Moving into the late 1900s was when pop culture started to emerge. This was a pivotal turning point in the creation of new fonts. Technological tools set a path for great developments.

The most important technological move occurred during the 1950s, Varityper and Proton both released standalone reasonably priced typesetting system. This meant that most people within society had access to the production of typography, most importantly of these were artists.

Pop culture changed many aspects within society however it was particularly within the creatives that saw the most change including; Music, art, literature and even furniture. Pop art was made as a protest to the elitist culture, it was highly expressive which is why it led to the creation of new quirky fonts. With the developments within technology the newly developing society allowed for artists to play with these new creations.

This led to the development of typography being used within other products, a prime example of this was Roy Lichenstein, who used a simple comic book font as a part of his large-scale paintings.

One of the most important pioneers of contemporary Typographic art influenced by the all-important pop art, British artist Mike Edwards created and still creates Word Paintings or Text Portraits in which each letter becomes rendered in a separate color. When the image is viewed from distance, the letters come together and create a photographic quality of the work.

It is so clear that this development in technology had and still has a major influence in both typography and art, in the next blog post we will be looking forward into the 1960/70s.