Typographic artists and research

Paul Friedrich August Renner

Paul Renner was born on the 9th august in 1878 and was a typographer, his most recognisable type face was Futura, it is a geometric sans serif and was used mainly in the 20th century. They say he created a new set of quidelines for a good book design, i think that because the typeface is easy to read, I can see why book publishers liked to use it. During nazi power Renner was arrested in germany for his book “Kultur-bolschewismus?” (Cultural Bolshevism?)  unfortunatly he couldnt find a german publisher to make it come to life but the nazis still arrested him.

   

Arthur Eric Rowton Gill

Eric Gill was born on the 22nd of February 1882 and died on the 17th November 1940. In 1925 Gill designed Perpetua typeface, the upper case letters based on monumental Roman inscriptions. The typeface was also named after his daughter Petra. After Perpetua, Gills sans typeface was born based on the sans serif lettering originally designed for London underground. He was involved in the design for the underground typeface but he dropped out before the project was completed. In the re-design of penguin books Gills sans was set as the typeface for the books in the Penguin Composition Rules by Jan Tschichold.

Hyroglifics
Hyroglifs are from the acient egyptians, they were used just like our letters are today, they depicted a word as a symbol. They were found in most of the pyramids, describing the people that were buried there. they are some of the first signs of wording and putting sentences together.    

Illuminated manuscript
Illuminated manuscripts were very popular in the 13th century, it is where a piece of manuscirpt, often the bible, was copied but with decorative initials and borders, the more expensive ones were decorated in gold and silver. Getting towards the late middle ages people started to do illuminated manuscripts onto paper and the first sort of books were then created, but still everything had to be hand written. 

Letterpress History

Letterpress printing is relief printing of text and image using a press with a "type-high bed" printing press and movable type, in which a reversed, raised surface is inked and then pressed into a sheet of paper to obtain a positive right-reading image. It was the normal form of printing text from its invention by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15th century until the 19th century and remained in wide use for books and other uses until the second half of the 20th century. In addition to the direct impression of inked movable type onto paper or another receptive surface, letterpress is also the direct impression of inked printmaking blocks such as photo-etched zinc "cuts" (plates), linoleum blocks, wood engravings, etc., using such a press.