 So yeah, just to echo Amir from earlier on, thank you very much everyone for inviting me back. This is my third year at TiteCon. It doesn't get any easier, especially with a crowd like this. So yeah, what I was finding quite interesting, I mean it's been great to listen to the talk so far. And just to introduce myself, I'm Gabriel. I come from the graphic design course in Bristol. We're not a type design course, but we obviously teach typography. We've got a philosophy, a kind of approach to a lot of the work that we do and a lot of the teaching that we do, which is about teaching content, not type. So there's a big kind of focus that we have on this whole idea of what's the content? Where is it coming from? What's the context? What are you trying to say with it? How are you trying to communicate? But this project that I'm going to talk today about, I mean it's quite interesting again that over the last three years when I've done my talks, I think one thing that connects a lot of the talks themselves is this idea of the importance of history, because last year I was speaking about a monogram project that we do in the second year. So I guess second year for the U.S.'s sophomores, is it sophomores? It's a freshman sophomore. So this is a second year project that I'm going to talk about. And this is a module that I run called Type and Print, and there's four major projects. And we start from very short projects, and we end up with quite a large project at the end. So this primarily is the first project that we or that the students work on, and this is a two-day project. So in effect what they do is that they design their outcome in one day, and then they print the outcome. So it's a screen printed project that they produce. Now for a room like this where there's loads of educators, I think a lot of the things that you're going to see, I mean last year I probably had maybe about 70% of student work, 30% not. I think this year it's kind of reversed. So you're going to see a lot of images that are going to be familiar to you. But I think what's important for this project for me when I was starting to think about what did I want to talk about, was again the importance of history, but also this notion of style. Where does style come from? Why do things last? Why do they continue? Why are they still relevant? I think the talk that we had last night, I think it was by Nadine. She was bringing a lot of things to do with politics, and whether you agreed with it or not, I think it was really nice to come out and actually realize that design, typography, type design, everything is associated and connected to the idea of us living in the world and us communicating. So I think the notion of where a lot of design stems from, where it comes from, the things that I enjoy teaching, is the idea of how did our industry begin? Where did it come from? Where are its roots? Because in a sense, by knowing the past, you obviously know the present and you can look to the future. So I think there's been lots of really interesting things that I've heard about today, and it's been nice to see that there's a lot of common threads that kind of happen throughout the talk. So again, you're going to see some familiar images that you've seen maybe a few times already this morning today. So this quote I think sums up to a certain degree what I'm talking about, but I think it sums up a lot more about the process. And I think there's something that's very relevant about this today, because we're obviously living in a world where, I mean, I've got two very young children. I'm sure lots of people have got children here, and the battle, the constant battle that we've got about getting them away from the screen, and the idea that we're just bombarded with information constantly, constantly. I mean, obviously Marshall McLuhan spoke a lot about this, you know, the idea of, you know, this bombardment of content and information, how do we filter these things out? But I think this idea of perfection is achieved not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to remove. I think this idea of limitation, but not necessarily limitation about simplification. I think there's something really at the heart here about in the age that we live now, and I think one of the reasons why something like the Swiss style, and this is what I'm going to talk about today, you know, has lasted and is so relevant, is primarily because I think we're constantly looking for something to be simplified. I think a lot of times we are very bombarded. We've got a lot of chaos going on, and I think this whole idea of simplifying down, you see it in lots of different forms of art. You know, as people develop their style and their technique, they almost get to a point, I mean, you can see that in Picasso, you can see that in a lot of the, you know, impressionists, or, you know, this idea of subtraction. You know, the idea of trying to get to the root and the core and the element of thing. And I think this is why, in a sense, you know, the Swiss style, you know, beginning very early with new typography and, you know, developing further on to the international style is this idea of this notion of simplification. So starting off with this notion of grids, I mean, grids have been around or the idea of grids or this imposition of structure I think has been around for a very long time, but it's something that's all around us. So when you think about mapping systems, the way that the Earth is, you know, composed, constructed, the way that we kind of deal with maps, architecture all around us, we're constantly looking at this notion, not, you know, just, you know, in the sense of modernism, but everything around us, you know, you look at this room, the way the panels are set up, the way tables