The History of Typography Told in Five Animated Minutes

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The History of Typography Told in Five Animated Minutes

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by Ayun Halliday

Tag : #history, #design, #typography

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Caslon, Baskerville, Helvetica... these names have graced many a pull down menu, but what do they signify, exactly?

Graphic designer Ben Barrett-Forrest spent 140 hours animating the 291 paper letters on display in the History of Typography, an introduction to the ways in which language has been expressed visually over time.

From Gutenberg's inky, monk-inspired Blacklister font to the ever-controversial Comic Sans, Barrett-Forrest employs stop motion to spell out the quantifiable reasons that certain serifs and stroke types are easy on the eye. Let's not tell the creators of Llama Font or Mr. Twiggy, but legibility is the mother of survival in this arena.

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