What is the purpose of teaching them? Is this informative or practical? History is interesting but not nearly as essential as, say, the fundamentals of using and setting type, kerning, what fonts are appropriate for what type of usage, type terms, etc. I never studied typography but learned it on the job. I am blown away by the knowledge of some of the members of this forum. But I do feel like I could give a quickie lecture on type based on my experience using it.

I’d spend the hour just looking at typography, and trying to break down a page into all its elements. I’d talk about the choices that were made in a given example, and other choices that could be made if it was designed differently. And I’d try to emphasize the spatial organization of the page, perhaps even over details of typeface design. Hopefully the time would be enough to convey the essence of typographical design.

I’d avoid much talk of technology, history, or jargon — unless you’re asked.

—John

OK - I was going to edit my post to add that I think a basic understanding of families is useful too but the link button isn’t there...

I don’t agree that going over a single example in detail is the best use of a one hour lecture, I’d try to cover more of the basics. But again, it depends on the audience and the purpose.

Interesting takes.
pattyfab- it’s instructional, particularly practical.
John- I think you’re approach would be really terrific as a SECOND lecture. I might be wrong, but my feeling is that the “let’s examine this, understand why it does or doesn’t work and see how we might improve it” could be daunting for someone before they felt like they had their sea legs.

I think I’d do “One-hour Typographical History for Dummies” — where it started, how it progressed, Gutenberg, Letraset, computers.

Quick cuts between slides, very MTV.... :-(

Start with the purpose, not how it generally ends up looking.

hhp

Use your hour to get this people higly interested on fundamental topics of type practice. Then they will know exactly what they need to learn and get as much as they need by themselves

Héctor

But you still haven’t told us either the audience or the purpose for the one-hour lecture. You might get different advice if you do. Or is this just a theoretical question: what is the most important info to impart on type?