Matthew Carter: My life in typefaces

Prevodilac: Aleksandar Kovačević Lektor: Mile Živković

Type is something we consume

Pismo je nešto što konzumiramo

in enormous quantities.

u ogromnim količinama.

In much of the world,

U većem delu sveta

it's completely inescapable.

je potpuno neizbežno.

But few consumers are concerned to know

Ali malo korisnika se brine o tome

where a particular typeface came from

odakle je pojedino pismo došlo,

or when or who designed it,

ili kada ili ko ga je dizajnirao,

if, indeed, there was any human agency involved

ako je u njegovom stvaranju zaista bio

in its creation, if it didn't just sort of materialize

uključen ljudski faktor, ako se nije samo

out of the software ether.

materijalizovalo iz etra softvera.

But I do have to be concerned with those things.

Ali ja moram da brinem oko ovih stvari.

It's my job.

To mi je posao.

I'm one of the tiny handful of people

Jedan sam od šačice ljudi

who gets badly bent out of shape

koji se strašno iznervira

by the bad spacing of the T and the E

lošim razmakom između T i E

that you see there.

koji ovde vidite.

I've got to take that slide off.

Moram da sklonim ovaj slajd.

I can't stand it. Nor can Chris.

Ne mogu da ga podnesem. A ni Kris.

There. Good.

Tako. Dobro.

So my talk is about the connection

Moj govor je o vezi

between technology and design of type.

između tehnologije i dizajna slova.

The technology has changed

Tehnologija se promenila

a number of times since I started work:

nekoliko puta otkad sam počeo da radim:

photo, digital, desktop, screen, web.

foto, digitalno, desktop, monitor, internet.

I've had to survive those changes and try

Morao sam da preživim te promene i

to understand their implications for what I do

pokušam da razumem njihov uticaj na ono što radim

for design.

kroz dizajn.

This slide is about the effect of tools on form.

Ovaj slajd je o uticaju alata na oblik.

The two letters, the two K's,

Dva slova, dva K,

the one on your left, my right, is modern,

ovo vama levo, meni desno, je moderno,

made on a computer.

napravljeno na računaru.

All straight lines are dead straight.

Sve prave linije su potpuno prave.

The curves have that kind of mathematical smoothness

Krivine imaju matematičku uglađenost

that the Bézier formula imposes.

koju nameće Bezijeova formula.

On the right, ancient Gothic,

Desno, staro prelomljeno pismo,

cut in the resistant material of steel by hand.

sečeno rukom u otpornom materijalu - čeliku.

None of the straight lines are actually straight.

Nijedna od pravih linija nije zapravo prava.

The curves are kind of subtle.

Krivine su nekako suptilne.

It has that spark of life from the human hand

Ima onu iskru života nastalu ljudskom rukom

that the machine or the program

koju mašina ili program

can never capture.

nikada ne mogu uhvatiti.

What a contrast.

Kakva razlika.

Well, I tell a lie.

Dobro, slagao sam.

A lie at TED. I'm really sorry.

Lažem na TED-u. Stvarno mi je žao.

Both of these were made on a computer,

Oba su napravljena na računaru,

same software, same Bézier curves,

isti softver, iste Bezijeove krive,

same font format.

isti format fonta.

The one on your left

Ovo na vašoj levoj strani

was made by Zuzana Licko at Emigre,

napravila je Zuzana Ličko na Emigreu,

and I did the other one.

a ja sam napravio drugo.

The tool is the same, yet the letters are different.

Alat je isti, ipak slova su različita.

The letters are different

Slova su različita jer su

because the designers are different.

i dizajneri različiti.

That's all. Zuzana wanted hers to look like that.

To je sve. Zuzana je želela da njeno izgleda tako.

I wanted mine to look like that. End of story.

Ja sam želeo da moje izgleda ovako. Kraj priče.

Type is very adaptable.

Slova su vrlo prilagodljiva.

Unlike a fine art, such as sculpture or architecture,

Za razliku od visoke umetnosti, poput vajsrstva ili arhitekture,

type hides its methods.

tipografija krije svoje metode.

I think of myself as an industrial designer.

Sebe smatram industrijskim dizajnerom.

