Fournier, Pierre Simon

Everybody sees examples of typography every day. on the streets, in the shops, while going on any transport and even in our fridge! Needless to say, that we are overwhelmed by the amount of visual stuff around us! most of the people don't even have a clue what a difficult subject typography is. But this person definitely did…

Pierre Simon Fournier was a French graphic designer. He was born on the 15 of September in 1712. He is most known for the typographic work that he has done through his entire life.

During his youth he has been practicing different graphic aspects: he has been painting in watercolors, wood engraving, which later has led him to letter engraving an letter casting. Through his whole life he has designed more than 150 typefaces. Pierre Simon Fournier is also known for standardizing the size of the typefaces used in France.

Most of the Fonts Simon Fournier has designed were Serif types. There always was a big contrast between the areas where the letters were thin and thick, which could lead to bad clarity of the text. Nevertheless, the Simon Fournier’s fonts are still used or are used as a base to create new fonts “in the style of Simon Fournier”. Joanna, Meridienm, Fairfield… these are only few that are used nowadays…
Pierre Simon Fournier has been a hard-working person and not only he designed the types, but also he had several publications about it.” Modèles des Caractères”, "Manuel Typographique", "Essai d’un nouveau caractère de fonte pour l’impression de la musique".

Another thing that Pierre Simon Fournier has been working of is musical notes. He has make made the shapes smoother, the notes easier to read. He died at the age of 56, on the 8 of October in 1786.

Bibliography:
1)Pierre Simon Fournier - Linotype Font Designer
http://www.linotype.com/711/pierresimonfournier.html
2)Identifont - Pierre Simon Fournier
http://www.identifont.com/show?17K
3)Pierre Simon Fournier - LoveToKnow 1911
http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Pierre_Simon_Fournier
4)Laurent Pflughaupt “Letter by Letter”, Princeton Architectural Press, 2007.

Daria Sidorenko

Griffo, Francesco

Francesco Griffo was a famous Italian type founder, punchcutter and type designer in a late fifteenth-century. In 1495, He worked for Aldus Manutius cutting early italics, who was Italian scholar of the Italian Renaissancer. Griffo has huge Contribution with roman type, which include finding the equilibrium point for the normal capital letter and the lower case. By achieving that, he compress the weight of the capitals and cut shorter of it.

Francesco Griffo did this work on 1501, is one of the type design in the Italian renaissance.

I also find a really usefull book about Francesco Griffo, which is Francesco Griffo da Bologna, fragments & glimpses : a compendium of information & opinions about his life and work.

JianJian Zhou

Baskerville, John

John Baskerville (28 January 1706 - 8 January 1775), was an English businessman in areas which consist japanning and papier-mâché, but his many interest was on printmaking and typography. Baskerville also was responsible for significant innovations in printing, paper and ink production. Moreover, he was responsible for significant innovations in printing, paper and ink production. He renovated a method which manufactured a smoother whiter and established a entire new style of typography including wide margins and leading between each line. Despite the significance of his work, he was critised by other competitors, but since the 1920s many new fonts have been published by Linotype, Monotype, and other typefoundries renewal of his work and mostly called 'Baskerville'.

Furthermore, he set up a printing house in 1757 where his first work was issued,an edition of Virgil, which was followed by another edition, the John Milton. Expect from that, he appointed printer to the University of Cambridge and although he was an atheist he undertook an edition of the Bible (1763), which was regarded as a work of art. He died on the 8th of January 1775.


BIBLIOGRAPHY
Biographical Dictionary (2006), Famous Quotes from Baskerville John,
http://www.s9.com/Biography/Baskerville-John
Date accessed 27/10/2009

Wikipedia(2009),JohnBaskeville,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Baskerville/
Date accessed 27/10/2009

Biography Base,John Baskerville Biography,
http://www.biographybase.com/biography/Baskerville_John.html
Date accessed 27/10/2009

Encyclopedia Brtitannica (2009), John Baskerville,
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/55215/John-Baskerville
Date accessed 28/10/2009

Nadine Daouti

Bernhard, Lucian

Lucian Bernhard (b. 15.03.1883 Stuttgart, Germany — d. 29.05.1972 New York, USA)
Graphic artist, illustrator, painter, type designer, interior designer, teacher. Born as Emil Kahn, he assumes his pseudonym in 1905. Mostly self-taught, he studied briefly at the Akademie in Munich.

In 1901, he moved to Berlin. Two years later, he wined a poster competition for Priester matches. After 1903, he became the art director of the Deutsche Werkstätten für Handwerkskunst. During 1910, he worked with Hans Sachs on the publication of the magazine "Das Plakat". In 1920, he became the first professor at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. Three years later he moves to New York. In 1928, he opened the Contempora studio with Rockwell Kent, Paul Poiret, Bruno Paul and Erich Mendelsohn. Works as a graphic artist and interior designer. After 1930, he primarily worked as a painter and sculptor.

Lucian Bernhard is one of those who pioneered modern advertising language corresponding to the economic upswing and the accompanying accelerated rhythm of life. As the inventor of the so-called "Sachplakat" – functional poster – he has decidedly shaped the history of commercial advertising. He designed the lettering of brand and corporate names for large firms like Bosch, Kaffee HAG or Pelikan, and today their modern versions still refer to those Bernhard created.

His designs may still be topical and in people's minds, yet he as the designer is largely unknown. This is why the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e.V. is dedicating a comprehensive monographic retrospective to Lucian Bernhard. It includes all of his fields of activity: poster design, typography, book and magazine design.

