OUGD403 - The Gentlemen of Letters - Doccumentary

The main points that i took away from this documentary was that first thing a typeface must do is portray a message, aesthetics and appeal come second. The sign writers believe that a human touch in manual lettering has a certain appeal to it that digital type doesn't. One of them explains that when you have an old photo, never delete it. You could see something in the background years later that might not be there anymore and it important to appreciate and be inspired by old signs and the history of sign writing.

Because of this documentary, I was inspired to look at older company's sign writing and logos around Leeds. I feel as if this manual way of creating typefaces will come back in demand. I feel this way because I can see similar patterns in other fields of art, for example in music, HMV have just started selling vinyl records again and many modern DJs are now wanting to mix on vinyl records again. The price of vinyl mixers have gone up drastically in recent years showing how certain things cycle back round. There is also a similar pattern in barbering and fashion, I can see hairstyles from the 1940's cycling back around now and I also notice that many gentlemen are growing beards and mustaches again. Due to all of these patterns, I believe that company's will resort back to sign writing instead of digital logos. I think that it could be very beneficial to focus on manual type and sign writing as in the not so distant future, it could be a big part of graphic design again.

Due to this, I will probably focus my typeface company on something with a retro feel which i can re-invent with a manual typeface logo. I have recently taken the book 'Typography Sketchbooks, Steven Heller & Lita Talarico' out from the library as their seems to be lots of vintage type examples and techniques noted inside which i could possibly use for inspiration.