A lecture that examines the different classifications of typography that uses history as a context.

1. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Typography 01
Type classification

2. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Typography 01
Importance to our practise
Typefaces are an essential resource employed by graphic
designers, just as glass, stone, steel and countless other
materials employed by architects. Graphic designers
sometimes create their own typefaces and custom lettering.
More commonly, however, they tap the vast library of
existing typefaces, choosing and combining them in
response to a particular audience or situation.
(Lupton E. 2004. p.15. Thinking with Type. Princeton Architectural Press)
“
”

3. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Typography 01
Type classification
Definition
The categorisation and grouping of typefaces according to subtle variations in
design.
Importance to you
1. Understanding type classification improves your design literacy as different
classifications carry different connotations
2. Enhances your ability to pick the appropriate typeface for the brief
3. Able to pair complimentary typefaces together for contrast
4. Be more critical in your choice of typefaces

4. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Typography 01
Type Classification
Objectives of The Lecture
1. Basic terms and definitions used in Typography
2. Understanding classification through history
3. Summary

5. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Typography 01
The need to revisit history
1. The Design Communication practice is heavily dependent
on context such as history, culture and topical issues, to
frame our work and for others to make sense of it.
2. Typography is heavily dependent on context as we are
working off the efforts of designers before us.
3. Context carries with it connotations and using this to our
advantage will help produce better good work.

6. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Terms & Definitions
What you need to know
1. Type : Refers to the denotations of visual shapes and forms of characters
and symbols. The practice of structuring, arranging and design of type is
collectively termed typography (Baines & Haslam, 2005)
Fig 1. Typical glyphs or the visual shapes and forms or characters and symbols

7. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Terms & Definitions
What you need to know
2. Typeface : Refers to the variations of a single collective design of type i.e.
Baskerville with its various styles such as italic, regular, bold and all the in-
betweens.
Fig 2. Variations of a one Baskerville typeface
AaRegular
AaSemibold
AaBold
AaItalic
AaSemibold Italic
AaBold Italic

8. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Terms &
Definitions
What you need to know
3. Type/Typeface Family : Refers to
a family of typefaces that share
one master blueprint such as
Univers 45, Univers 46, Univers 55
and so forth. Each member of the
family differs slightly i.e. narrower,
wider, rounder etc.
Fig 3. (right) Examples of the Univers Type Family

9. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Terms & Definitions
What you need to know
4. Font : The physical embodiment of a typeface such as the lead metal pieces
used in letterpress or EOT, TTF, OTF files in a computer.
Fig 4.Lead types used in letterpress Fig 5.Files in a computer system.

10. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Brief History of Typography
At the beginning
Typography is an ancient art form that dates back to the second millennium B.C.
It is a phenomenon that occurred all around the world.
Fig 6. Mesopotamian
mud brick mould circa
1700B.C.
Fig 7. The Dharani Sutra is the world’s oldest
specimen of woodblock printing dating back
to the Tang Dynasty (650AD to 670AD)
Fig 8. Korean movable type from 1377
used for the Jiki invented during the
Song Dynasty (990 - 1051 AD)

11. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Brief History of Typography
Where it gets interesting - The Renaissance (1400s)
A cultural movement emerged from Italy as a response to the chaotic and violent
middle ages. It was a nostalgia for classical Roman times and concerned with
Humanism or ‘Man is The Measure of All Things’ (Protagoras: 490-420B.C.) and
the pursuit of idealised proportions in relation to the human body - the golden
ratio.
Fig 11. Vitruvian Man by Da Vinci is the
prime example of ‘Man is the measure of
all things’
Fig 12. The Nativity in The Lower Church
(Giotto di Bondone, 1311) is another example
where there was a pursuit towards the
Roman technique of realism and perspective.

12. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Brief History of Typography
From calligraphy to classical antiquity
Fig 10. Heavily influenced by Humanism,
scholars started to adopt Lettera Antica and
rejected the calligraphic Blackletter
Fig. 9 Books in the past were scribed by
scholars by hand in Blackletter calligraphic
style.
BEFORE 1400s (THE MIDDLE AGES) EARLY 1400s (BEGINNING OF
RENAISSANCE)

13. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Brief History of Typography
Revival of Roman Type
As with the revival of classical antiquity in the Renaissance, scribes of the day
were influenced by studying the typographic inscriptions of Rome.
Fig. 13 (top) Inscriptions from Trajan’s Column (113BC) in
Rome
Fig. 14 Horace’s Opera from 15th
century Italy.

14. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Typography
Characteristics of Humanist Type (serif)
Characteristics of Humanist Type
1. Sloping cross-bar on the lowercase ‘e’
2. Relatively small x-height
3. Low contrast between thick and thin strokes
4. Dark colour (to get a better impression, look at
this image with half closed eyes)
Popular modern humanist fonts
1. Centaur
2. Caslon
3. Early versions of Garamond
Humanist typefaces were influenced
by Roman inscriptions. However,
today, most if not all original humanist
typefaces are no longer in use and
modern interpretations have been
edited to suit our requirements.
Fig. 14 (top) Sample of humanist typeface

15. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Fig 15. Modern adaptations: Centaur Typeface - Notice the lowercase ‘e’ and its
tilted crossbar, the uppercase ‘o’ and its tilted axis as well as the edited x-height of
lowercase.
Typography
A Modern Interpretation of Humanist Type

16. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
1400s 1500s 1600s 1700s 1800s 1900s
Lettera
Antica
(Early
1400s)
MiddleAges
Renaissance
Brief History of Typography
The beginning of western typography
Period
Humanist
Classification

17. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Brief History of
Typography
The Printing Revolution in Europe (1439)
Fig 17. How the Gutenberg Press looked
like
The Gutenberg Press is regarded
as one of the most important
inventions of the second
millennium. It helped spread
knowledge across Europe and
paved the way for later movements
such as Enlightenment, Industrial
Revolution, Modernism, Post-
Modernism and Meta-Modernism
(today) Without it, we would not
have the modern world as we know
of today.
Fig 16. Portrait of Johanne’s Gutenberg

18. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Gutenberg
Press
(1439)
1400s 1500s 1600s 1700s 1800s 1900s
Lettera
Antica
(Early
1400s)
MiddleAges
Renaissance
Brief History of Typography
The increased production of books
PeriodClassification
Humanist
(early 1400s)

19. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Gutenberg
Press
(1439)
1400s 1500s 1600s 1700s 1800s 1900s
Lettera
Antica
(Early
1400s)
MiddleAges
Renaissance
Brief History of Typography
Looking for better typefaces - late 1400s
ClassificationPeriod
Humanist
(early 1400s)
Old Style
(late 1400s)

20. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Typography
Characteristics of Old Style Type (serif)
Characteristics of Humanist Type
1. Serifs begin to take on a distinct wedge
shape (fig.18)
2. More upright stress on bowls (fig.19)
3. Horizontal cross-bar on lowercase ‘e’
(fig.20)
Popular modern old style fonts
1. Bembo
2. Sabon
3. Palatino
4. Scala
Old Style typefaces evolved from Humanist typefaces as typographers
sought for better proportions as well as readability to some extent.
Fig.18 Distinct wedge shaped
serifs of old style typefaces (left) in
comparison to humanist typefaces
(right)
Fig.19 More upright stress on bowls
(left) in comparison to humanist bowls
(right)
Fig.20 Horizontal cross-bar on
lowercase ‘e’ (left) in comparison to
Humanist lowercase ‘e’ (right)

21. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Typography
Comparison of Humanist and Old Style
Fig 21. Centaur (left) that feels a little less comfortable for reading than
Bembo (right) as the forms are more in proportion.

22. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Gutenberg
Press
(1439)
1400s 1500s 1600s 1700s 1800s 1900s
Lettera
Antica
(Early
1400s)
MiddleAges
Renaissance
Brief History of Typography
Timeline: From 1400s to the 1900s
ClassificationPeriod
Enlightenmen
t
Humanist
(early 1400s)
Old Style
(late 1400s)

23. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Brief History of Typography
Enlightenment & Neoclassicism (1700s)
The Enlightenment period was one marked
by the pursuit of reason as the source of
authority and legitimacy. There was a
rejection of absolute monarchy (the
beginnings of the French revolution),
separation of church and state, and
emphasis on the scientific method.
Typography too took a stance against this by
rejecting Rococo and namely Baroque style
which were viewed as excesses of
aristocracy. In search of purity, there was a
return to classical Greco-Roman art
otherwise known as Neoclassicism.
Fig.24 Liberty Leading The People (Eugene Delacroix, 1830)

24. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Gutenberg
Press
(1439)
1400s 1500s 1600s 1700s 1800s 1900s
Lettera
Antica
(Early
1400s)
MiddleAges
Renaissance
Brief History of Typography
Timeline: From 1400s to the 1900s
ClassificationPeriod
Enlightenmen
t
French
Revolution
(1789)
Humanist
(early 1400s)
Old Style
(late 1400s)

25. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Gutenberg
Press
(1439)
1400s 1500s 1600s 1700s 1800s 1900s
Lettera
Antica
(Early
1400s)
MiddleAges
Renaissance
Brief History of Typography
Timeline: From 1400s to the 1900s
ClassificationPeriod
Enlightenmen
t
Romain Du
Roi
(1692)
French
Revolution
(1789)
Humanist
(early 1400s)
Old Style
(late 1400s)
Transitional
(late 1600s)

26. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Brief History of Typography
The beginnings of Transitional Typefaces (late
1600s)
The Enlightenment period also brought about new technologies
that allowed for sharper and more contrasting reproductions of
Type.
Fig.25 The Romain Du
Roi (meaning King’s
Roman) commissioned
by Louis XIV of France
marked the beginnings of
a rational approach to
type design using a
48x48 grid. The font was
later developed into
Times New Roman.

27. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Brief History of Typography
Characteristics of Transitional Type (serif)
Characteristics of Humanist Type
1. Greater contrast between thick and thin
strokes (fig.26)
Fig.26 The contrast between
strokes is evidently seen here
between the two typefaces of
different classifications.

28. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Brief History of Typography
Characteristics of Transitional Type (serif)
Fig.27 Bowls of types had a vertical
emphasis in comparison to Humanist and
Old Style typefaces
Characteristics of Humanist Type
1. Greater contrast between thick and thin
strokes (fig.26)
2. Vertical stress on bowls (fig.27)

29. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Brief History of Typography
Characteristics of Transitional Type (serif)
Fig.28 Ascender serifs had more
curved brackets and the head
was more horizontal than
previously.
Characteristics of Humanist Type
1. Greater contrast between thick and thin
strokes (fig.26)
2. Vertical stress on bowls (fig.27)
3. Head serifs are more horizontal than before
(fig.28)
Popular Transitional Serif fonts
1. Mrs Eaves
2. Baskerville
3. Bookman
4. Times New Roman

30. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Brief History of Typography
Definition: Brackets

31. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Gutenberg
Press
(1439)
1400s 1500s 1600s 1700s 1800s 1900s
Lettera
Antica
(Early
1400s)
MiddleAges
Humanist
(early 1400s)
Renaissance
Brief History of Typography
Over a hundred years later…
ClassificationPeriod
Old Style
(late 1400s)
Enlightenmen
t
Transitional
(late 1600s)
Industrial Revolution
Modern & Slab Serifs
(early 1800s)
Romain Du
Roi
(1692)

32. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Brief History of Typography
The Industrial Revolution
At the end of the 18th century, Great Britain underwent the Industrial Revolution
and the world of consumption began. With consumption also came two distinct
classifications.
Fig.29 Textile loom machines were the epitome of the
Industrial Revolution. Machines like this brought about an
unprecedented sustained growth that changed every aspect of
life.
Fig.30 Consumption brought about
advertising not only in editorials and
publications but also on the streets

33. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Brief History of Typography
Modern Typefaces
Modern typefaces or Didones further refined Transitional typefaces and
were heavily inspired by the work of Giambattista Bodoni and Firmin Didot
(Didone is a combination of their names) Taking cue from John
Baskerville’s work of high contrasting strokes, the work of Didones took
contrast to further extremes.

34. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Brief History of Typography
Characteristics of Modern Typefaces
Characteristics of Modern Type
1. Introduction of horizontal axis
2. Abrupt and unbracketed hairline serifs
3. Vertical axis of bowls
4. High contrast in strokes
5. Small Aperture
Popular Modern fonts
1. Didot
2. ITC Bodoni
3. Walbaum
4. Bell Class Geometric
didone1
2
3
4
5

35. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Brief History of Typography
Characteristics of Slab Serif or Egyptian Typefaces
Lead alloy fonts were not strong enough to reproduce the heavy weight
and large format text and typographers used woodblocks instead that
also allowed for embellishment - shadowed, inlined, fattened and
floriated.
Fig. 32 Slab serifs came in all shapes and forms.

36. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Brief History of Typography
Characteristics of Slab Serif Typefaces
Fig 33. Slab serifs had various
weights and often were
decorative.

37. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Clarendon Slabs
Clarendons have a bit of
bracketing of serifs and were
designed to be more legible
forms of slab serifs.
Popular Clarendon Fonts
1. Clarendon
2. Egyptienne
Geometric Slabs
Geometric slabs have no
bracketing and have evenly
weighted strokes. The forms are
highly geometrical.
Popular Geometric Fonts
1. Rockwell
2. Memphis
3. Lubalin
4. Fatface
Typewriter Slabs
Named for their use in
typewriters, types are mono-
spaced, meaning each glyph
takes up the exact horizontal
space.
Popular Typewriter Fonts
1. Courier
2. Olliveti
3. ITC American Typewriter
Brief History of Typography
Characteristics of Slab Serif Typefaces

38. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Brief History of Typography
The Caslons - Type Royalty
Fig. 34 William Caslon I was an
influential 17th century English
Typographer whose fonts we
still use today.
Fig. 35 William Caslon IV, great
grandson of William Caslon, is
credited to have created the first
commercial sans serif font in 1816.

39. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Brief History of Typography
The First Sans Serif Font - Two Lines English Egyptian
The first sans serif font was a continuation of the neoclassical movement
where typographers looked to classical antiquity for inspiration. Note that
Sans serif type were common during Roman times and used for informal
inscriptions.
Fig. 36 Two Lines English Egyptian by
William Caslon IV that only had
uppercase.
Fig. 37 Sans serif text were commonplace in
ancient Rome as seen in the Iguvine Tablets
(300-100 BC)

40. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Gutenberg
Press
(1439)
1400s 1500s 1600s 1700s 1800s 1900s
Lettera
Antica
(Early
1400s)
MiddleAges
Humanist
(early 1400s)
Renaissance
ClassificationPeriod
Old Style
(late 1400s)
Enlightenmen
t
Transitional
(late 1600s)
Industrial Revolution
1. Modern serifs
2. Slab Serifs
i. Clarendon
ii. Geometric
iii. Typewriter
3. Grotesque sans
serif
Two Lines
English
Egyptian
(1816)
Romain Du
Roi
(1692)
Just the history of serif fonts!
The beginning of Sans Serif Typefaces

41. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Brief History of Typography
Characteristics of Grotesque Sans Serif
The first sans serif fonts in 19th century were termed as Grotesque meaning
malformed or monstrous. Many were very new and had awkward curves and
weird proportions.
Popular Grotesque Sans Serif
fonts
1. Franklin Gothic
2. Akzidenz Grotesk
3. News Gothic

42. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Brief History of Typography
The Modernists and Traditionalists
In early 20th century, there was a split in ideologies. On the one hand were
designers were spurred by the horrors of World War I, the rise of the machine
age as well as a rejection of all systems of belief - Modernists. On the other
were the Traditionalists - people were had deep respect for long held values in
religion and culture and that they brought stability and order to society.
Fig. 38 Traditionalists as epitomised by
women’s fashion in early 20th century.
Fig. 39 Modernists as epitomised by the
Roaring 20’s women’s fashion in early 20th
century.

43. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Brief History of Typography
The rise of Modernism
At the turn of the 20th century, designers were spurred by the horrors of World
War I, the rise of the machine age as well as a rejection of all systems of
belief. They viewed European culture was corrupt, complacent and lethargic,
ailing because it was bound by the artificialities of a society too preoccupied
with image and fear of change.
Fig. 40 Modernists were inspired by
the rise of cities as a platform to re-
invent European culture.
Fig. 41 British soldiers in the trenches
of The Great War (1914-1918)

44. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Brief History of Typography
The Bauhaus and explosion of Modernism
Modernism is underlined by a spirit or experimentation as the steady stream of
new inventions in the 1920s were re-writing 20th century culture on a daily
basis.
Fig. 40, 41 & 42 The works of Moholy Nagy epitomise the pursuit of
pure forms and rejection of all systems of belief characteristic of the
modernist movement

45. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Gutenberg
Press
(1439)
1400s 1500s 1600s 1700s 1800s 1900s
Lettera
Antica
(Early
1400s)
MiddleAges
Humanist
(early 1400s)
Renaissance
ClassificationPeriod
Old Style
(late 1400s)
Enlightenmen
t
Transitional
(late 1600s)
Industrial Revolution
Two Lines
English
Egyptian
(1816)
Romain Du
Roi
(1692)
Brief History of Typography
The beginning of Geometric Sans Serif Types
1. Geometric sans
serif
Bauhaus
(1919)
Modernism
1. Modern serifs
2. Slab Serifs
i. Clarendon
ii. Geometric
iii. Typewriter
3. Grotesque sans
serif

46. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Brief History of Typography
The Geometric Sans Serif
Popular Geometric Sans Serif
fonts
1. Futura
2. Bauhaus
3. Avant Garde
4. Avenir
5. Century Gothic
Geometric sans serif fonts followed the tradition of pursuing
ideal forms that lacked any unnecessary ornamentation.

47. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Brief History of Typography
Traditionalists: Continuation of Humanist type in Sans serif
Traditionalists harboured a nostalgia for the past and continued to develop
type inspired from the distant past - Humanist Serif Types. Their work was
strongly influenced by calligraphy and sought to transform serif forms into
sans serif forms.
Popular Humanist Sans Serif
fonts
1. Optima
2. Gill Sans
3. Frutiger
4. FF Meta
5. Scala Sans

48. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Gutenberg
Press
(1439)
1400s 1500s 1600s 1700s 1800s 1900s
Lettera
Antica
(Early
1400s)
MiddleAges
Humanist
serif
(early 1400s)
Renaissance
ClassificationPeriod
Old Style serif
(late 1400s)
Enlightenmen
t
Transitional
serif
(late 1600s)
Two Lines
English
Egyptian
(1816)
Romain Du
Roi
(1692)
Brief History of Typography
Opposing Modernism - Humanist Sans Serif
1. Geometric sans
serif
2. Humanist sans
serif
Bauhaus
(1919)
1. Modern serifs
2. Slab Serifs
i. Clarendon
ii. Geometric
iii. Typewriter
3. Grotesque sans
serif
Industrial Revolution Modernism

49. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Brief History of Typography
The rise of International Style
International Typographic Style or sometimes called The Swiss Style was a
continuation of Modernism. Seeking for rational approaches to type design
that was neutral and simple, they created designs that simultaneously rejected
the constraints of geometric sans serif typefaces or Neo-Grotesque Sans serif
typefaces.
Fig. 43 Adrian Frutiger is credited to have been one of the main
influencers for the development of typography during the International
Style.

50. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Brief History of Typography
Neo-Grotesque
Neo-grotesque fonts took the design of typefaces to a new level with their
concern for functionality and ubiquity. They are more refined than
Grotesque Sans Serifs (1800s) and shaded the many idiosyncracies.
Popular Neo-Grotesque
Sans Serif fonts
1. Helvetica
2. Univers
3. Neue Haas Grotesk
4. DIN
5. Frutiger

51. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Brief History of Typography
1950s and beyond
The advent of the digital age has created an explosion of typefaces and will
be too much to cover - That is another long lecture on its own…

52. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Gutenberg
Press
(1439)
1400s 1500s 1600s 1700s 1800s 1900s
Lettera
Antica
(Early
1400s)
MiddleAges
Humanist
(early 1400s)
Renaissance
ClassificationPeriod
Old Style
(late 1400s)
Enlightenmen
t
Transitional
(late 1600s)
Two Lines
English
Egyptian
(1816)
Romain Du
Roi
(1692)
Brief History of Typography
The beginning of Geometric Sans Serif Types
1. Geometric sans
serif
2. Humanist sans
serif
3. Neo-Grotesque
sans serif
Bauhaus
(1919)
International
Style
(1950s)
ModernismIndustrial Revolution
1. Modern serifs
2. Slab Serifs
i. Clarendon
ii. Geometric
iii. Typewriter
3. Grotesque sans
serif

53. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Type Classifications
More than just serif vs. sans serif
Serif Classes
1. Humanist
2. Old Style
3. Transitional
4. Modern
i. Clarendon
ii. Geometric
iii. Typewriter
Sans Serif Classes
1. Grotesque
2. Geometric
3. Humanist
4. Neo-Grotesque

54. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Type Classifications
More than just serif vs. sans serif
Why it is important to know this
1.Knowing the various classifications of type will help you make informed
choices
2.Able to pair complimentary typefaces to produce well designed
outcomes.
3.Understanding context and history of the type classes will help you add
the right context to your work.
4.Know that certain fonts were designed for large format and unsuitable
for body text and vice versa.
5.Build your own library of fonts so that you will have a set of dependable
and tested designs.

55. Design Production
Week 5 - Typography 101
Assignment for Friday
Developing from your image work
Working from the development of the first brief you are to:
1.Finalise Image Titles
Finalise the three titles from your images created in Project 1 - Visual
Rhetoric. Remember the skills taught in previous sessions such as
single-minded propositions, copywriting, creative thinking techniques
and connotations.
2.Select and research typefaces
Identify 3 typefaces you feel best embody the title you have produced*.
Research their history and find 3 modern day uses of it. Good places to
begin are font foundry websites.
3.Hand-illustrated Drafts (Friday)
Produce 3 hand drafted using each selected typeface in A3 that will be
presented on Friday. Use the second method of how Erik Spiekermann
develops typefaces - tracing a typeface till you are familiar and only then
drawing your version as an adaptation.