The new methodology presented combines three approaches for the interrogation of typography in printed ephemera. In their use of the new display typefaces, local printers contributed to advancement of typographic composition for printed ephemera. A Typefounders handlist of sans serif types evidences the scale of production of new display faces, demonstrating the rapid economy in the supply and demand for printing types. These towns were diverse in their industries and were identified to represent print activity within a primary case-study of an industrial metropolis, and a secondary study of a rural market town built on its river traffic. From analysis of data from the British Book Trade Index (BBTI), these independent case-studies, represented two vibrant print centres in the Midlands. Surviving printed ephemera was used to build historical case studies based on the industrial towns of Birmingham and Bridgnorth. Contrary to the negative reception the sans serif received from nineteenth-century print historians, such as Thomas Curson Hansard, between 18, it was embraced commercially by Birmingham’s 693 jobbing printers. In the rapidly expanding industrial towns of the Midlands, the deployment of Grotesque sans serifs was widespread. To analyse its usage, the sans serif was aligned to the categories of ‘Commercial Life’, ‘Information’ and ‘Instruction’: to educate the emergent working and middle classes to communicate through new forms of information design and to measure its visual impact. The literature of ephemera studies informed a new methodology that tracks the ascendancy of the sans serif both in terms of its frequency of use and its position within the typographic hierarchy of printed ephemera. This thesis investigates the extent to which early sans serif typography was used in advertising by provincial jobbing printers and presents a new narrative that reveals the history underpinning its cultural connotations. The contemporary revival of Grotesque typefaces highlights the prevailing popularity of sans serif printing types across a 200-year history. David Osbaldestin PhD Thesis published_Final version_Submitted Aug 2021_Final Award Aug 2023.pdf
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