dot-font: The Annual Type Report

2

dot-font was a collection of short articles written by editor and typographer John D. Barry (the former editor and publisher of the typographic journal U&lc) for CreativePro.  If you’d like to read more from this series, click here.

Eventually, John gathered a selection of these articles into two books, dot-font: Talking About Design and dot-font: Talking About Fonts, which are available free to download here.  You can find more from John at his website, https://johndberry.com.

The typographic year runs from September to September—or at least for those who attend the annual ATypI conference it does. There are other typographic gatherings, but this movable feast of the type community seems to anchor the year. So it’s not unreasonable that when ATypI’s “country delegates”—representatives of the many countries with active typographic communities of their own—write their annual reports for their colleagues, they tend to write about events in the 12 months since the last conference, rather than events in the calendar year.

Those reports, which are collected each year and distributed to the members of the association in a printed booklet, present a remarkably varied view of what’s going on in the world of type all around the globe. This past year’s collection included reports from Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. (I am the current U.S. country delegate. As such, I know just how hard it is to keep track of events over the course of a year, and I stand in awe of those whose annual reports are much more methodical, organized, and complete.) Last year David Lemon added a “report from the virtual community” to record some of the interaction in ATypI’s active online forum.

Far from summarizing the reports, I intend here just to mine them for interesting tidbits and representative insights. There are in-depth discussions available of typography and type design in many individual countries, but it’s hard to find a better way of getting a truly international perspective all in one place.

Come Together

The major typographic conferences and other events of the year, apart from the ATypI conference itself, seemed to be in Argentina (“typoGráfica buenosAires, typography for real life”), Germany (“Typo Berlin”), and Greece (“First International Conference on Typography & Visual Communication,” in Thessaloniki). Typo Berlin is an annual event, sponsored by FontShop, and it can be counted on to feature knowledgeable speakers and attract a large number of students and young professionals, but the events in Buenos Aires and Thessaloniki were singular and significant.

The Buenos Aires conference was organized by the design magazine tipoGráfica (tpG), which has been publishing for 15 years and sets a high standard both visually and (as far as I can tell, with my limited Spanish) editorially. Rubén Fontana, ATypI country delegate from Argentina and editor of tpG (who designed the typeface family Fontana ND, in which tpG is typeset), tends toward the formal in his writing (perhaps a little more so when translating his thoughts into English).

“It is not geographic chance that defined our fortune,” he says, “it is the history of this Latin America. In the cyclic and successive interruption of its memory, from assault to assault, from colonisations to globalisations, the testimonies of the past were lost and had perforce to be reinvented and learned again.” Fontana is passionate about the importance of type: “Typography is a social asset that provides people with equal opportunities.” From both his account and those of people who spoke at the conference, I gather that tipoGráfica buenosAires had an enormously seminal, energizing effect on attendees from all over Latin America.

The conference in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city, had a similar effect on the Greek typographic community, according to Gerry Leonidas’s country report. Despite poor publicity, awkward dates (from the standpoint of working professionals in Greece), and “next to non-existent facilitation of student participation by design schools throughout the country,” the conference drew more than 600 registered attendees.

“The attendance and the publicity generated once the conference was under way reinforced the argument that there is sufficient interest in typographic matters in Greece to sustain a number of other initiatives,” such as new books on type, easier sponsorship of future events, and “renewed discussion of typographic and design education in Greece.” An intriguing side-note in Leonidas’s report is his mention of the publication of a Greek edition of Robert Bringhurst’s book, “The Elements of Typographic Style.” (A Russian edition is also in the works; I saw sample pages last winter in Moscow.)

The Cold Equations

Some of the delegates’ reports make frank mention of the economic and political troubles of our world. In a short report from Israel, Yanek Iontef says, “This year the emphasis in all aspects of design has been based on, and affected by, the political situation and the unbearable terrorist attacks.”

Japanese delegate Taro Yamamoto notes, “This year again, I need to begin with the current economic recession that has been lasting for years in Japan.” Adam Twardoch, writing about Poland, says, “The general economic weakness had its impact on the design community, including typographers and people working with type.” And it was hard to imagine writing the U.S. report without putting it in the context of, first, the dot-crash, and then the ongoing effects of 9/11.

All Typography is Local

The German delegate, Jay Rutherford, mentions that among the German typographic events in 2002 was a celebration of the 100th birthday of Jan Tschichold in Leipzig; Tschichold has a plausible claim (though I’m sure it would be hotly disputed) to being the premier typographer of the 20th century. In the somewhat longer term, Rutherford mentions the Frankfurt Book Fair and its evolution: “In the 17th century, printers from all over Europe and England gathered there twice a year to see the latest technology on offer—who had cool new fonts for sale, all that. Rather than shipping their heavy stuff around every six months, many foundries kept matrices, punches, and cast type on hand in warehouses in Frankfurt just for the bi-annual fairs.” He adds, bringing it up to date: “Fonts are somewhat lighter now, but nonetheless not too many foundries show their wares at the book fairs these days. We have our own fairs now.”

