Within this reading, the section titled “Typographic Novelty” sparked my interest the most. I learned that the history of commercial type was mainly a result of the early technology boom. The new interest in technology in the 19th century helped shape most of the commercial typography that we still see and use frequently today. The shift from handwritten type to a more systematic type helped pave the way for a more modern and easily replicated form of type, which was perfect for commercial use. This major increase in “more commercially useable” typefaces led to the organization of fonts into “type families.” Type families refer to the slight differences of a type when used in other forms, such as bold, italic, book, and many more. These type families are very important to designers because they give more “character” and “versatility” to the typeface while still remaining within the family’s original style, or “genetic trait.”
A quote that stuck out to me in this reading was that the use of font families “added dignity and distinction…to commercial printing.” I believe that this statement is still true to this day. Many commercial forms of design can end up looking very cluttered and unprofessional when a designer tries to use too many typefaces within one design when trying to add more depth or excitement. Therefore, many designers choose to use one typeface in a design, but then utilize many of the “family styles” in order to add a more dynamic look or create more meaning. For example, this advertisement below for the film “The Social Network” successfully uses the typeface Futura, while utilizing two of its family styles (bold and italic) to create a visually appealing poster.
Part 2: McLuhan/Fiore, Massaging the Message
This reading, on McLuhan and Fiore focused on the importance of the relationship between a medium and a message. McLuhan and Fiore’s Book The Medium is the Message, was constructed and designed to convey their belief that the medium is simply the message. Therefore, they believed that the way in which you choose to communicate (or the medium you choose) is just as important as the message that you are trying to convey. The medium is what helps get your message across in an understandable way to your receiver. So, in order for your message to make sense the medium has to correspond with it.
The book design heavily relied on the importance of image related (or juxtaposed) to type and layout. For their book, McLuhan and Fiore chose to throw away all the typical rules for a standard book layout and instead made their layout of the book more unconventional to convey a different message. Unlike most books, The Medium is the Message contains pages that bleed onto one another and use the same imagery in different sizes and layouts in order to make the reader dig for a deeper meaning. The two images below are two separate spreads from the book, which act as one combined meaning. By separating the type and image onto different pages the book acts not as a normal book but as more of a series of connected images and type displayed through clever placement and juxtaposition.
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