For those in England, stay in on Thursday night, 10 February. At 9pm, Channel 4 will air a program titled ‘Blood On Our Hands: The English Civil War’. Printing will be featured in this episode and so will St Bride’s own Nigel Roche. He demonstrates typesetting at the time in an atmospheric location (Kentwell’s Bakehouse) – complete with smoke and fog for added drama.
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… and fonts on Radio 4. From the BBC listings, for this Friday, February 11th:
From Arial to Wide Latin
In the days of typewriters we had no choice as every document appeared in a font called Courier. The chances are that few people knew that was its name. Now we’re bombarded with all kinds of typefaces. We might have seen Times New Roman in the newspaper and Verdana on our e-mail, and Comic Sans is the popular choice for a party invitation. We instantly recognise the fonts used by the world’s biggest brands.
In “From Arial to Wide Latin”, Ian Peacock explores how the fonts we chose are sending secret subliminal messages about who we are. He argues that the fonts we dress our words in are as much of a fashion statement as the clothes we wear.
Check bbc.co.uk for details of live streaming and their 7-day archiving service.
Marco – you beat me to it! I was ready to post that information as well. Last autumn, they came to the library and interviewed Nigel and Caroline Archer in addition to a few other notable names in the area.
In the days of typewriters we had no choice as every document appeared in a font called Courier. The chances are that few people knew that was its name.
Huh?? There were hundreds of different typewriter fonts and every typewriter manufacturer had their own. Except for a few scripts and sans serif designs, most of them had that classic “typewriter” look and, in any case, you were usually stuck with the one that was built into your typewriter.
Courier was one of the fonts you could get for IBM typewriters, like the Selectric. It was designed for IBM in 1955 by Bud Ketter. (More about him and Courier here.) You could also get Prestige and a few others.
The idea that all typewriters used the same font and that the font was called Courier is wrong on both accounts.
good catch, mark. there were several questionable items on the show – he kept trying to ‘prove’ that people’s typeface choices were outward manifestations of their personalities. oh please. it’s worth listening to the archive version to hear the psychologist suggest the ‘best’ typefaces for one’s resume!
Not an exact transcript but very close:
the psychologist: You’re a Trebuchet man.
the presenter: Wow. Can you tell the font personality of anyone nearly instantly just by looking at them?
the psychologist: Yes, I can.
–
At least Neville Brody was on the program talking some sense.
For $100 I’ll tell you your font personality! Order now!
:-P
A side line on Ian Peacock’s broadcast. I asked my adult F.E. GCSE students to listen as a supplement to their ‘Media Studies’ assignment. Most of them did so and all gained something from it!