The thing I design is manufactured,

Ono što dizajniram se proizvodi

and it has a function:

i ima svrhu:

to be read, to convey meaning.

da se čita, da prenese značenje.

But there is a bit more to it than that.

Ali tu ima još nečeg.

There's the sort of aesthetic element.

Postoji i određeni element estetike.

What makes these two letters different

Šta to ova slova čini nečim više

from different interpretations by different designers?

od različitih interpretacija različitih dizajnera?

What gives the work of some designers

Šta to radu nekih dizajnera daje

sort of characteristic personal style,

poseban lični stil,

as you might find in the work of a fashion designer,

kakav bi mogli da vidite kod modnih dizajnera,

an automobile designer, whatever?

dizajnera automobila, i tome slično?

There have been some cases, I admit,

Priznajem da sam u određenim

where I as a designer

slučajevima kao dizajner

did feel the influence of technology.

osetio uticaj tehnologije.

This is from the mid-'60s,

Ovo potiče iz sredine 60-ih,

the change from metal type to photo,

prelaz od livenih slova ka foto-slaganju,

hot to cold.

od toplog ka hladnom.

This brought some benefits

To je donelo

but also one particular drawback:

određene prednosti, ali i jedan nedostatak:

a spacing system that only provided

sistem razmaka sa samo

18 discrete units for letters

18 pojedinačnih jedinica

to be accommodated on.

na koje se smeštaju slova.

I was asked at this time to design

U to vreme su tražili da dizajniram

a series of condensed sans serif types

niz zbijenih bezserifnih pisama

with as many different variants as possible

sa što više varijanti

within this 18-unit box.

u okviru ovih 18 jedinica.

Quickly looking at the arithmetic,

Nakon brzog proračuna

I realized I could only actually make three

sam shvatio da mogu da napravim

of related design. Here you see them.

samo tri srodna dizajna. Tu ih i vidite.

In Helvetica Compressed, Extra Compressed,

Ovaj sistem me je zaista sputao

and Ultra Compressed, this rigid 18-unit system

dok sam pravio zbijenu, ekstra zbijenu

really boxed me in.

i ultra zbijenu Helvetiku.

It kind of determined the proportions

Unapred je odredio

of the design.

srazmere gotovog dizajna.

Here are the typefaces, at least the lower cases.

Ovo su ta pisma; bar mala slova.

So do you look at these and say,

Onda ovo vidite i kažete:

"Poor Matthew, he had to submit to a problem,

,,Jadni Metju, naleteo je na problem,

and by God it shows in the results."

i rezultati to pokazuju.''

I hope not.

Nadam se da nije tako.

If I were doing this same job today,

Da danas radim istu stvar,

instead of having 18 spacing units,

umesto 18 jedinica razmaka

I would have 1,000.

imao bih 1.000.

Clearly I could make more variants,

Očito bih mogao da sastavim više varijanti,

but would these three members of the family be better?

ali da li bi postojeće bile bolje?

It's hard to say without actually doing it,

Teško je reći ako se ne uradi,

but they would not be better in the proportion

ali sigurno ne bi bile bolje

of 1,000 to 18, I can tell you that.

kao što je 1.000 više od 18.

My instinct tells you that any improvement

Predosećam da bi poboljšanja

would be rather slight, because they were designed

bila neznatna, jer su pisma dizajnirana

as functions of the system they were designed to fit,

u odnosu na sistem u kom se koriste,

and as I said, type is very adaptable.

i, kao što već rekoh, slova su prilagodljiva.

It does hide its methods.

Zaista kriju svoje metode.

All industrial designers work within constraints.

Svi industrijski dizajneri rade naspram ograničenja.

This is not fine art.

Nije kao kod visoke umetnosti.

The question is, does a constraint

Pitanje je, da li ograničenja

force a compromise?

nameću kompromis?

By accepting a constraint,

Da li spuštamo standard

are you working to a lower standard?

ako prihvatamo ograničenja?

I don't believe so, and I've always been encouraged

Smatram da nije tako, i uvek me

by something that Charles Eames said.

ohrabruju reči Čarlsa Imsa.

He said he was conscious of working

Rekao je da pristaje

within constraints,

na ograničenja,

but not of making compromises.

ali ne na kompromis.

