Picking the Right Typeface for the Job!

Choosing a typeface for a poster, advertisement, website, or business logo should not be something that is done over coffee. The typeface that is finally choosen can work with the over all message of the piece, or just make it distracting and ultimitly lead the viewers eye else where.

A good example of the use of a creative typeface is an advertisement for Play Station 2. The font is appeared to be hand written. While it varies in size and color, it also incorporates pictorial elements to the letters that make it a playful characteristic. Once the view reads what the text is actually saying, they come to the realization that it is just a whole bunch of non sense. the directionality of the type leads your eye to the bottom right corner of the add which says "BECAUSE YOUR GIRLFRIEND BORES YOU SHITLESS". Now in this case, that particular typeface just added more to the ad. Now if it was just done with a simpler typeface such as Universal, the point of the play Station 2 being more entertaining then your girlfriend that rambles on about nothing would have not been as successful!

Candis Martin research paper

In March of 1904 Henry Dreyfuss was born in Brooklyn, New York. Although moving from city to city, he had managed to make the state of New York his home through out his childhood and continuing through his adult life. Growing up, his family had many hardships due to several deaths in the family caused by illness, to help out, Henry took on small jobs painting signs for local businesses. In 1919, while attending a public high school and doing exceptionally well on an art state regents’ examination, Henry was awarded a two-year scholarship to the New York Society for Ethical Culture’s school. This was the beginning of Henry’s education that led him to his career and future success.

The Ethical Culture’s private school exposed Henry to many different cultures, taught him the techniques artist used, reviewed a wide range of art history, studied chemistry and physics that related to craftsmanship, but most of all allowed him the opportunity to meet people that would give him the purpose and direction he needed. John Lovejoy Elliott was a professor that taught Henry how to win others over by examples and persuasion. Emma Mueden, who was in-charge of the school’s plays, instilled in Henrys head that in order to be successful you must have illusion along with the lowest amount of overheads possible. Both of these people and their ethics gave Henry life skills he would keep with him through out his career as a designer.

After spending some time touring Europe, Henry began studying under Norman Bel Geddes. Henry was infused by his enthusiasm and range of ambition. Henry learned the fundamentals of industrial design from his time spent designing sets. This was the importance of coordinating parts of the designed objects and the less of importance to the whole. Henry felt that Norman’s ideas were those as a futurist because his ideas were directed several years in advance and he taught him how to think to what is achievable not about what has already been achieved.

After working with Norman Bel Geddes for many years, Henry had his first independent stage design in 1923, a comedy by Anthony Wharton, produced at the New Detroit theatre. During this time he also managed the Mark Strand theatre that transition from stage productions to motion pictures. He supervised scenery, costumes, lighting, and equipment. Later he began designing sets for Broadway productions like “Beau Gallant” and costumes for “The merry wives of Windsor”. During a four year period Henrys fees of services raised noticeably. Henry Dreyfuss was not afraid to be in unfamiliar territory and his transition from set and costume designer to industrial designer was not quick or easy. While designing sets for a couple major shows, he redesigned children’s furniture and glass containers. By 1931 he designed 13 shows, and at one time had 5 running on Broadway at once. Critics often had an appreciation of his technical skills. In his last set design of “paths of glory” Henry took it to a new level. In the play there were thirteen scenes and Henry designed the settings to move on three rolling platforms from scene to scene with out delay. His success on Broadway brought him a considerable amount of attention during this transitional time for him to industrial designer. His clients for set designs were an excellent reference that worked in his favor when approaching businessmen for future projects.

During the late 1920’s Henry contacted former teacher Emma Mueden, asking for some additional help for his office of theatrical work and the start of industrial design activities for various American manufacturers. She recommended Dorris marks, who also attended the Society for Ethical Culture’s School but never know Henry while attending. She became the executive business head of his business once he left the theater business. She had a great sense of organization and had a considerable amount of influence on his decision making during his transitional time. Their relationship worked well and after their marriage in 1930 he thanked Emma for being his guardian angel that always steered him in the right direction

America's industrial design profession emerged during the Great Depression in the 1930s when manufacturers turned to appearance design to differentiate their products and boost sales. One of his first major projects was for Charles Higgins Company of Brooklyn for a container for vegetable glue He designed. He changed the company previously designed square can to round and modernized the graphic treatment. Another early product to redesign was for Washburn Company of Worcester, Massachusetts. It was a set of inexpensive kitchen tools that Henry was to redesign the color and form of. A range of double lipped ladles, meat forks with mechanisms for dispensing cut slices and slotted spoons all were unified by Henrys use of bright colors.

In 1938, Henry Dreyfuss was commissioned by the New York Central to design streamlined train sets in art deco style, with the locomotive and passenger cars rendered in blues and grays that of the colors of the New York Central and keeping with the urban settings throughout . He kept the elements in their basic form when designing different aspects of the train. Dreyfuss also broke up the dining cars to make passengers feel less like they were in railroad cars and more like they were in an actual restaurant. He did this by using glass wall partitions grouping passengers in rows of two and three. Henry also used urban murals, soft lighting, with art deco artistry to take away from the passenger car feel. The 20th Century Limited was built for style and prominence and it tailored perfectly to young executives and “new money”. The train was to become so popular that the train often had to run one in both directions. Henry wanted the train to evoke a comfortable vision of modernity in the mind of the public.

Approaching the upcoming decade Henry’s firm became extremely involved with the war effort involving national security due to their connection with Bell Telephone Laboratories. They were consultants for radar and sonar systems on airborne and shipborne equipment. Locating controls to their importance, rather than according to the convenience of the manufacturing process, was critical. The shape became just as important as their function. This would allow operators to distinguish controls by touch so their sight could be focused on what is through their windshield. Continuing his partnership with Bell Telephone Laboratories in the late 1940’s Henry began to design a new 500 type telephone. His contribution to the project was the numbers and letters being moved on the outside of the dial, rather then underneath the dial, this allowed the user to see them while their fingers were in the hole.

Henry Dreyfuss personally approved every design that left his office. He did this by limiting his accounts by what he could personally oversee. Maintaining aesthetic control over the firms’ output was a primary challenge. His talents went where they were most needed: in the guidance of other designers, working sketches in close negotiation with clients. Henry learned how to draw upside down so that he would impress clients, rather than refining his draftsmanship. From the start were Doris Marks, his wife, and Rita Hart. They freed Henry from billing clients and up keeping client contracts. This was a crucial part of the success of the firm through out the 1940’s. To this day Henry Dreyfuss Associates prides itself on the high standard Henry set for himself back when he was attending the Society for Ethical Culture’s private school in New York. The sang “fewer parts equals more profits” used by Henry Dreyfuss Associates today was something that Emma Mueden first said to Henry in the 1920’s. Still Paying close attention to human factors, environment, performance, and appearance, they have been responsible for over 250 US patents on office, home, transportation, and medical devices. Henry Dreyfuss has managed to touch everyone’s life through design during his lifetime and continued to do so after his death in 1972.

Bibliography

Flinchum, Russel . Henry Dreyfuss, industrial designer : the man in the brown suit. New York: Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution and Rizzoli, 1997.

Dreyfuss, Henry. Symbol sourcebook : an authoritative guide to international graphic symbols. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972.

Tilley, Alvin . The Measure of Man and Woman:human factors in design . New York: Wiley, 2002.

"Henry Dreyfuss, industrial designer : the man in the brown suit". Art Directory GmbH. February 15,2010

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"Henry Dreyfuss". February 15,2010 .