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Tobias Frere-Jones, type designer from Hoefler Frere-Jones jumps into the limelight in the name of politics. One minute Tobias is touring type in Elwood and the next minute he is stealing headlines and spruiking quotes such as “We see type as the clothes that words wear…”. Go Gotham, go type design! Read the news site – The Age – here

Visit Hoefler Frere-Jones here, see our Elwood type tour here.

A recent radio programme titled – the Death of Handwriting – put into question the place for handwriting in the digital age of personal computers, Qwerty key boards, text messaging, web blogs, emails and various telephone services. The programme set out to explore the place for hand writing in 2008, which raised many lines of inquiry. It seems that many simple, yet complex aspects of Western life are in constant states of flux and taken for granted by its citizens.

Only 200 years ago a small percentage of industrialised society could read and write – very few individuals were capable of effectively absorbing, dreaming up and delivering ideas of one’s fancy. In the middle ages literacy was measured by ones ability to read and write scriptures in Hebrew or Latin. In earlier times of human history, the ability to write one’s name was a measure of literacy, there were also whole vocations or trades set up – professional scribes, to serve illiterate populations.

Today many westerners are adept in literacy and numeracy. With the fundamentals of communication in place, societies are exploring the finer points of such skills, such as one’s need for quality hand writing in the digital age.

There are several camps of thought in regard to the future of handwriting and the debate continues into early learning – Is handwriting a relevant skill to be taught in modern schools post the age of personal computers and telephone?

The technology camp is mostly all for spending little energy of developing fine handwriting, as fine motor skills ( the human ability to execute complex hand eye coordination tasks) are also being developed by using keyboards, mice and joy sticks. The traditional camp is all for maintaining fine hand writing skills, for reasons of economy – it is a highly portable skill, it is key to self expression and esteem, it is an essential life skill. Then there are camps in between those extremes, as one would also expect.

In terms of design, the demise of handwriting skills appear to an opportunity for designers. There are many artists and designers including Studio Pip and Co., who use handwriting in their work to achieve results that assist their clients to bring a human quality – an uniqueness, a familiar sense, of imperfection, to projects. Hand developed type is an exotic and popular form of creative expression that has a prominent place in communication design. The interest and dedication to developing forms of writing has a natural progression to the dramatic growth of type design and the grooming of type designers.

Thousands of new typefaces have been designed and produced for usage in design today, it seems that this practice is ongoing. Whereas less than thirty years ago there was a static catalogue of fonts that the communication design of the time seldom looked beyond. The famous quote by Massimo Vignelli (born in milan in 1931, New York based graphic design legend) is a testament to the limited catalogue – That all we need as typographic designers are 6 typefaces, and no more. This quotation has a tendency to polarise designers and one wishes they had a quote like to their name.

Another interesting topic investigated by the radio programme explored that human connection and the ability to hand write. Many people with poorly developed hand writing feel ashamed by their ability and as a result have embraced new technology – this idea explores the concept of an individual’s form and sense of self expression. When you think about it, whether you are creative or not creative, professional and manual skilled, the ability to produce quality hand writing is a satisfying personal achievement and an experience that one can enjoy throughout their life.

The demise of handwriting has also eroded the analytical side of handwriting – the ability of a handwriting style to reflect the scribe’s personality, the scribes ability to process and convey information and even reflect the scribe’s age or state of health. All these finer aspects of handwriting give a piece writing more context, human dimension and insight into the individual.

Andrew’s grandparents all had basic schooling and one skill they all had with them throughout their lives was the ability to write, and ability to express and execute their ideas via finely developed handwriting skills. Andrew’s mother from a young age had fine handwriting which won her school and district attention at locally held handwriting competitions – such things are unheard of in school practice in 2008. Andrew’s maternal Grandfather was a farmer, a physical vocation that has little call for quality handwriting. Never-the-less when called upon he could pen a detailed and fine copperplate hand written script for personal cheques, addressing envelopes or property weather records.

This brings into question whether it is essential for designer to have good handwriting – being the champions of fashioning graphic communication. One would say not, as much of the work completed by modern designers are ideas and concepts assembled on computers. That said, from observation, many accomplished graphic designers, artists, architects and writers also have unique and well resolved hand writing styles. In 2008 it seems that new scribes need to have patience over ability, if one has decided to have a distinctive hand, or unique hand writing style, they are making a commitment to the heritage of communicating ideas.

