AV News 201 - August 2015
T y p e M a tte rs …
Andrew N. Gagg FRPS
I hold cherished memories from my five years as a student at the Brighton
College of Art, and in particular of discovering the delights of Draught Guinness
one lunchtime at the 'King and Queen'.
Less cherished, but equally vivid is the anguish of that same afternoon, when
back at the college a whole galley-full of my heavy metal type cascaded
gracefully onto the printing-shop floor... I would not say the two incidents were in
any way connected, but the frustration was considerable - watching the fruits of
my tyro labours with a compositor's stick (which had stretched over a period of
several weeks) as the metal - precious though leaden - scattered beneath the
cabinets loaded with fonts. Anguish especially bitter since I had to sort it all back
into its cases ('UPPER' and 'lower', while carefully minding my 'p's and 'q's).
Nonetheless my enthusiasm for the arrangement of type matter has remained
undimmed over these many years, as a number of my recent students will testify,
and working side-by-side with Graphic Designers of great talent as part of the
BBC's Design Department was a privilege and a pleasure - I happily left my
drawing-board in 'Scenic' on every pretext to see their latest contribution to our
projects, which might be anything from 'All Creatures Great and Small' to 'Telly
Addicts', or a Dickens blockbuster to the daily news.
Latterly much of it was electronically generated, and it was less easy to see
what was being created until it hit the gallery screens. Nowadays paper and
pens, Lettraset and rulers hardly come into it at all - but the compensation is that
the whole operation is much more flexible, and the results much more varied and
creative. The Graphic Design contribution to a major drama series for example,
though often occupying relatively little actual air-time, is a most important aspect
of a production, setting the scene, the mood and the period, often before we had
seen any live action, any costumes or scenery.
A well-considered title slide, in an
appropriate typeface, with thought given to its
colour, size placing and background will also
start off an AV sequence in the direction it
intends to go.
On TV we are given clues, often subliminal
ones as to what we are about to see.
Blackletter, or Old English may evoke
‘Black Letter’ Fonts
Mediaeval goings-on, while a delicate copper
plate script can transport us straight to Austen-land.
Some lettering styles scream 'Art Deco' or 'Wodehouse' at us, and others, plain
and severe as the classic Gill Sans take us straight to
‘Gill Sans’ Fonts
Foyle's wartime office.
‘Art Deco’ Fonts
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