COP 3 Synthisis

In terms of a relationship between the practical piece and the essay, the practical is in many ways a physical embodiment of the knowledge developed in typography over the project. Drawing connections between typefaces is a great way of understanding their meaning, why it has been designed in a certain way and what has influenced it. Within the poster these connections are clear, though each has taken lots of time to get right. For example the work of Wim Crowel from an outside perspective may not have had a massive influence on Susan Kare's work for Apple typography. However in the poster. Through the connection of 'Digital Geometric' there is a link created with the grid limitations Wim Crowel worked to in his designs for 'New Alphabet' (a typeface designed to respond to the new technology of the screen) and Susan Kare's typeface Chicago, (a typeface designed to work in pixels for the Apple Ipod). These connections within typography are an area that seems to not be discussed particularly often therefore a interesting subject to research into. Another example is the typeface BIFUR designed by A.m Cassandre in 1929 and Milton Glaser's Baby Teeth. Both typefaces are fairly unorthodox in their design yet have a similarity between them. This can be seen as a direct or an a indirect influence, but is a influence none the less. Therefore form this further connections can be made between other decorative type.
In terms of further connections to theory in the essay and the practical, another important part of the essay is about who can create type, the computer opening up many more possibilities to who can design type. This is reflected in the poster's 30 years of type design between 1990 to the present. Since the new technologies have allowed for more typefaces to be created the radical nature of these typefaces have massively increased. The poster aims to illustrate this massive increase in typographic production. The final section has many more typefaces than the previous. The categorising of typefaces is another element of the poster that is interesting, drawing more links between type allows more subcategories to be formed.

Furthermore this poster highlights some of the influences that are discussed in the essay, Pastiche as explained in the essay is central to the work of Jonathan Barnbrook, in the poster the connection between his typeface Bastard and the classical Blackletter typefaces of Germany have been made. In contrast to this, the inclusion of the New Rail Alphabet from 2009 is completely different to a typeface like Bastard, illustrating how type can vary, and it is difficult to pin point accurate influences with type being so different and diverse.

The aim for the project is to understand more about what influences and changes typography. The practical poster is an expression of the amount of research untaken in this project. The essay explains the effects of postmodern and multicultural culture on typography though in the practical it is difficult to identify what typefaces are effected by this and what are not. Throughout the ideas stage there was experimentation with type as a historically signifying medium, trying to display the connections with type to a specific culture, this however proves very difficult as these are in many cases subconscious and knowledge of typography is usually limited.