Digital Culture & Type

Digital is the term of the 21st century. Successful companies and organizations without websites are the exception due to consumer expectations of having all information that could ever be needed at their fingertips. The transformation to a digital medium has forced designers to learn a new craft and, as the digital culture has come to be dominated by a handful of companies, are having their hand forced when it comes to choosing a creative solution that can be distributed worldwide. Thanks to Apple, the success of sans serif type in the digital realm was sealed. The following is a brief look at the evolution of sans serif type and the cultural icon it has become today.

Revolutionary for its time, being the first sans serif type to be widely used, Akzidenz Grostesk was released in the late 1800's by the H. Berthold AG type foundry. As with many firsts, the typeface was a little crude and harbored imperfections, yet served as the basis of many of its successors. For the first time, type is now able to be set closer together, making printing longer materials more efficient. The impact of this innovation is still manifesting itself in staples such as Futura, Helvetica, Arial, and many more.

German designer Paul Renner is best known for Futura created in 1927. This was a time of political and cultural distress due to the Nazi control of Germany. The country was in a state of unrest and so was the local design world when it came to gothic versus roman. Renner spent countless hours researching the implications of both. Although the abbreviated curves of gothic allowed for a more efficient use of space in typesetting longer words and works, its origins in courts had Renner concluding it was pure "decadence;" not to mention the Nazis outlawed it by decree in 1941. Renner thought roman type was more German in the end having its origins traced back to the first German Reich. Therefore, in his quest to emerge from the "old-fashionned" and to create a balance between upper and lower case letter, Futura was born. It's the forerunner of the geometric sans serif typefaces, recognizable by its signature even-weighted strokes. While Futura appeared in the early 1900's, it is still used on a daily basis today. Futura was made an icon for its use in the Stanley Kubrick promotional campaigns for 2001: A Space Odyssey and Eyes Wide Shut. It's also seen in corporate design - Volkswagen and Union Pacific - further deeming its worthiness as a classic. To quote Toronto art director, Nick Shinn, "Futura's severe geometric simplicity, stately proportions, and the lightness of its book weight became a key component of early 20th century modernism."

Finally, there is Helvetica designed by Swiss Max Meidinger and released by Linotype in 1957. Of all the fonts out there, few elicit the strong emotional response of Helvetica in designers - it's either loved or hated with no gray in between. While Meidinger originally designed Helvetica as an alternative to Akzidenz Grotesk (1898) as well as to be used in multiple mediums, it wasn't until it was embraced by the post-war emergence of western world design schools in the '60's that it became a standard. Helvetica lost some steam in the post-modernism of the late '70's, but with the explosion of digital typesetting and the internet, came back into the lime-light a mere decade later. Having purchased the licensing from Linotype in the 80's, Apple bundled Helvetica in its free font package. The sans serif typeface bodes well for the computer screen, large or small print, and its many weights and clean readability create many prospects for users. Also, mass availability led to the type's adoption by well-known companies like Crate&Barrel, Jeep, Toyota, American Airlines, Target and more to enhance their branding, being arguably the most used typeface as it tops the online sales charts.

Does the prevalence, and perhaps overuse, of a typeface make one type superior to another? Probably not, but being a standard in readability and availability during the digital age has led the majority of designers to embrace the sans serifs with open arms. As technology improves and the digital culture evolves, it will be exciting to see where the sans serif shakes out in the end.

Bibliography:

Clark, Joseph. "The Grotesk as Universal Font" Screenfont.CA. 29 April 2005. http://screenfont.ca/fonts/today/interim/grotesk/

Baglee, Patrick. "Paul Renner: The Art of Typography (Review)" U&lc Online Issue: 25.3.3. http://www.itcfonts.com/Ulc/2533/BookRevRenner.htm

AllExperts.com. http://en.allexperts.com/e/f/fu/futura_%28typeface%29.htm

Shinn, Nick."The Face of Uniformity" Graphic Exchange. July 2003. http://www.biblioteca.co.cr/pdf/Uniformity.pdf.

Strizver, Ilene. "Arial vs Helvetica" U&lc Online Issue: 41.1.2. http://www.itcfonts.com/Ulc/4112/ArialvsHelvetica.htm

McClure, Michael. "Helvetica used Successfully with Global Branding" Design Spotting. 31 August 2008. http://designspotting.wordpress.com/2008/08/31/helvetica-used-successfully-with-global-branding/

Pictures:

Jeep. http://www.sprintusers.com/wallpapers/uploadedfiles/060206Jeep%20logo.jpg

Helvetica vs Akzidenz. https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRiGwnMfn3X5ZpjhsAoUmrtFgc8Xk6Ai4aFnocBMBrGoe8AWl1PTIgJOHMuII7nQaZ0TVBIVqJIa3xFQAkNZsP3TugxXghHEOimkoXZ49VB-KjCXUjQ3Sp0xRChS707Syjo_EbgxeAzkQ/s1600-h/hel_akz.png

2001: a space odyssey. http://www.houseofhorrors.com/crypt/pages2/uploads/1/2001.jpg

Volkswagen. http://www.volkswagenspectacular.com/2006A/VW_LOGO_lockup%20300dpi.JPG