In 1969 in July, three Americans launched into space. Now, they went to the surface of the moon, they famously made the great leap for mankind. Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, they walked on the surface, they planted this flag. It's rightly celebrated as a moment that in America we say is a triumph. We think it was this amazing accomplishment. They didn't just leave behind this flag, though. They also left behind a plaque. This plaque is a beautiful object, and one that I want to talk to you a little bit about. First, you might notice that there's two globes, representing all of earth. And then there's this beautiful statement: "We came in peace for all mankind." Now, at first, this is just nice poetic language, but it's also set in a typeface that's perfect for this moment. It seems industrial, it seems engineered. It also is the best possible name you could come up with for something on the moon: Futura.
1969年7月, 三位美国人被发射至太空。 他们抵达了月球的表面, 完成了人类举世瞩目的一跃。 巴兹·奥尔德林,尼尔·阿姆斯特朗 在月表行走, 他们插上了这面旗帜。 这是一个值得全美国庆祝的胜利时刻。 我们认为这是一个了不起的成就。 他们留下的不仅是这面旗帜。 他们也留下了一块登月纪念牌。 这个纪念牌很漂亮, 我想和你们谈谈。 首先,你可能注意到有两个球状图案, 代表整个地球。 然后是这段优美的描述: “我们为全人类的和平而来。” 首先,这是非常富有诗意的语言, 其次它的字体也非常适合那个时刻。 它看起来是工业化的, 经过精心设计的。 这也是你能想到的用来描述 月球上的东西的 最好名字:Futura(未来)。
Now, I want to talk to you about fonts, and why this typeface is perfect for this moment. But it's actually more than just ceremonial. Now, when all of you arrived here today, you actually had to think about fonts. You might not realize it, but you're all unconscious experts on typography. Typography is the study of how fonts inhabit our world, they're the visual language of the words we use. Here's the thing that's funny about this, though. I know you're probably not like me, you're not a font nerd, maybe some of you are, but if you're not, that's alright, because I might spend hours every day trying to pick the perfect typeface for the perfect project, or I might spend thousands of dollars every year, trying to get ones with the right features. But all of you actually spend hours every day, evaluating fonts. If you don't believe me, think about how you got here. Each of you had to judge by the signs and maybe even on your phone, which signals to trust and which to ignore. You were evaluating fonts.
现在,我想和你们谈谈字体, 以及为什么这个字体 非常适合这个时刻。 这不仅仅是仪式。 你们所有人今天来到这里时, 都需要考虑字体。 你们可能没有意识到这点, 但你们在潜意识中都是排版专家。 排版是研究字体以什么方式 存在于我们的世界的。 他们是我们使用的文字的视觉化语言。 但有趣的事情是, 我知道你们可能不像我, 你们不是字体迷, 可能有些人是, 但如果你不是,也没关系, 因为我可能每天都要花上几个小时 去为最合适的物体 挑选最合适的字体, 我也可能每年要花费成千上万美元, 试着找到符合我要求的字体。 但其实你们所有人每天都花了 数个小时在评估字体。 如果你不信,想想 你是如何到这儿的。 每个人都要判断标志, 甚至你手机上的标志, 该相信哪个符号,忽略哪个符号。 这时你就是在评估字体。
Or maybe when you're just buying a new product, you have to think about whether something is expensive or cheap or hard to get or easy to find. And the funny thing about it is, this may not seem extraordinary to you, but the moment you see something out of place, you recognize it right away.
或者可能当你刚买了个新产品时, 你得考虑东西是贵 还是便宜,或者很难获得 还是容易找到。 有趣的事情是, 这在你看起来并不奇怪, 但一旦你看到的事情错位了, 你立马就能认出来。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
The thing I love about typography, and why I love fonts and why I love Futura, is that, for me, what I study is everywhere. Every street that I walk down, every book that I pick up, every thing that I read is filled with the thing I love. Now, once you understand the history and what happens with typography, you actually have a history of everything before you.