are set up in chairs. There is a constant structure that we're living and we're inhabiting, which is this idea of making sense of the world, composing the world, thinking about how we kind of keep these things at bay, the chaos at bay, and that can be, you know, sometimes this, you know, the discussion between nature and the way that we're constantly trying to keep those things at bay, you know, the imposing chaos from around us. City planning, this, if anyone recognizes it, this is Seattle. So again, you know, the way that cities are planned and structured is this idea of, you know, grid systems. So, you know, on top of that as well, you've got digital interfaces, and again, you know, the idea that these things develop and continue to kind of, you know, be relevant in the context of what we see. So I wanted to talk about the idea of the Swiss style, and it's the most popularized in the sense that when people talk about, you know, grids and they talk about Joseph Miller-Brockman and they talk about Helvetica or, you know, there's something within that idea that Swiss style is very prevalent. It's still around. It's still very popular. People can love it or hate it. I kind of, I love it, but at the same time, you know, when people talk to me about, you know, the type of house that I would want to live in, the type of house that I live in, I don't live in a mid-century modern property, although I love it. I think there's something about this idea that these things can coexist and you see the beauty inherent in these things. And I think when I'm teaching this project to the students and we're talking about the relevance of particular styles and certain things that have been, you know, become popularized and they become a movement in a sense, is again, it's relevance. What has it got to say? Why is it important? Not to copy, not to imitate, not to just appropriate, but to understand what is this relevance? What is the relevance of a particular movement? So this idea of, you know, why I think the Swiss style has stood the test of time and I think why I think it's relevant also is that it's always been this idea and the ability to simplify and clearly and effectively communicate a message with as little clutter as possible. So when you think about the birth of this movement, the late 19th century and early 20th century was a hotbed of radical thinking about arts function and purpose and rapidly changing political, social, industrial and economic landscape that began with the arts and crafts movement, as a result of the impact of machine production redefine the social role of the artist and their relationship to industry. So we start off with futurism which strongly rejected traditional forms and embraced the energy and dynamism of modern technology and embraced typographic innovation. So you see this idea of the notion of expressive type and the idea of this connecting back to what you're trying to say is as important as the way that you say it as well. You've got the influence of data which was devoted to destroying the old attitudes to art and rooted in poetic language that looked to liberate the written word. So again this idea of how the page is being liberated and this notion that you still see within Dati, you've got the idea of a structure, you've got the idea of an imposed grid, you've got the idea of a formal structure especially if you look at Ritual Hasenbeck down at the bottom right is this idea that there is an organized structure, there is an organized imposition but it's still liberated in the sense of size and dynamics and hierarchy and all those types of things that are bringing these elements into the mix. So you've got De Steele, the influence of De Steele and they advocated pure abstraction and universality by reproduction to the essentials of form and color. They simplified visual compositions to vertical and horizontal using only black, white and primary colors. A pursuit of beauty and harmony hinted at a more mystical belief in ideal geometric forms. You've got this composition, you've got this idea of composing, you've got the idea of structure but you've got the idea of color and the dynamism that comes from a very architectural form and structure to the page. Constructivism obviously equally played a big part in the development of a style and a movement that then developed into the Swiss style. So ideologically founded to make art socially useful with the aim to integrate art and society so that art would disappear, by pure color and geometric form based on science and rationality. And again you can go back to what I was saying before about the arts and crafts movement which is about the purpose, design as purpose. So it's obviously, I mean it's quite important to remember that the term and the notion graphic design was still not around. I mean it was in its infancy this idea of how you could merge the idea of art and commerce and how these two things could coexist at the same time. And lastly obviously you've got Bauhaus. So this movement emphasized purity of geometry, absence of ornamentation in the motto form follows function to facilitate a style that could be applied to all design problems. So all of this combines into what was termed at the time as new typography and you've got some key players in new typography but it was forged by an eclectic group of European artists, designers and educators keen to solidify a coherent philosophy instead of principles for the future. So here you've got some of the main players there. Again I think it's worth noting and I should have said this at the top that like most of the arts and I think when you look at the root of it it's generally a boys club. I think there's a lot of, as I was doing a lot of the research and when I've been doing research and I've