The progression of handwriting to keying in ideas via a keyboard, or voice activated device is another example of people giving up basic life skills to be dependant upon a contemporary technology. One is not fixed upon the loss of another romantic expression – such as handwriting, one is more over alarmed how willing people are giving up another skill that is powerful, expressive, in expensive and highly portable. In changing and challenging times, one thinks that a modern person requires many; or the willingness to revisit basic life skills, so they can seemlessly adapt and evolve as the period dictates.

Many western people are so dependent upon technology to execute daily tasks and processes many are a faced with crisis if the terms of this technology change. People used to walk from location A to B, now they aspire to drive a car. People used to growth and tend their food, now they mindlessly buy their food at the supermarket. People used to gather around the family piano for entertainment, now they plug into the ipod while chatting online. People used to grow up with a healthy diet and regular exercise, now populations are faced with the growth of the personal training industry and problem obesity.

As we give up handwriting, or accept that our children won’t learn to write thoroughly at school for the purposes of ease and convenience. We are excepting that another basic life skill is being compromised in incremental measures, which in turn compromises in incremental measures one’s sense of independence and resourcefulness. At the introduction of this post one introduced an ancient people dependent upon a niche trade of scribes to support a illiterate population. It is ironic that several millenia later sophisicated western communities are increasingly relying upon a niche of designers and artists to bring a sense of humanity to the communication process.

Australia has several handwriting styles for review, also see the following links that were referenced in the post.

Listen to the radio programme here (up for four weeks)

See Massimo Vignelli’s work here

Australian Home School Curriculum hand writing notes and links

Visit an online handwriting lessons resource

For the audience members from – AGDA’s f-o-r-t-y e-i-g-ht presentation in Melbourne, find attached the type tour taken by type designer Tobias Frere-Jones and Andrew on a hot January day over the new year’s break in Melbourne.

Elwood is rich with an astounding variety of anonymously developed type design for those prepared to hunt it out. If you would like to take this tour, we suggest starting or finishing at Wimbledon Avenue, and leave out the Balaclava stretch. The tour will take approximately two hours. If one has the desire to wander off the route, do so, the samples at the f-o-r-t-y e-i-g-h-t presentation represent a small selection of what is on offer. Finally, it’s an obvious yet important instruction – please be sure to respect the residents of the area by not trespassing on properties and respecting privacy.

In the next few months we will be assembling a group of type nuts to make sense of this work. We are planning to develop some form of printed survey and exhibition displaying the diversity of anonymous lettering design in and around Melbourne. If you would like further information please email us to join our data base for updates.
Visit Hoefler Frere-Jones here

Nowality at times finds itself commenting on pieces of graphic design that exist in the community far from the design commentary and creative halls of fame.

In a pocket of Melbourne’s south eastern suburbs, along a mostly residential road, are two samples of commercial vernacular signing. What is curious about these two samples, is the close proximity of a signing outcome that references hip hop culture, to a sample signing that has just stepped of the late 1970s.

JZ Lee is believe it or not, a plastering and rendering company. The sign is unremarkable in manufacture, yet the contemporary hip hop reference is memorable. This is one of the first samples that we have seen of branding that brings into play hip hop typography into a ordinary and commercial context. There are plenty of youth brands, magazines, band graphics, fashion graphics with hip hop type, but hip hop type for a plaster rendering company?, what the? Could one image a company like Boral or James Hardie with a hip hop inspired brand?

A dry cleaning company called Shield has a look akin with contemporary design cues. What makes this sample of signing stand out is its manufacturing. It represents a time in signmaking where quality and skill was foremost. There are no traces of a vinyl cutter and adhesive lettering to be seen here. Hand sign writing; finely made yet awkwardly stacked light boxes; combined with the overall layout and placement, makes for a truly unique and charming sample of graphic design in the middle of no where.

We have a feeling that Shield may be modernised in the not so distant future. Till then we will write a letter to the owners, urging them to restort rather refresh. In the time in between, one will ride past this work as much as possible. And quite possibly, a future piece of our work may incorporate stacked light boxes, sign writing and bold restrained graphic treatment inspired by its memory.