STEREOTYPOGRAPHY
For this blog post I wanted
to explore the power of historical context when considering typefaces,
specifically typefaces that have become attached cultural stereotypes. The
theory of stereo typography—the stereotyping of cultures through typefaces
associated with them—has been increasing, as graphic design becomes a greater
cultural force.
In this blog, I will focus on
two typefaces—Mandarin and Neuland—the origins of these “stereotyped” typefaces
and how they became associated with specific cultures. What I discovered most
fascinating is that even the most blatantly racial stereo typography is still
in use today.
Nueland/Nueland Inline
Lithos
Neuland (as well as its doppelganger Lithos) are typefaces
are display faces that are highly recognizable and appear on everything from
Trader Joe’s Organic Coconut Oil to the on-screen graphics for Big Buck Hunter
Safari Edition and in wordmarks and logos from the Subaru Outback to Jurassic
Park.
On-screen graphics for Big Buck Hunter Safari Edition
An interesting article by designer
and writer Rob Giampietro attempts to explain how Neuland and Lithos Inline
have become adopted by designers as the default typeface for all manner of
African/jungle/primitive/exotic-themed graphic applications.
Neuland was created by German
typographer Rudolph Koch in 1923. Two aspects of Neuland to mention here
because of how it laid the foundation for the relationship between the typeface
and black culture. First is the composition of the letterforms, second, how
this letterform design was advertised and then distributed to American print
shops.
Koch’s original intent for
Neuland was “to make a bold, noticeable typeface that would shout to other
Germans that following God’s path would help them find comfort from the trauma
of World War I. The letters composing the Neuland typeface are heavy bold black
san serif forms that would be easily distinguishable from any other
lighter-weight typefaces printed on the same page. These attributes were not
lost on the Type distribution companies, who marketed Neuland as an advertising
font to American print shops and retailers. In the early 20th century, American
typesetters and graphic artists viewed heavy woodblock type as cheap, low-class,
“garbage type”. Upon Neuland’s release, designers and printers associated the
font’s heavy, bold forms with cheap woodblock type and made use of the font in
the same manner. Neuland soon became a member of the family of fonts that
designers call “garbage type”: esoteric, inelegant, difficult to set, and
destined, for tobacco ephemera, circus posters, advertisements and ultimately
for the garbage.
Neuland’s association with
Africa and the exotic originated with the first applications of the Nueland
typeface on advertisements for products associated with slavery: tobacco and
cotton. Due to constant anti-African-American sentiment and the socioeconomic
status of African-Americans during and after the Civil War, African-American
graphic culture in the United States prior to Neuland’s release in 1923 and
before the Harlem Renaissance in general was unimportant at best and
nonexistent at worst. Before Neuland’s release, the graphic culture of
African-Americans was exemplified by trading cards, “circus type,” and
cigarette packaging and it typified the racial and socioeconomic stereotype of
the “poor negro”. In short, African-Americans did not have the buying power or
the social acceptance required to cultivate a significant graphic culture. What
graphic culture they did have was centered around their depiction in
advertisements for products associated with slavery: tobacco and cotton.
Neuland was used on this very ephemera and thus the association with African
American culture was born.
Neuland still persists today.
In fact, it’s scope of application has not shrunk but widened beyond the world
of ephermera to include movies, automobiles, sports, fashion, etc. (Hollywood
has used it in such films as Jurassic
Park, Tarzan, and Jumanji. Subaru used Lithos prominently in the logo for their
new car, the Outback.) These uses seem to indicate that Neuland has since
acquired qualities that suggest “jungle,” “safari,” and “adventure”—in short,
Africa.
Mandarin
The typeface Mandarin belongs
to the family of fonts known in graphic design as "chop suey fonts".
These American typefaces attempt to mimic East Asian calligraphy and have long
been used to sell China to western audiences. With its roots in
turn-of-the-century San Francisco Chinatown, chop suey fonts prevailed as an
intentional misrepresentation of China used for dramatic effect by graphic
designers, Chinese immigrants, and now, politicians.
2013 Republican Advertisement
The use of Asian-inspired
fonts began in 1883, when the Cleveland Type Foundry created a typeface called
Chinese, which became known as Mandarin by the mid 1950s. The font became
famous when it was used in a poster that promoted tourism to San Francisco’s
Chinatown after the 1906 earthquake. The poster heralded a new Chinatown, one
filled with pagodas and flamboyant Chinese imagery.
By the 1930s, Chinese
restaurants across the country used chop suey lettering in their
advertisements. Ironically, it was Chinese-American restaurateurs who were
choosing the chop suey lettering, conferring a bit of authenticity on two American
inventions. Chinese immigrants were eager to use chop suey types—not because
they enjoyed the aesthetic, but because they were good businessmen who realized
it allowed Americans to easily identify where Chinese food was served. Chop
suey fonts are still connected to Chinese food today, found on takeout boxes,
disposable chopstick packaging, and restaurant signage.
Popularity in these “chop
suey fonts” waned in the second half of the 20th century as graphic designers
shifted away from the prejudice that dominated the discipline through the 1950s
Modern era. Today, chop suey types are used with and without caution
. When Chinese-American
author Jennifer 8. Lee received criticism that her blog header made use of
“Chinesey” lettering, she wrote in defense: “The font would be disturbing if I
were using it earnestly to represent China or ‘Chineseness’… in a way the font
is very appropriate since it represents the exotification of the ‘Orient.’ We
are appropriating it, not in a serious way, but in a way of self-aware
mockery.”
Lee distinguishes her use of
the font from less appropriate uses, like Abercrombie & Fitch’s 2002 line
of t-shirts with caricatures of Chinese images. After receiving “hundreds and
hundreds” of complaints about the shirts—largely from Asian American college
students, who were presumably one of Abercrombie & Fitch’s target
groups—A&F withdrew the garments from their stores nationwide and
discontinued catalog sales.
Additional Links
5 Genuinely offensive fonts:
Nueland and Lithos as stereotypography
Casual racism and the chop stick font
