This session introduces the audience to the work of two prominent post-war typographers and book designers in Japan: Etsushi Kiyohara and Helmut Schmid. Taro Yamamota carefully examines their unique interpretations, which were influenced by modernist styles imported from the West. He will also consider the historical conditions of typographic studies during the postwar era and… Continue reading Two Post-War Typographers and Modernism
Today’s Japanese texts differ greatly in appearance from those of 150 years ago. Back then, publications were printed with wooden printing blocks. This process allowed letters to be more varied in size and proportion, with each letter having its own unique features. In addition, scripts were always written in cursive, with connecting strokes between characters.… Continue reading Rediscovering the Beauty of Kana
This presentation is about the history of woodblocks used in Sinhala newspapers from their inception to the 1990s. Focusing on wood-block compositions, Sumanthri Samarawickrama will take you through a timeline showing how retro Sinhala letters took shape. The aim of the talk is to shed light on the development of the Sinhala script and its… Continue reading Sinhala Wood-Block Type
This talk examines typographies across bilingual magazines from China to understand how design decisions relate to the reader’s experience. Independent magazines featuring primarily Chinese and English texts that concentrate on self-improvement through art and travel will be the focus here. Underpinning this presentation is research carried out during Salmonsen’s MATD dissertation at the University of… Continue reading Bilingual Typographies across Chinese Magazines
One of the least known stories in Japanese graphic design history is the emergence of Sun Studio / サン・スタジオ, one of Japan’s very first graphic design studios. Sun Studio was run by poster designer Hokuu Tada / 多田北烏 (1889–1948), who influenced countless early graphic designers and typographers in Japan in the Taishō and Shōwa periods… Continue reading From Bijin-ga to Brutus
India’s textual and typographic heritage can be considered to have four stages influenced by economic and political development: precolonial, colonial, postcolonial, and liberal. Because India is essentially an oral and manuscript culture, an argument can be made that Indian typographic and publishing practice has absorbed Western typographic norms to such an extent that vernacular ways… Continue reading Building a New Typography: Tangible and Intangible Heritages of Typographic Practice in India
The process of type design is a long, arduous journey. This is especially true for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (CJK) scripts. It can be embarrassing to discover problems once a design is well underway. Sometimes it’s hard to think about fixing mistakes, even under supervision. But constant revision is an inevitable part of producing useful… Continue reading Hangul Type-Design Methodology: Making Revision Fun
2019 represents a very important year for Japan: a new era named Reiwa (令和) began on May 1, 2019. Japan’s current and four previous era names are composed of two kanji (also known as ideographs). Japan’s Era Name Law (1979) explicitly requires this, and further states that the two kanji must be easy to read… Continue reading The History of Japan’s Era Name Square Ligatures
Modern developments on the web make it easier than ever to create robust, scalable, and elegant typographic systems. When we add variable fonts to the mix, things get really exciting. This presentation looks at how to combine all of these ingredients to create a whole new way of thinking about design on digital devices. We’ll… Continue reading Our New Typography: Dynamic Typesetting, Variable Fonts, and a Million Digital Devices
The Japanese writing system is one of the most complex in the world, despite language reforms in the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries that prioritized standardization, legibility, and efficiency. During this period, the country also experienced a boom in consumerism that followed the Meiji Restoration, producing a demand for designers and lavish advertising art.… Continue reading Japanese Typography, Lettering, and Commercial Art in the Early Twentieth Century