Designers with Character

Typography’s value has risen in all artistic fields thanks to the works of graphic designers. This exhibition aims to show, via some of the best studios, that this conversation is especially alive in contemporary Spanish graphic design.

Every day at work and on the street we are in constant contact with millions of typographic characters in books, on posters, traffic signs, billboards, signs… Typography is a graphic representation of language. Each typeface has its own roots, subtleties and history and also gives objects their own voice that we can identify: it can warn us of danger, urge us to buy, show us seriousness or flippancy, establish information’s order of importance, make us laugh. It visually interprets verbal communication.

The typographic sign is one of the most active elements in the cultural evolution of Humanity. It arises from the dialogue between the gentle and harsh, the loose and tight, the amorphous and geometric, the disorderly and aligned, the planned and unexpected. This creation responds to technological and artistic projections and as such is a reflection of a society, even a civilization.

Designers with Character

Typography as a visual expression of language grows, increasing its diversity and it continually transforms in order to adapt to the word and cultural and technological innovations as they unfold, such as in the development of printing (Times New Roman), information technology (Comic Sans), press (Bodoni), publishing (Auriol) and advertising and mass communication (Cooper Black).

In the 19th century, typographers’ work was used only in purely editorial projects. The convergence between art, typography and graphic design has given rise to successive generations of designers who take on and defend the necessary conversation between typography and graphic design, such as the pioneers Paul Renner, Adrian Frutiger and Herb Lubalin, followed by Massimo Vignelli, Neville Brody, Erik Spiekermann and David Carson.

Participating artists:

• Alex Trochut
• Andreu Balius
• Atlas
• Marta Cerdà Alimbau
• Mucho
• Serial Cut™
• Vasava