Thursday, November 6, 2008

The Meanings Of Type By: Steven Heller

    
After reading this article I really got a new idea for type. One thing I found interesting in this was Neuland and Chop Suey: faux ethnic. Neuland was designed in 1923 by Rudolf Koch. This type is a family of convex-shaped capitals reminiscent of German Expressionist wood-cut lettering. Koch did not make any preliminary drawings, which accounted for an informal quality that, according to a type specimen brochure distributed by Superior Typography, INC.  It was expressive an atmosphere of exotic flavor. In addition it states there is an unusual expressiveness a subtle harmony of ruggedness and delicacy of design. Neuland was recommended for advertisements promoting airplanes, boats, books, coffee, gifts, lacquers, rugs, tea, and tours and was widely used until the 1930s when it was sidelined like so many novelty typefaces. in 1933 Neuland was revived as the logo for Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park. I thought that is was very interesting due to the fact that this type was revived after so many years.

Sources: www.eyemagazine.com
www.collider.com (image)

1 comment:

gdhistory anderson becker carter said...

That is interesting that the typeface was used after such a long time. The typeface has an identity all its own and it is a very difficult task for a designer to appropriate a typeface in such a way. Because after the fact, its not the movie or product that is associated with the typeface, the typeface is associated with the movie or product. Most individuals do not study type as we do, so they see a typeface and instantly relate to where they have seen it before. This is much more common with narrative typefaces and its is very important that I designer chooses the appropriate typeface for whatever they are working on, because the typeface and project will always be connected.

LB