From the Histeria! series, here’s a cartoon overview of the invention of printing   . . .   well, actually the invention of moveable type   . . .   well, whatever it was that ‘Type A’ Gutenberg guy did.

Found via Twitter.com/MyFonts

Opening April 8, 2010 at the Bayside Church in Granite Bay, CA is ‘From the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Bible in America,’ an exhibition featuring five pieces of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Also on hand will be some rare Bibles including (reportedly) an original by Gutenberg.

More information here. SacBee article here.

Found via Susan Poirier

‘Fry travels across Europe to find out how Gutenberg kept his development work secret, about the role of avaricious investors and unscrupulous competitors and why Gutenberg’s approach started a cultural revolution.’

Stephen Fry loves design. That’s one of the reasons he’s really cool.

Part two

Part three

Update: The uncredited, pre-set type used for Stephen Fry’s ‘cheat’ was provided by Kitty Maryatt (and her students) of Scripps College in Claremont, California.

Professor Maryatt gave a talk on her Gutenberg project at TypeCon 2010; we spoke briefly after her presentation.

Working with her students, they’d managed to recreate an exact (as possible) replica of an actual Gutenberg Bible page. And this project really showed how detailed (neurotic!) Gutenberg had been. One page kept an entire class busy, the cost of the type alone was in the thousands.

For a bit more about the project, go here.

Found via Aaron Bell

seeds
Mike Parker’s been in the news lately, mostly about the origins of Times New Roman.

I met him several years ago at one of the TypeCons. And as someone who just started teaching a History of Graphic Design course, I had to spend some time picking his brain. How often does one meet the former co-director of typographic development at Mergenthaler Linotype – one of the guys who greenlit Helvetica – and more important, someone who could help me learn to pronounce some of the names in the various design history books I’d been collecting.

There haven’t been many controversies in the type world. Except for the Garamond thing.

the garamond scandal
Turned out that early 20th Century Garamond revivals were not actual Garamonds, but based on a mislabeled specimen taken from the French Imprimerie Nationale. And in 1926, it was a woman going under the pen name Paul Beaujon who blew the lid off of this rather large mishap. (And the enigmatic force behind Beaujon, Beatrice Warde (1900-1969), can be found today on Twitter. Of course.)

the major players
Typography was Big Business in the early 20th century. The major players were Mergenthaler Linotype, Monotype and American Type Founders [ATF]. Work from The Big Three fed where Bitstream and Adobe went in the 1980s. The types we use today are just the grandchildren of work tackled 80 – 100 years ago. Digital revivals of revivals are Big Business today.

Which brings me back to Mike Parker and Times New Roman.

When we spoke, he broke out for me a class struggle story – about a factory worker at British Monotype and the elite Stanley Morison, typographical advisor to the Monotype Corporation, Cambridge University Press – and the driving force behind Times New Roman.

Times New Roman was developed under Morison’s direction (illustrated by Victor Lardent) for The Times of London – released in 1932 – and is arguably the most-used font family in the world today. Like it or not (I do like it; especially the lowercase e), it’s everywhere it can possibly be.

I scribbled my notes, but didn’t have more than that. He referenced a print journal article that I know I’d never find. But I’m not above reporting on hearsay.

history: not very accurate
The short conversation has been part of the Early 20th century type design portion of my history class for a few years now. Hell, history is all about hearsay. Whatever was written down, biases, ego and the lot. Is any of it even true? I just report on what I can find. If one can prove otherwise, great. Love it.

Donald Sutherland IS Johannes Gutenberg!

Even ‘The Father of Printing’ Johannes Gutenberg’s story is unsubstantiated. And if there ever is a movie made from the piles of oft-romanticized conjecture, I think Donald Sutherland should play Gutenberg. He seems to fit with the historical composite. With Philip Seymour Hoffman as Johann Fust. Or Johannes Fust, depending on what source you’re looking at.

(We don’t even know if Gutenberg even existed. That’s the latest hoo ha I’ve heard somewhere. He may actually have been a composite. Like Betty Crocker.)

