In the font memory of Helvetica's Mike Parker and remembrance of his life and impact on the world of typograpy... I've decided to cast another post out into the void in his dedication. This one I will highlight Mike Parker's significance, as I know it, and highlight an idea in respect to fonts that was brewing in me for a while now anyways...
The timing of this point feels right, for if it wasn't for Helvetica and font development, Mike Parker wouldn't be an infamous as the name 'Peter Parker'.
A brief of Mike Parker. He didn't create Helvetica, to my knowledge. Strangely enough, this simple yet beautiful type, in original form, was actually credited to a collaboration of two Swedish individuals under a different title. As printing machines, or linotypes machines, were developed, however, Mike Parker stepped in to help develop the font, as design director of The Mergenthaler Linotype Company.
Sidestepping the main subject, I started wondering the difference between a linotype machine and a typewriter and was amazed at the ornateness of mechanism in the linotype machine, especially for its birthplace in our history. It's first appearance was at the New York Tribune and 1886-- magical for its time and the fist advancement from manual moving individual letters to print material in over 400 years. They say the major difference between a linotype machine and a typewriter is that the typewriter allows the ability to easily correct mistakes and type was cast directly onto paper, whereas the linotype machine complete lines of text versus individual characters.
If you are as much of a geek as I am, a great link in regards to understanding the history of this invention and typesetting in general is an antique video reminiscent of its date-link appearance... what I will hyperlink as MOLTEN MONOLOGUES IN THE MAKING.
But back to Parker?
Another important name that fell in correlation with Mike Parker is Steve Jobs, with whom Parker helped progress the first word processing software compatible for Job's platform NeXT from a company he founded called Pages Software. Even after NeXT was discontinued, Apple gave lineage to Pages by retaining its name for its leading word processor software. Ironically (and according to ye' Google god, Wiki), when Pages Software shut down its operation, Mike Parker sold the patent to another company, Design Intelligence Inc., which was eventually bought out by Microsoft. Ah, my never ending fixation with ironies of corporate America...
Another important feat? "The Font Bureau, Inc"-- and a grand new discovery in my childlike inquisitiveness while researching Mike Parker's accomplishments. He was labeled mainly a historian, as well as a consultant and designer for this company.
The website is great, a brilliant transport for fonts freaks who want to keep ashore of the latest trend. I can't wait to give this site the lookover it deserves, and not only for Parker's tribute, but to curb my own curiosity.........
Which brings me to the second half of a long overdue post, as I'm interested in typography and the effects it has on its reader; You can view it or you can read it, but good typography you should be able to do both with ease.
Another thought: All artists -- all mankind in fact-- has their own individual font when they press a pen to paper and begin to write. We don't get a more basic or essential art form than that. So in a sense, yes, we are all artists, as we've been told all these years.
A font, or our writing, is a unique identity, and although we are taught to write print of the alphabet, and later, script, following a certain format..... we still develop our own font out of our imperfections. We can also take these imperfections to a whole other level.
In fact, I did.
Here is an old example of one type of handwriting I adapted as my own custom handwriting:
This one is probably almost 20 years old!
The example above is one of two notebooks I filled creating a hand-made game layout back in highschool-- inspired from the "Dungeons & Dragons" days. I'd love to do a whole blog on this under the radar accomplishment-- but I still try to keep this baby of mine as secretive as possible, incase anything opportunity should ever launch into a reality one day. I have so many dreams of expanding this layout into a series of matte 3D paint-overs or maybe even a game trailer one day, and pitching the whole package off. The layout is complete for the most part.... Just needs a comb over in a bunch areas and it needs to be documented more professionally, aka digitally...... but, hey, at least its authentic and two notebooks worth!
But back to the example itself? I picked this one firstly because its my oldest-- I think it's when I first started drafting an original sets of styles-- and, second, it has a mix of different fonts used together in its family.
I never bothered to name them, because back then, I never took it too seriously. I just wanted things to be neat, organized, and different... But over the years I started to wonder about theories of graphology and how it translates to a person's psychosis. Mine included...
