Chronologies 2: The History of Type- Production and Distribution

In 1919 Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus school, bringing together creatives and engineers to spark new age development in a growing industrial town after the First World War. Their philosophy was that 'form follows function', the function of a product would drive the appearance of it. The Bauhaus also focused on simplicity- "less is more." To always design with a function in mind even if the main function is to be decorative, which is still the current driving force for modern art education.

Pre-modern: the way it's always been, a systematic culture.
Modern: After the war people became innovative, following a line of "onwards and upwards."
Post-modern: No longer following a conventional route, often with a sense of irony or defiance.

In 1957 Miedinger designed Helvetica to function as a neutral typeface that had great clarity, no intrinsic meaning in its form, and could be used on a wide variety of signage.
The 50s to 90s was the new age for typographers to specialise in creating type. They designed using simple tracing paper and sketches. But after the 1990s the first Mac was created and type craft became democratised. Any individual was free to create design themselves and type and graphics suddenly became very common. For example, Vincent Connare in 1994 created Comic Sans !

Tim Berners-Lee created the world wide web so ideas could be spread for free to anyone. This eventually stimulated the modern use of emojis, which has almost become a common global language. This reaches back to that Greek idea of symbols being used to represent language, you could say we've gone full circle.

Post modernism began to grow when people like Jamie Reid and Vivienne Westwood began designing in the 70s. Punk culture grew, especially when Reid designed for the Sex Pistols; he got rid of the grid and began tearing up type. You could argue this was sparked by Dada, who were one of the first known movements to have no rules when it came to designing.
Still, the 70s began a new culture of commerce and collaboration, using photography widely for modern fashion. In 1979 Barbara Kruger created 'Your body is a Battleground' and in 1992 David Carson designed for Ray Gun magazine. Carson firmly believed in ripping it up and starting again to create something completely different.
Having a single approach no longer exists. We are in a culture of questioning and a culture of understanding. With limitless opportunities to engage with the world around us, there is always a new way to design.