Final Project

In the past it was very expensive to create a new font. Special machinery had to be developed. Metal letters had to be created. These had to be created for multiple print shops.

Modern typography is more affordable, efficient, and can be easily distributed. With the development of font-design software for desktop computers, designers could design and market original typefaces as electronic files. Adobe Systems is a digital type foundry that produced many types and was very influential. Designers at Adobe created original typeface designs as well as interpretations of classic typefaces.

A new industry of typeface designers emerged. Typeface foundries opened around the world. Independent designers and entrepreneurs used the new technology to create and distribute their original typefaces. There was a conflict between designers who believed the traditional values should be maintained and young designers who wanted to be more experimental and expand the range of categories of typefaces.

Journal 10 - Herbert Spencer

Herbert Spencer was an English graphic designer and author. He was a writer, editor, and designer of the graphic design journal Typographica. He brought an awareness to printer, compositors, and designers a history of modernist design. In his articles he explained how typography in the twentieth century was ''entwined with those of 20th-century painting, poetry and architecture,'' he wrote.

Herbert Spencer was born in London on June 22, 1924 and died March 11, 2002. His family was uninterested in art. During World War II he was a cartographer for the Royal Air Force. He later worked designing trademarks for a London firm called Typographical Designers. He was a typography instructor at the Central School of Arts and Crafts from 1949 to 1955. In 1966 he became a senior research fellow in the print research department of the Royal College of Art; he was a professor of graphic arts there from 1978 until 1985.

Herbert Spencer wrote a number of books. He is most known for writing Pioneers of Modern Typography in 1969. It drew on and re-used material he previously published in his journal Typographica.

Sources

Meggs’ History of Graphic Design

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/17/nyregion/herbert-spencer-77-pioneer-in-typography.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Spencer_%28graphic_designer%29

Peter Max

Peter Max was born October 19, 1937 in Germany and is of Jewish descent. He resides in New York City. In his childhood, Max lived in China, Tibet, Israel, and France before coming to America. He is an illustrator, painter, and graphic designer. He combined the art nouveau aspects of psychedelic art with more accessible images and softer colors.

In the late 1960s, Max revolutionized the poster industry in America. Capturing the spirit of the era, the cosmic poster art of Peter Max was cited by journalists and many art critics as the visual counterpart to the music of The Beatles.

Max often uses American icons and symbols in his artwork. He has created artwork for several of the U.S. presidents.

Sources:

Meggs’ History of Graphic Design

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Max

http://www.petermax.com/