我爱排版的一点是, 以及我为什么喜欢字体, 尤其是 Futura 字体的原因是, 对我而言,我的研究对象无处不在。 我走过的每一条街道, 我拿起的每一本书, 我阅读的任何事物都 充满了我热爱的东西。 一旦你理解了排版的演变过程, 你面前的每件事的历史 都摆在了你的面前。
And this is the typeface Futura. As previously we've discussed, this is modernism in miniature. This is a way in which modernism infiltrated this country and became perhaps the most popular, or promiscuous typeface, of the twentieth century. "Less is more," right, these are the aphorisms of modernism. And in the visual arts, the same thing happened. Let's focus on the essentials, focus on the basic shapes, focus on geometry. So Futura actually holds this to its core. You might notice that the shapes inherent in Futura have circles, squares, triangles. Some of the shapes are all based on circles, like the O, D and C, or others have this pointed apex of the triangle. Others just look like they might have been made with a ruler or a compass. They feel geometric, they feel mathematic, precise. In fact, this whole system carries through with the way that the typeface was designed. To not look like it was made like other typefaces, to be something new. Here it is in the lightweight, the medium weight and the bold weight. The whole family has different things to commend to it.
这是 Futura 字体。 正如之前所讨论的, 这是现代主义的缩影。 这是现代主义渗透到 这个国家的一种方式, 也可能是20世纪最流行的, 或混杂的字体。 “少即是多”是现代主义的格言。 在视觉艺术领域, 同样的事情也发生了。 让我们关注本质,关注基本形状, 关注几何。 这实际上就是 Futura 字体的核心。 你可能会注意到 Futura 字体固有的形状 有圆形,正方形,三角形。 有些形状都是基于圆圈的, 比如O、D和C, 有些则带有三角形的尖顶点。 其他的看起来就像是用尺子 或圆规做的。 它们看起来感觉像依照几何形状 或数学公式计算过的,十分精确。 事实上,这种字体的设计方法 贯穿整个系统, 要让它看起来和其他 字体不同,要有新意。 这是它的细体,常规和粗体的样子。 整个字体家族都有 不同的推崇之处。
This was a conscious break from the past, something that looked like it was made by a machine, and not by hand. When I say not made by hand, this is what I mean. This is what we think about maybe, when you might create something with a calligraphic brush or a pen. That there's thicks and thins. And even more traditional typefaces, say like a Garamond, holds vestiges of this old system in which you can see the A where it get little bit thinner at the top and thicker down below, because it's trying to look like someone had made it by hand. But Futura, in contrast, is designed to look like no one had touched it at all, that this was made by a machine, for a machine age, for an industrial age.
这是对过去的一次有意识的突破, 是一种看起来像是由机器 而不是手写生成的东西。 我说不是手写的意思指的就是这个。 这是当你用毛笔 或钢笔写字时有可能呈现出的字体, 笔画之间会有粗和细的差别。 即便是更传统的字体, 比如加拉蒙字体, 也保留着这个旧系统的痕迹, 比如在这里你可以看到 A 的上半部笔画划较细, 而下半部分较粗, 因为这是在试图让它 看起来像手写的。 但 Futura 字体与之相反, 设计得就像跟人工全无关系, 它是由机器书写的, 对应着机器时代,工业时代。
There's actually a sleight of hand here that Paul Renner, the designer who made this in 1927, employed. If you look at the way in which the circular shape joins with the vertical shaft, you'll notice that it tapers just every so slightly. And this is one of hundreds of ways in which this typeface was designed to look geometrically perfect, even though it's mathematically not. And this is what typeface designers do all the time to make typefaces work, every day.
这里其实有1927年 设计这幅画的设计师 保罗·雷纳隐藏的一个花招。 如果你观察 圆与竖连接的方式, 你会注意到它变得稍微细了一些。 这是把字体设计得 几乎在几何上完美的 数百种方法之一, 尽管它在数学上不完美。 这就是字体设计师每天 围绕字体所做的工作。
Now, there were other designers doing this at the same time in Europe and America. These are a few other excellent examples from Europe, trying to create something new for the new age, a new moment in time. These are some other ones in Germany that in some ways look very similar to Futura, maybe with higher waist or lower waist or different proportions. Then why did Futura take over the world? In this case, if you can read the titles there, some of these names don't quite roll off the tongue: Erbar, Kabel Light, Berthold-Grotesk, Elegant-Grotesk. These aren't exactly household names, are they? And so when you compare that to Futura, you realize that this was a really good choice by the marketing team.
