I was lucky enough to attend a talk Matthew Carter gave at San Jose State this last week. And since he is the only famous typographer I have ever met, I’m going to tell you about it. Firstly he is a very entertaining and witty speaker. His talk reminded me of the movie Helvetica in that you don't have to be a designer or design student to be enthralled by the movie or by Mr. Carter. He said that it used to be that when someone on a plane asked what he did and he said he was a type designer he would get a blank stare but these days any 8 year old can have an intelligent discussion with him about fonts. That says so much about the democratization of type. Matthew Carter is inspirational to me. He is 72 years old and he is still teaching, learning and creating on the leading edge of new technology. He was one of the last people to learn the craft of punch cutting type and now is known to most people as the creator of fonts for Microsoft such as Verdana and Georgia. That is quite a technological career span! When asked how he feels about the multitude of fonts created by the talented and the perhaps not so talented, he said, “The results are not always wonderful, but you cannot champion the demystification of something and then protest that the result are mystifying!”
There was high drama in the world of typography when Ikea recently redesigned their catalog replacing longtime font combo of Futura and Century Schoolbook with Verdana and some typophiles are not happy! Ikea wanted the same typographic identity world-wide for both web and print. Matthew said that he was actually impressed with the work the designers put into the kerning of a web based font and that it looks good. He has wonderfully divested himself of opinions for work he has done for clients. It’s theirs now.
This evening I am watching a Ken Burns/PBS biography of Frank Lloyd Wright. I had no idea what his personal life and tragedies had been. Gripping. I highly recommend it. It's on Netflix instant watch list. The film talks about how FLW was looked upon as passe and old fashioned by the time the new moderns came to America with their love of technology and sleekness and steel. He felt their designs were without soul. It was said that when a fly landed on his drafting table, he would name them Gropius or Meis and then swat them dead. He wasn't really known as a magnanimous and kind person.
I have seen pictures of beautiful houses before but Falling Water, the house FLW's built at Bear Run in Pennsylvania actually brought tears to my eyes. This is sanctuary in the highest form.
Falling Water was created in part as an answer to the new moderns who called him passe even as they emulated his deigns in many ways. He wanted to create a home using his own design ideas but make it look as modern as anything the younger set was designing while still maintaining, and in my opinion creating, the true meaning of soul.
The chapter on corporate identity of course hits close to home for those of us inundated by it above and beyond what the rest of the country sees every time we go 2 blocks. We are surrounded by examples of what works and what doesn't. (Click for a larger view)
The IBM logo has stood the test of time and is immediately recognizable. Because of the proximity of lots of these companies I'm not sure if they really are indelible examples or if I just see them so much that they become so for me. So many things in life we just take for granted without thinking about who had the idea in the first place. One of those is the corporate identity manual which I'm sure many of us were tied to at some point in our careers. It's an absolutely essential tool for creating consistency in a company's identity and covers so very much. William Golden at CBS and Georg Olden (another great story) were pioneers and had to lead their teams to be innovative to create effective and engaging visuals for television, a whole new medium. Learning to create designs from the center out to quickly implant a graphic message, to use simple signs and imagery for the most impact and recognition. The Big Push (pg 400 image 20-5) is an amazing example of getting to the root of what you want to say and then saying it with elegance no matter the message.
It must have been such a rich and fertile place to be when you were lucky enough to have management in your corner understanding the possibilities of what could be accomplished. Every movement, every school of design, every new medium and creative genius all connects and now we are at the forefront of everything Muriel Cooper dreamed would be possible for new media. It's another exciting time for designers.
It's no secret that I am especially interested in the subject of woman in design. I think it's just incomprehensible that the talents, the ideas, the humanity of so many people were shut out for so long based on gender, color or whatever! Bea Feitler was an amazingly talented designer and art director. By all accounts she was an exuberant and charming person with an infinite capacity for learning and being challenged by life and by her work. Her Latin heritage shines through in her use of color and form in new ways that hadn't been seen before. She helped to change the direction of magazine graphics. She died young but left us so much.
A really great article on Bea Feitler written by one of our textbook authors Philip Megg can be found here:
http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/medalist-beafeitler
Bibliography:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/05/arts/design/05ikea.html
New Yorker article, Man of Letters, December 2005
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/12/05/051205fa_fact_wilkinson
Design Museum article
http://designmuseum.org/design/matthew-carter
AIGA article
http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/medalist-matthewcarter
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