THE REBIRTH OF TYPOGRAPHY

Agency typographers are treating type as a key element of design as

much as a tool of communication. Here, Jim Davies examines the role of

these advertising image-makers.

Advertising typographers used to know their place. Their contributions

were always seen, but rarely heard. Yes, they added that little bit of

finesse to press and poster campaigns, but they were invariably regarded

as the last, rather tedious link in the creative chain, the last stop

before a new ad disappeared into that murky void known as ’production’.

If the creatives were the Damon Hills and Michael Schumachers of the

advertising world, the typos were the unappreciated chumps who

assiduously changed the oil and buffed up the paintwork.

How times have changed. Over the past four or five years, typography has

become part of the quotable culture. It’s ubiquitous; far more upfront

and aggressive. Media, particularly television and magazines, have

seized upon its potential for grabbing audience attention.

The more interesting, left-field practitioners (typographic designers

such as David Carson and P. Scott Makela in the US and Jonathan

Barnbrook and Tomato over here) are regularly asked to apply their

talents to everything from books and clothing to interiors and

advertising. Phil Jones, chairman of the Typographic Circle, an

organisation which represents both the advertising and design

industries, reports a sixfold increase in membership since the late 80s.

’There’s a real buzz about type,’ he says. ’There is far less elitism

than there used to be and a younger, more fashionable crowd is coming

through.’

Keynote events hosted by the Circle - featuring top speakers from the US

and Europe - sell out several times over. It’s not entirely ridiculous

to cite typography as the new rock ’n’ roll.

Advertising has been quick to pick up on the typographic zeitgeist, and

decent agency typos are enjoying an elevated status. Some have modified

their job titles: Barry Brand at WCRS and Kim Le Liboux at Bates Dorland

both style themselves ’head of advertising design’, reflecting the

broader scope of their jobs.

’I tend to work mainly on pitches and new stylings,’ Le Liboux says.

’I rarely get involved in the technical side. Any typographer who is

worth his salt isn’t concerned solely about type but about photography

and illustration and the overall visual feel of an ad.’

’The word ’typographer’ is archaic,’ Roger Kennedy, the head of

typography at Saatchi and Saatchi, confirms. ’It doesn’t begin to

describe what the modern designer with type does. We are image-makers

and responsible for bringing all the latest computer-manipulation

techniques into the agency.

’We are expected to push art directors’ layouts as far as they will go

and be familiar with the programs that allow you to do so,’ he adds.

Kennedy has touched on the root of typography’s recent resurgence -

technology. Wacky letterforms have been around for aeons - dust off an

ancient typeface manual and you’ll find fonts made up of copulating

couples, devils and obscure architectural details - but, crucially,

technology has opened up a world of possibilities, allowing instant

access to a host of fonts that previously had been difficult to lay

hands on.

A proliferation of new fonts has suddenly become available too.

Specialist font creation packages for the Apple Macintosh have spawned

thousands of new typefaces - which take days rather than years to

produce. Many are practical, others are merely post-modern statements on

the nature of typography and technology; there’s one that gradually

disappears on screen, another that changes randomly every time you use

it.

So from enjoying a couple of humbugs and the odd sherbet lemon,

typographers have suddenly been let loose in a sweetshop. More than

ever, typefaces are an effective means of setting clients’ products or

services apart, of hammering home and reinforcing a brand’s values.

Think of Orange, with its elegant, thin letterforms on a black

background; the Economist’s authoritative white serif, always on a red

background. More ingeniously, Switch, the direct debit card, uses a

headline font that mimics the slightly clumsy embossed plastic

letterforms on the cards themselves, while a recent campaign for Stanley

had a headline punched out of a metal surface using the client’s tools.

A spirit of typographic experimentation prevails, which can even extend

to quirky hand-drawn copy in instances such as WCRS’s Caffrey’s campaign

or BBH’s saucy ads for the Elida Faberge fragrance, Addiction.