同期在欧洲和美国也有 其他设计师做类似的事。 这是来自欧洲的其他一些优秀的例子, 大家在努力为新时代, 新阶段创造一些新的东西。 这是德国的其他一些 看起来非常类似 Futura 的字体, 可能只有高腰或低腰或不同比例之别。 那为什么 Futura 会风靡世界呢? 在这个案例中, 如果你能看清一些字体的名字, 其中有些不是很能脱口而出: Erbar, Kabel Light, Berthold-Grotesk, Elegant-Grotesk. 这些都不是家喻户晓的名字,对吧? 所以当你将它们跟 Futura 做下对比, 就会意识到这是营销团队 做出的一个很好的选择。
What's amazing about this name -- you know, what's in this name is that this is a name that actually invokes hope and an idea about the future. And this isn't actually the word for future in German, it wasn't a German name, they actually picked something that would speak to a wider, larger audience, a universal audience. And when you compare it to what was being done in America -- these are the typefaces from the same period in the United States in the 1920s, bold, brash, braggadocios. You almost think of this as exactly like what the stock market looked like when they were all going nuts in the 1920s. And you realize that Futura is doing something revolutionary.
这个名字最妙的地方在于—— 这个名字的含义 实际上唤起了人们 对未来的希望和想法。 这个词在德语中并不是未来的意思, 它不是一个德语词, 他们其实上选择了一些 能够面向更广泛,更庞大, 全球性的观众群体的东西。 当你比较同时期的美国字体时—— 这些是美国1920年代, 也就是同时代的字体, 粗旷,傲慢,浮夸。 你几乎可以把这想象成20世纪20年代 股市疯狂时的样子。 于是你意识到 Futura 在做的 是革命性的事情。
I want to step back and talk about an example of the typeface in use. So this is a magazine that we all probably know today, "Vanity Fair." This is what it looked like in 1929, in the summer. And in many ways, there's nothing wrong with this design. This is absolutely typical of the 1920s. There's a photograph of an important person, in this case Franklin Roosevelt, then-governor of New York. Everything seems centered, everything seems symmetrical. There's still a little bit of ornamentation, so this is still maybe having some vestiges of the painted lady and not fully modernistic. But everything seems kid of solid. There's even drop caps to help you get into the text.
我想退一步谈谈字体的使用用例。 这是一本我们今天可能都知道 的杂志,《名利场》。 这是它1929年夏季的一个版面。 在很多方面,这个设计都没有问题。 这绝对是1920年代的典型设计。 这是张重要人物的照片, 也就是富兰克林·罗斯福, 当时的纽约州州长。 居中排版,左右对称。 这里仍然有一些装饰, 所以这可能仍然有些 艺术修饰的痕迹, 不完全是现代主义的。 但一切似乎都很合理, 甚至还有下拉大写字母 来引导你进入文本区域。
But this all changed very quickly and in October of 1929, a Berlin-based designer came and redesigned "Vanity Fair." And this is what it looks like with Futura. Instead of the governor now we have a photograph of an abstract, beautiful setting, in this case, the ocean. Instead of drop caps, there's nothing at all. And replaced with a centered layout is now asymmetry. And it gets even more radical the further you enter the magazine. In this case, even more dramatic asymmetry. In this case, illustrations by Pablo Picasso, moving across the page and breaking the gutter of the two pages. And there's something even more radical. If you look closely at the Futura, you might notice something. You might not pick it up at first, but there are no capital letters in the title or the captions on this page. You might not think that's very radical, but pick up any magazine, any book or go to any website, and I guarantee, you are not going to find it very easily. This is still a radical idea.
