“Typography Ascending History’s Stairs”

This typographic infographic covers major moments in the evolution of typography from Blackletter (1150) until Neo-Grotesque, Helvetica (1957). This piece took inspiration from the early motion photography of Eadweard Muybridge and Marcel Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase”.

I really loved the fragmentation and repetition of both these pieces and felt that they froze each moment in time in a visual way. I felt that by replicating this sequence I would be able to show the timeline without the indeed of a line. I also decided to change the person walking the stairs to figures made up of characteristics of each type to show the progression of typography and the changes through time. I wanted the figures to be the main visual point so I kept them in the middle and attempted the split the page in half with the upper part being black and the lower being white to increase the contrast. I really enjoyed the preparation for this assignment but felt that if I were even more conservative and decreased the amount of writing that I had, then perhaps this would have been more visually effective. I am going to give myself a 9/10 for this assignment as I felt that I had many good ideas and refined information but if I had more time I have gone back to make it stronger.