Douglas Thomas: How a typeface helped launch Apollo
Douglas Thomas: Comment une police de caractères a lancé Apollo
Douglas Thomas's research explores the power of fonts at the intersection of design and culture. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
dans l'espace.
the great leap for mankind.
de géant pour l'humanité.
they walked on the surface,
ont marché sur la Lune
that in America we say is a triumph.
comme un triomphe aux États-Unis.
d'un accomplissement extraordinaire.
amazing accomplishment.
this flag, though.
a little bit about.
that there's two globes,
au nom de toute l'humanité. »
nice poetic language,
c'est un joli langage poétique.
that's perfect for this moment.
de caractères parfaite pour ce moment.
pensée par des ingénieurs.
for something on the moon: Futura.
parfaite pour ce moment-là.
for this moment.
than just ceremonial.
aux polices de caractères.
experts on typography.
of how fonts inhabit our world,
des polices dans notre univers.
of the words we use.
des mots que nous utilisons.
that's funny about this, though.
fana de polices comme moi.
you're not a font nerd,
mais rien de grave à ne pas l'être.
but if you're not, that's alright,
for the perfect project,
pour un projet.
tous les ans pour trouver la bonne.
of dollars every year,
with the right features.
à analyser les polices.
every day, evaluating fonts.
think about how you got here.
and which to ignore.
et lesquels ignorer.
buying a new product,
whether something is expensive
vous paraître insolite,
something out of place,
une chose semble étrange,
and why I love Futura,
what I study is everywhere.
est présent partout.
les livres que je touche,
every book that I pick up,
is filled with the thing I love.
de l'objet de ma passion.
and what happens with typography,
et de ce qui arrive avec les typographies,
of everything before you.
this is modernism in miniature.
c'est du modernisme minimaliste.
infiltrated this country
du modernisme dans notre pays
or promiscuous typeface,
la plus populaire et la plus omniprésente
the aphorisms of modernism.
une des maximes du modernisme.
dans les arts visuels.
the same thing happened.
focus on the basic shapes,
les formes de base,
inherent in Futura
les formes inhérentes de Futura
des carrés, des triangles.
are all based on circles,
basées sur le cercle,
apex of the triangle.
they might have been made
avec une règle et un compas.
mathématiques et précises.
they feel mathematic, precise.
carries through with the way
dans la conception de la police.
et être totalement neuve.
like other typefaces, to be something new.
the medium weight and the bold weight.
moyennes et grasses.
different things to commend to it.
de différents éléments.
by a machine, and not by hand.
par une machine, et non à la main.
this is what I mean.
calligraphiée au pinceau ou au stylo :
with a calligraphic brush or a pen.
say like a Garamond,
comme Garamond,
where it get little bit thinner at the top
someone had made it by hand.
no one had touched it at all,
qu'aucun homme n'y a touché,
y est toutefois présente.
who made this in 1927, employed.
a conçu Futura en 1927, y a veillé.
joins with the vertical shaft,
rejoint le fut vertical,
just every so slightly.
une apparence géométrique parfaite,
to look geometrically perfect,
designers do all the time
les graphistes tout le temps
at the same time in Europe and America.
en Europe et en Amérique.
excellent examples from Europe,
exemples en Europe
for the new age, a new moment in time.
pour une ère nouvelle.
look very similar to Futura,
semblables à Futura,
et des proportions différents.
or different proportions.
conquis le monde ?
the titles there,
est parfois difficile à prononcer :
don't quite roll off the tongue:
Berthold-Grotesk, Elegant-Grotesk.
Berthold-Grotesk, Elegant-Grotesk.
household names, are they?
good choice by the marketing team.
a fait un choix judicieux.
is that this is a name
and an idea about the future.
idée de ce que sera l'avenir.
for future in German,
allemand pour avenir.
ils ont choisi un terme
plus large et universel.
larger audience, a universal audience.
to what was being done in America --
se faisait aux États-Unis.
de la même époque, les années 20,
from the same period
des marchés financiers
like what the stock market looked like
going nuts in the 1920s.
le côté révolutionnaire de Futura.
is doing something revolutionary.
about an example of the typeface in use.
et montrer l'usage d'une police.
probably know today, "Vanity Fair."
ce magazine : « Vanity Fair ».
in 1929, in the summer.
nothing wrong with this design.
dans son graphisme.
of an important person,
alors gouverneur de New York.
then-governor of New York.
everything seems symmetrical.
of ornamentation,
de l'époque victorienne,
some vestiges of the painted lady
pour guider le lecteur.
to help you get into the text.
and in October of 1929,
en octobre 1929.
and redesigned "Vanity Fair."
a redessiné « Vanity Fair ».
it looks like with Futura.
of an abstract, beautiful setting,
there's nothing at all.
layout is now asymmetry.
la pagination centrée.
the further you enter the magazine.
devient radical,
even more dramatic asymmetry.
by Pablo Picasso, moving across the page
se meuvent dans la page,
entre les deux pages.
on constate une chose :
you might notice something.
dans les titres et les chapeaux.
in the title or the captions on this page.
ou le site Internet,
any book or go to any website,
sans de lettre capitale.
going to find it very easily.
what capital letters denote,
par les lettres capitales
ou de nos titres.
the name of our corporations,
America's the home of capitalization.
la patrie de la lettre capitale.
taking away all the capital letters.
toutes les lettres capitales.
the same political force
like pronouns in our society today.