Jonathan Barnbrook, one of the country’s top typographers, has worked on

campaigns for Nike, Mazda and Radio Scotland. ’It’s now much easier to

manipulate a typeface,’ he says.

’You can adapt a typeface slightly to give your campaign a unique feel.’

Barnbrook has designed one-off typefaces specifically for a campaign

(such as the launch of Femidom, the female condom, through Alliance

Advertising).

Dave Dye, the former head of art at Leagas Delaney, and now joint head

of art at BMP DDB with Mark Reddy, says: ’Typefaces are the first step

to giving a campaign a strong personality. It’s also a relatively cheap

way of producing a certain look or style. A top New York photographer is

going to cost you pounds 15,000 a day; a bloke sitting at a Mac in Soho

comes a lot cheaper but can still achieve a lot of impact. If a client

hasn’t got a lot of money to spend, it’s an attractive option.’

Leagas Delaney does not have an in-house typographer, so individual art

directors have to source and make their own decisions about

typography.

The agency does have several Mac operators on hand and, where necessary,

will pull in specialists from outside. Dye worked closely with BMP’s

typo-in-residence, Dave Wakefield, on an English Heritage campaign which

required traditional hot metal setting and, at the other end of the

spectrum, Leagas has benefited from a fruitful relationship with

Tomato’s Graham Wood, who worked on the highly experimental typographic

Guardian cinema commercials a couple of years ago.

Does Dye feel his territory is being threatened by the new breed of

thrusting typographers? ’It’s about being honest,’ he says. ’If they

come up with something better or improve on something you’ve done, then

it’s in everyone’s interest to go with that.’

’Our input is to the art director’s benefit,’ Saatchis’ Kennedy says.

’It’s all about teamwork and getting the best result.’ To illustrate his

point, Kennedy pulls out a series of recent press ads for the Army. The

body copy is based on the rudimentary, typewritten captions you might

find pasted on to the back of old Magnum photographs. Mimicking this

style of type was the bright idea of the art directors Alexandra Taylor

and Nik Studzinski. However, they probably had no idea how far Kennedy

would take it. He hired four 40s typewriters - the kind of rickety old

contraptions favoured by Vietnam war correspondents - so that each ad

would have a slightly different feel. The copy was typed out, scanned

into a computer and further distressed. ’We had a field day,’ Kennedy

says.

Other happy accidents have made their way into Kennedy’s typographic

illustrations: a visit by a computer engineer to mend a machine revealed

an interesting circuit board, which was duly scanned and used in a

Metropolitan Police ad about computer theft.

The creative director, Adam Kean, came into work one day clutching an

X-ray he’d happened to have had taken, and this was co-opted as the

background for an ad for the spinal injuries charity, Aspire.

But not everyone is as convinced about the contribution typography has

made. In his Private View (Campaign, 14 February), Court Burkitt’s

creative director, Mike Court, criticised M&C Saatchi’s new Independent

campaign as ’yet another series of commercials that uses wacky

illuminated type to scan around the screen’. During the judging of the

Campaign Press Awards, the chairman of the jury and the creative

director of Lowe Howard-Spink, Paul Weinberger, hinted that over-zealous

use of type was turning press ads into small posters, to the detriment

of well-written copy. Another senior copywriter who declined to be

named, said he felt there was a danger of typographers using ’words as

visual structures rather than thinking about what they actually mean.

It’s a bit like architects designing amazing buildings, forgetting that

someone has to live in them.’

Dye has the final word. ’In the days of Dave Trott, ideas were put

across as simply and forcefully as possible, so there was a move away

from art direction and typography - it got in the way,’ he says. ’People

are looking at the best way of expressing ideas visually, which is why

type is so popular. I’d be interested to see if it still looks good in

20 years’ time, but in a way that doesn’t matter. Today’s ads are

tomorrow’s chip paper.’

This article was first published on Campaign