Brent Lance Jr

Typography is an often-overlooked art form, as content gives meaning to the very letterforms that comprise it. The art of creating various glyphs to be read as language is much more intricate and vital to the application of typography than what is often ascribed to it. Type critic Beatrice Warde and linguist Robert Bringhurst have argued that good typography must be invisible so that the reader can focus on content and not the forms that give expression to content. The opposite is true. Gotham’s crisp, clean forms, which are an expression of Tobias Frere-Jone's continuing interest in “working-class lettering,” played an essential role in visually conveying Barack Obama’s message of hope. I designed and authored "Making Type Visible" to explain this very view on typography: being visible as a means to convey a message.