As my first part of individual research for the brief I looked at Monotype, its a company that I am fully aware of as I'm graphic design student but for the brief I wanted to know a little bit more about the world’s best known provider of anything type related. "Our fonts and technologies are designed to enable creative expression and give brands a distinct global voice. We’re behind the text you read in newspapers and books, in the apps on your phone, in the websites you browse, on the dashboard you scan, on the goods you buy, and in the games you play. We bring the world’s words to the page and the screen" 'enable creative expression' is the one thing I highlighted from Monotype's brand message, that reflects the brief. Some of the worlds most famous brands such as Ralph Lauren, Nike, IBM and Prada all rely on Monotype for creative expression so for research I wanted to look at how Monotype enable creative expression and how typography can be a global language.
Last year Monotype and Google collaborated to create Noto, which is an open-source typeface family that covers every written language in the world, living and dead. It is one of the largest typographic projects ever undertaken and the result of five years collaborative work. The look and feel of Noto may feel like any other sans serif typeface but it covers over 800 languages and aims to preserve little-spoken or dead languages to help enable global communication “across borders, languages, cultures and time periods. This is relevant to the brief not only because its linked to Monotype but the typeface serves many particular languages and communities. It was fascinating to see the amount of research that went into the project, from designers to cultural experts who made this typeface possible. Finding out that the help of Buddhist monks helped the process of Noto was amazing, the monks critiqued the font and helped make adjustments to the design.
Its a typeface which celebrates the diversity of over 800 languages, and gives many of the languages a digital face as some have never had any representation through type. As the Monotype brief stated 'one typeface can feel British as much as another can feel German' but Noto is different in the sense that it offers a functional service of all these languages.
I looked into Craig Oldham who is a Designer, educator, publisher but more importantly the founder of the eponymous practice, Office of Craig. The Office of Craig are in collaboration with this brief so it was essential to look into Craig's work. From what I've seen of Craig Oldham's works I would describe it as passionate design with a strong use of typography, so I can see why his studio is linked with the brief. One example of Craig Oldham representing a culture through type is his well designed book In Loving Memomory of Work. The well informed book documents the UK miners’ strike between 1984 and 1985 and makes the subject of the miners strike more engaging through the visually striking graphics and custom made typeface. My dad actually owns the book, but he is totally unaware who Craig Oldham but luckily Ive had the chance to scroll through the book and admire the beautifully bold typography.
In terms of how this book links to the brief, it stands on behalf of the miners (miners culture) who fought day after day, month after month for their jobs and way of life. The design reflects the attitudes and beliefs of the miners as the aesthetic of the book is powerful, unabashed, garish, strong and unapologetic. As I studied the Miners strike in high school, I know that there are books that are media and politically biased, but this book gives Craig's opinion with a superb level of creativity. In my opinion its definitely a niche book as it tackles a subject through design, something I'm sure hasn't been done before for the Miners strike.
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