been very interested in this area about the women that really were part and parcel of these whole movements. It's very difficult sometimes to find historical information where they were, what they were doing, how they were doing it, how much influence they had. But I think again this is the nature about how it's important even when we teach is this idea that it's not just about what the history is but it's about how people are changing the future and how they're thinking about that a movement could exist in the past but where are they taking it on further from there. So this idea and just going back a step when you've got these artists you had the Dutch artist and poet Theo van der Speur who moved to Weimar from Holland to teach at the Bauhaus. You had the Russian designer Elisitsky. You had Hungarian painter Laszlo Maholyanagi or Naj, as Amir rightly said and German typographer Jan Tyschold. You had other players, you had other people involved but I think these as far as I can tell are very key in solidifying an idea and some underlying principles and core ideologies that would be developed further. And I think this also moves to the three, seven of publications which would bring together work by these early pioneers and help to spread the core principles of new typography. So you've got this, I struggle, can anyone help me? Die Kunststismen, yeah, which was published in 1924 and this is the artisms, that's what it's translated as. And it was a design collaboration between Elisitsky and Hans Arp. The book used revolutionary layer techniques that demonstrated the earliest application of new typography. Elisitsky moved to Switzerland in 1924 and further spread the progressive message with work with Möhrs alongside Kurt Schmidt. So again, this move from one place to the other in terms of spreading the good word as it were. You've got the new typography which most people will be familiar with and this promoted elementalism, suprematism, constructivism and a mastery of elemental arrangement with regularity. So this was the rejection of unnecessary decoration and conscious use of geometric forms. So again, following his arrest in Germany, Tischold fled to Switzerland in 1933. And then you also had Gepfes-Selter-Blick which is the termed as the captivated gaze which was published in 1930 in Stuttgart but sponsored by the Swiss workbunds advertising designer circle and it was a major influence and collection of modernist principles of the new typography and design which led to the Swiss style. So the book included examples of three Swiss design pioneers, Max Bill, Walter Ciliacs and Otto Baumberger. So in a way, again, you know this whole idea of new typography it couldn't be separated from its political and social ideology and many artists and designers at the time needed to defend their ideas at a time of growing intolerance and rising fascist regimes but they were keen to stress that although this new approach was rooted in revolutionary Russia new typography was not communist, it was rather functional and objective. So again, you have the idea of the move by many of the key members of Switzerland as both educators and practitioners alongside Swiss neutrality during wartime meant that this new ideology could develop and flourish. So the work by a few key Swiss born designers would establish some of the main tropes used by later masters and demonstrated the stereotypical reductionism of 1950s and 1960s corporate variation of the Swiss style. So you have Theo Ballmer, you've got Walter Ciliacs there, Otto Baumberger and Herbert Matter. Again, what you'll see with Otto Baumberger and he's considered the founder of a particular visual approach which is the Sachlichkeit, which is the objectivity or this idea that, you know, this developed in the Sachplatt which was the object poster, which is again reductionism but the idea of pure symbolic notions of what a design ultimately could do. So it's stripping away everything to the bare essentials. So in a sense, this idea of what they become or what this notion of Swiss design becomes is, you know, they were masters of eloquent economy. So when you kind of fast forward and you start looking at the Swiss pioneers themselves, you know, all of these will be familiar to you. Carl Gersner, Emma Ruder, Carla Vivarelli, Max Bill, Haz Newberg, Richard P. Loos, Muller Brockman and Armin Hoffman as well. But these ideas, and again this comes back to the teaching in terms of looking at themes, the common themes that they, you know, the Swiss style actually was promulgated and, you know, developing at that time. So you've got the notion of the asymmetrical design. You've got the idea of this balance and harmony between shape, image, you've got the sans serif typefaces. Again, love them or loathe them. They're around. They're still around. They work for a very particular reason. The notion of negative space. And I think there's something really there about this harmony about the idea of subtraction, you know, being able to visualize something that isn't there to create something through the imagination. The notion of mathematical precision. So again, we talk about this and we talk to the students a lot about the idea of the grid and why it's important. And a lot of them are very resistant to the notion of the grid to begin with. But it's not about this resistance or acceptance. It's just about the learning. It's understanding how things can serve you. You don't have to be inhabited by them or inhibited. Or also take those things as this is a premise that you've got to use throughout the rest of your career or your design. Don't be hampered by the idea of being drawn into a specific style. But see how you can use all these different elements within your design. And, you know, see the value