The distinction between a constraint

Razlika između ograničenja

and a compromise is obviously very subtle,

i kompromisa je mala,

but it's very central to my attitude to work.

ali predstavlja ključni deo mog stava prema radu.

Remember this reading experience?

Sećate se kad ste ovo čitali?

The phone book. I'll hold the slide

Telefonski imenik. Ostaviću

so you can enjoy the nostalgia.

ovaj slajd da se malo prisetite.

This is from the mid-'70s early trials

Ovo su rane probe Bel Sentenial

of Bell Centennial typeface I designed

pisma koje sam sredinom 70-ih dizajnirao

for the U.S. phone books,

za američke telefonske imenike

and it was my first experience of digital type,

i tu sam se prvi put susreo sa digitalnim slovima,

and quite a baptism.

pravo vatreno krštenje.

Designed for the phone books, as I said,

Kao što rekoh, dizajnirano

to be printed at tiny size on newsprint

za imenike, da se sitno štampa na novinskom papiru

on very high-speed rotary presses

veoma brzim rotacionim mašinama,

with ink that was kerosene and lampblack.

sa mastilom od kerozina i čađi.

This is not a hospitable environment

Vrlo loši uslovi

for a typographic designer.

za dizajn pisma.

So the challenge for me was to design type

Moj posao je bio da dizajniram

that performed as well as possible

pismo koje bi dobro podnelo

in these very adverse production conditions.

ove nepovoljne uslove proizvodnje.

As I say, we were in the infancy of digital type.

Već sam rekao da je to bio početak digitalnih slova.

I had to draw every character by hand

Svako slovo sam morao ručno da crtam

on quadrille graph paper --

na milimetarskoj hartiji -

there were four weights of Bell Centennial —

Bel Sentenial je imao četiri reza -

pixel by pixel, then encode them raster line by raster line

piksel po piksel, zatim da programiram za tastaturu liniju

for the keyboard.

po liniju rastera.

It took two years, but I learned a lot.

Trebalo mi je dve godine, ali sam dosta naučio.

These letters look as though they've been chewed

Slova izgledaju kao da ih je

by the dog or something or other,

izgrizao pas ili nešto slično,

but the missing pixels at the intersections

ali pikseli nedostaju

of strokes or in the crotches

na ukrštanju linija i prevojima

are the result of my studying the effects

jer sam morao da nadomestim

of ink spread on cheap paper

efekat razlivanja mastila

and reacting, revising the font accordingly.

po jeftinom papiru.

These strange artifacts are designed to compensate

Te nepravilnosti su tu kako bi ublažile

for the undesirable effects of scale

nepovoljan uticaj veličine slova

and production process.

i procesa proizvodnje.

At the outset, AT&T had wanted

U AT&T su na samom početku

to set the phone books in Helvetica,

želeli imenike da ispišu Helvetikom,

but as my friend Erik Spiekermann said

ali u filmu o Helvetici, ako ste

in the Helvetica movie, if you've seen that,

ga gledali, moj prijatelj Erik Spikerman kaže

the letters in Helvetica were designed to be

kako su slova tog pisma dizajnirana

as similar to one another as possible.

da budu što sličnija jedno drugom.

This is not the recipe for legibility at small size.

Tu nema čitljivosti pri malim veličinama.

It looks very elegant up on a slide.

Na slajdu deluje vrlo elegantno.

I had to disambiguate these forms

Kod Bel Sentenial sam morao

of the figures as much as possible in Bell Centennial

da učinim oblike slova što različitijim

by sort of opening the shapes up, as you can see

tako što sam ih nekako otvorio,

in the bottom part of that slide.

kao što se vidi na dnu slajda.

So now we're on to the mid-'80s,

Sad smo stigli do sredine 80-ih,

the early days of digital outline fonts,

početak ere digitalnih,

vector technology.

vektorskih fontova.

There was an issue at that time

U to vreme je postojao problem

with the size of the fonts,

sa veličinom fontova,

the amount of data that was required to find

prostorom u memoriji koji je potreban

and store a font in computer memory.

da bi se čuvali i pretraživali.

It limited the number of fonts you could get

To je ograničavalo broj fontova

on your typesetting system at any one time.

koje možete čuvati na sistemu za slaganje.