Pian Pian Zheng

Bibliography
http://www.lucian-bernhard.com/
http://www.ifa.de/en/exhibitions/exhibitions-abroad/design/lucian-bernhard/

Didot, François-Ambroise

Son of François Didot, François-Ambroise inherited his father's skills and kept the legacy of printing, publishing, and typefounding began by his father. He improved the standard of type design allowing a greater contrast between thick and thin letter, to him we owe the measurement in points of the fonts (type size), and the standard of the 72 french inch measure.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/162510/Francois-Ambroise-Didot < 28 oct 09 10.30am

Maria Carrasco

Bodoni, Giambattista

Giambattista Bodoni was an Italian printer and typographer born in Saluzzo, Italy in 1740. He is most renowned for designing a typeface now known as Bodoni (see fig 1). Both his father and grandfather were printers, and his first apprenticeship was one of a high standard — Propaganda Fire, the Vatican's printing house in Rome. He finished his apprenticeship and thanks to his dedication, enthusiasm and skill attained management at the Royal Press, the press of the Duke of Parma. The printing house was a great success, and it was not long before his own works made an appearance. The success lead to the Duke allowing Bodoni to open a printing house of his own, the Officina Bodoni, with which he produced more than 300 typefaces. The Bodoni typeface is characterised by its contrast of the thick main body of the letterform and the thin, sharp serifs (the short lines at the ends of the strokes of the letter). This contrast makes the font look delicate and fragile yet still evokes an edginess, qualities which many designers seek to obtain. Bodoni's typeface has had a huge impact on contemporary typography with Bodoni-esque font being used widely within all aspects of design.

Bibliography
Books
Cleland, T.M, (1916) Giambattista Bodoni of Parma, Society of Printers, Boston.
Internet
B-net. 2009. Giambattista Bodoni: King of typographer, typographer of kings. [Online] Available at: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3992/is_200107/ai_n8978403/ [Accessed 27 October 2009]
Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2009. Giambattista Bodoni. [Online] Available at: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/71084/Giambattista-Bodoni [Accessed on 27 October 2009]

Scott English

Bembo, Pietro

Pietro Bembo was an Italian cardinal who made himself an important figure in the history/development of Italian language. Literary theorist and writer Bembo’s ideas and interests were important to redefine literary interests in his XV century Italy. He was born in 1470, Venice. During his lifetime he was dedicated to the study of Italian literature, and wrote himself a treatise about Italian poetry that latter became his most notorious work; Prose della vulgar lingua. His ideas were also important in the formation of the musical form called madrigal. The typeface named Bembo was named after him.

Rafael Camisassa

Gutenberg, Johann

Johann Gutenberg (1398-1468) was a German print maker. Who established himself as one of history’s most important creators by inventing the Mechanical Printing press in 1448. His invention was one of history’s most important tools, the process of the printing press, uses movable ink covered blocks of letters and imagery pressed onto flat paper. This helped develop the process book making faster, more reliable, cheaper and less time consuming. Before this the majority of people were using methods such as “Block printing”. This was very popular during this era, however due to such intensive labour, it made it very expensive for books to be made. In that time book’s could only be afforded by wealthy people. Before his invention, he partnered up with Johann Fust, who financially helped Gutenburg to create his machine and made it possible for him to create the “Gutenburg Bible”, which today is valued at over $100(US) million.

Robert Taylor

http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/gutenberg.html
http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/printpress.htm

Unger, Johann Friedrich

Johann Friedrich Unger was a prominent German publisher, printer and wood engraver based in Berlin. Over his life span of 1753-1804 he gained a reputation as typographical artist, printer and publisher across Germany and beyond. He is most famous for the new Gothic font he designed named 'Ungerfraktur' in 1793. Ungerfraktur was a Gothic font different to existing fonts of this style as it was much lighter. He is also famous for his stylish printing and the ornamentation he used.

Unger published many famous works of literature including some of the work of German writer Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, a key figure in the 'Romantik' movement in literature and creator of the term 'World Literature.' Unger and Goethe had a very good working relationship and Goethe is known to have written about the importance of a "balance between author and publisher." Another well known piece published by Unger is the Shakespeare translations by A.W.Schlegel.

In November 1779 he requested to found a printing press, owners of existing presses disapproved saying that this was unnecessary and too expensive. Despite this Unger received the privilege to set up his print foundry in 1791. After his death in 1804 Unger's wife, Friedrike Helene Unger whom he had collaborated with throughout his career, took charge of his printing and publishing house which was heavily in dept. Unfortunately she was unable to salvage it nor could she persuade the new university to acquire it.

In Unger's later life he was appointed as a professor of Xylography (the art of wood engraving) at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin.

Bibliography:
Goethe and His Publishers — Siegfried Unseld 1996
http://www.linotype.com/5346/johannfriedrichunger.html

Nicola Price

Auriol, Georges

Georges Auriol (1863 – 1938) was a French Writer, Poet, Graphic Designer and Painter closely connected to the Art Nouveau movement that peaked at the start of the 20th Century. Although important in shaping the editorship of the ‘Chat Noir’ newsletter, a periodical accompanying the most famous Cabaret bar of the movement, Auriol’s single greatest achievement was the Auriol Typeface, created for the type foundry Deberny & Peignot. It’s flowing, organic forms, influenced by Japanese calligraphy, were typical of Art Nouveau, and quickly found use across Posters, Book Covers, and the Paris Metro, leading to Steven Heller’s assessment of Auriol as the, ‘quintessential Art Nouveau designer’.

References:
Linotype (2009) [online]. [Accessed on the 26th October 2009], http://www.linotype.com/654/georgesauriol.html

Heller, S. and Filli, L, Typology, Chronicle Books, 1999.