Paula Scher, Poster exhibition honouring the
centenary of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s death,
2001. (photo: yaneff.com)
The writing activity consisting of letters, numbers and symbols is called “typography” today. The word typography consists of the combination of the words “type” and “graph”. “Type” defines letter molds, typefaces and typesetting cast from metal, and “graph” is a word coming from Latin and means drawing” (Sarıkavak, 2004, p. 6, cited by: Artan, 2019, p. 15).
Typography has had many different functions throughout its history. Writing, which was produced in warehouses for recording purposes in the first years of its invention, was later used for religious purposes by printing religious books.Typography is generally a tool for purposes such as reading, learning, and being informed. “Gavin Ambrosse mentioned typography as giving visual form to a written idea” (Ambrosse, 2010, cited by: Artan, 2019, p. 16). But now typography is not just a tool but an element in itself which is used for aesthetic purposes in design. It has become a visual element anymore that can be used instead of visual elements such as photograph or illustration.
Typography is in every aspect of life. It can be seen in many areas, such as on the package of a product purchased from the market, on the sign of a store you enter, on the box of a medicine you buy, on billboards, in cargo boxes, on book covers, on the menus of cafes. In order to fully understand what typography is, it is necessary to look at the historical development of writing.
History of Writing
Writing is the most important invention of humankind. Writing, a visual version of communication, is one of the cultural transmissions that deeply affects the development of human beings. Writing has undergone many changes throughout history. The writing invented by Sumerian religious scholars is considered the beginning of historical times. Writing, which was first used to keep records and write history, was written on clay tablets and a language called “picture writing” emerged, in which objects were drawn by resembling the way they existed. After the invention of writing by the Sumerians, each civilization gave a different direction to writing according to its own culture and development. As a result of the research and excavations, it has been seen that those great civilizations such as Egypt, Ancient Greece, Rome, China, and Islamic Civilizations made significant contributions to the science of writing.
The adventure of humankind in recording history, which started in the 3500 BC, has found different applications in different geographies. The Sumerians who used cuneiform, the world's first logographic writing system. The Chinese used pictograms on many writing surfaces, from shells and bones to bamboo, silk and paper, and the Mayans and Aztecs used pictograms in their inscriptions. From the 3500 BC until the Gregorian era, tools, such as chisels, reeds, pens, and needles, were invented to write and carve writing on clay and wax tablets and materials, such as stone, wood and papyrus (cited in Wigan, Dinç, 2015, p. 4). The Egyptians developed and expanded this language and invented hieroglyphs, while the Hittites and Persians invented “cuneiform”, thanks to the nail-shaped writing style used on clay tablets with pointed sticks.
Cuneiform characters (photo: qph.cf2.quoracdn.net)
In the hieroglyphic writing developed in the 3200 BC, each sign symbolized a certain object and sound. There are more than 700 signs in Egyptian hieroglyphs (Allen, 2020). Derived from the Greek word “hiero” meaning “sacred”, hieroglyph is a writing system that combines phonetics and pictographic signs with abstract or observable images (Wigan, 2012, p. 274). About 4000 years ago, the Chinese invented a writing consisting of signs in the style of painting with a brush. This writing system, on which the foundations of the modern Chinese alphabet were laid, developed independently (Demir, 2016).
Invention of the Printing Press
Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in Europe in 1447, using moving parts and printing. The printing press was already in use in China in the 9th century before Gutenberg's invention. The novelty of Gutenberg's invention is that it uses moving parts. Gutenberg's invention is considered the most important event of the modern era and the beginning of the printing revolution. He is also considered the father of modern printing (Mainz, n.d). Inspired by the printing technique carved in high relief on wooden molds in China, Gutenberg invented the system that allows a book to be printed with typography technique (MEB, 2011). While developing the typography technique, Gutenberg was inspired by the printing technique called “xylography”, which was first carved as high relief on wooden molds in China (Becer, 2015, p. 92).