I did an analysis of the data,

Analizirao sam podatke i utvrdio

and found that a typical serif face

da je za uobičajeno serifno pismo

you see on the left

koje vidite levo

needed nearly twice as much data

potrebno skoro dva puta više prostora

as a sans serif in the middle

nego za bezserifno u sredini,

because of all the points required

zbog tačaka potrebnih kako bi

to define the elegantly curved serif brackets.

se uobličile elegantne krivine serifa.

The numbers at the bottom of the slide, by the way,

Usput, brojevi na dnu slajda

they represent the amount of data

predstavljaju količinu prostora

needed to store each of the fonts.

potrebnu za čuvanje fontova.

So the sans serif, in the middle,

Vidimo da je bezserifni, u sredini,

sans the serifs, was much more economical,

bez serifa, mnogo ekonomičniji,

81 to 151.

81 prema 151.

"Aha," I thought. "The engineers have a problem.

Pomislio sam: ,,Ah, inženjeri su u problemu.

Designer to the rescue."

Dizajneri će rešiti.''

I made a serif type, you can see it on the right,

Napravio sam serifno pismo, to sa desne strane,

without curved serifs.

bez krivina na serifima.

I made them polygonal, out of straight line segments,

Bili su poligonalni, sastavljeni od pravih linija,

chamfered brackets.

zarubljenih ivica

And look, as economical in data as a sans serif.

A vidite da i štedi prostor poput bezserifnog.

We call it Charter, on the right.

To desno smo nazvali Čarter.

So I went to the head of engineering

Uzeo sam proračune i otišao

with my numbers, and I said proudly,

kod glavnog inženjera i ponosno rekao:

"I have solved your problem."

,,Rešio sam problem.''

"Oh," he said. "What problem?"

Pitao me je: ,,Koji problem?''

And I said, "Well, you know, the problem

Rekoh: ,,Znate, problem

of the huge data you require for serif fonts and so on."

sa prevelikim serifnim fontovima i tako dalje.''

"Oh," he said. "We solved that problem last week.

,,A to. To smo rešili prošle nedelje.

We wrote a compaction routine that reduces

Napisali smo program koji smanjuje

the size of all fonts by an order of magnitude.

veličinu svih fontova po redu veličine.

You can have as many fonts on your system

Sad možete da ih imate

as you like."

koliko god želite.''

"Well, thank you for letting me know," I said.

,,Hvala što ste me obavestili'', rekoh.

Foiled again.

Opet neuspeh.

I was left with a design solution

Sad sam imao rešenje

for a nonexistent technical problem.

za tehnički problem koji više ne postoji.

But here is where the story sort of gets interesting for me.

Ali tu meni priča postaje zanimljiva.

I didn't just throw my design away

Nisam ga samo

in a fit of pique.

bacio u ljutnji.

I persevered.

Istrajao sam.

What had started as a technical exercise

I ono što je u početku bila vežba iz tehnike

became an aesthetic exercise, really.

je preraslo u vežbu iz estetike.

In other words, I had come to like this typeface.

Drugim rečima, zavoleo sam to pismo.

Forget its origins. Screw that.

Zaboravite kako je nastalo.

I liked the design for its own sake.

Dizajn mi se sviđao zbog samog sebe.

The simplified forms of Charter

Jednostavan oblik je Čarteru

gave it a sort of plain-spoken quality

dao određeni skroman karakter

and unfussy spareness

i nenametljivu ogoljenost,

that sort of pleased me.

što mi je prijalo.

You know, at times of technical innovation,

Za vreme inovacija u tehnici,

designers want to be influenced

dizajneri žele da na njih utiče

by what's in the air.

ono što se dešava.

We want to respond. We want to be pushed

Želimo da odgovorimo. Želimo da nas

into exploring something new.

teraju da istražujemo.

So Charter is a sort of parable for me, really.

Na neki način, Čarter je oslikao mene.

In the end, there was no hard and fast causal link

Na kraju nije bilo očite uzročno-posledične

between the technology and the design of Charter.

veze između tehnologije i dizajna Čartera.

I had really misunderstood the technology.

Potpuno sam pogrešno razumeo tehnologiju.

The technology did suggest something to me,

Ona mi jeste nešto nagovestila,

but it did not force my hand,

ali me ni na šta nije prisilila,

and I think this happens very often.

i čini mi se da se to često dešava.

