Wednesday, February 18

In class today, we reviewed the Reniassance a little bit and discussed the main typeface designers of the eighteenth century, le Juene, Caslon, Baskerville, Didot, and Bodoni. Each had a typeface that made them well known. Le Juene and Caslon made a typeface that was considered Old Style since the type had a handwritten look and bracketed serifs. Baskerville's Transitional style typeface had straight serifs and a contrast in the thickness of the letters. Didot and Bodoni made Modern fonts that were similar to Baskerville's, but with more contrast in the thin and thick parts of the letters as well as a more geometric design. We also discussed the rococo style with it's curvy style and intricate details and briefly went over informative graphics and William Blake, whom we didn't read about. His illuminated prints incorporated the letter forms into the pictures.
I felt that it was important and helpful going through the details of each of the fonts to be able to differentiate them. It helps me to understand the design of the times and match the typeface with the name of the designer.
Did anyone else start doing the same sort of thing with their type as William Blake did when his prints came out?