Hype for Type: History of Typography [Video]

To Helvetica and Back

During our quest to add a typographer to our team we stumbled on a stop motion video about the history of typography. We watched, and found ourselves shouting each font name out loud. Forgive us for being such design groupies. The video, created by Ben Barrett-Forrest is a paper letter animation. Tracing the history of type from Gutenberg to Helvetica.

Font as we know it began with Blackletter. The typeface, designed to emulate the handwriting of contemporary scribes was heavy and at times difficult to read. As a result, a fellow inspired by Italian architecture came along with an improved model. Enter Roman type, or typography 2.0, a clean more legible means of lettering.

Let's talk about angles

Italics, aptly named for its country of origin, were inspired by calligraphic writing. First used by Aldus Manutis and his press in Venice in 1500, the noble type has come a long way. While today italics are used to denote a change in tone or emphasize importance these were not the original intentions of the slant. Italics were born for much more practical purposes, to fit more words on the page.

We *know* you know that our typography obsessed crew are already experts, but if you aren't, check the video out.