COP3 - Critical Regionalism

Critical Regionalism is an idea that takes fruition within architecture, the idea of critical regionalism aims to create an architecture that is established in both modern traditions, yet remains inline and in-touch with its regional and cultural contexts. Kenneth Frampton’s writings, ‘Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six points for an architecture of resistance’ outlines the theory of Critical Regionalism explaining – ‘The fundamental strategy of Critical Regionalism is to mediate the impact of universal civilisation with elements derived indirectly from the peculiarities of a particular place.’ (Frampton, 1981) This critical regionalism could be an effective way of looking at typography, that looks at both the wider modern themes and keeps in touch with its regional surroundings and identities. Frampton explains that - ‘It may find its governing inspiration in such things as the range and quality of local light, or in tectonic derived from a peculiar structural mode, or in the topography of a given site.’ (Frampton, 1981) Frampton explains the method of ‘double mediation’ that is key within Critical Regionalism – ‘Critical Regionalism is contingent upon a process of double mediation. In the first place, it has to ‘deconstruct’ the overall spectrum of world culture which it inevitably inherits; in the second place, it has to achieve, through synthetic contradiction, a manifest critique of universal civilisation.’ (Frampton, 1981) Further more Frampton uses the writing of Californian architect Hamilton Harrell Harris to argue his point ‘Opposed to the Regionalism of Restriction is another type of regionalism, the Regionalism of Liberation. This is the manifestation of a region that is especially in tune with the emerging thought of the time. We call such manifestation “regional” only because it has not yet emerged elsewhere… A region may develop ideas. A region may accept ideas. Imagination and intelligence are necessary for both. In California in the late Twenties and Thirties modern Europeans ideas met a still developing regionalism. In New England, on the other hand, European Modernism met a rigid and restrictive regionalism that at first resisted and then surrendered. New England accepted European Modernism whole because its own regionalism had been reduced to a collection of restrictions.’ (Harris in Frampton, 1981) explaining that the regionalism cannot be based on the native people alone, other ideas may be accepted and changed by outside influence giving the example of European Modernism in New England. It is through this idea of Critical Regionalism that typography could have its own regionalisms embedded within its production and design that reflect both the modernist themes that set out to identify clarity and the postmodern themes that aimed to embed cultural diversity and multiculturalism.

COP3 - Thoughts and idea on practical work

As the written part of this module has begun to take fruition it is a good time to begin thinking about how the practical will relate to this, the themes drawn upon within the essay ask what can define typography and is there clear attributes to a typeface that likes it culturally to an area or place. This is a tricky thing to translate into a practical outcome but not impossible.

Possible solutions or ideas to follow.

- A poster project that plays on the preconceptions of the typography origin, asking the viewer the question, does this type feel, Swiss, German, British? Using the reader as the main subject and being as direct in the communication as possible.

- A design of a typeface that uses both 'critical regionalism' as well as following the ideas of postmodernism and its connection to the wider cultural sphere. The type may represent a duel language based area, for example the Spanglish of southern America.

- A series of visual tests that questions the viewers knowledge and realisation of both typography and its places of origin. This could be displayed in a working app design or online resource.

- A guide to semiotic analysis of typography, showing the various signifiers and aiming to pin point what makes a typeface have a distinct e.g - 'Germanness' This could be displayed in a printed publication that gives detailed information on the types origin and cultural connections.

- A more subjective and 'form' based look at san serif typefaces displayed large and more add hoc, highlighting the beauty in the details, a possible format could be traditionally printed poster.

- Using the semiotic theory from the essay analysing typography, then showing these signifiers large, on there own, aiming to highlight further how they become akin to a region or place.


These six varying idea, set a important basis within this project, these can be referred back to or improved upon at a later stage.  All the ideas fit within the umbrella or culturally signifying typography.

COP3 - Third Tutorial

After meeting with tutor and looking through the essay there are a few area that were highlighted and could be improved upon. First of all in the first main part when the topic of globalisation and cultural diversity comes up. It was made clear that there was a need to look at the circumstances that allowed for globalisation and cultural diversity to happen. Through post war immigration, the rise of consumerism and the decolonisation of Europe and wider afield.

Subsequently the book 'The Postmodern' By Simon Malpus was suggested as a important text.

In terms of writing the section on postmodernism needed to be improved and follow more of the structure that the Klein vs Legrain (globalisation) looked at. More analysis of each part is key.

Also discussed is the way quotes are used, and framing the writing more around it rather that large quotes.

COP3 - Typography as a historical medium

Typography as a historical medium


Type as a sign system.

As outlined in my structure looking at type as an historical context and a framing of an era or time.

These quotes explain type as one of these areas, a historical medium, a signifying medium or having effects on the cultural and social make up of a time, area or region.


Type as a historical medium



The printers work, for example, to which the new world will be built. Concentrated work of organisation is the spiritual result which bring all elements of human creativity into a synthesis: the play instinct, sympathy inventions, economic necessities. One man invents printing with movable type, another photography, a third screen printing and stereotype, the next electrotype, phototype, the celluloid plate hardened by light.


