Week 1

Reference Material

Edward Fella: Letters on America

Fella is carefully looking at the bits that we would normally subconsciously erase – the irregular spacing, the unplanned juxtaposition of surface, the weathered image that sits next to an incongruous character. He finds and cherishes the events that make each sign unique, appreciating them not for what they say or for their historical significance, or for any programmed reason, but instead appreciating them for the thing he can use. That is all there is: ideas you might want to re-shape, recycle, reformat, or even occasionally revolt against.

Lewis Blackwell

Ed Fella’s style is a really wonderful approach to design. I absolutely adore his work and not just his colourful, vibrant drawings of lettering but his polaroid photography too. There is so much detail in the art and the photography, it makes me stop and look.

This article writes “…he subscribed to numerous magazines of art and culture. “He had a curiosity about everything,” says Nelson Greer, a design instructor at College for Creative Studies in Detroit who worked with Fella in the 1960s and ’70s.”. This informs me how Fella is generally inquisitive about the world around him. This is bound to shine through in your art as a creative person and goes to show that having other interests can not only motivate your drive and enthusiasm for design, but allow you to experiment. The way Fella’s work comes across is as though he has just sat down to draw with no idea what he would end up with; it’s just purely creative. Having this approach is refreshing and I wish we saw more of what happens in sketchbooks than the ‘perfect’ finalised outcome we see too much of nowadays.

The polaroid lettering photographs above are inspiring. To see how shadowing can create depth and dimension, how texture can hide or reveal letters, how light hitting a metallic finish reflects and how the finish of the surface needs to be considered in a typographic outcome i.e. shop window. This will ultimately change how people perceive the lettering.

Signs, Lettering and Environment

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Reference image 1 – This section explaining how buildings change with time (in particular shop signs) made me want to explore examples of 19th century shop signs. This website provides a really great selection of shop owners and lettering on the forefront of shops (see below):

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I can instantly see the differences with the 19th century style signage – the owner of the shop usually has their name on the building, along with the number and the name of the shop. What intrigues me the most about these pictures is the lack of logos; there are none – the Cadbury logo (photograph 5) is not there.

This is noticeably in contrast to today’s 21st century shops as they nearly all have logos and the company name. Numbers and shop owner names are now also not displayed on forefronts of buildings, more hidden away. It seems our modernisation of branding has resulted in much more simplified shop signage. I have found a good example of the evolution of a modern store – the co-op, and how it’s logo has changed over the last few decades:

The business realised that nobody says “co-operative” when referring to the shop so therefore decided to keep the name shortened to “co-op”. The co-op simply has a modern sans serif logo with smooth curvatures, and the examples above highlight the modernisation of society in that we now use short, simplified logos to remember identity. As co-op is more than just about food and groceries, (it now has many services including legal, insurance and funeral-care) the new logo needed to tie everything together and just be a classic representation of a diverse brand. Design director Ben Terrett even claimed that the logo needed to work “brilliantly across digital” which has played a heavy part in the typography choice of this logo. Co-op is not alone here, many other brands will have had to digitise their brand for the modern day world and this often means simplifying.

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Reference image 2 – Completely relate to the statement about details in places such as drainpipes, manholes, electricity poles signs all adding to the sense of place. When I think of America for instance I almost always think about how much different the roads look to the UK – most importantly the signage. Same with Los Angeles, Canada etc. It’s a powerful tool to recognise location within the world, and that for me sums up the importance of the little typographic details in the industrial world.

Interview – Graphic Design Legend Massimo Vignelli

Before reading the article I wanted to look at images of the map design:

From reading another article which referenced the original 1972 map with the modern 2008 map, it’s really interesting to see the changes, more specifically: how the map has been simplified with colour and typography. It seems that the rounded lines for the map have stayed, although many lines have been removed due to the city evolving, and the removal of the background which has created more white space on the map. This really allows the map to breathe, along with not overwhelming the viewer and being much more simplified.
There are elements of the new map that remind me of the timeless London Underground (Johnston) map such as the white background and minimal colours.

Funnily enough there is a quote in the reference material above where Vignelli states: “I probably should have done what they’ve done in London—not have any indication of the geography. It’s a completely blank, white background so that there is no suggestion of geography whatsoever.” so I’m pleased that’s instantly what I noticed. It’s really great to see how other successful designers influence even those who are really successful, and elements can be taken from others to improve.

Some defenses need to be put up, and I think, actually, that the more culture spreads out and the more refined education becomes, the more refined the sensibility about type becomes, too. The more uneducated the person is who you talk to, the more he likes horrible typefaces. Look at comics like The Hulk, things like that. It’s not even type. Look at anything which is elegant and refined; you find elegant and refined typefaces. The more culture is refined in the future—this might take a long time, but eventually education might prevail over ignorance—the more you’ll find good typography. I’m convinced of that.”

Massimo Vignelli

I particularly wanted to highlight this quote as I feel that it’s really representative of how the world is changing; but more specifically how the digital world is opening up those barriers between form and function. Yes, there is still terrible type being made digitally but I think generally people have more of an understanding of how type impacts our daily lives now they are reading through screens. Unlike holding a newspaper you cannot simply zoom in on a screen without manually adjusting it (whether that be with fingers on touch screen or in the zoom settings) and I think that is eliminating the ignorance that people have had towards lettering and how important form and function surrounding that really is. People now understand due to having to adjust settings to read better digitally, just how important the right size, style, colour, positions etc. of typeface is on a page/document. Another role to consider in the digital world is if someone is holding one device that can display hundreds of pages, as opposed to holding a newspaper – that costs less. Therefore there is no reason for type to be condensed and poorly arranged digitally nowadays, like a newspaper page would have been, and so brands have more freedom to be creative and visually aware of their adverts. I think Vignelli is correct in saying that the future generations will be better educated about good type as its integrated into their daily lives much more.

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