You know, engineers are very smart,

Inženjeri su veoma pametni,

and despite occasional frustrations

i pored povremenog nerviranja,

because I'm less smart,

jer nisam toliko pametan,

I've always enjoyed working with them

uvek uživam da sarađujem sa njima

and learning from them.

i učim od njih.

Apropos, in the mid-'90s,

S tim u vezi, sredinom 90-ih

I started talking to Microsoft

sam razgovarao sa Majkrosoftom

about screen fonts.

o fontovima za ekrane.

Up to that point, all the fonts on screen

Do tada su fontovi na ekranima

had been adapted from previously existing

bili samo prilagođeni

printing fonts, of course.

fontovi za štampu.

But Microsoft foresaw correctly

Ali u Majkrosoftu su tačno predvideli

the movement, the stampede

pokret, juriš ka

towards electronic communication,

elektronskoj komunikaciji,

to reading and writing onscreen

ka čitanju i pisanju na ekranima,

with the printed output as being sort of secondary

gde bi štampa bila

in importance.

u drugom planu.

So the priorities were just tipping at that point.

U tom trenutku su prioriteti tek počeli da se menjaju.

They wanted a small core set of fonts

Želeli su manji početni paket fontova

that were not adapted but designed for the screen

koji nisu adaptirani, već dizajnirani za ekrane,

to face up to the problems of screen,

koji bi izašli na kraj

which were their coarse resolution displays.

sa niskom rezolucijom prikaza.

I said to Microsoft, a typeface designed

Rekao sam im da pisma koja se dizajniraju

for a particular technology

za potrebe tehnologije

is a self-obsoleting typeface.

brzo zastare.

I've designed too many faces in the past

Već sam dizajnirao dosta pisama

that were intended to mitigate technical problems.

koja su trebala da uklone tehničke probleme.

Thanks to the engineers, the technical problems went away.

Tehnički problemi bi nestali zahvaljujući inženjerima,

So did my typeface.

a sa njima i pisma.

It was only a stopgap.

Bila su samo zakrpe.

Microsoft came back to say that

Majkrosoft mi je odgovorio

affordable computer monitors

da će se pristupačni monitori

with better resolutions

sa boljom rezolucijom

were at least a decade away.

pojaviti tek za deset godina.

So I thought, well, a decade, that's not bad,

Pomislio sam, čitava decenija nije loša,

that's more than a stopgap.

ipak je više od zakrpe.

So I was persuaded, I was convinced,

Tako su me ubedili

and we went to work on what became Verdana

i počeli smo da radimo na Verdani

and Georgia,

i Džordžiji

for the first time working not on paper

i prvi put nismo radili na papiru

but directly onto the screen from the pixel up.

već sa samim pikselima, direktno na ekranu.

At that time, screens were binary.

Ekrani su tada bili binarni.

The pixel was either on or it was off.

Pikseli su bili uključeni ili isključeni.

Here you see the outline of a letter,

Ovde se vidi obris slova,

the cap H,

velikog H,

which is the thin black line, the contour,

u tankoj crnoj liniji,

which is how it is stored in memory,

u memoriji se čuva kao kontura,

superimposed on the bitmap,

postavljen preko bitmape,

which is the grey area,

u sivoj boji,

which is how it's displayed on the screen.

koja predstavlja prikaz na ekranu.

The bitmap is rasterized from the outline.

Bitmapa se rasterizuje od konture.

Here in a cap H, which is all straight lines,

Kod velikog H su sve linije prave,

the two are in almost perfect sync

i ove dve su skoro potpuno uspravne

on the Cartesian grid.

po Dekartovom koordinatnom sistemu.

Not so with an O.

Kod O nije tako.

This looks more like bricklaying than type design,

Ovo više liči na zidanje nego dizajn slova,

but believe me, this is a good bitmap O,

ali mi verujte da je ovo dobro bitmapno O,

for the simple reason that it's symmetrical

jer je simetrično

in both x and y axes.

prema x i y osi.

In a binary bitmap, you actually can't ask

Kod binarnih bitmapa

for more than that.

bolje od toga i ne može.