Beirut, M ,1999 , Looking Closer Three , 1st ed. Allworth Press, New York. Typophoto, Moholy Nagy PG 24

Every period has its own optical focus. Our age: that of the film; the electric sign, simultaneity of sensorily percentile events. It has given us a new, progressively developing creative basis for typography too. Gutenberg’s typography, which has endured almost to our own day, moves exclusively in the linear dimension. The invention of the photographic process has extended it to a new dimensionality, recognised today as total. The preliminary work in this field was done by the illustrated papers, posters and by display printing.


Beirut, M ,1999 , Looking Closer Three , 1st ed. Allworth Press, New York. Typophoto, Moholy Nagy PG 25






Cold, rigid, implacable I may be, yet the first impress of my face brought the of knowledge and wisdom long hidden in the grave of ignorance. I coin for you the enchanting tale, the philosophers’s moralising and the poet’s visions. I enable you to exchange the irksome hours that come, at times, to everyone for sweet and happy hours with books.


Beirut, M ,1999 , Looking Closer Three , 1st ed. Allworth Press, New York. I AM TYPE, Fredric W. Goudy PG 35

In the epoch between Gutenberg’s invention and the Linotype machine, the philosophy behind the design of printed letters evolved in response to smaller technological and cultural shifts.


Beirut, M ,1994 , Looking Closer, 1st ed. Allworth Press, New York. A Natural History Of Typography, J.Miller, E.Lupton


The Darwin of linguistics was Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) who destroyed the ordinary assumption that language exists to represent ideas. While language is commonly understood as a collection of names assigned to pre-existing concepts, Saussure argued that without language, there are no concepts. For Saussure, the most troublesome feature of the linguistic sign was its arbitrariness: there is no resemblance between a sound such as “horse” and the concept of “domesticated quadruped” No natural link binds the material, phonic aspect of the sign (the signifier) to the mental concept (the signified): only a social agreement appears to hold the two sides together.


Beirut, M ,1994 , Looking Closer, 1st ed. Allworth Press, New York. A Natural History Of Typography, J.Miller, E.Lupton


What is the sort of semiotic system in typography? What are its signifiers, and what are its signifieds? Typography is one aspect of the broader practice of writing, which Saussure described as a sign system separate from speech itself. He saw speech as the original, natural medium of language, while writing is an external system of signs (for example, the alphabet) whose sole purpose is to represent speech. Writing is thus a language depicting another language, a set of signs for representing signs. Typography, then, is removed one step further: it is a medium whose signified is not words themselves, but rather the alphabet.


Beirut, M ,1994 , Looking Closer, 1st ed. Allworth Press, New York. A Natural History Of Typography, J.Miller, E.Lupton




Beatrice Warde claimed that a page of type should transparently reveal its verbal text like the gleaming bowl of crystal goblet. But is it possible for typography to ever passively contain a pre-existing, “content” or signified? Westerners revere the alphabet as the most rational and transparent of all writing systems, the clearest of vessels for containing the words of speech. Unlike ideograms or hieroglyphs, the alphabet depicts only the material surface of language, rather than its ideas. The alphabet is a mechanical device, a short string of characters capable of converting an infinity of spoken words into script.


Beirut, M ,1994 , Looking Closer, 1st ed. Allworth Press, New York. A Natural History Of Typography, J.Miller, E.Lupton


The philosopher Jacques Derrida has confronted a contradiction in Suassure’s theory: while Saussure celebrated the fact that verbal signs do not transparently reflect ideas, he could not tolerate the same situation in writing. Saussure was outraged by the alphabet’s refusal to patiently reflect its spoken referent, yet he had discovered that in writing, as in language, the realm of the signifier generates meaning apart from a pre-existing signified. And the same is true for typography’s relationship to the alphabet.


Beirut, M ,1994 , Looking Closer, 1st ed. Allworth Press, New York. A Natural History Of Typography, J.Miller, E.Lupton

Typographic form was no longer compelled to refer to an ideal canon of proportions: instead, the alphabet was understood as a collection of linguistic elements open to manipulation. Modern typography replaced idealism with relativism. The notion of a direct ancestral bond between the typography of the present and a divine classical past was displaces by a model of the alphabet as a code of relationships that could yield an infinity of variations. The alphabet understood as a collection of individual organisms gave way to a genetic code that could spawn offspring of endless diversity. The alphabet has lost its center: operating in its place was a new mode of design which we call structuralist typography.


Beirut, M ,1994 , Looking Closer, 1st ed. Allworth Press, New York. A Natural History Of Typography, J.Miller, E.Lupton


We might find it impossible to read black letter with ease today, but in prewar Germany it was the dominant letterform. Baskerville, rejected in 1757 as ugly and unreadable, is now regarded as one go the most serviceable typefaces for long text setting.


Beirut, M ,1994 , Looking Closer, 1st ed. Allworth Press, New York. Type and deconstruction in the digital era, R.Poynor


The pre-digital typefaces that Brody drew for The Face emphasised the new perspectives on contemporary culture embodied in the magazine’s editorial content. They also functioned as a medium through which Brody could develop a socio-cultural commentary of his own.


