Character Traits; or Can the Early Twentieth Century Please End?
with
Russell Maret
The literature of early twentieth-century typographic industries presented a highly edited view of lettering history in support of their own products. The result was an historical sleight of hand that presented the period’s technological and aesthetic presumptions as timeless fact. These late-Industrial aesthetics continue to exert a disproportionate influence on contemporary digital type design. In this talk, Russell Maret will attempt to tease out a different historical view of lettering, one that proposes that Industrial aesthetics should not be treated as the rule but the aberration in letter design. Along the way, he’ll touch on related topics such as Is legibility worth it? Are digital letterforms type? and other hot-button issues.
Russell will have a selection of his typographic books on hand for viewing after the talk.
The Herb Lubalin Lectures are recorded and made available here and on Vimeo with the generous support of Hoefler&Co.
About Russell Maret