I would sometimes make, I don't know,

Povremeno bih za zahtevnija slova

three or four different versions of a difficult letter

napravio tri ili četiri verzije,

like a lowercase A,

na primer za malo A,

and then stand back to choose which was the best.

zatim se udaljio da vidim koja je najbolja.

Well, there was no best,

Nije bilo najbolje,

so the designer's judgment comes in

pa dizajner mora

in trying to decide

da odluči

which is the least bad.

koja je najmanje loša.

Is that a compromise?

Da li je to kompromis?

Not to me, if you are working

Mislim da nije, ukoliko radite

at the highest standard the technology will allow,

na najbolji način koji tehnologija dopušta,

although that standard may be

iako je on možda

well short of the ideal.

daleko od idealnog.

You may be able to see on this slide

Na ovom slajdu se vide

two different bitmap fonts there.

dva različita bitmapna fonta.

The "a" in the upper one, I think,

Čini mi se da je malo A u gornjem

is better than the "a" in the lower one,

bolje od malog A u donjem,

but it still ain't great.

ali opet nije odlično.

You can maybe see the effect better

Možda se bolje vidi

if it's reduced. Well, maybe not.

ako se smanji. Možda i ne.

So I'm a pragmatist, not an idealist,

Znači da sam pragmatičan, a ne idealista,

out of necessity.

iz potrebe.

For a certain kind of temperament,

Za ljude određene ćudi

there is a certain kind of satisfaction

je zadovoljstvo uraditi

in doing something that cannot be perfect

nešto ne savršeno,

but can still be done to the best of your ability.

već najbolje što se može.

Here's the lowercase H from Georgia Italic.

Ovo je malo H iz italik Džordžije.

The bitmap looks jagged and rough.

Izgleda iskrzano i grubo.

It is jagged and rough.

I jeste iskrzano i grubo.

But I discovered, by experiment,

Ali sam eksperimentom utvrdio

that there is an optimum slant

da za italike na ekranu

for an italic on a screen

postoji optimalan nagib

so the strokes break well

kod kog se potezi pravilno prelamaju

at the pixel boundaries.

na granicama piksela.

Look in this example how, rough as it is,

Na ovom primeru se vidi da se

how the left and right legs

leva i desna nožica prelamaju

actually break at the same level.

na istoj visini, uprkos gruboći.

That's a victory. That's good, right there.

To je pogodak. To je dobro.

And of course, at the lower depths,

A na nižim rezolucijama

you don't get much choice.

ni nemate izbora.

This is an S, in case you were wondering.

To je S, za slučaj da niste sigurni.

Well, it's been 18 years now

Prošlo je već 18 godina

since Verdana and Georgia were released.

od kako su Verdana i Džordžija objavljene.

Microsoft were absolutely right,

Majkrosoft je bio u pravu,

it took a good 10 years,

zaista je trebalo 10 godina,

but screen displays now do have

ali ekrani sada imaju

improved spatial resolution,

visoku prostornu

and very much improved photometric resolution

i odličnu fotometrijsku rezoluciju,

thanks to anti-aliasing and so on.

zahvaljujući omekšavanju ivica i tome slično.

So now that their mission is accomplished,

Sad kad su u tome uspeli,

has that meant the demise

da li je došao kraj

of the screen fonts that I designed

fontovima koje sam dizajnirao

for coarser displays back then?

za ekrane niskih rezolucija?

Will they outlive the now-obsolete screens

Da li će nadživeti ekrane

and the flood of new web fonts

koji su zastareli i navalu

coming on to the market?

novih fontova za internet?

Or have they established their own

Ili su zauzeli sopstveno

sort of evolutionary niche

mesto u evoluciji,

that is independent of technology?

koje ne zavisi od tehnologije?

In other words, have they been absorbed

Drugim rečima, da li su postali

into the typographic mainstream?

deo mejnstrima tipografije?

I'm not sure, but they've had a good run so far.

Nisam siguran, ali do sad im je dobro išlo.

Hey, 18 is a good age for anything

Osamnaest godina je sasvim dobro,

with present-day rates of attrition,

s obzirom na današnji vek proizvoda,

so I'm not complaining.

tako da ne mogu da se požalim.

Thank you.

Hvala vam.

(Applause)

(Aplauz)