Bodoni's Typeface Style example essay topic

Bodoni felt a passion for his work and thus created regal typefaces that boldly emphasized a clean and crisp edge. Giambattista Bodoni was born in 1740 in Saluzzo, Italy. His father was a printer, therefore he was also trained in the printing trade from his early youth. At the age of eighteen, he was hired by the Vatican printing house, the Propaganda Fide, in Rome. By 1768, he was given the position of director of the press of Ferdinand, Duke of Parma, which he retained for the rest of his life.

While at the Propaganda Fide, Bodoni was given the task of organizing a neglected collection of typecasting paraphernalia. These consisted of the punches and the matrices for a wealth of exotic typefaces. With the encouragement of Abbot Ruggieri, his current mentor and supervisor, Bodoni soon learned the rudiments of Middle Eastern and Oriental languages. This had profound influence on Bodoni as he later engraved numerous fonts in the languages he learned while with Ruggieri. Bodoni's first publications appeared in 1768, and for the next few years he followed a style that was predominantly French. His types and ornaments directly imitated those of Pierre Simon Fournier, a fellow typographer who was fond of lavish decoration.

During this period Bodoni was fond of using elaborate engraved initials, lavish borders and detailed illustrations. By the 1790's, Bodoni had gradually discarded ornament and illustrations from his books. He achieved all his effects with type alone, sometimes spending months experimenting with layouts for a title page and even cutting new types when nothing in his cases were adequate. He was greatly influenced by his contemporary, John Baskerville of England, who was known for his unadorned and simplistic style. Ever conscious of his contributions to the typographic arts, Bodoni had tinkered with his types endlessly, touching up punches or cutting new ones until each design was worthy of being printed on fine paper, "fixed and preserved with sharper outlines than the articulation of lips can give them". (web) It was during this minimalist phase that Bodoni became widely known; important travelers visited his press, and collectors sought out his books. The Duke of Parma gave him a larger press with more independence and consequently, he no longer had to confine himself to the Duke's projects.

His printing exercises were large regal efforts meant to be looked upon and appreciated as works of art, rather than mere pieces of communication. His works were honored as beautiful, but scholars scorned his indifference to the quality of the text and to the editing and proofreading. The last years of his life brought Bodoni international fame. Even though age had worn him, he continued to work on his projects up until he was bound to his bed. He received compliments from the pope and was honoured with a pension by Napoleon Bonaparte. In the preface to the Manuale Tipo grafico (1818), a collection of Bodoni's work, he enumerates four principles or qualities from which a good type derives its beauty: Regularity, or uniformity of design, is the first, and it consists of understanding that many of the characters in an alphabet share common elements which must remain the same; the second is "smartness and neatness", in other words, well-cut and finished punches that produce clean matrices from which sharp type can be cast; third, the principle of good taste; and fourth, the quality evident in a beautiful type is a charm that is difficult to define but present in those letters which give "the impression of being written not unwillingly or hastily, but painstakingly, as a labor of love". (web) Throughout his life Bodoni engraved 291 typefaces, but one in particular was to make a considerable impact.

In 1798, Bodoni's most notable creation, a typeface titled Bodoni Book was produced. This was an extremely high-contrast Modern typeface which created a visual revolution in the typographical design community. The thick stems and horizontal strokes flowed perfectly into very fine lines and terminated with thin, straight serifs. The first impression one has of a Bodoni typeface is that it is crisp. Although influenced by Baskerville, this font coined Bodoni's typeface style which is more evolved, refined and logical than Baskerville. Bodoni's modern compositions were known to have influenced his rival, the French typographer Francois Didot, whose typefaces Bodoni evaluated and learned from.

Bodoni was not as radical and preferred to stay just behind his bold contemporary. In comparison, Bodoni's serifs have a small degree of bracketing and his weight transitions are gradual as opposed to Didot's abrupt angles. See fig. 2. In the UK during the 1950's, Vincent Steer published a regular analysis in Advertiser's Weekly which showed the constant popularity of Bodoni as a generic family outperforming all other serif faces, including Times Roman. (web) The classical Bodoni typeface is still used today, mostly in sophisticated advertising, fashion, and art oriented printed literature. Now there exists numerous versions of the Bodoni Book typeface. Although some are more true to the original than others, all claim to be offshoots.

These range from Morris Fuller Benton's early 19th century design of the Bodoni family, which in turn was used as the model by a great number of designers, including the newest named FF Bodoni Classic created by Gert Weis cher. Although a popular choice, there are drawbacks to the use of a Bodoni type. As Beatrice Warde, a typographic historian, comments "Bodoni's extreme weight contrasts and vertical stress can cause a typographic effect; 'dazzling,' which is visually uninviting and exceptionally disruptive to the reading process. (Haley, allan.

(Year, Month 12 vol. ). U&lc. Giambattista Bodoni, pp. 212-12.) His typeface was exceptionally beautiful but difficult to read and thus not a good choice for long texts. Still, there is much to admire in Bodoni's contributions to the art of typography.

He perfected his bold style and exercised a genius for making beautiful books. He always used the very best materials for bookmaking, including fine white papers and dense black inks to show off his crisp typefaces. His passion for typography aided in the creation of his style, which remains the Bodoni hallmark of today.