Virtual Typography

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Job:01212 Title: Basics typography (AVA)

1st Proof Page:81

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Transitron Electronics and Metro Typographers –

Chermayeff & Geismar

This magazine advert for Transitron Electronics (above)

was created using the fragmenting effect of a photographic

lens placed on top of the text. The advert for a Typesetting

House in New York (opposite) demonstrates how an unusual

combination of typefaces turns text into texture.

Technology versus creativity

Considering the technical limitations during the early

stages of digital typography, modern enthusiasm for

computer technologies may seem surprising. The

combination of photography and the drawing board

certainly allowed more control over the aesthetic

outcome, but control was not necessarily what

all designers were after. The new generation of

typographers sought new means of expression, which

refl ected the rebellious spirit of the time. These new

means of expression, which were often attributed to

the new technology, were neither truly new, nor due to

the computer. Phototypesetting, letterpress technology,

photography and the photocopier had already been

thoroughly exploited for the production of experimental

graphics and pre-digital technologies had suffi ciently

lent themselves to the creation of unexpected results.

Due to the largely unknown characteristics of computer

technology, the experimental, if not accidental, outcome

was now simply closer at hand.

Job:01212 Title: Basics typography (AVA)

1st Proof Page:81

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