Johannes Gutenberg (photo: history-biography.com)
Later, in Europe, Gutenberg's partners Fust and Peter Schöffer, Nicholas Jenson, who apprenticed in Gutenberg's workshop, printers William Caxton, Erhard Ratold and Anton Koberger, Philippe Pigouchet and artist Albrecht Dürer, Aldus Manutius and Fracesco Griffo, Geoffroy Tory, Claude Garamond, Johann Froben and Hans Holbein, Christopher Plantin, Phillippe Grandjean, Pier Simon Fournier, William Caslon, John Baskerville and Giambattista Printers like Bodoni and the typefaces they used made great contributions to the world of typography and printing. The books printed by these printers, who made type casting and letter design, traveled all over Europe, and brought about the Age of Enlightenment (Sarıkavak, 2017, p. 27-46).
Printing Techniques
The main reproduction method of the 16th and 17th centuries was engraving, and important artists, such as Dürer, Holbein and Cranach, emerged during this period. A new printing technique called lithography was discovered by chance by the German playwright Alois Senefelder in 1796, and because it was cheaper and more practical, it spread first to Europe and then to the Ottoman Empire (Doğan, 2009). With the lithography method, also called lithography, the foundation of the offset technique used today was laid, and the richness of colors and tones in illustration prints increased (Mardi, 2006, p. 36).
With the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century, new developments took place in printing techniques. “The 19th century is a period in which technical inventions such as photography, typewriter, flexible plate, photogravure, cliché and pantograph showed their impact on printing... Hot lead casting devices with keyboard input, such as monotype and linotype, finally replaced the typesetting that had been done by hand one by one since the age of Gutenberg, bringing a new dimension and speed to old printing” (Sarıkavak, 2017, p. 47).
When we look at the development of writing in the Ottoman Empire, the first work printed in the printing house established in 1726-28 under the management of İbrahim Müteferrika, who was sent to France to learn printing, was the "Van Kulu Dictionary" (Sarıkavak, 2017, p. 44).
The Influence of Art Movements on Typography
Modern art movements that emerged in the 20th century also affected typography. While Futurism attributed conceptual meanings to typographic typesetting, Constructivism constructed letter structures, and Dada revealed the aesthetics of the timeless, causeless, and random. Bauhaus turned towards innovative and functional typography, and later “New Typography” was formulated by Jan Tschichold. In post-war America, some developments were seen in the fields of advertising, printing and graphic design, and developments in computer technology-initiated desktop publishing. As printing evolved into a new form, the term “digital typography” entered our lives (Sarıkavak, 2017, pp. 49-50).
Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack, “Bauhaus Ausstellung Weimar Juli–Sept, 1923, Karte 16” (1923), lithograph, 3 15/16 x 5 7/8 inches
(photo: deutscherandhackett.com)
There are many writing styles that have left their mark on the design world and have been used all over the world since the day they were designed. Some of those are the fonts, such as Baskerville, Helvetica, Times New Roman, Garamond, and Futura. In the poster below, capital letters of the Helvetica font can be seen.
Fonts are divided into engraved fonts, gothic fonts, humanistic fonts, classical fonts, transition period fonts, contemporary fonts, handwritten fonts, thick quotation marks, linear fonts, graphic fonts, numerical fonts, and foreign letters. For example, Garamond belongs to classical fonts, Bodoni belongs to contemporary fonts, and Helvetica belongs to linear fonts (Sarıkavak, 2014, p. 67).
Helvetica Movie Poster (photo: upload.wikimedia.org)
Posters
One of the graphic design elements where typography provides great effects is posters. Written and / or illustrated graphic design products prepared to convey a message and promote a product or event are called “posters”. Posters were first produced in the 1800s as the closest fit to their current purpose. Posters, which initially had more artistic qualities, have weakened in aesthetic terms over time due to commercial concerns. Posters were also used for propaganda purposes in the years when technological tools had not yet been invented.
Poster art found the opportunity to be reproduced thanks to the development of lithography in the 19th century. Among the most important representatives of contemporary poster art are artists, such as Manet, Daumier, Cheret, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Bonnard. Among the important poster designers who left their mark on the 20th century are Alphonse Mucha, Cassandre, El Lissitzky, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Milton Glaser.
