Paula Scher

Paula Scher is known as a designer of corporate identities, posters, environmental graphics, packaging, magazines and public spaces. Beside that she is also famous for her paintings of maps rich in information. She fills up her maps with words,presenting the surroundings in a visual way.
" From a distance they resemble patchwork quilts; up close their details are at once clinical and revealing," Coggins says.Scher studied at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia.She co-founded Koppel & Scher in New York, than later joined Pentagram.



A hater of the font Helvetica, she mostly used different fonts in her design, which led to her rather "retro" design style, influenced by historical design.
"She is an accomplished graphic designer, and while the work is full of aesthetic pleasure, it's not overly wrought."(Coggins)


She worked with clients like: The New York Times Magazine, The American Museum of Natural History, the Brooklyn Museum of art, Anne Klein, Citigroup, Metropolis, Phillips Van Heusen and New York Botanical Garden. She also served as a teacher at the school of Visual Arts. Scher won several awards and was named to The Art directors Club Hall of Fame.

"Scher is a fantastic voyager who intuitively grasps that when great distances are covered, it's best to tread lightly." David Coggins


















Coggins, David. "Paula Scher at Maya Stendhal." Art in America 94.4 (2006): 156. OmniFile Full Text Mega. Web. 4 Dec. 2010.http://www.mayastendhalgallery.com/repetitions_bios_pscher.html

Hermann Zapf

Born in Nuremberg in 1918, Herman Zapf during his school years was interested in technical subjects. Started his career as a photo retoucher than later lettering retoucher. From Nuremberg he moves to Frankfurt, where he spends most of his time in typography and song book writing. During this time, Zapf's developed heart problem resulted in loosing his position. after the war broke out, he joint the army. Due to his incapability, his career in the artillery ended shortly. he found happiness working in the cartography, drawing maps for Spain. after the war, Zapf turned back to Nuremberg where he gave some lessons. In 1947, however, a position in a printshop was offered, so he moves back to Frankfurt. Zapf is responsible for developing different printing types like: Palatino, Antigua and Optima. Zapf claims that he witnessed all stages of type procedures and he was also working on using typography in computer programs.


In 1977 he founded "Design Processing International Inc., which later become "Zapf Burns & Company." Unfortunately the company did not last for a long period of time. Developing the type Zapfino took a long time and effort, but finally Lynotype helped with the finishing.
"I did it especially to offer something more useful, compared to the many bad alphabets pushed on the market by designers in the last [few] years, who have no idea at all about good forms of calligraphy,"Zapf said about the Zapfino.
Zapf work resulted in more than 200 typefaces known today. The most popular types are: Palatino, Optima, ITC Zapf Chancery Italic, Michelangelo, Zapf International and Zapf Renaissance.

"In spite of mechanization and rationalization, it will be our task as book artists and alphabet designers, together with the technicians, to maintain the artistic aspects for progress in the evolution of printing"(Hermann Zapf).










Shaw, P. Zapfino. Print (New York, N.Y.) v. 53 no. 5 (September/October 1999) p. 68+
http://download.linotype.com/free/howtouse/ZapfBiography.pdf
http://www.identifont.com/show?14C

Type History

The birthplace of type and print is believed to be Asia. First prints were found in Chinese temples. Gutenberg introduced the printing in Europe in the late 1440s. The Renaissance is the age when fonts start to develop. Before Gutenberg the only fonts known were Old English, Gothic and blackletter but the Renaissance gave birth to other font known as new Roman.There was also a transitional age where old style met modern style and the font created is known as Times Roman.
The following age was the Modern era when the sans serif typefaces like the Egyptian were born. But of course, not all modern typefaces are sans serif. Other fonts from this period are known as New Century Schoolbook, Futura and Helvetica.
Today, great variety of typefaces are available through the digital world. the most well-known fonts used are: Arial, Times, Helvetica, Courier and Symbol. Some of the most famous type designers are: Adrian Frutiger, Aldus Manutius, Claude Garamond, Eric Gill, Frederic Goudy, Giambattista Bodoni, Herman Zapf, Jan Tschichold, John Baskerville, Nicholas Jenson, William Caslon, and William Caxton.
Below I posted three videos related to type. The artists used type to create art, digital image.

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/helvetica/type.html
http://desktoppub.about.com/od/typedesigners/Famous_Type_Designers_and_Printers.htm

A lesson on Typography