Discussion Point- Lucy Threlfo

John Baskerville designed the Baskerville typeface in 1757. He was an innovator at the time, improving upon the typefaces that had existed for years. This typeface was designed by Baskerville to improve legibility through the increased contrasts between thick and thin strokes, by making serifs sharper and more tapered and by shifting the axis of circular letters to a more vertical position. However, Baskerville also worked at improving print presses and inks to create a blacker result than others in the field could achieve. John Baskerville has been called "The greatest printer England ever produced" though his colleagues at the time disliked him greatly insisting that his typefaces "Hurt the Eye" and would be responsible for "Blinding the nation", and as a result at the time "Baskerville" was not popular. His popularity spiked in the early 20th century long after his death with the revival of the typeface by Bruce Rogers for the Harvard University Press as well as others around the world. Therefore, it is only now that John Baskerville is considered one of the most influential typographic designers to have lived.

Theo Aartsma is a contemporary graphic designer, illustrator and typographic designer who uses digital techniques in his process, blending illustrative styles with 3D design. I believe Aartsma is an innovative contemporary typographic designer because of his unique style which incorporates natural aesthetics to create pieces with a lot of depth and visual understanding. Aartsma's typographical creations are a lot less structured and far less traditional than Baskerville's, which was designed as a body text as well as heading text, while Aartsma's are more experimental creations designed for a specific campaign or general idea. Despite this, I still believe both designers can have an equal influence on the typographic designers of tomorrow, Baskerville for traditional texts and Aartsma for digital and web based texts.