Henrik Birkvig, writing from Copenhagen, has a little note on fashions in typographic style: “Denmark (and probably many other parts of the world) is experiencing a megatrend regarding typefaces derived from the popular Eurostile (Aldo Novarese, 1962). The main style elements are based on a square with rounded corners. Examples in Denmark are: the fonts for the Danish bank ‘Danske Bank‘ (along with a later ‘sister’ for BG Bank) and Billund Airport by Kontrapunkt, the faces for the Danish Designers Association and Fletch by eTypes, and the new face for the national broadcasting company—just to mention a few.”

On a similar note, Portuguese delegate Mario Feliciano reports: “The choice of typefaces always tells us a lot about people. It is noticeable that the Portuguese typographic taste is changing—to a more calm and conscious attitude. The new champions of usage, I think, are: Hans Reichel’s FF Dax and Jeremy Tankard’s Bliss.”

Maxim Zhukov’s report on Russia concentrated, not surprisingly, on ATypI’s type competition, bukva:raz!, which he organized along with Vladimir Yefimov. Under the subtitle “A thing of honour and pride,” he gives a wry account of some of the emotions stirred up by the competition and its aftermath: “Apparently, bukva:raz! was regarded by many Russian participants as a professional event of special significance and privilege. The expectations were great, and the stakes high. At the Judges’ Soirée, on the night after the jury completed its work, one of the participants publicly took the jury to task for not selecting all of the designs he had entered in the contest.” Zhukov goes on to point out that “in fairness he was not the only one upset with the jury’s choices; this always happens in competitions.”

Trend Watch Begins at Home

It may be a little self-indulgent, but I’ll conclude with a quote from my own U.S. country report, reflecting on what seemed to me to be in style in this country at the moment: “It’s always hard to characterize how type is being used at any particular time, but current trends in typography seem to include mixing of unusual typefaces (perhaps the significant thing is that these seem to work more often than one would expect); increased use of humanist sans serif faces; a revival of digital fonts that have optical-size variations (though they’re often misused); a taste for naïve industrial faces in everyday typographic use; the availability of a large number of handwriting and script display faces; and the unexpected proliferation of Verdana as a typeface for print.”

Look around; see what you see; and try to guess what’s coming next.

John D. Berry is a typographer, book designer, design writer, editor, and typographic consultant. He is a former President of ATypI, and he is the founder and director of the Scripta Typographic Institute.
  • anonymous says:

    Growing up drawing comic books to pass the time away, I never knew typography would mean so much in the field I was choosing to take. but, now I see through the history of typography that it is one of the key factor in graphic design. Now, that I am getting my masters in graphic design, I feel that typography is apart of my heritage. Something I must learn about to be a true graphic designer.Before I start with my comments, opinions, etc. I have a few questions to ask. Question number one. What truly happened to typesetters, were they cast out for time reason, deadlines that had to be met by graphic designers, or like kickers in the NFL because their job is not a significant role compared to the conceptual coach (art director) or the shorthanded receiver (illustrator), or the watchful eye (the photographer)…are these truly players of the game because they have no talent. That’s a good question. Can any player just pick up a book and study the rules of typography and become a typographer. Second question. Are there any jobs for typographers? The field is flooded with many graphic designers with Harry Potter, with mythical designs, but in the end can everyone be a designer. Who will be the selective few that will wear the crown of typography? I attend Savannah College of Art and Design and in my class of Typography we must bring in good and bad type, testing our primitive eyes and keen since of typography. Now, for some us the question is, when we present our bad type who is out there to put the stamp of approval on these typesettings. Third question. How do we as graphic designers bring back the respect of typography. How do we as designers earn the respect of our peers to do our own typesetting and do it to the perfection of a type director? The need for typesetters is very obvious because throughout the design process a graphic designer cannot always be counted on to perform the duty of magician and typesetter. Question four. Reading through the given work, I question why women are rarely type directors. Are they not willing or able to uphold type standard or are they not able to be taken seriously in a male dominated field. The reason why I ask this is because I’ve seen women who are deprived or looked down upon because they are a woman.

  • Anonymous says:

    Different people in every country get the business loans from different creditors, because this is simple and comfortable.

  • >
    Notice: We use cookies on our websites to give you a great online experience. If you keep browsing, we'll assume you're ok with this. For more information, see our privacy policy. By closing this banner, you agree to the use of cookies.I AGREENo