as well. So the use of photographs in geometric shapes in favor of hand-drawn illustration. Use of the diagonal. Radical shifts in scale and contrast. We're talking here about size and type and color. Stark symbolism as well. So again, these are things that are meant to be or working on a very specific level to become iconic in our own minds. That there's less needs to be said because there's a common understanding. So they become very universal. And I think equally this is why this is an international style, which then took that step on from the Swiss style and developed further. I think that's what makes it relevant. So I also think this is important that Stephen Heller mentioned this. And he said Hoffman's, his arm and Hoffman's posters collectively epitomize mid-century modernism because they touch the soul of their times. And a lot of people wouldn't necessarily say that the Swiss style, international style, Helvetica in itself is soulful. But I would disagree. It's not just about working, which is not just its speed. It's not just about the idea of the efficiency at the sake of complexity. But it's this notion of complex simplicity, which I think is really important. So the international style, you know, obviously Swiss then starts to inform a lot of the movement around Europe mainly but starts to go to other parts of the world, where you've got them Crow, you've got Oval Asia, you've got Eduardo Munoz Bachs in Cuba, quite well-famed for a lot of the post-revolution film posters that he created, but you could see a real underlying principle there as well. Shigeo Fukuda from Japan, Massimo Vignelli obviously, Spin in the UK, you'll see a lot of this stuff around as well, Experimental Jet Set, which in some sense they spoke about this at A-type I was this idea that, you know, they feel to a certain degree responsible for the amount of work that they're doing, keeping that mantle going, but I think what they're trying to do is to find their own voice within this as well and see where this idea can move further. My name is Wendy in France as well, but you can see that there's a lot of, you know, kind of design within there as well, that you can step back and you can go back 1890 years to see where the Bauhaus influences as well. So yeah, this idea of complex simplicity, symbolic summation, and iconic intervention, so we always talk to the students about the idea that rules can be broken, but never ignored, so always look at the idea of how this structure can work to your favour. So the project itself, we give them a specific grid to work with, they produce a screen printed A32 colour spot colour typographic poster, they're giving it point sizes to use, which is based on the Fibonacci number system, typefaces to use, they choose 5 or 6, and they're orthographic shapes and patterns of shading. Again, we emphasise the idea that the grid system is an aid, not a guarantee, it permits a number of possible uses and each designer can look for a solution appropriate to his personal style, but one must learn how to use the grid, it is an art that requires practice, and again, this kind of idea of practice and repetition is important, but equally about the speed of the students working. So this is just to finish up with a few examples of the students' work, so this again is work that was done in two days, they design them one day, they're only given the content in the workshop and they've had a lot of lectures, discussions workshop groups, looking at the Swiss style, international style, looking at all the things that we've just discussed, but they basically have this in the back of their mind when they go into their initial InDesign workshop to start working, so they do quite a lot of sketches very quickly in that 8 or 9 hours, but they come out with something that they then do the Folex colour separations, this was from 3 years ago when they were working on the Underground 150 project, so we link in every year with an anniversary, so also what we do is we link in with the organization doing that so we can get the logo, but we also get their approval to be able to work up the posters and then we do an exhibition with them and what's really been nice about a few of these projects as well with the link-ups that we've done is that they then end up printing some of these posters that they really like and they feel as part of their celebration and they'll sell them within their stores themselves, so that's really good for the students as well, the idea of the relevance of the work, that this is stuff that isn't just kept within the university, there's some practical output, so you can see here this use of circles, there's very common themes and tropes that run throughout the work, the idea of squares, but also perspective, so they have to think thematically about what is the content that they're working with, what is iconic, what's recognizable, what would really work in that sense, so you've got the idea of these are common ideas of the light, because that's the year of light that's the year of light, that's the year of light, diagonals, circles again, that's the year of light, that's what we did last year with the students so these are abstract forms and again what they're working a lot with moiré patterns, the idea of abstract shapes and this was this year's with Shakespeare 400 so this is some of the work and there's some of the posters in the back it's just if you want to get closer to see the screen printing process, because obviously screen printing has got a whole inherent aspect to it, and again some of these overlays and the notion of duality and just to finish up with William Shakespeare, which I think is appropriate the 400th year, his birth, I fill up a place which may be better when I've made it empty, thank you