d by industrialization. The upper classes became wealthier and the need to show off visits and objects from far away countries grew, people aspired to travel, although many could not afford, it was a symbol of status. And so the world had become more connected and that meant people had a need to understand each other, there was a drive towards internationalism and standardization.
In 1925 Bayer, a member of the Bauhaus, a new progressive art and design institute formed out of modernity, designed the typeface ‘universal’. ‘ Bayer hoped to transcend the transient whims of culture by basing his designs on timeless objective laws. Considerations of style and self-expression were subordinated to the “purity” of geometry and the demands of function. This method culminated in Bayer’s attempt to design a typeface with letterforms so essential they would be understood as universal.’ Lupton E. Abbot-Miller J. (1993) ‘The ABC’s of Bauhaus and Design Theory’, Thames and Hudson. pp 38. Bayer felt the need to be functional and understood by many. He wanted to standardize type; he wanted to make it universal and to do this he made sure that the typeface wouldn’t contain any social or historical backgrounds, like typefaces such as Times New Roman, which hinted at the Roman Empire, it suggested power and nationality. As did Fraktur Font which was designed after Universal during the Nazi regime, it looked gothic and therefore Germanic, it was meant to represent again power and a strong historical background and nation. ‘ The successful promotion of these strains of Nazi Ideology required a scapegoat, which was found in the internationalist, anticipatory and socialist culture of Modernism.’ Crowley. D, Jobling. P, (1996) ‘Graphic Design: Reproduction and Representation since 1800’, Manchester, Manchester University Press. pp151. This also shows that even the Nazi’s believed that the modern style was international and had aimed to appeal and communicate to a wider audience, beyond the restraints of their own country. They also seemed to believe that modern designers where trying to perceive a new future even though it had not actually happened yet, however there future was utopian. Bayer designed Universal with the complete opposite agenda to the Nazi’s ideals, he saw the need for a typeface that would be understood by all and wouldn’t be more meaningful to one country or another. He new this was needed as countries had begun to trade and communicate; he wanted everyone to understand even if they spoke another language. It is also argued that ‘ universal type was designed only in the lowercase alphabet. Bayer argued that since speech does not recognize capital letters, they are no longer needed in typography. A single case alphabet would be easier for children to learn, more efficient to write, the lack of uppercase letters would reduce the printer’s storage space, set-up time, and overall costs’. Lupton E. Abbot-Miller J. (1991) ‘The ABC’s of Bauhaus and Design Theory’. London, Thames and Hudson. pp 41. This argument describes the forces of modernity having a direct impact on Bayer’s Universal typeface. Lowercase means that all the letters where equal, and they would all have a certain height, which meant they would not change on a page. Speech doesn’t contain capitals and so a lowercase copy would read like speech and not like type. Which in turn would be easier for an individual from another country to read and learn, therefore people would be able to communicate internationally easily. Another key point that this argument points out is that people had begun to care about education and the need to read, if future generations could read and write and communicate with each other than trade and wealth would continue to grow globally. The typeface universal was also meant to embrace new technology and the machine age, a lowercase font that had no serifs would take up less space, would cost less to make, and without capitals it would be easier to set up, and therefore production would be faster and quicker and therefore more could be shipped 