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Xerox Diabo HyType I Serial Printer; 1973
Designed in 1973, this Xerox Diablo HyType I catalog has not lost a drop of awesome. The minimal cover art, while seemingly arbitrary at first glance, takes on a second meaning after you learn what Xerox is selling. Diablo Systems (acquired by Xerox in 1972) developed the first commercially successful daisy-wheel printer. Simply referred to as a daisy, it consists of a round plastic or metal disk with 96 petals, each carrying a glyph. The operator could snap in different character wheels to change type styles or fonts. The spectral asterisk icon, then, symbolizes the possibilities that can be achieved with one of the fastest daisy-wheel printers of its time. Without this knowledge, the cover is still gorgeous, but knowing makes it all the more lovely.
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This is great. I really appreciate this blog for the fact that it is a prime spot to see a lot of vintage design. The awe-inspiring, nostalgic aura of these makes you want to design anything that good, and the crazy thing is that this is over 30 years old. There are so many great things that withhold their value over the test of time, the Xerox Diablo HyType being one of them, and looking upon that every so often is humbling. Also, it makes you take an alternative approach to how you look at a company like Xerox today, when you see some of their roots and realize that they got where they are because they had a great idea and were on the cutting edge of technology for their time.
You keep posting ‘em and I’ll keep reading ‘em, thanks a bunch :)
-B
Name //
Brandon Kitajchuk
Date //
November 18, 2010
to user
Team Colorcubic
Brandon, I totally agree with you. Take the HyType font, for example. It looks as if it could’ve been a new font released by YouWorkForThem or HypeForType!
Xerox was definitely cutting edge back in the day. PARC, anyone? It’s unfortunate Xerox has since taken a nosedive in innovation and design, but least for now, we’ve got stuff like this to drool over. :)
Name //
Christy
Date //
November 19, 2010
to user
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The HyType font is most definitely sick! And you are totally right, I did not even know about PARC. The crazy thing is that they are responsible for a lot of things I use everyday. Laser printing, Ethernet, PC AND GUI!!! That is amazing in and of itself and very cool.
I think it is good to be frequently reminded where we are coming from these days, especially in this industry.
:D
Name //
Brandon Kitajchuk
Date //
November 22, 2010
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