Beirut, M ,1994 , Looking Closer, 1st ed. Allworth Press, New York. Type and deconstruction in the digital era, R.Poynor

This is getting around to the idea that letter-forms, like fashion silhouettes, are one of the overt indices of style: as type designer Herman Zapf put it, “they are one of the most visual expressions of an age”


Beirut, M ,1994 , Looking Closer, 1st ed. Allworth Press, New York. Typefaces are rich with the gesture and spirit of their own era, M.Rock


Letterforms frame the message; they place the content in historical and cultural context. While the canons of readability and legibility are usually stressed (perhaps because they are more easily defended), fonts are rich with the gesture and spirit of their own era.


Beirut, M ,1994 , Looking Closer, 1st ed. Allworth Press, New York. Typefaces are rich with the gesture and spirit of their own era, M.Rock


Zapf sees the contemporary type designer as working within history, drawing on the work of Gill, Rogers, and Dwiggins for “inspiration, recognising that our cultural and commercial conditions are different from theirs.” In other words designers should be updating conventional structures to more contemporary forms. Beirut, M ,1994 , Looking Closer, 1st ed. Allworth Press, New York. Typefaces are rich with the gesture and spirit of their own era, M.Rock

“Traditionalists” who grumble that type died with the passing of hot metal miss the point that these new faces suggest. Innovative designs don’t threaten the integrity of typography. On the contrary, they document and codify the “current,” generating the artifacts that will serve to frame our own generation.

Beirut, M ,1994 , Looking Closer, 1st ed. Allworth Press, New York. Typefaces are rich with the gesture and spirit of their own era, M.Rock

COP3 - Critical Regionalism

Critical Regionalism

As a mid point between modernism and postmodernism (cultural diversity)

Critical regionalism isn't a term within typography but it is a great was of looking at past and present styles being inspirational, looking at the modernism in overall aesthetic as well as the regional tastes and ideas that make sure there is a connection to the place they have been designed.

The examples of architecture are all critical regionalism. There could be an argument to try and implement this into typography and graphic design.

Quotes on critical regionalism

The case can be made that Critical Regionalism is a cultural strategy is a much a bearer of world culture as it is a vehicle of universal civilisation. And while it is obviously misleading to conceive of our inheriting world culture to the same degree as we are all heirs to universal civilisation , it is nonetheless evident that since we are in principle, subject to the impact of both, that we have no choice but to take cognisance today of their interaction. Pg 23 - Foster, H., 2017. The Anti-aesthetic. New Press. - Towards a critical regionalism.

That critical regionalism cannot be simply based on the autochthonous for of a specific region alone was well put by the Californian architect Hamilton Harrell Harris when he wrote, now nearly thirty years ago: Opposed to the Regionalism of Restriction is another type of regionalism, the Regionalism of Liberation. This is the manifestation of a region that is especially in tune with the emerging thought go the time. We call such manifestation “regional” only because it has not yet emerged elsewhere… A region may develop ideas. A region may accept ideas. Imagination and intelligence are necessary for both. In California in the late Twenties and Thirties modern Europeans ideas met a still developing regionalism. In New England, on the other hand, European Modernism met a rigid and restrictive regionalism that at first resisted and then surrendered. New England accepted European Modernism whole because its own regionalism had been reduced to a collection of restrictions. - Pg 24 - Foster, H., 2017. The Anti-aesthetic. New Press. - Towards a critical regionalism. - Kenneth Frampton

The fundamental strategy of Critical Regionalism is to mediate the impact of universal civilisation with elements derived indirectly from the peculiarities of a particular place. - Pg 23 - Foster, H., 2017. The Anti-aesthetic. New Press. - Towards a critical regionalism. - Kenneth Frampton

It may find its governing inspiration in such things as the range and quality of local light, or in tectonic derived from a peculiar structural mode, or in the topography of a given site. - Pg 23 - Foster, H., 2017. The Anti-aesthetic. New Press. - Towards a critical regionalism. - Kenneth Frampton


In this regard the practice of Critical Regionalism is contingent upon a process of double mediation. In the first place, it has to ‘deconstruct’ the overall spectrum of world culture which it inevitably inherits; in the second place, it has to achieve, through synthetic contradiction, a manifest critique of universal civilisation.

- Pg 23 - Foster, H., 2017. The Anti-aesthetic. New Press. - Towards a critical regionalism. - Kenneth Frampton

COP3 - Ideas for first main part of essay & Time Plan

In the first part of the essay I aim to try and answer these things. This has been discussed with my tutor as a possible way structuring my essay.

What is cultural diversity today? - What does post modernism have to say about this?

How does globalisation influence and change this? What is critical regionalism and how can it effect this?


_________________________________________________________________________________

A general plan for the the time leading up to the submission.


20/11/17 - At this point it was important to have started the essay and finished the first part.


27/11/17 - Being ideas for the practical.


4/12/17 - To have created some solid ideas and tested them.