Miles Davis, "Organize" Poster (photo: miltonglaser.com)
“Modern art and design movements such as Cubism, Expressionism, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Bauhaus, International Typographic Style have greatly contributed to the development of the contemporary poster language” (Becer, 2015, p. 201).
Posters are divided into three main groups in terms of their types. These are advertising posters, cultural posters, and social posters. Areas such as fashion, advertising, food, and tourism are included in advertising posters. Posters designed for areas such as festivals, balls, concerts, theaters, and exhibitions are included in cultural posters. Posters designed in areas, such as health, transportation and civil defense are included in social posters (Becer, 2015, p. 202).
When designing a poster, the first criterion to consider is the message. A message must be conveyed to the recipient in the most accurate way. Then, the elements that will be used to convey this message must be selected in the most appropriate way. These elements can be typography, photography, or illustration. While photography may be the best choice for one subject, illustration may be a better choice for another subject.
Milton Glaser listed the characteristics of a successful poster as follows: “The poster must attract attention. It should inform and / or arouse the audience's desire. It should be motivating and action-provoking. It should be organized according to the target audience and have an understandable linguistic integrity” (Becer, 2015, p. 204).
The power of writing, as a means of communication, is great. Typography does not only convey a verbal message. The design features of typography enable a message to be conveyed visually and effectively. This effect can be achieved with different font styles, font features, such as bold, thin, italic, color, texture, and different sizes. All these features show that when typography is used as the main element in the poster, there may be no need to use other elements.
In order to use typography effectively, many issues need to be taken into consideration. A font that looks very successful and conveys the message correctly on a festival poster may look quite ugly and unsuccessful on a political poster because each font is designed with different textures and for different purposes.
Swiss artist Carolina Eckell spoke in support of this situation for a festival poster she created using calligraphy. She said that since this event is a street event to be held by the public, she thought calligraphy would be a more sincere and warm approach (Artan, 2019, p. 79).
In the poster below shows a poster of a jazz festival with only typographic elements. The letters in the word “jazz” on the poster look just like musical instruments. Additionally, the lines coming from the word "Italy" at the top are like the strings of a musical instrument. The poster does not contain any visuals other than typographic elements. Although it is not visual, the effective use of letters and the effects of the font chosen in the right size, right color and right thickness have made it a successful poster example.
Italy in Jazz, 2015, Festival poster (photo: pinterest.com)
In a poster design, the message given only with typography, without using elements, such as photographs or illustrations, can be conveyed correctly and provide sufficient information about a subject. In the past, when the ideas of Bauhaus, New Typography and Constructivism were dominant, designers created successful poster works that included only typographic elements. These poster works are a source to this day. The works of such artists can be examined to create successful poster designs that use typography effectively.
Works-cited
Allen, P. J. (2020). Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs
Date of Access: 10.12.2020 https://web.archive.org/web/20210414142948/https://books.google.com/books?id=lF78Max-h8MC&pg=PA2#v=onepage&q&f=false
Artan, H. I. (2019). Kaligrafi ve Tipografinin Afiş Sanatına Yansımaları. Master Thesis. Anadolu Üniversitesi, Fine Arts Institute, Eskişehir.
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Erişim: 09.12.2020 https://www.webcitation.org/78MSCHpm2
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Date of Access: 10.12.2020 http://www.mainz.de/gutenberg/g2000.htm
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Date of Access: 09. 12.2020 http://www.webcitation.org/78MT4kElG
Sarıkavak, N.K. (2014). Görsel İletişim ve Grafik Tasarımda Çağdaş Tipografinin Temelleri. (3rd edition). Ankara: Seçkin Yayıncılık.
Sarıkavak, N.K. (2017). Kaligrafik ve Tipografik Deneysel Tasarımlar. (1st edition). İstanbul: Hayalperest Yayınevi.
Wigan, M. (2012). Görsel İllüstrasyon Sözlüğü. (Translator: Mehmet Emir Uslu). (1st edition) İstanbul: Literatür Yayıncılık. (The original work was published in 2009).
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