但这些变化得非常之快, 在1929年10月, 一位来自柏林的设计师 重新设计了《名利场》。 这是用 Futura 字体印刷的样子。 这次不是州长, 现在我们有了一张抽象的, 美丽的背景照片, 在这个例子中,是海洋。 除了首字母下沉外, 并没有什么特别之处。 取代中心布局的是不对称。 你越仔细翻阅这本杂志, 你会发现这种变化越明显,越激进。 在这个例子中,甚至 有更明显的不对称。 其中毕加索的插图横跨过页面, 打破了两页的沟槽。 还有更激进的东西。 如果你仔细观察 Futura, 你可能注意到一些东西。 你可能一开始没有注意到, 但是这一页的标题和说明中 没有大写字母。 你可能不会觉得这个有多激进, 但随手拿起任何杂志, 图书或打开任何网站, 我保证,想找到同样的设计并不容易。 这仍然是个很激进的主意。
And why is that radical? When we think about what capital letters denote, they denote something important, whether it's our names, or our titles. Or maybe even just the name of our corporations, or maybe our trademarks. Actually, in some ways, America's the home of capitalization. We love putting capitals in everything.
为什么说它是激进的? 思考一下大写字母代表什么, 它们表示的都是重要的东西, 不管是我们的名字还是职位。 或者可能只是我们公司的名字, 或者我们的商标。 事实上,在某些方面, 美国是资本主义的发源地。 我们喜欢在每件事情上都注入资本。 (注:capitals同时有资本和大写字母的意思)
(Laughter)
(笑声)
But think about how radical this would be to introduce a magazine where you're taking away all the capital letters. This has maybe had the same political force that we now argue over things like pronouns in our society today. In the 1920s, this is just shortly after Soviet Russia had a communist revolution. And for them, this actually represented a socialist infiltration into America. All lowercase letters meant that this was an egalitarian, complete lowering of everything into one equal playing field. Now this is still kind of a radical idea. Think about how often you do capitalize something to have more power or prestige to it. So for them to do this was a way in which Futura was using this idea.
但想想,如果你推出一本 去掉所有大写字母的杂志, 这是多么激进的做法。 这可能和我们今天在社会上 争论发音一样具有政治影响力。 在1920年代, 这样的事就发生在苏联发生 共产主义革命后不久。 对他们来说,这实际上代表了 社会主义对美国的渗透。 所有的小写字母代表了一种平均主义, 把所有的东西都放到一个 平等的竞争环境中。 今天这仍然是一个很激进的想法。 想想你是否经常使用大写来让某段文字 体现更大的权力和声望。 所以对他们来说,这是 运用 Futura 的一种方式。
Now, other designers were doing other things with Futura. Others brought other ideas of modernism with it, whether it was interesting new illustration styles, or interesting new collage types of illustration. Or even just new book covers, whether they were from Europe.
其他设计者也在 用 Futura 字体做其他事情。 他们带来了现代主义的其他想法, 无论是有趣的新插画风格, 还是有趣的新拼贴类型的插图, 或者只是新书的封面, 无论它们是否来自欧洲。
But here's the funny thing. In the 1920s, if you wanted to use a new typeface, you couldn't just go download it onto your computer. You actually had to have pieces of lead. So for Americans who wanted to adopt this and make it part of their own system, something they could use in everyday typography, whether in ads or anything else, they actually had to have metal type.
但这里有个有趣的事情。 在1920年代,如果你想要使用新的字体, 你无法直接把它下载到你的电脑中。 你必须有刻有这种字体的铅块。 所以对于想要采纳这种字体, 并且想要将其作为 他们系统的一部分的人, 一种他们每天排版时 都可以使用的东西, 不管在广告或者其他地方, 他们必须使用金属字体。
So being good American capitalists, what did we do? We made all sorts of copies. Ones that had nothing to do with the name Futura, but looked identical to it, whether it was Spartan or Tempo. And in fact, by the time that World War II started, American corporations were actually trying to boycott Nazi goods. But they said, "Go ahead and use our copies. Use 20th Century, use Spartan, use Vogue, use Tempo. These are identical to Futura." And in fact, for most people, they didn't even learn the new names, they just still called it all Futura. So America took this typeface in, conquered it and made it its own. So by the time World War II finishes, Americans are using this on everything, whether it be catalogs, or atlases, or encyclopedias or charts and graphs, or calendars, or even political material. And even the logo for a new expansion football team. And in fact, it was used even on some of the most important advertising of the 20th century.