11/12/17 - Have a first Draft completed and begin on the semiotic part of the essay.


8/01/18 - Have the essay all but finished as well as the posters ready to print


12/01/18 - Print out poster in the print room,


Essay complete for feedback and ready for print.


17/01/18 - Photography printed poster & print dissertation


20/01/18 finalise design boards for submission


22/01/18 - Submission.

COP3 - Globalisation - Naomi Klien & Philippe Legrain

These two books No Logo by Naomi Klein & Open World:/ The Truth about Globalisation by Philippe Legrain both speak in detail about the effects, influences and the question of globalisation. Klein is much more apposed to the whole idea whereas Legrain has a different view.

As postmodernism's theories of cultural diversity is one way of looking at contemporary culture globalisation is another. These two books will form a major part of the main chapter.



Globalisation - Selected quotes


Usually, reports about this global web of logos and products are couched in the euphoric marketing rhetoric of the global village, an incredible place where tribespeople in remotest rain forests tap away on laptop computers, Sicilian grandmothers conduct E-business, and “global teens” share, to borrow a phrase from a Levis Web site, “a world-wide style culture”.


Klein, N., 2000. No Logo. HarperCollins UK.


More and more over the past four years, we in the West have been catching glimpses of another kind of global village, where the economic divide is widening and cultural choices narrowing.


Klein, N., 2000. No Logo. HarperCollins UK.


Logos, by the force of ubiquity, have become the closest thing we have to an international language, recognised and understood in many more places than English.


Klein, N., 2000. No Logo. HarperCollins UK.


By the mid-nineties, companies like Nike, Polo and Tommy Hilfiger were ready to take branding to the next level: no longer simply branding their own products, but branding the outside culture as well – by sponsoring cultural events, they could go out into the world and claim bits of it as brand-name outposts. Klein, N., 2000. No Logo. HarperCollins UK. PG 29

It was about thirstily soaking up cultural ideas and iconography that their brands could reflect by projecting these ideas and images back on the culture as “extensions” of their brands. For example, Onute Miller , senior brand manger of Tequila Sauza, explains that her company sponsored a risqué photography exhibit by George Holy because “art was a natural synergy with out product.” Klein, N., 2000. No Logo. HarperCollins UK. PG 29



The effect, if not always the original intent, of advanced branding is to nudge the hosting culture into the background and make the brand the star. It is not to sponsor culture but be the culture. Klein, N., 2000. No Logo. HarperCollins UK. PG 30


Today the buzzword in global marketing isn’t selling America to the world, but bringing a kind of market masala to everyone in the world… Nationality, language, ethnicity, religion and politics are all reduced to their most colourful, exotic accessories… Despite the embrace of polyethnic imagery, market-driven globalisation doesn’t want diversity.; quite the opposite. Its enemies are national habits, local brands and distinctive regional tastes. Klein, N., 2000. No Logo. HarperCollins UK. PG 30



Globalisation. This ugly word is shorthand for how our lives are becoming increasingly intertwined with those of distant people and places around the world - economically, politically and culturally.


Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. PG 4



Globalisation is all-embracing, and yet profoundly misunderstood - two reasons why so many people fear it. Is globalisation eroding our identity, national or otherwise? Are global brands colonising the world economy (any our minds)? Are we losing control of out lines to heartless mega-corporations and faceless markets? Many people think so - and there is an element of truth to all these worries. But for the most part, the answer, as we shall see, is a reassuring no. Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. Pg 4


Yet globalisation involves more Han technological change. It is also a political choice, It involves consciously opening national borders to foreign influences. Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. Pg 7


Globalisation is blurring the boarders between nation states. Yet it is neither uniform nor universal. Talk of a ‘borderless world’ or the ‘end of the nation state’, titles of two books by Kenichi Ohmae, a Japanese management guru, is nonsense. Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. Pg 8


Moreover, most Britons have mainly British friends, live within ten miles of where they are born, and are obsessed by Big Brother, Pop Idol, Eastenders, Posh and Becks, and Premiership football - all reassuringly (or depressingly) parochial. Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. Pg 8


The spread if American culture precedes 1989. Hollywood, Coca-cola, Levi jeans and Big Macs had long colonised commercial culture. To talk of 1989 as the beginning of globalisation is very misleading. Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. Pg 10


I believe that globalisation is generally a good thing. Yes, the world is changing fast. Yes it can be scary. Yes, some people will lose out at first. But we should opt to live in a more globalised world because it offers greater opportunity for everyone, rich and poor, to make the most of their potential. Globalisation offers a richer life - in the broadest sense - for people in rich countries and the only realistic route out of poverty for the world’s poor. Make no mistake: we can build a better globalisation. It is vitally important that we make the right choices. Our future depends on it. 

Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. Pg 24


If the worry is that countries are becoming more alike, this is because people’s tastes have converged, not because American companies are stamping out local competition. Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. Pg 296


The really profound cultural changes have nothing to do with Coca-cola. Western ides about liberalism and science are taking root in the most unlikely places. Immigration, mainly from developing countries, is creating multicultural societies in Europe and North America. Technology is reshaping culture: just think of the Internet. Individual choice is fragmenting the imposed uniformity of national cultures. New hybrid cultures are emerging and regional ones re-emerging. National identity is not disappearing but the bonds of nationality are loosening. Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. Pg 297


Language is often at the heart of a national culture: the French would scarcely be French if they spoke English (although the Belgian Walloons are not French even they though they share a language). Losing National language would be especially sad if people had mot freely chosen to abandon them. English may usurp other languages not because it is what people prefer to speak, but because, Like Microsoft soft-ware, there are compelling advantages to using it if everyone else does. Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. Pg 305

Natural cultures are much stronger than people seem to think. They can embrace some foriehn influences and resist other. Amartya Sen, a brilliant economist, thinker and Nobel Prize winner, is quite right when he remarks: ‘the culturally fearful often take a very fragile view of each culture and tend to underestimate our ability to learn from elsewhere without being overwhelmed by that experience. Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. Pg 308


Take an even more extreme example. Estonia suffered forty-seven years of Russian occupation. A third of its population of 1.5 million died, fled or were deported to Siberia. The Estonian language was banned and Russians were shipped in to Russify the country. Yet in 1991, Estonia became independent again, its language intact, its Western orientation preserved, its culture might indeed have been snuffed out. Even when a foriegn influence is largely welcomed, not imposed, it can be overwhelming. Traditional cultures in the Third World that have until now evolved (or failed to evolve) in isolation may be particularly vulnerable.

Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. Pg 310

Individual Freedom
The upshot of all this change is that national cultures are fragmenting into a kaleidoscope of different ones. New hybrid cultures are emerging In ‘Amexica’ people speak Spanglish: ‘Como se llama your dog?’ Regional cultures are reviving. Repressed under Franco, Catalans, Basques, Gallegos and other assert their identity in Spain. The Scots and Welsh break with British monoculture. Estonia is reborn from the Soviet Union. Voices that were silent dare to speak again.’

Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd. Pg 318

COP3 - Structure of Essay part 2

COP3 - Structure of essay

Structure of Essay Plan

Chapter 1 – Introduction (400 words)

What does the essay do?


Clearly state the overarching research question of the project.



The methodology


How does san-serif typography design influence cultural identities?


Chapter 2 – Main Body 1: Context & Themes (2000 words)

evidence the breadth and depth of your background research

Evidence that you are aware of the key theoretical sources within your chosen topic.

Outline Cultural identities that will be explored

Introduce Semiotic theories

Present outline of San Serif Typography






Chapter 3 – Main Body 2: Case Studies of Practice (1500 words)


Showing understanding and use of semiotics

Using semiotics to analyse typographic details to determine cultural identities.

A mini- conclusion that links to the next chapter.



Chapter 4 – Main Body 3: Reflective Practice (700 words)


all the critical theory raised in the previous chapters to critical evaluate examples of your creative work

demonstrates how a synthesised, contextual, and theoretical understanding of your studio work has emerged through a rigorous and reflective process of research




Chapter 5 – Conclusion (400 words)

summarising the findings of each of the preceding chapters.


implications that these findings have for your own subject discipline.

successes and/or shortcomings of your research project.

COP3 Second Tutorial Discussion

Building on from the initial tutorial we discussed how semiotics is a tool for finding out meaning within visual language. 

This book Visible Signs: An introduction to semiotics in the visual arts. Has been amazingly useful in understanding the first sets of semiotics. It became apparent that through semiotic theory typography could be analysed to find out its meaning and the minor details that could define its formation through cultural diversity. 

This book has been a fantastic resource in understanding what semiotics means, how it can be used, why its useful and what the overall terminology means. 

My confidence in using semiotics has overall come from reading this book. It has been a valuable resource in semiotic terminology. 

The images of the cross show the different signs that have been embedded within each of the different crosses.
As discussed there needed to be some kind of writing so I presented my first attempt at an introduction. –––

How can san serif typography influence cultural diversity today?

This essay aims to analyse the relationship between san serif typography and cultural diversities in response to the developing global world we live in today. To in turn better the understanding of the impacts and influences that typography can play in shaping the imagery, and cultural fabric of nation. Through the lens of semitonic theory and analysis– looking at the fundamental aspects of typography and questioning whether their cultural differences can be expressed in something physical. The choice of san serif type in particular arises from the modernity in their design– created to more away from the ornamental aesthetic of the past to a new and radical formation of type for the future. Not to mention the similarities in the way they look, and the apparent lack of diversity. This will therefore highlight further the minor details that define them and asking the questions– Can type be categorised into cultural subgroups? Is there any aspect that is fundamentally associated with a country or region? How significant are the influences on the cultural make up of an area? And whether typeface design today is influenced by cultural identities or if the multinational culture of the modern day has marginalised these differences. 

