(204) - INFO GRAPHICS PROCESS

For the first part of our information graphics project, we were asked to document our closet in a way that includes pictures and information.  We had the freedom to do this however we wanted.  I chose to set up a tripod and take pictures of most of my shirts in my closet, and set them up in a poster that records information about each shirt and gives an estimation to how many times I've worn it.  The poster lists the shirts from simplest to most complex in design.

Here are a few photos

(202) - BODONI RESEARCH

TASK:  Research and write at least 1000 words about the origins of your font. Can be specifically about your font, or about the classification or both.

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            Bauer Bodoni was a revival of the original typeface, Bodoni and was created in 1926 by Heinrich Jost and Louis Holl.  Jost designed the characters and Louis cut them and prepared them for letter pressing.  The Bauer version of the font is the revival staying most true to Giambattista Bodoni's original design of Bodoni.  The typeface shows a strong emphasis on the vertical stroke and sharp contrasts between stroke and serif.  It also features a classic symmetry and sharp transition from stem to serif.  The serifs are as thin as the thinnest parts of the letters.  The axis of the thick-thin contrast is vertical, and the typeface has many weights. Because of modern day printing techniques (digital), some of the fine details (namely, the super-thin serifs) are lost in print, however, in the days of cast metal typesetting, the pressure applied from the press during the printing process ensured the hairline serifs were visible because of the precise cuts to the sheet.

            Bodoni has a great many weights and includes a beautiful italic font set on a 16 degree angle and includes circular finials on almost every terminal.  Some of the distinguishing characteristics of Bodoni came from its subtle variations on the form of the 'O'.  The Bodoni 'O' features an effect from the shape of the counter created from a rectangle and semi-circles known as the "bone effect" where the left and right sides of the rectangle curve to the inside of the letter.  This effect gives the illusion that the middle is slightly hollow, similar to a bone.  The Bodoni 'G' is hard and classical, staying true to the roman two-story version.  The Bodoni 'K' features legs connecting on eachother and not the stem.  The Bodoni 'X' is built on a thick stem intersecting with a hairline stem, the hairline stem using brackets and the thick stem using a straight connection from stem to serif.

            Some more distinguishing characteristics of the Bodoni typeface include the tail of the 'Q', extending straight down from the body.  The 'J' has a balled finial extending from a terminal which is different from any other character.  The 'Y' character's terminal is offset from the body, changing angles at the slightest degree.  The capital G has a spur which does not reach the x height.  The capital 'E' and 'L' have distinguishingly tall serifs.  These characteristics ensure a classy and sophisticated look.

            Bodoni has been used for a wide variety of material ranging from 18th century Italian books to 1960's periodicals.  Today, the late manner versions continue to be used in advertising, the earlier manner versions used for fine book printing.  Bodoni can be seen in Hilton Hotels collateral, such as their restaurant menus and bar menus.  Nirvana's logo, as seen on their album covers and posters, is written in Bodoni.  Carnegie Mellon University's wordmark is written in Bauer Bodoni.  Tom Clancy's novel Dead or Alive features Bodoni on all of the artwork.   Lady Gaga's logotype is set in a widely tracked out Bauer Bodoni.  The yard markers on many football fields from the NCAA to the NFL use Bodoni.

            One of the newest Bodoni revivals is ITC Bodoni Twelve.  This was just one variant published by ITC in the set including Bodoni Six and Bodoni Seventy-Two.  These names are simply referring to the height of the letters in points.  The point of having these differences in sizes was to take advantage of the larger size allowing for greater contrast and thinner serifs without disappearing.  This version was created on the basis of optical scaling aimed at pleasing human eyes, rather than conforming to mathematical proportions at small sizes.  Another Bodoni revival is Bistream Bodoni, a version first drawn in 1907 by Morris Fuller Benton for the American Type Founders.   The main difference between this font and the other Bodoni's is that its serifs are thicker and more visible at smaller point sizes.

            It is said that the most successful revivals of the Bodoni typeface are ATF Bodoni and Bauer Bodoni.  ATF Bodoni was the first American revival of the typeface containing several variants, all created by Morris Fuller Benton.  Benton's goal was not to push the limits of the typeface based on printing technology, but to capture the original Bodoni flavor while emphasizing legibility.  Bauer Type Foundry's version did quite the opposite: emphasizing the extreme contrast between hairline and main stroke.

            A relative timeline of the Bodoni revivals starts in 1909 with ATF Bodoni.  The series includes: Bodoni (1909), Bodoni Italic (1910), Bodoni Book (1910), Bodoni Book Italic (1911), Bodoni Bold Italic (1911), Bodoni Bold Shaded (1912), Bodoni Shaded Initials (1914), Card Bodoni (1915), Card Bodoni Bold (1915), Bodoni Open (1918), Bodoni Book Expanded (1924), Ultra Bodoni Italic (1928), Bodoni Bold Condensed (1933), Ultra Bodoni Condensed and Extra Condensed (1933), and Engravers Bodoni (1933).  Monotype also did a revival of Bodoni based on Benton's versions.  Damon Type Foundry offered a Bodoni revival named Bartlet.

           Bauer Bodoni belongs to the Didones / Modern classification of typefaces.  Didones are the late neoclassical seriffed types not quite as old as the humanistic and garalde classifications.  The name Didon is a combination of the French printing family Didot and the Italian printer Bodoni.   The first representative of the Didone style is Didot, emerging in the late 18th century.  This classification is best highlighted by the original Bodoni typeface created by Giambattista Bodoni in 1789.  Bodoni was known as the 'printer to the kings'.  The typeface holds an elegant look thanks to its symmetrical build and balanced proportions contrasting the thick and thin interplay between strokes and serifs.

