Week 2: Cube Project: Baskerville

    

    Baskerville Old Face was created in 1754, and it is best known for its crisp edges, high contrast, and generous proportions.  The typeface "Baskerville" was named after John Baskerville.  It grew out of ongoing experimentation with printing technology.  John Baskerville developed his own method of working which resulted in bright woven papers and darker inks.  Baskerville also created an intense black ink color through the process of boiling fine linseed oil to a certain thickness, dissolving rosin, and grinding it before use.  Baskerville redesigned the press that did not capture the subtleties of his type and replaced the wooden platen with a brass platen so the planes would meet more evenly.  Baskerville's high contrast letterforms evolved into the emergence of modern faces such as Didot and Bodoni.  Baskerville also increased the contrast between thick and thin strokes in his letters which made the serifs sharper and shifted the axis of rounded letters to a vertical position.

Yau, Cheryl. “Idsgn (a Design Blog).” Back to Idsgn (Design Blog), October 26, 2010, idsgn.org/posts/know-your-type-baskerville/.

Robinson, Jon. “Understanding Typography: John Baskerville and the King's Roman.” Medium, UX Collective, 11 Aug. 2020, uxdesign.cc/understanding-typography-john-baskerville-and-the-kings-roman-fb152e3129be.