Design Literacy: Understanding Graphic Design

noted that “more changes have been made in the direction of eccentricity
than in that of simplicity. Fantastic letters were never in greater request, but
they rarely appear as types in books. To see the wildest freaks of fancy one
must seek them not in the specimen books of type founders, but in the
lettering made for displayed advertisements and tradesman’s pamphlets.”
Although traditional typographers now eschewed ornament, a new breed of
professional, the commercial artist, was creating hand-drawn, often one-of-
a-kind, novelties for use on a plethora of printed matter.
At the turn of the century, designers working in the art nouveau
style rejected the nineteenth-century excesses, but replaced it with “floriated
madness,” which was eventually rejected by those designers who sought yet
another style. The vogue for the decorative letter was somewhat eclipsed
during the 1920 s by the canon of purity and functionalism espoused by the
Bauhaus and described by Jan Tschichold in his book The New Typography
( 1928 ). However, despite the proliferation of functional sans-serif types like
Futura, advertisers required eye-catching type to appeal in an increasingly
competitive market.
During the 1920 s and 1930 s, the era of art moderne,a multitude
of quirky types were issued by the major German, American, English,
Dutch, and French type foundries and promoted through extravagant type
specimen sheets. Many of these faces symbolized modernity.
Type design has traditionally been based on past models, and
typographers today are archaeologists digging through antique typebooks
for faces suitable for revival or adaptation. While the revivalists pay homage
to the past, the computer mavens are looking towards the future. But the
future of quirky typography is déjà vu. Primitive, low-resolution bitmap
forms have offered numerous possibilities for quirky typography equaling
the worst produced during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,
but in the right designer’s hands, there is also an unlimited variety of
fascinating concoctions.