which led to tax breaks. Once Bodoni was accused of printing literary works of lesser quality then Didot. Bodoni’s wife countered that Milton printed by Didot contained 85 printing errors on 94 pages, while Bodoni’s Virgil containing 600 pages had only 37 errors. After this confrontation Giambattista Bodoni was seen as Europe’s best typographer and publisher of his time.
Giambattista Bodoni even at an early age was considered an expert in his field. His typefaces had the elegance of an expert with a clear view of the whole. He had a steady hand and an eye for typefaces and layouts. Bodoni was very picky when it came down to the pieces of paper he would print on. If the paper was not smooth enough to his standards he would create his own paper. The same concept applied towards the quality of his inks.
Bodoni once wrote: “The conept of beauty must not, of course, be confused with the concpt of ‘good’ or useful.’ But in the end these are simply three ways of looking at one and the same thing. The better printed a book is, the more often people will read it, the more they’ll enjoy it, the more useful it will be. The purer the effect of the types, the more exemplary the book. This is what the art of bookmaking is all about. And rightly so: the type stands on its own; everything else only exists through the typeface. No other art has more right to look forward to future centuries than typography. May this art, useful and beautiful as it is, praticed with the skill and love it merits, be promoted by good taste and judgement! But it would make me ill if I did more to promote my art through words than through deeds.” This statement made by Bodoni exemplifies what his typeface looked like. He wanted to present his readers a beautiful more modern typeface that would complement the subject the books were written on.
Bodoni created many different typefaces during his life. The most obvious was the one he named after himself, called Bodoni. All of Giambattista Bodoni’s fonts are all classified as modern because he was the artist to invent this new form of type. Modern type contrasted greatly with both Old Style and Transitional types. Giambattista Bodoni did not want his type to be weighed down by too much adornment seen in Old Style. He also wanted his typeface to have better legibility then the scripts of the Old Style. Transitional type have many similarities to Bodoni's modern style because he based his new style off of the Transitional one. When John Baskerville created the Transitional font he wanted to get away from the repetition of Old Style scripts. His Transitional fonts were later used for important documents and reading. Transitional type was bold and highly legible and therefore appeared more often in legal documents. Bodoni decided to make fonts that were also legible but had more sophistication to them. The type consisted of an aesthetic of plain, unadorned style combined with purity of materials. This contrasted greatly with the heavely adorned lettering of Old Style. Bodoni's fonts are used today to advertise expensive stores. His combination of legibility and beauty gave him success in his time through the 20th Century.
Giambattista Bodoni died in 1813 in Parma, Italy. His now widow finished her late husbands work, “Manuale Tipografico” in two volumes. It contains Roman, Greek, Gothic, Asian and Russian fonts, lines, borders, symbols, numbers and musical notation. This book was a complete compilation of Giambattista Bodoni’s work throughout his career. In 1963 the Bodoni Museum opened in Parma, Italy where all of Bodoni’s work can still be seen today.
Bibliography:
Book Typography by Ari Rafaeli, Oak Knoll Press, The British Library, 2005
Type, The Secret History of Letters by Simon Loxley, I.B. Tauris, London NY 1988
The Art of Typography by Martin Solomon, Watson-Guptill NY 1986
http://www.fontco.com/bodoni.php
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3992/is_200107/ai_n8978403/pg_3?tag=artBody;col1
http://www.linotype.com/683/giambattistabodoni.html
Part B: Giambattista Bodoni created many typefaces, Bodoni, LTC Bodoni 26, Bodoni Classico, Bodoni Stencil, Bauer Bodoni, ITC Bodoni Six, ITC Bodoni Twelve, ITC Bodoni Seventy-Two, and Linotype Gianotten.
The Bodoni Font, Modern Typeface, this particular typeface is very legible. Some of the letters have marks over them which I would assume are there for the Italian language.
Characteristics- 1) There is an obvious contrast between thick and thin stems. 2) The letters with ascenders and descenders are both very long 3) The letters with counters appear very geometric with the combination of rectangles and ovals 4) All the letters appear unadorned 5)The serifs are thin and perpendicular to the stems 6) There is a consistent x-height within all the lower and uppercase letters.
Part C: While Bodoni got his first break in 1770 working in the printing house, the United States was at war. America was fighting for its independence against Great Britian. The Boston Massacre in 1770 was the catalyst for the revolution. The artwork during this time period reflected the reality of war. Instead of making historical or religious paintings American artists painted scenes of the war. This is clearly reflected in Bodoni’s work because he also turned the traditional typeface and turned to a more practical and modern type.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Giambattista Bodoni


Giambattista Bodoni was born in Saluzzo, Piedmont, Italy. He lived between February 16th 1740 and died November 29th 1813. He is known as a publisher, typographer and Italian printer. He started by engraving in wood. He acquainted himself in Oriental language to render himself essential to the Propaganda press. Bodoni also helped restore several Oriental alphabets. As a typographer he made editions to the Greek, Latin and French classics are all highly prized for their typographical elegance. After his death an amazing work appeared in two volumes quarto, entitled Manuale Tipografico. In the beginning his typefaces were all decorative in french style of Fournier le jeune but by 1781 he was influenced by more modern typefaces and his manuscripts became devoid of decoration and he created his own type faces. in 1790 the Bodoni typefaces was created.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
The Greek Alphabet


Modern Hebrew and Arabic scripts come from the basis of the early Greek alphabet. The Greeks choose to use characters from the Phoenician system. The Phoenician system uses characters such as aleph (a) and beth (b). Originally the Greek language was read from right to left, this is called boustrophedon. This style of writing is directly translated into the Arabic script. When punctuation was developed the Greeks choose to write from left to right. After the language was changed to read from left to right the Greeks rotated many of their symbols to make it easier to write.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
vocaburary
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Adrian Frutiger

Adrian Frutiger was born in Unterlaken, Switzerland in 1928 and is still alive today. He is most widely known for his typefaces. Frutiger moved around often during his educational years between Unterlaken, Switzerland to Zurich, Switzerland and finally to Paris, France. Paris is where Frutiger got his first job at Deberny and Peignot typefoundary. While working there Adrian created typefaces of his own and found the time to write many books on the subject. At his job Frutiger helped design and create many letterforms and typefaces such as, Phoebus, Ondine, Meridien, Apollo, Egyptienne and many others. The typeface he is most commonly known for is Univers.
John Baskerville


John Baskerville is known today for his artistic skill of typefaces. He grew up in Birmingham, England and was a member of the Royal Society of the Arts. Besides creating typefaces Baskerville was also known for his expertise in papier-mache and japanning.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Grids

One of the best tools every designer has to help create better layouts is a grid. The use of a grid breaks apart a daunting space into units to help organize the picture. Controlling a particular space for an artist gives him or her the ability to take over the space the way they want it to look. The grids helps the designer organize accordingly with the text and or image with the page given. Thus by using a grid the designer has both organization and flexibility.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Paul Rand





Paul Rand's graphic designs are the most popular in the world. His combination of graphic design and typography is groundbreaking for his generation. He is most renowned for his corporate logo designs and is one of the most influential designers of the 20th century. Most people believe his designs set the standard for the creation of corporate logos. Rand's style for his designs is a simple look, he once stated, "Simplicity is not the goal. It is the by-product of a good idea and modest expectations."


