I’ve begun a project—I hope, eventually, a book—on the history and significance of modular lettering and typefaces. I have some ideas and hypotheses, but rather than share those up front—since I could be wrong—my first goal is to find as many notable and interesting examples of modular type and lettering, historical and contemporary, as I can.
I’ve got a list well underway of relevant designers and studios: Albers, Apeloig, Bayer, Biľak, Crouwel, da Milano, le Bas, Meek (of
FontStruct fame), MuirMcNeil, Perondi, Schrofer, Schwitters, Tschichold, Watzl … but I know there are many designers and studios and examples I’m overlooking, and probably stuff even from some of the people/studios I've found that I’m missing. The problem is that ‘modular’ gets pretty loosely applied by designers, and searches online and in libraries frequently lead to examples of other-experimental or found-object type and lettering—a lot of it interesting, but broader than I need. So I could use some help from a knowledgeable community (that’d be all of you).
Here’s the definition I’m working with, for now: type or lettering is ‘modular’ if it’s generated by combining and recombining a finite set of discrete shapes into letterforms according to a relatively constrained set of rules.
In particular:
1. I’m looking for more systematic examples, where the designer has produced an entire alphabet—maybe in multiple cases or versions, maybe with numerals and punctuation … and,
2. while they would meet the definition, I’m trying to avoid examples where the designer simply traces the outlines of letters with a single shape, like a circle or square (with results like simple dot-matrix fonts, or H&Co.’s
Dividend). Still, if that method winds up with something interesting like
The Bee’s Knees or
Elementar—then by all means share it. Also,
3. examples can be digital, metal, wood, film … whatever.
I really don’t mind hearing about examples I already know about. That’s why I didn’t list many specifics about what I’ve already gathered. Being reminded simply confirms that I was right to include them, and in any case there’s a lot I’m sure I’m missing, so don’t assume anything is too obvious if you think it’s a good match. And please feel free to share your own work.
Comments
Also, check out my Dazzle Ships from 1997.
What about Josef Albers’s Kombinationsschrift?
I'm going to include a discussion of precursors/antecedents of modular type, and Dürer's diagrams (along with other diagrams and writing manuals) and stencils—in particular, stencils made with punches, where component shapes start to be put into service for multiple letters—will show up there. I know of Fred's stenciling—he has a couple sets at least where it looks like he can do a whole lowercase alphabet and punctuation with maybe a dozen component forms—but not Dwiggins's; thanks for the tip.
Rian Hughes Klaxon offers a novel take on this genre.
To get us back on topic, there was a workshop Underware did at RISD over a decade ago that might have some helpful information.
The stencil:
http://www.drieswiewauters.eu/graphic/project_13/images/PDU_1.png
Rather modern history though compared to the rest. The movie is of a modular variation font DJR, Alex, Santiago and I are working on for Google that should get a git 'and a site next week.