Design // The International Typographic Style

Today I had a lecture on the international typographic style which gave me some serious throwbacks to last year, my first time ever studying graphic design… I was first introduced to the Swiss style last year and one of my main influencers for the whole assignment was Josef Muller-Brockmann (as you can probably tell from above with the dedicated grid-style) It was the style of the grid from this movement that inspired (and still inspires) me the most but when it comes to the sans-serif font for fashion, for me it’s always a no go especially for a fashion magazine. I mean, look at Elle, Vogue… if either of these iconic fashion magazines used Helvetica it just wouldn’t be right! However, for other things the sans-serif font works perfectly and ultimately epitomises the Neue Graphik’s aim of cleanliness and straightforwardness.

I was finding myself truly inspired after this lecture and it led to me looking at the history of typography and how over time serif has changed to sans-serif in so many corporations… Bringing me on to my next point. Google. Yes, Google. The world is constantly changing around us and we look back in lectures like today’s and think

“Oh! Lufthansa changed from serif to sans-serif, when did that occur? I didn’t even notice”

Well, begin noticing the world around you more. Don’t focus too much on the past and corporations like Lufthansa, Fendi or Staples and start to recognise change in the here and now. It may have taken 16 years but Google has finally jumped onto the Helvetica bandwagon by creating their own typeface called Product Sans which is eerily similar to the iconic Swiss style typeface.

That’s that… How many more people/corporations will continue to jump onto this Neue Graphik bandwagon almost 70 years later? Will I? Only time will tell.