Information Design Journal - Volume 8, Issue 3, 1995

In the 1960s, design education in the United Kingdom was in a state of flux. It was changing from a more or less egalitarian system, first established in the 1830s, to one which sought to separate the sheep from the goats on academic lines at a time when a more comprehensive system was being developed in schools of general education.This account tells of a design course in the 'vocational' sector of the new system which made typography its central design discipline.

The typographer Anthony Froshaug worked intermittently as a teacher in Britain and Germany, from the late 1940s through to the 1980s. He was unusual in bringing the experience of typesetting and printing to design teaching, and in his wide set of intellectual interests. Froshaug's contribution was a notable if somewhat subterranean element in the development of education in typography in Britain, especially in the steps towards its modernization that were made in the 1960s and 1970s.

A pictorial approach for introducing children to fundamental ideas about information design may present fewer problems for teachers than a verbal approach. In education generally, pictures have become a more pervasive feature of instructional strategies and resources. This article considers how information design might be approached in the classroom by having children develop original explanatory pictures. Such an approach would require both a reconcep-tualisation of the purposes of children's classroom drawing and the development of teaching strategies that sensitise children to the needs of information users.

This paper provides evidence for an approach to the teaching of reading in the mid nineteenth century that gave children practice in reading handwritten texts. It focuses on two French readers that were originally published in Paris around 1840. In both publications passages of text appear in different forms of writing and become progressively more cursive and less legible. The intention was to introduce children to the varied forms of handwriting they would meet in real-life situations, particularly in commerce. The technical developments that made it practicable to produce such books, especially transfer lithography, are discussed, as are the publications themselves. It is suggested that there might be value in adopting a similar approach to teaching reading by introducing children to material set in the wide range of types and with the varied spacing commonly found today.

Strengthening literacy amongst school children is a national educational priority in the US. The 'Alphabet Highway' moves reading and writing onto the Internet and Worldwide Web with its program of mentor-assisted writing and electronic publication. Its focus is the coordination of interesting and intelligible online sites - for children created by children. In this way, reading and writing become part of a dynamic useful communication context. The development process and information structure for this project are discussed.