Part one of this essay will aim to define the role of culture in post-modern theories of Jamerson and Foster outlining the key contextual ideas. Looking at the effects of contemporary culture moving away from modernism to a more multicultural and global postmodern world that we live in today. Furthermore looking into the ideas and theories of globalisation and multinationalism, how these effect communication and how language develops, subsequently influencing typography and type design. Additionally looking at the impact of type on a culture and trying to gage the degree in which typography can shape what we perceive as distinctive to an area or place. 

Part two of this essay will look at some of the fundamental san serif typefaces that have become unequivocally linked to a specific culture of a nation or place, the usual instances of this have been implemented in transport and signage as these hold an extra significance  and subconscious link to a region or place. For Example DIN, (Germany) and Johnston (London). Then implementing semiotic theory analyse what defines them, what are the fundamentals they all carry and what separates them, and can these differences be defined and expressed in a physical form or a singular attribute.

This intro has been really helpful in just beginning writing, it will change and be rewritten after this but it was useful to begin an understanding of what might need to be answered. 

For the next session as explained by my Tutor I would need to begin a draft of the first chapter.

This would discuss globalisation vs cultural diversity. As outlined in this essay structure.

GLOBALISTION VS CULTURAL DIVERSITY.

Type As an Historical influence

Semiotics of type (analysis)

Conclusion

COP3 First tutorial discussion

Within this discussion we spoke about the question and how it was more important to look not at modernist theory but post modern theory of Jamerson and how they define culture.  As well as looking at globalisation in relation to this and how they compare.

I was asked to complete some writing before the next session.

These three books became central to the collection of key quotes about postmodern theory.

The case can be made that Critical Regionalism is a cultural strategy is a much a bearer of world culture as it is a vehicle of universal civilisation. And while it is obviously misleading to conceive of our inheriting world culture to the same degree as we are all heirs to universal civilisation , it is nonetheless evident that since we are in principle, subject to the impact of both, that we have no choice but to take cognisance today of their interaction. Pg 23 - Foster, H., 2017. The Anti-aesthetic. New Press. - Towards a critical regionalism. 

That critical regionalism cannot be simply based on the autochthonous for of a specific region alone was well put by the Californian architect Hamilton Harrell Harris when he wrote, now nearly thirty years ago: Opposed to the Regionalism of Restriction is another type of regionalism, the Regionalism of Liberation. This is the manifestation of a region that is especially in tune with the emerging thought go the time. We call such manifestation “regional” only because it has not yet emerged elsewhere… A region may develop ideas. A region may accept ideas. Imagination and intelligence are necessary for both. In California in the late Twenties and Thirties modern Europeans ideas met a still developing regionalism. In New England, on the other hand, European Modernism met a rigid and restrictive regionalism that at first resisted and then surrendered. New England accepted European Modernism whole because its own regionalism had been reduced to a collection of restrictions. - Pg 24 - Foster, H., 2017. The Anti-aesthetic. New Press. - Towards a critical regionalism. 

The great modernism were, as we have said, predicated on the invention of a personal, private style, as unmistakable as your finger print, as incomparable as your own body. But this means that the modernist aesthetic is in some way organically linked to the conception of a unique self and private identity, a unique personality and individuality, which can be expected to generate its own unique vision of the world and to forge its own unique, unmistakable style. Yet today, from any number of distinct perspectives, the social theorist, the psychoanalysts, even the linguists, not to speak of those of us who work in the area of culture and cultural and formal change., are all exploring the notion that the kind of individualism and personal identity is a thing of the past; that the old individual or individualist subject is “dead”; and that one might even describe the concept of the unique individual and the theoretical basis of individualism as ideological. - Foster, H., 2017. The Anti-aesthetic. New Press. - Jameson - Postmodern and consumer society 

Hence once again pastiche: in a world in which stylistic innovation is no longer possible , all that is left is to imitate dead styles, to speak through the masks and with the voices of the styles in the imaginary museum, 

- Foster, H., 2017. The Anti-aesthetic. New Press. - Jameson - Postmodern and consumer society 

As for language, Lucan’s model is the now orthodox structuralist one, which is based on a conception of a linguistic sign as having two (or perhaps three) components. A sign, a word, a text, is here modelled as a relationship between a signifier – a material object, the sound of a word, the script of a text – and a signified, the meaning of that material word or material text. The third component would be the so-called “referent” the “real” object in the “real’ world to which the sign refers– the real cat as poised to the concept of a cat or the sound “cat”. 

- Foster, H., 2017. The Anti-aesthetic. New Press. - Jameson - Postmodern and consumer society 

In postmodern culture, “culture” has become a product in its own right; the market has become a substitute for itself and fully as much a commodity as any of the items it includes within itself: modernism was still minimally and tendentially the critique of the commodity and the effort to make it transcend itself. Post modernism is the consumption of sheer commodification as a process.x

Jameson, F., 1991. Postmodernism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Verso.

It seems to me essential to grasp postmodernism not as a style but rather as a cultural dominant: a conception which allow for the presence and coexistence of a range of different, yet subordinate, features.

—Jameson, F., 1991. Postmodernism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Verso.

