Typography and Reformation of Web Design
Photo owned by Marcin Wichary (cc)
In terms of web design, 2008 is definitely the Year of Typography. The run to embracing typography has been a slow, but steady one. Haven’t you noticed the amount of sites that favour simple, clean typographic text grow over graphics-laden portals?
The move from heavy graphics sites to clean type amounts to a schism in web design, a Reformation. Why Reformation? Looking back to the Protestant break with Roman Catholicism (excepting the machinations of Henry VIII, of course), the adoption of evangelical Protestant dogma amounted to a rejection of gaudy iconography and rituals for the Scripture i.e. the Word of God. Is there any more fitting metaphor for 2008’s Typography craze, than describing it as an obsession with Words? Replace iconography and rituals for heavy web technology like Flash and graphics-rich portals like IOL. It’s no wonder that a healthy back-to-basics movement of typography lovers sprung up.
Love for typography is not necessarily a new phenomenon. Anyone with an iota of graphics design in their past would have had to spend many long hours tracing and draughting type for posters and flyers. Learning to kern letters (space them relative to each other) and centre text is an absolute pain. While digital typography has eliminated this time-intensive task, a true appreciation for typography cannot be gained until one manually renders text.
Have you seen Helvetica? Do you obsess over the Holy War of Calibri vs Helvetica? Does typography matter to you?
May 16th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
Love the tag; “geekery”!! Manually rendering text was a large part of my first year at college, and my second and third come to think of it. It had to be block capitals, it had to be legible, it had to be straight and the same size throughout (it was for drawings). AutoCAD did away with the need for it, I wonder if they still teach people to draw with pen and ink at all?? (Sorry slightly off topic!)
May 17th, 2008 at 5:01 am
Not off-topic at all, Aquaasho.
I agree that working by hand really gives people an understanding of the intricacies of typography. Manually rendering type at times fosters love and loathing for text, but always respect. I’d love to see more people try it.