John Baskerville

A brief Biography

John Baskerville lived from January 28th 1706 to January 8th, 1775.  he became a printer in Birmingham, England.  Then in 1750 he established his own printing business.  There , he prepared his own inks and paper and even the construction of the printing press.  John was a member of the Society of Arts and designed many different typefaces, being one of the top type designers in the 18th century.  he is best remembered as a printer and a typographer and is now recognized as a transformer of English printing and type founding.  John Baskerville was the first to introduce the modern, sophisticated style of type with the contrast of light and heavy lines.  Some of his most famous works are the Milton's Paradies Lost and Paradise Regained, Book of Common Prayer, and his Bible of 1763.  he was greatly admired by the society of Arts and benjamin Franklin, which is who brought his work into the United States.  Many typographers in the U.S. became jealous of John Baskerville and his work started to die down.  however, today his work revivals and is mostly called 'Baskerville'.  the Basterville typeface is classified as very transitional.  So what makes Baskerville unique?  I would say the way the font changes in weight and the simplistic modern look it has to it.

IloveTypography

Infoplease

Myfonts

Wikipedia

Myfonts

Farm

IloveTypography

Petterilaamo

WHY DO WE (designers) USE A GRID?

A grid is the begining skill of any designer.  Way back in the day, when printers, computers and typewrites, had not yet been invented, plain and simple grids helped designers arrange and proportionalize handwritten text onto pages.

Grids are a basic way of orgainizing elements visually; helping us to understand how to create things so they flow harmoniously and communicate the message across with ease. 

"An effective grid is not a rigid formula but a flexible and resilient structure, a skeleton that moves in concert with the muscular mass of information."

Ellen Lupton

Thinking with Type

Sources:

WikiGrid

MarkBoulton

Image/Example Sources:

Design

Grid-based design

Paul Rand lived from 1914 to 1996. He made a name for himself in the advertising and design world. Rand began designing at a very young age, probably before he was even aware that he was. Once Rand's father felt as if he could no longer teach him he sent him off to school.  

Paul attended many great schools such as the Pratt Institute, Parsons School of Design and the Art Student League.  He then began his career with many 'humble' projects, however his early work in page design is where his reputation first began.

Paul Rand first taught himself how to 'design' by looking at certain design magazines.  he was best known for his corporate logo designs such as IBM, UPS, and ABC.  Rand was said to be so great at designing corporate logos because he was able to be a salesman and explain his identities for the corporation, which was not the easiest thing to do.  Rand believed that "a logo cannot survive unless it is designed with the utmost simplicity and restraint".  

Rand's career was filled with many projects.  His most famous being corporate logo designs.  Howeever he also made many books, illustrations and other pieces of work.  he was said to be the one who established many of the definitions of the term "graphic design".  During Rand's later years he taught design at Yale University.

Sources:

Paul Rand Wikipedia

PaulRand.com

DLSDesign