If we do not achieve some general sense of cultural dominant, then we fall back into a view of present history as sheer heterogeneity, random difference, a coexistence of a host of distinct forces whose effectivity is undecidable. - Jameson, F., 1991. Postmodernism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Verso.

–the end for example, of style, in the sense of the unique and the personal, the end of the distinctive individual brush stroke )as symbolised by the emergent prince of mechanical reproduction). — Jameson, F., 1991. Postmodernism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Verso.

 We have now been told, however that we now inhabit the synchronic rather than the diachronic, and I think it is at least empirically arguable that our daily life, our psychic experience, our cultural languages, are today dominated by categories of space rather than by categories of time, as in the preceding period of high modernism. — Jameson, F., 1991. Postmodernism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Verso.

The explosion of modern literature into s host of distinct private styles and mannerisms has been followed by a linguistic fragmentation of social life itself to the point where the norm itself is eclipsed: reduced to a neutral and reified media speech ( far enough from the Utopian aspirations of the inventors of Esperanto or Basic English), which itself then becomes but one more idiolect among many. — Jameson, F., 1991. Postmodernism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Verso.

If the ideas of a ruling class were once the dominant ( or hegemonic) ideology of bourgeois society, the advanced capitalist countries world reflects not only the absence of any great collective project but also the unavailability of the older national language itself.  — Jameson, F., 1991. Postmodernism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Verso.

The producers of culture have nowhere to turn but to the past: the imitation of dead styles, speech through all the masks and voices stored up in the imaginary museum of a now global culture. 

— Jameson, F., 1991. Postmodernism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Verso.

The conception of postmodernism outlined here is a historical rather than a merely stylistic one. I cannot stress too greatly the radical distinction between a view for which the postmodern is one (optional) style among many other available and one which to grasp it as the cultural dominant of the logic of late capitalism: the two approaches in fact generate two very different way of conceptualising the phenomenon as a whole: on the one hand, model judgements (about which it is indifferent wehether they are positive or negative), and on the other, a genuinely dialectical attempt to think out present of time in History. — Jameson, F., 1991. Postmodernism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Verso.

A prodigios expansion of culture throughout the social realm, to the point at which everything in our social life— from economic value and state power to practices and to the very structure of the psyche itself —can be said to have become “cultural” in some original and yet untheorized sense. — Jameson, F., 1991. Postmodernism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Verso.

The argument for a certain authenticity in these otherwise patently ideological productions depends on the proper proposition that what we have been calling postmodern (or multinational) space is not merely a cultural ideology or fantasy but has enshrine historical ( and socioeconomic) reality as a third great original expansion of capitalism around the globe (after the earlier expansions of the national market and the older imperialist system, which each had their own cultural specificity and generated new types of space appropriate to their dynamics). The distorted and unreflective attempts of a newer cultural production to explore and to express this new space must then also, in their own fashion, be consider as so many approaches to the representation of (a new) reality (to use a more antiquated language). 

PG 49— Jameson, F., 1991. Postmodernism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Verso.

The phenomenon of universalisation, while being an advancement of mankind, at the same time constitutes a sort if subtle destruction, not only of traditional cultures, which might not be an irreparable wrong, but also of what I shall call for the time being the creative nucleus of great cultures, that nucleus on the basis of which we interpret life, what I shall call in advance ethical and mythical nucleus of mankind. 

- Foster, H., 2017. The Anti-aesthetic. New Press. - Kenneth Frampton - Six points for an architecture pf resistance. PG 17 Paul Ricoeur, History and Truth. 

We have the feeling that this single word civilisation at the same time exerts a sort of attrition or wearing away at the expense of the cultural resources which have made the great civilisations of the past.  - Foster, H., 2017. The Anti-aesthetic. New Press. - Kenneth Frampton - Six points for an architecture pf resistance. PG 17 Paul Ricoeur, History and Truth. 

Everywhere throughout the world, one finds the same bad movie, the same slot machines, the plastic or aluminium atrocities, the same twisting of language by propaganda, etc. It seems as if mankind, by approaching en masse a basic consumer culture, were also stopped en masse at a subcultural level. 

Foster, H., 2017. The Anti-aesthetic. New Press. - Kenneth Frampton - Six points for an architecture pf resistance. PG 17 Paul Ricoeur, History and Truth. 

Whence the paradox: on the one hand, it has root itself in the soil of its past, forge a nation spirit, and unfurl this spiritual and cultural revindication before the colonialist’s personality. But in order to take part in modern civilization, it is necessary at the same time to take part in scientific, technical, and political rationality, something which very often requires the pure and simple abandon of a whole cultural past. It is a fact: every culture cannot sustain ad absorb the shock of modern civilisation. There is the paradox: how to become modern and to return to sources; how to revive an old, dormant civilization and take part universal civilization. Foster, H., 2017. The Anti-aesthetic. New Press. - Kenneth Frampton - Six points for an architecture pf resistance. PG 18 Paul Ricoeur, History and Truth. 

