Benjamin Jaffe Gallery
Chicago, IL
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Typography is the visual component of the written word. It is derived from the Greek words:
τύπος (typos) = form and γραφή (graphe) = writing
Typography is the art and technique of designing and arranging type in order to make language visible. Typography is as old as language and in fact is essentially the beginnings of history as the birth of writing and art is the first true record of humanity. Universally the first symbol made by man is a handprint. This can be found in every geographic location where early man developed and began the process of communication. Eventually early artists began to draw pictures which developed into the symbols that we know as letters and words.
Cave of hands, Argentina
Early on, humans used pictographs and hieroglyphs to document events and tell stories. Even the Roman alphabet that we use today is evolved from ancient pictures. Take for example the letter S. Not only does it represent a snake in line and shape, but even the sound of the letter represents the animal's voice.
As Civilization progressed Different societies developed written languages. The most ancient of these were hieroglyphs as in Ancient Egypt and China. In these proto types each picture represents a word. This still holds true for many Asian languages such as Chinese and Japanese though many of the pictographs have become so highly stylized, the original images are difficult to see now.
The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading (line spacing), adjusting the spaces between groups of letters (tracking) and adjusting the space between pairs of letters (kerning). Type design is a closely related craft, which some consider distinct and others a part of typography; most typographers do not design typefaces, and some type designers do not consider themselves typographers.
Chi Rho page from Book of Kells 780 CE
The Modern Era of type began with advent of two movements that arose after WWI in europe. The Bauhaus movement in Germany gave rise to an elaborate advancement in typographic structure. At the same time in Russia an art movement known as Constructivism developed a similar set of evolvements in the field.
In modern times, typography has been put into motion—in film, television and online broadcasts—to add emotion to mass communication.
Robert Indiana is a painter who explores the sculptural shape of text by creating abstract contextual references
Benjamin Jaffe Gallery
Chicago, IL
benjamin