à des éléments comme le genre des pronoms.
had a communist revolution.
la révolution communiste en Russie.
a socialist infiltration into America.
du socialisme aux États-Unis.
that this was an egalitarian,
into one equal playing field.
sur ce terrain d'égalitarisme.
you do capitalize something
du prestige aux choses.
cette idée à travers ce moyen.
in which Futura was using this idea.
were doing other things with Futura.
Futura autrement,
d'autres idées du modernisme,
of modernism with it,
styles d'illustration,
new illustration styles,
types of illustration.
l'illusion de collage.
provenant d'Europe.
dans les années 20,
to use a new typeface,
une nouvelle police,
onto your computer.
la télécharger.
in everyday typography,
ordinaire,
qu'ont fait les Américains ?
capitalists, what did we do?
with the name Futura,
avec le nom Futura
that World War II started,
mondiale a commencé,
to boycott Nazi goods.
de boycotter les produits nazis.
"Go ahead and use our copies.
les copies américaines :
use Vogue, use Tempo.
Vogue ou Tempo.
they didn't even learn the new names,
la peine d'utiliser le nouveau nom.
ont adopté cette police,
et se la sont appropriée.
des graphiques,
expansion football team.
de football
of the most important advertising
les plus influentes du XXe siècle.
que le gouvernement américain,
was picking a typeface
pour ses cartes et ses projets,
for new maps and new projects,
étonnant ou radical.
it wasn't a radical choice,
to do with communism.
les cartes les plus importantes,
on some of the most important maps,
de l'armée de l'air en 1962,
first started the Mercury program,
ont initié le programme Mercury,
autour de la Terre,
that he was using were in Futura.
Mercury morphed into Apollo,
more and more for more things.
de ses éléments.
on instrument panels,
to show how the whole system worked.
le fonctionnement du système.
that they handed out to people.
envahi les documents.
à manipuler les instruments.
that helped the astronauts
making everything.
produisant tout en interne.
de sous-traitants,
qui fabriquaient des équipements.
different typefaces and different systems
avaient dû user des polices différentes
in the space shuttles.
impossible to navigate
et ils auraient eu une surcharge cognitive
a cognitive overload
un nouveau système.
to open up a new system.
en devenant leur interface,
being used on the interface
and make it more clear.
en la clarifiant.
it was used on labels,
les étiquettes,
to tell them what to do.
les manettes et les leviers de commande.
devaient apparaître simplement,
that were complex be more simple to them,
entirely in Futura,
imprimées en Futura,
quoi faire à ce moment précis.
what to do with that one moment.
everything in their head,
écrit et lisible pour tous.
in the world to see and refer to.
sur pied ce système,
make that system,
a very difficult and complex system,
et difficile à naviguer,
an astronaut might have seen
qu'un astronaute voyait
or exiting the spacecraft
de sa navette
of how Futura worked in this way
sur l'impact de Futura
that was made by the Swedish company.
par une entreprise suédoise.
peut-être utilisé vous-même.
some of you might have used one,
as a really great camera.
très apprécié des photographes.
if you know anything about cameras,
un peu en appareil photo,
modifications made to it.
quelques modifications :
placed all over the film canisters,
out of the astronauts.
de ses astronautes.
they're not experts in art.
ni photographes, ni artistes.
utilisent correctement l'appareil photo
would know how to use this camera
placed there in Futura.
de gagner la légitimité
that they had legitimacy
qui leur avaient été confiés.
le film avant son exposition.
before it would expose.
we would have never had
certaines de leurs photos incroyables.
without this label.
as this, a ceremonial patch,
comme cet écusson commémoratif,
than just something ceremonial,
transcendait le cérémonial,
that had just been picked for its design.
qu'un simple graphisme.
because of this choice.
puisqu'elle avait été choisie.
I want to talk about in closing.
is that all of them tell stories.
toutes les polices relatent un récit.
tells a very powerful story
particulièrement marquante
being taken into America
importé aux États-Unis
intégrante de sa culture.
and worst things America does,
pour le meilleur et pour le pire :
and we spit them out back again
tout en les revendiquant.
exactly what happened with the technology
avec cette technologie
taken in, made into an American commodity.
que nous avons assimilée
venaient tous d'Allemagne.
all came from Germany as well.
on an American plaque
sur une plaque américaine
with the technology.
le sort de cette technologie.
you realize that typography on the moon
conscience que la police sur la Lune
represents authority,
the power to get to the moon.
le pouvoir d'aller sur la Lune.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Douglas Thomas - Designer, writer and historian of typographyDouglas Thomas's research explores the power of fonts at the intersection of design and culture.
Why you should listen
Douglas Thomas is is the author of Never Use Futura (Princeton Architectural Press, 2017). His work explores the nexus of typography, design and culture. He specializes in user experience design, publication design and branding. His design work has been featured in Communication Arts, Eye, Design Observer, Print and Graphis. He is assistant professor of graphic design at Brigham Young University.
(Photo: Kei Ito)
Douglas Thomas | Speaker | TED.com