But I still continued to adapt my writing style for some reason. Maybe I was bored in class or wanted to keep preoccupied? Who knows. At this point, I guess I added an italic, though! ;-)
I remember I used to keep my notebook slanted at an acute 45 degree angle for this:
Although my handwriting is still neat, I hardly ever need to write pen to paper anymore, so I'm sure I'm rusty. But it was some engrained with practice, I'm sure it would come back naturally. Another font I tend to use a lot is my caps:
Sometimes small achievements, are great achievements! You should see my Biology book. I had a ton of biology related drawings and diagrams in there, too. I'm hoping the it's around somewhere and that it wasn't thrown away.
Anyways, try it! Create-a-font and lock it down as your own!
Currently, I'm onto looking how to texture in Mari.... I've decided to take a class and I'm very excited to see if I have what it takes to become a texture artist. I would like it use this skill in conjunction with everything else. Hopefully, I will find a job where I fit the mold perfectly. Hopefully it will be a mold variety pack!
I always say "I may not be able to juggle, but I know stage combat!"
Onto new challenges and new adventures....
The timing of this point feels right, for if it wasn't for Helvetica and font development, Mike Parker wouldn't be an infamous as the name 'Peter Parker'.
Its a far off analogy, but it will start to make sense if you think deeply enough about it--
(It was sort of a cheesy joke too)
Sidestepping the main subject, I started wondering the difference between a linotype machine and a typewriter and was amazed at the ornateness of mechanism in the linotype machine, especially for its birthplace in our history. It's first appearance was at the New York Tribune and 1886-- magical for its time and the fist advancement from manual moving individual letters to print material in over 400 years. They say the major difference between a linotype machine and a typewriter is that the typewriter allows the ability to easily correct mistakes and type was cast directly onto paper, whereas the linotype machine complete lines of text versus individual characters.
If you are as much of a geek as I am, a great link in regards to understanding the history of this invention and typesetting in general is an antique video reminiscent of its date-link appearance... what I will hyperlink as MOLTEN MONOLOGUES IN THE MAKING.
But back to Parker?
(RIP 1929 - February 23, 2014)
He oversaw the fonts developed for these powerful machines, and Helvetica and family became popular easy-on-the-eyes regulars in regards to printing. In 1981, he partnered up and opened a company to help merge these fonts gracefully into the digital era. The company was called 'Bitstream', and allowing the use of these procreated fonts for legal licensing within other companies, helped finance this is partnership into a successful enterprise. The fonts then became, for lack of a better word, opensourced into the typography world.Another important name that fell in correlation with Mike Parker is Steve Jobs, with whom Parker helped progress the first word processing software compatible for Job's platform NeXT from a company he founded called Pages Software. Even after NeXT was discontinued, Apple gave lineage to Pages by retaining its name for its leading word processor software. Ironically (and according to ye' Google god, Wiki), when Pages Software shut down its operation, Mike Parker sold the patent to another company, Design Intelligence Inc., which was eventually bought out by Microsoft. Ah, my never ending fixation with ironies of corporate America...
Another important feat? "The Font Bureau, Inc"-- and a grand new discovery in my childlike inquisitiveness while researching Mike Parker's accomplishments. He was labeled mainly a historian, as well as a consultant and designer for this company.
The website is great, a brilliant transport for fonts freaks who want to keep ashore of the latest trend. I can't wait to give this site the lookover it deserves, and not only for Parker's tribute, but to curb my own curiosity.........
Which brings me to the second half of a long overdue post, as I'm interested in typography and the effects it has on its reader; You can view it or you can read it, but good typography you should be able to do both with ease.
Another thought: All artists -- all mankind in fact-- has their own individual font when they press a pen to paper and begin to write. We don't get a more basic or essential art form than that. So in a sense, yes, we are all artists, as we've been told all these years.
A font, or our writing, is a unique identity, and although we are taught to write print of the alphabet, and later, script, following a certain format..... we still develop our own font out of our imperfections. We can also take these imperfections to a whole other level.
In fact, I did.
Here is an old example of one type of handwriting I adapted as my own custom handwriting:
This one is probably almost 20 years old!
The example above is one of two notebooks I filled creating a hand-made game layout back in highschool-- inspired from the "Dungeons & Dragons" days. I'd love to do a whole blog on this under the radar accomplishment-- but I still try to keep this baby of mine as secretive as possible, incase anything opportunity should ever launch into a reality one day. I have so many dreams of expanding this layout into a series of matte 3D paint-overs or maybe even a game trailer one day, and pitching the whole package off. The layout is complete for the most part.... Just needs a comb over in a bunch areas and it needs to be documented more professionally, aka digitally...... but, hey, at least its authentic and two notebooks worth!