所以作为优秀的美国资本家, 我们到底是怎么做的? 我们制作各种各样的字体副本。 这些字体和 Futura 这个名字 没有任何关系, 但是看起来是一样的, 无论是 Spartan 字体还是Tempo字体。 事实上,到第二次世界大战开始时, 美国公司一直在抵制纳粹的东西。 但他们说,“去用我们的复制品吧, 用20世纪的东西,使用Spartan, Vogue, Tempo字体。 这些和 Futura 是一样的。” 其实,对大部分人而言, 他们甚至都记不住这些新名字, 只是简单的将 所有这些字体叫做 Futura。 所以美国采用了这种字体, 并将它吸纳成自己的字体。 到第二次世界大战结束时, 这种字体开始在美国变得无处不在, 无论是目录还是地图册, 或是百科全书,图表和图片, 或者日历,甚至政治材料都在用。 连一个正在扩张的足球队 队徽都用到了这种字体。 事实上,它甚至被用在20世纪最重要 的一些广告中。
So it's in this context that when the US government was picking a typeface to use after World War II for new maps and new projects, they picked Futura. It wasn't an astounding choice, it wasn't a radical choice, it didn't have anything to do with communism. But in this case, it was used on some of the most important maps, so this one, an air force map in 1962, or used for the maps in Vietnam in '66.
所以在这种情况下, 当美国政府在二战后为新的地图 和新的项目挑选字体时, 他们选了 Futura 字体。 这不是一个令人震惊的选择, 也不是一个激进的选择, 它跟共产主义没有任何关系。 但在这个例子中,它被用于 一些最重要的地图, 比如这张1962年的空军地图, 或者1966年的越南地图。
And so it wasn't a surprise that when astronauts first started the Mercury program, such as John Glenn orbiting the earth, that charts and maps that he was using were in Futura. And in fact, by the time Mercury morphed into Apollo, it started getting used more and more for more things. So in this case for a safety plan, or even starting to get used on instrument panels, or navigational aids. Or even on diagrams to show how the whole system worked.
所以当宇航员 第一次开展水星计划时, 比如约翰·格伦绕地球航行, 他所使用的图表和地图 使用了 Futura 字体并不奇怪。 事实上,当水星变成阿波罗计划时, 在越来越多的物件上都能见到 Futura。 比如在一个安全计划书中, 甚至开始在仪表盘上, 或助航设备上使用。 整个系统的工作原理图表上也会用到。
But here's the amazing thing, it didn't just get used for papers that they handed out to people. It started to get used for an interface, for an entire system that helped the astronauts know how to use the machine. NASA wasn't just one big corporation making everything. There was hundreds of contractors -- Boeing, IBM, McDonnell Douglas -- all making different machines. Now imagine if astronauts had to use different typefaces and different systems for each component they had in the space shuttles. This would have been impossible to navigate and there would have been a cognitive overload every time they had to open up a new system. So in this case, Futura being used on the interface helped them navigate complexity and make it more clear. And it wasn't just used on buttons, it was used on labels, and it was used on their food rations, and it was used on their tool kits. It was used on knobs and levers to tell them what to do. In fact, maybe even some of the places where they needed to have things that were complex be more simple to them, instructions were printed entirely in Futura, so that they could know what to do with that one moment. They didn't have to remember everything in their head, they could have it out there in the world to see and refer to. In this case, Futura helped make that system, which was already a very difficult and complex system, a little less complex. In fact, the very first or last thing an astronaut might have seen when they were entering or exiting the spacecraft would have been in Futura.