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JOST, HEINRICH

            Heinrich Jost was a popular typeface designer, typographer, and graphic designer born in Magdenburg, Germany in 1889.  Before becoming a typographer, Jost trained as a bookseller and attended courses at Kunstgewerbe-und Handwerkerschule in Magdenburg.  Soon thereafter, in 1908, he moved to Munich and began taking evening classes under Futura's typeface designer, Paul Renner.  Another one of his mentors was Emil Preetorius, known as one of the most important stage designers of the beginning of the 20th century.  Renner and Preetorius helped set up the illustration school in which Jost was taking classes at.

            Jost continued to study graphic design and illustration, working as a book designer and graphic artist until 1923.  He then moved to Frankfurt to become the art director at the Bauer Type Foundry.  Besides creating the Bauer Bodoni revival of Bodoni at Bauer Type Foundry, it is believed that Jost added detail to early versions of Renner's Futura typeface.  Jost led Bauer Foundry to its most glorious era.  Some other typographers whom he worked with besides Renner were Georg Hartmann, Emil Rudolf Weiss, Berthold Wolpe, and Ernst Schneidler. 

            Some of the fonts created by Jost at the Bauer Foundry include Bauer Bodoni, Bauer Bodoni (BT), Bauer Bodoni (URW), Bauer Bodoni Black Condensed, Bauer Bodoni Bold, Beton, EF Beton, Beton Bold Compressed, Beton Bold Condensed, Beton BQ, Beton Compressed Bold, Beton Demi, Beton Extra Bold, Beton Extra Bold (Monotype), Beton Extra Bold (URW), Beton Outline, and Beton Stencil.  Jost died in Frankfurt on September 25th, 1949 at the age of 60.

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BODONI, GIAMBATTISTA

            Giambattista Bodoni was an Italian engraver, publisher, printer, and prolific typographer who was most known for creating the original family of typefaces called Bodoni.   He was born in Turin, a city in Northern Italy, in 1740 and brought up in a family of printmakers, giving him an early experience of the trade.  As an apprentice at the Vatican's Propaganda Fide printing house in Rome, Bodoni impressed his superiors with an insatiable appetite for learning.  He had great habits of studiousness and hard work.  Along with Baskerville in England and the Didot family in France, Bodoni followed foot as a leader in originating pseudoclassical typefaces.  After creating the Bodoni typeface, Bodoni was known for his designs of highly style editions considered more apt to be admired for their layout and design, rather than to be read or studied.  His greek typefaces were most successful as they combined a balance of beauty and legibility, something that his earlier typefaces did not achieve.

            Bodoni gave four principles to the art of designing type.  They were: regularity, cleanness, good taste, and charm.   He was arguably the most successful early proponent the didone/modern classification.  His books were created for the wealthy and aristocracy and were the most advanced, elegant, and refined book being printed in Europe at the time.  At the end of his career, Bodoni had designed and personally engraved 298 typefaces, printing over 1200 fine editions of type in his various printing houses. 

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WORLD NEWS AROUND 1789

            Some notable events happening around the time period in which Bodoni was created (1789) include the creation of an Independent United States.  Following Independence Day, America began to establish more and more projects and created opportunities adhering to the freedom of the people.  A few decades before Bodoni, Europe was known as the world's strongest power.

"Giambattista Bodoni - Font Designer of Bodoni." Linotype.com. Web. 26 Oct. 2011. <http://www.linotype.com/683/giambattistabodoni.html>.

Gomez-Palacio, Bryony, and Armin Vit. Graphic Design, Referenced: a Visual Guide to the Language, Applications, and History of Graphic Design. Beverly, MA: Rockport, 2009. Print.

Pohlen, Joep. Letter Fountain: (on Printing Types). Köln: Taschen, 2011. Print.

"Typeface: Bodoni." Rightreading.com. Web. 25 Oct. 2011. <http://www.rightreading.com/typehead/bodoni.htm>.

           

(202) - BODONI

I was given Bauer Bodoni as my font last week.  

Anyway, here are some of the characteristics and font examples of different typeface classifications over the years.

- OLD STYLE or "Gerald" - Starting around 1475

• crossbar of lowercase "e" is horizontal
• top serifs are roof shaped & triangular
• bottom serifs arent rounded at the bottom

1) Bembot
2) Albertina
3) Plantin
4) Sabon
5) Garamond

- TRANSITIONAL - Starting around 1750

• base serifs aren't usually rounded at the bottom
• crossbar of lowercase "e" is horizontal
• "o" is not angled

1) Baskerville
2) Concorde
3) Fournier
4) Perpetua
5) Times

- MODERN or "Didot" - Starting around 1775

• strong emphasis on vertical stroke
• thinner serifs
• great variance between fonts

1) Bodoni
2) Didot
3) Walbaum
4) Linotype Centennial
5) Filosofia

- SLAB SERIF or "Egyptian" - Starting around 1800

• serifs are as thick as the letter
• serifs are the defining characteristic between fonts
• differences in the subdivision are most clearly visible in lowercase letters

1) Antique
2) Rockwell
3) Clarendon
4) Archer
5) Memphis

- HUMANISTIC (SANS)


• no serifs
• line-widths are visually equal
• the characters have more distinctive forms than previous sans-serifs

1) Gill Sans
2) Profile
3) Frutiger
4) Myriad
5) Syntax

- GROTESK (SANS)

• no serifs
• ascender height is equal to capital height
• lowercase "g" has an open curve

1) Aksidenz Grotesk
2) Helvetica
3) Univers
4) Trade Gothic
5) Gotham

- GEOMETRIC (SANS)

• no serifs
• very straight lines
• perfect circles

1) Futura
2) Avant Garde
3) Eurostile
4) Avenir
5) DTL Nobel