Philip Seymour Hofmann as the conniving Johann Fust!

Jeremy Piven as the squeaky clean Peter Schöffer!

Tom Wilkinson!

Jimmy Smits!

James Cromwell!

And Miley Cyrus as Beth.

So

where was I?

Oh yeah

Mike Parker

parker’s take on number 54
Earlier this year, Mike released his version of Times New Roman; named for the man who may have been the one with the plan. William ‘Starling’ Burgess had a brief flirtation with typography before turning to aviation. Two guys, the Wright Brothers, dazzled him with some floating invention thing they were working on; and in working for them, his career went.

But it was Burgess’ seminal lettering from 1904 – catalogued ‘Number 54’ in the archives – that may have evolved into the Times types. One story goes that development of Times New Roman may have been more difficult than expected; as the project grew out of a boast, and Morison was charged with not only developing a new typeface for The Times, high legibility and conservation of space were part of the order.

And unfortunately, in all this, there’s just not enough evidence to go on.

links!
But here’s writer Joel Alas’ details of the The Great Times New Roman Controversy, posted last week in the Financial Times. And found via Twitter.com/MyFonts.

And Mike Parker’s Starling fonts can be purchased thru Font Bureau here.

Is it all true? Depends on what you believe. That’s the fun part of history, just never know what is real or what role Miley Cyrus will end up playing in all this.
 

Starling, Mike Parker’s version of the (alleged) seminal types for Times New Roman, 2009

If you’re wondering why Type Daily says ‘since 1455’ up top  . . .  this historical atlas will fill in some of the blanks.

After Johann Gutenberg did his thing, the technology of printing spread across Europe in just around 50 years.

This interactive map from the University of Iowa charts its progress – with timeline, zoom features, trade routes, locations of paper mills and more. Also included is a briefly animated model of what we know of Gutenberg’s press.

I Love Typography takes a look at the holdings of the library of the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz. More than just Bibles.

Article here.

‘We’ll explore the hot button topic of web fonts; antique type and lettering of the textile trade; the typography of Disneyland; making smart fonts even smarter; the influence of Charles Eames; liquid typography; west coast ‘Cholo’ style graffiti; and so much more.’

typecon 2010: babel
Big typography conference next week in Los Angeles. Wood Type preview in Carson today. Designer talks, workshops, dealer room, font makers, stuff.

and me
I’ll be giving my first ever TypeCon talk as part of their Type & Design Education Forum. My title is Tell Lies in the Classroom and Get Away With It. It will be as weird as what I normally do in a classroom.

Promise.

the wind down
I’m also coordinating TypeCon’s after party – Sunday August 22 – at the International Printing Museum in Carson. This great storehouse of vintage type and presses – which I first visited back in 1994 – will be doing live typecasting from period handmolds, running original Linotypes and more.

They also have a working reproduction Gutenberg press – where one can print their own Bible page.

preview
Though TypeCon is next week – the museum is hosting 100 Years of Wood Type TODAY – Saturday August 14, 2010 from 10 am to 4 pm. Not a TypeCon event, but a teaser for what’s coming. If you’re in the area, do check it out. Details here.

News video about the museum below. For more about TypeCon, go here.

A look at contemporary letterpress printing, the technology that goes back to Gutenberg. Short film by Raspberry and Jam for Cereal magazine.

It’s interesting how celebrity works.

I’ll often bring up Stephen Fry in the classroom (and mention his incredible Gutenberg documentary for the BBC) but very few students have heard of him. Then I mention Hugh Laurie and House, then draw the connection to Fry and Laurie and – just let things happen.

(I also think Laurie should have played Archer on the Star Trek prequel series, but what do I know)

Designer Matthew Rogers took Fry’s comments on language – which has this wonderful way of evolving – and made it visual (above).

I am currently working on a project where I’m screwing with language for fun. Google Translate is a great video game, no scores or explosions (unless you look them up); but always fascinating results.

Found via Upworthy