但这就是神奇之处, 它不只限于人们彼此传阅的出版物上, 还开始被用于帮助宇航员 了解如何操作机器的 整个系统界面。 NASA(美国宇航局)并不是 一切设备的制造者。 这些设备来自数百家承包商—— 波音,IBM,麦道—— 他们制造的是不同的机器。 想象一下如果宇航员不得不 在航天飞机上的每一个部件中 使用不同的字体和系统会怎样。 这可能根本没法导航, 并且会在他们每次 启动一个新系统时, 造成认知超载, 所以在这个案例中, 被用于交互界面的 Futura 字体 能够帮助他们应对复杂的系统 并使流程更加清晰。 它不仅是用于标记按钮, 还被用于物件的标签, 宇航员的食物配给 和工具包上。 Futura 还被用于旋钮和 杠杆上的指导性标语。 事实上,也许还会被用于 某些只能容纳少量文字的地方, 这里的文字说明 完全是用 Futura 字体打印的, 这样操作说明就变得一目了然。 他们不需要记住所有事情, 只需要在必要的时候找地方查看。 在这个案例中,Futura 使得 一个本身非常复杂的系统 简化了很多。 事实上,当宇航员进出太空船时, 看到的第一个或者最后一个东西 可能也使用了 Futura 字体。
One of my favorite examples of how Futura worked in this way is actually this camera. This is a Hasselblad that was made by the Swedish company. It's a perfectly good camera, some of you might have used one, it's prized by photographers as a really great camera. And you might notice, if you know anything about cameras, that there's some modifications made to it. In this case, there are stickers placed all over the film canisters, or other parts of the camera here. What this enabled NASA to do, was make something really great out of the astronauts. They're not photographers, they're not experts in art. But they could ensure that they would know how to use this camera because of the labels placed there in Futura.
我最喜欢的一个关于 Futura 在这方面应用的例子 其实是这台相机。 这是一家瑞典公司生产的哈苏相机。 这是一台非常棒的相机, 你们有些人可能用过, 它被摄影师们誉为 一台伟大的相机。 如果你多少对相机有些了解, 可能已经注意到, 这台相机做了改装, 用贴纸贴满了胶卷筒, 或者相机的其他部分。 NASA 这样做能让 宇航员们拍一些 令人惊叹的照片。 他们不是摄影师,也不是艺术家。 但贴在相机上的 Futura 标签可以确保 他们知道如何使用这台相机,
So in this case, Futura acquired and made sure that they had legitimacy with the things they were using. In this case to not take off the film before it would expose. Which, in this case, we would have never had some of the amazing photos we had without this label. When we see something as decorative as this, a ceremonial patch, or something like this plaque on the moon, we realize that Futura was more than just something ceremonial, something more than something that had just been picked for its design. In fact, Futura had authority, had legitimacy and had power because of this choice.
这样一来, Futura 就取得并确保了他们能够掌控 所使用的东西。 这个标签说的是在需要曝光之前 不要把胶片取下来。 也就是说如果没有这个标签, 我们可能就见不到那些壮观的照片了。 当我们看到像这样装饰性的东西, 比如一块仪式性的肩章, 或者像月球上的这块纪念牌, 我们意识到 Futura 不仅仅是一种仪式性的东西, 不仅仅是因它的设计而被挑选。 实际上,Futura 代表着权威, 因为这个选择而拥有合法性和权威。
There's one other thing I want to talk about in closing. And that is that Futura tells a story. And this is what I love about typefaces, is that all of them tell stories. And in this case, this typeface tells a very powerful story about assimilation, about something being taken into America and being made part of its culture. And that's one of the best and worst things America does, is we take things into our culture and we spit them out back again and claim them our own. And in this case, Futura mirrors exactly what happened with the technology undergirding the whole system. Futura was a German typeface, taken in, made into an American commodity. And so were the technologies: the rockets, the scientists all came from Germany as well. So in some ways, this German typeface on an American plaque perfectly mirrors what happened with the technology. And in this case, when you think about this story, you realize that typography on the moon represents legitimacy, represents authority, and this gave them, the astronauts, the power to get to the moon.
我想用另一件事结束我的演讲。 那就是 Futura 讲述了一个故事。 我爱字体的原因是它们都在讲故事。 在这个例子中,这个字体 讲了一个关于同化, 关于被美国吸收 而成为其文化一部分的 强大的故事。 这是美国做的最好和最坏的事情, 我们把东西带进我们的文化, 然后再把它们吐出来, 并声称它们是我们自己的。 在这种情况下,Futura 准确地体现了 支撑整个系统的技术演变。 Futura 是一种德国字体, 被吸收后成为了一种美国商品。 技术也是如此: 火箭,所有的科学家都来自德国。 所以在某种程度上, 美国纪念牌上的德国字体 完美地体现了这项技术。 在这个例子中, 当你想到这个故事时, 你会意识到月球上的排版 代表着合法性,代表着权威, 并给予了宇航员登上月球的力量。
Thank you.
谢谢。
(Applause)
(鼓掌)