Page 79 - AC-3-1

Arts & Communication Contemporary Greek typeface design

also serve as cultural artifacts, reflecting a country’s culture. international targeting operate. Other designers identify
Thus, type design holds significant value in communicating various common reference points such as experimentation,
messages, enhancing reading experiences, capturing historical origin, the study of the character of the Greek
sociopolitical contexts, facilitating communication, and letter, their personal preferences, support for the Greek
affecting daily life. language, and even imperfection.

A typeface designer thus has a crucial role to influence Regarding the evaluation of the typefaces they develop,
and shape the education of the public regarding written dominant criteria for designers include the functionality
language itself. Because of the critical nature of their role, in any medium/environment and the satisfaction of the
the contemporary designer should initially have education purpose for which they were designed. Other significant
and training, both in relation to characters and within criteria include esthetic coherence, design consistency
a broader framework of multifaceted education. They and quality, originality, timelessness, respect for different
should study the history of various writing systems and writing systems, and the ability to expand them to other
the works of other designers in the past to understand weights or styles.
the requirements and peculiarities of the script for which Overall, the findings in this section highlight the crucial
they are designing. They must constantly stay updated role of typeface designers in typography and underscore
on new developments in the field, communicate, and the significance of their education, ongoing learning, and
experiment now that technological capabilities provide understanding of script requirements. Collaboration with
unlimited access to knowledge. Regarding the design
aspect, they should understand what they must design by clients and users is emphasized as essential. In addition,
placing themselves in the reader’s position, understanding although some designers view type design as primarily
broader design needs, and offering solutions in the form technical, others draw inspiration from various sources
such as their daily environment and historical knowledge.
of functional and qualitative typefaces. From a technical
standpoint, they are required to become familiar with the Esthetic considerations vary among designers, with
technical aspects of type development beyond design and some prioritizing a systematic approach, whereas others
document their design choices. In commercial projects, emphasizing experimentation and personal preferences.
they are called to collaborate with clients, and the users Evaluation criteria encompass functionality, satisfaction of
of the typeface, and educate them. In the contemporary purpose, esthetic coherence, originality, and adaptability to
environment, it is crucial to collaborate with other designers different writing systems.
and experiment, thereby exploiting the possibilities offered 5.2. Greek typefaces and Greek script
by digital technology.
There has been a significant lag in Greek typefaces
In a design project, the issue of inspiration is common. compared with the Latin ones in terms of quantity and
Some designers emphasize that type design does not require esthetics. The primary factors contributing to this include
inspiration as it is more of a technical job than a creative the particularly limited market as Greek type design
one. Therefore, they focus on satisfying requirements and concerns only a single country and population, referring
research, especially for typefaces assigned within a project. to extremely few users of the language, and historical
In the case of typefaces for commercial products, filling reasons as Latin letters have been used for centuries,
gaps and needs and monitoring trends in design and whereas Greek typography developed relatively recently
developments in applications are emphasized. Another and outside the Greek territory for many years. Other
group of designers draws inspiration from their daily factors relate to the lack of industry and trade, high cost
environment (e.g., objects, signs, billboards, and notes), of production compared to demand, inherent difficulties
whereas others have historical knowledge and tradition of the Greek alphabet compared to the Latin one, lack of
as their starting point. Finally, an internal need for interest, and absence of relevant education and research
experimentation and understanding of type forms is rarely in Greece. However, the quantitative comparison is rather
recorded as a source of inspiration. flawed as the same phenomenon is observed in other non-
From an esthetic perspective, it does not seem that Latin scripts for similar reasons. Especially now, with the
the typefaces of every designer always have something in development of technology, widely used software such as
common. Nevertheless, those living and operating abroad Fontographer, TypeTool, and FontLab Studio, also plays
highlight as a common reference point for their work that a significant role as it is produced abroad and targets an
they follow a systematic approach to satisfy requirements international audience. Therefore, it is expected that greater
and focus on producing a quality and functional result focus will be on the Latin script and the integration of many
as an indication of how major types of foundries with more typefaces that support Latin-derived alphabets.

Volume 3 Issue 1 (2025) 7 doi: 10.36922/ac.3133