Today the practice of architecture seems to be increasingly polarised between, on the one hand, a so-called high-tech approach predicted exclusively upon production and, on the other, the provision of a ‘compensatory facade’ to cover up the harsh realities of this universal system. Foster, H., 2017. The Anti-aesthetic. New Press. - Kenneth Frampton - Six points for an architecture pf resistance. PG 18

These selection of quotes would hopefully form the main part on Postmodern theory. 

COP3 Bibliography

Bibliography COP3 

Steinberg, S., 1974. Five Hundred Years of Printing. 3rd ed. Middlesex England: James Moran.

Within the book 500 years of printing it gives record to the impact of Johannes Gutenberg, his moveable type charted a new age of printing, with the blackletter type at the forefront of German culture. This book 500 years of printing has been really influential in the early stages of this project. 

D C McMurtrie, 1929 The Philosophy of modernism in typography, Looking Closer Three.

H Bayer, 1935, Towards a Universal Type, Looking Closer Three.

In 1925 Herbert Bayer at the Bauhaus designed a universal lower case typeface, this type went on to inspire many geometric type designers in the future. This typeface didn't really catch on but its influences on type and how typefaces are thought of has been very impacting.

W Weingart, 1972, How can one make Swiss typography?

Wolfgang Weingart's work with typography as he explains in this written how can one make Swiss typography? Explain it is more in its use that the type becomes associated to a country or cultural style.

W Dexel, What is new Typography?, 1927

Article title:

Eye Magazine | Feature | Electrifying the alphabet

Website title:

Eyemagazine.com

URL:

http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/electrifying-the-alphabet

The article above 'Electrifying the Alphabet' on the eye magazine website, gives light to the effects and impacts technology and in specific the impact on the computer this had, Wim Crouwel in 'New Alphabet' aimed to create a new typeface optimised for the screen. 

J Tschichold New Life in Print 1930

E Ruder, The typography of order, 1959, 

van, L., 2016. Statement and Counter-Statement. Roma Publications.

Two Types - The Faces of Britain - BBC Documentary

The documentary ' Two Types - The Faces of Britain' has been immensely influential throughout this project, it gives information on the type most inspirational typefaces in Britain Gill Sans and Johnston. The amazingly high level of detail throughout the documentary shows the impact on the type designers work. 

http://www.eyemagazine.com/blog/post/dear-mr-johnston

http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/this-is-1968-this-is-mexico

https://www.experimentaljetset.nl/archive/whitney-museum-identity

https://www.logodesignlove.com/firesigns-semiotic-theory-graphic-design/

Crow, D., 2015. Visible Signs. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Jameson, F., 1998. The Cultural Turn. Verso.

Foster, H., 2017. The Anti-aesthetic. New Press.

Jameson, F., 1991. Postmodernism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Verso.

Foster, H., 2017. The Anti-aesthetic. New Press. - Kenneth Frampton - Six points for an architecture pf resistance.

- Foster, H., 2017. The Anti-aesthetic. New Press. - Jameson - Postmodern and consumer society 

- Foster, H., 2017. The Anti-aesthetic. New Press. - Kenneth Frampton - Six points for an architecture pf resistance. PG 17 Paul Ricoeur, History and Truth. 

Klein, N., 2017. No Logo. HarperCollins UK.

Legrain, P., 2003. Open World:/ The Truth About Globalisation. 2nd ed. St Ives: Clays Ltd.

COP3 Presentation

The first task was to complete a presentation outlining our thoughts and ideas for the COP3 Project. 

This was the first draft up of my question. 

As explained in the lecture we need to have a purpose- Find out if typography design is influenced by cultural and more specifically regional diversity. 

These are all examples of typefaces that have been iconic and distinctive to a region, country or area. I am interested in how these have influenced the design and what makes the so distinctive of that place.

Modernism in type design has shaped a large part the way it is designed today, away from the ornamental and focusing on the universal. Jan Tschichold being central to this. The new Typography set out rules an aims for type design. 

Herbert Bayer's Universal Typeface set out to identify a completely universal type that was against the traditional black letter type previously associated with Germany.

In some ways modernism had gone too extreme and the type becomes... Stark and exclusive and masculine.

Some of the wider themes to explore include- globalisation, culture and diversity and how these effect type design today.

Here we have Gill Sans and Johnston that have become iconic of British Culture, but now may not reflect the fact Britian is such a diverse country.

And finally these two images of typically Swiss & Dutch design ( Muller Brookman and Wim Crouwel) showing how the use and application of type can be influential on the make up of a visual culture.

- These slides were then discussed and it was made clear that my question needed a rethink. 

- How does typography design influence cultural identities?

and then even more specifically 

How can san serif typography influence cultural diversity today?

COP3 - Initial Ideas

500 years of printing - How the invention of movable type influenced the design of typography.

Modern Typography - 

Gill Sans - Essay on Typography.

BBC type documentary. 

How has printing technologies influenced how type is designed.

- All of the above formed the initial research for this project. The themes of Typography/Printing and culture are all areas that fit inline with what i'm interested in. 

As the final part of second year, we have been asked to formulate a presentation about what we would like to do for COP3, my slides bellow as shown.