But back to the example itself? I picked this one firstly because its my oldest-- I think it's when I first started drafting an original sets of styles-- and, second, it has a mix of different fonts used together in its family.
I never bothered to name them, because back then, I never took it too seriously. I just wanted things to be neat, organized, and different... But over the years I started to wonder about theories of graphology and how it translates to a person's psychosis. Mine included...
But I still continued to adapt my writing style for some reason. Maybe I was bored in class or wanted to keep preoccupied? Who knows. At this point, I guess I added an italic, though! ;-)
I remember I used to keep my notebook slanted at an acute 45 degree angle for this:
Here is a hybrid of both styles from above. This excerpt was from my college days in performing arts-- when trying to a finesse the delivery of a monologue for Romeo and Juliet. It's sort of embarrassing to post this, but I will show as an example in relation to this entry.
As far as my acting methods-- this one was more a breakdown on how I wanted to deliver the lines versus her actual inner dialogue.... Aye.
Although my handwriting is still neat, I hardly ever need to write pen to paper anymore, so I'm sure I'm rusty. But it was some engrained with practice, I'm sure it would come back naturally. Another font I tend to use a lot is my caps:
It's been interesting as in the last couple weeks I've been working and interviewing with companies that center around the design end of the spectrum versus the technical end-- what I consider the enamoring "3D blackhole". Design is honestly one of the most difficult areas of artistic expertise out there. And, at least for me, it's takes time to finesse an approach to design on a professional level.
Although I know the basic fundamentals of graphic design while discovering my own style over the years, we all know not everyone has the same tastes. Two contrasting fonts to a stylesheet or concept, but definitely not more than three! No, no, no! ;-)
Ah, the rules are endless. But (in the end) it really is whatever looks good to whoever's looking at it.
Funny that I learned the difference between serif and sans serif on my job hunting adventure the other week. 'Sans' meaning none. I had no idea! I didn't realize that Serif were the 'teeth' of the font, either. I left that meeting feeling an eternity closer to the design world, and universes away from 3D. And being in office for some time discussing design ethics, I left wanting to both do some design work and to tap into some typography or graphic design classes.
My latest gig was also another crash course in all things fonts, working at an awesome upscale sign shop where I helped build 3D visualizations for a client and prepare a design in 3D for a possible CNC print. All in all, I will never look at a sign the same way again... I have been studying them and the fonts they flaunt ever since.... **SIGH**
One thing is for sure: You can most certainly take a good prediction on the type of font someone will lean toward after having a conversation with them-- so perhaps "graphologics" has some sense of validity. Perhaps that's where the whole design blossoms to begin with?
Maybe the inquisitions I have were held in the same fontness Michael Parker had with his passions for typography. They are unique displays of some sense of character and really can carry or hinder a design, at the same time as give some one a headache or allow easy, comfortable read. Otherwise, it's just interesting or direct-- plain or fancy -- bold or, well, you get the idea hopefully...
Let me know incessantly rant as usual.
One handwriting I never crafted much? Script. Perhaps, I never realized I did. I think if anything I squeezed the kerning together and kept the strokes longer and more horizontal. I have to sort through my piles of old notebooks. I'm sure I had some strange example to be found....
Really, I truly feel ALL artists should try to develop one of
their own to lay their territory, like when they sign a painting, but as
constant and non-stop form of individuality than never leaves you as
long as you write by hand. Almost as if its a signature of
authenticity.
And if it sticks with you through your life, it's rewarding:![]()
An excerpt of notes from class in college back in 2000. I picked this subject out of my notes, because it was through the time the linotype machine was used. And anyone needing to learn about Modern American history, here you go:
Sometimes small achievements, are great achievements! You should see my Biology book. I had a ton of biology related drawings and diagrams in there, too. I'm hoping the it's around somewhere and that it wasn't thrown away.
Anyways, try it! Create-a-font and lock it down as your own!
Currently, I'm onto looking how to texture in Mari.... I've decided to take a class and I'm very excited to see if I have what it takes to become a texture artist. I would like it use this skill in conjunction with everything else. Hopefully, I will find a job where I fit the mold perfectly. Hopefully it will be a mold variety pack!
I always say "I may not be able to juggle, but I know stage combat!"
Onto new challenges and new adventures....
