Molly Keesling

Knowing about the stages and development of written language is an important aspect of typography. The Roman alphabet was not the first set of characters that represent a spoken language, so as designers it is helpful to understand how this alphabet came to be. The many different languages that had a written form that came before the Roman alphabet had a significant influence on how these characters came to be. Being able to recognize and appreciate the variety of styles that each written language had is important for designers. Thinking all the way back to the earliest societies that had written language, they had their own symbols for anything and everything. Today, we use pictographs for signage and to communicate simple messages, and letterforms to create words. This is proof that the concept of using pictographs has not died out, but we have evolved into something slightly more complex.

Looking at the characters from Sumerian and Chinese cultures, they are completely different, yet they serve the same purpose for each respective group. The cultures used styles of characters that they were able to recognize and understand. This concept is the same for designers when they are deciding on a typeface to use for a project. It is important to pick typefaces that will make the viewer understand what theme or purpose you are trying to convey.

Typefaces today come in a variety of shapes and sizes, just as ancient writing styles do. The many ancient Chinese writing styles have their own unique characteristics, such as different stroke weights and more, depending on the style and its purpose. For example, the clerkly script style was used mainly for government uses because it required fewer strokes and was easy to write quickly. Today, if a designer were creating something for government use, they would use a typeface that had a formal look to it, rather than something playful.

It is important to understand the development of ancient writings because without them, we would not have the traditional alphabet we use today. Letterforms can be presented in an endless number of ways because there are designers who devote themselves to creating typefaces for other designers to use in their work.