Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
project 4 type definitions
multiple column grids divide the page and are distributed evenly across the page. The more columns give additional flexibility for the arrangement of visual elements. with a multiple column grid you are also able to use different column widths.
type size, leading, and column width all contribute to how many characters are optimal for a line length but as a general standard for continuous text, 45 to 75 characters per line is the ideal length. The 66 character line is widely regarded as ideal. Changing the type size can affect the characters per line. (if its extra long... needs extra leading!)
a baseline grid is an imaginary grid upon which type sits. The baseline of a piece of type can be forced to 'snap' to this grid to maintain continuity across the pages of a design.
typographic river a river is a series of inconsistent word spaces that creates distracting open lines running vertically through the justified paragraph.
flow line a flow line is a horizontal measure that divides the page into spatial divisions and creates additional alignment points for the placement of the visual elements.
incorporating white space into your designs is important because space provides visual contrast and contributes to an effective ordering system. The empty compositional space brings the visual elements alive. Keep your objects grouped and your white space on the outside not the inside
type color/texture the choice of typeface, type size, leading, word spacing, and line measure affects the texture and color (tonal value) of text setting. (ex. Clarendon has strong horizontal emphasis while Helvetica has a monotone texture) the density of typographic elements and their percieved gray value - the overall feeling of lightness and darkness on the page. Basically, the density of text.
the x-height is the height of the lowercase letters without ascenders or descenders. Different typefaces have different x-heights which give them different textures, the x-height effects type color making a typeface can look darker or lighter etc. the larger the x-height the darker the color (smaller x-height has more white space inbetween appearing lighter)
justification uses three values for type setting; minimum, optimum, and maximum. justification settings allow the designer to specify the minimum, optimum and maximum spaces between words. Justification settings also allow for additional spacing to be introduced between letters where necessary.
some ways to indicate a new paragraph include changing the type size (first sentence or statement), indent, extent, color, weight, scale, first letter big, first sentence large, flush, track out, spacing, color field, baseline shift, short rule, symbol under, number, cross-out, justify, all small caps. the only thing you should not do when indicating a new paragraph is hitting the space bar for indent (space is relevant; indent should be same as leading) and if you do indent you do not need a space between.
when hyphenating text make sure there are not more than two hyphenations in a row, too many hyphenations in any paragraph, and never hyphenate a heading.
CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (or black). These are the four colors of ink used in the traditional method of printing hardcopies of images (offset printing). The three colors, plus black correspond to the primary colors, from which can be mixed colors across the visible spectrum. CMYK is a color mixing system that depends on chemical pigments to achieve desired hues
RGB stands for the three primary colors of light - Red, Green, and Blue. All colors are perceived as a combination of these three colors. It is an additive mixing color model and red, green, and blue, are combined in several methods to reproduce all other colors
hanging punctuation must be adjusted so the text will appear aligned and not distract the eye. This applys to asterisks, apostrophes, commas, en dashes, hyphens, periods, and quotation marks.
difference between a foot mark and an apostrophe?
inch mark are used to denote feet and inches while quote marks (smart quotes) are angled or curved and open or closed while the inch marks are straight up and down. You need to use quote marks not inch marks when quoting someone!!!
hyphen is strictly for hyphenating words or breaking words in paragraph settings
en dash is a punctuation mark used in compound words and to separate items such as dates , locations, times, and phone numbers. (can also be used to separate thoughts within a text) when an en dash is used like this, spaces are added before and after the dash.
an em dash is a punctuation mark used to separate thoughts within a text. There are no spaces needed before and after, but kerning may be required.
a ligature is a specially designed character produced by combining tow or three letters into one unified form. It is one form used when two or more letters would normally touch or overlap. Common ligatures are fi or fl. Sometimes ligatures are not required because the typeface letterforms have be designed to minimize the problems that make ligatures necessary.
type size, leading, and column width all contribute to how many characters are optimal for a line length but as a general standard for continuous text, 45 to 75 characters per line is the ideal length. The 66 character line is widely regarded as ideal. Changing the type size can affect the characters per line. (if its extra long... needs extra leading!)
a baseline grid is an imaginary grid upon which type sits. The baseline of a piece of type can be forced to 'snap' to this grid to maintain continuity across the pages of a design.
typographic river a river is a series of inconsistent word spaces that creates distracting open lines running vertically through the justified paragraph.
flow line a flow line is a horizontal measure that divides the page into spatial divisions and creates additional alignment points for the placement of the visual elements.
incorporating white space into your designs is important because space provides visual contrast and contributes to an effective ordering system. The empty compositional space brings the visual elements alive. Keep your objects grouped and your white space on the outside not the inside
type color/texture the choice of typeface, type size, leading, word spacing, and line measure affects the texture and color (tonal value) of text setting. (ex. Clarendon has strong horizontal emphasis while Helvetica has a monotone texture) the density of typographic elements and their percieved gray value - the overall feeling of lightness and darkness on the page. Basically, the density of text.
the x-height is the height of the lowercase letters without ascenders or descenders. Different typefaces have different x-heights which give them different textures, the x-height effects type color making a typeface can look darker or lighter etc. the larger the x-height the darker the color (smaller x-height has more white space inbetween appearing lighter)
justification uses three values for type setting; minimum, optimum, and maximum. justification settings allow the designer to specify the minimum, optimum and maximum spaces between words. Justification settings also allow for additional spacing to be introduced between letters where necessary.
some ways to indicate a new paragraph include changing the type size (first sentence or statement), indent, extent, color, weight, scale, first letter big, first sentence large, flush, track out, spacing, color field, baseline shift, short rule, symbol under, number, cross-out, justify, all small caps. the only thing you should not do when indicating a new paragraph is hitting the space bar for indent (space is relevant; indent should be same as leading) and if you do indent you do not need a space between.
when hyphenating text make sure there are not more than two hyphenations in a row, too many hyphenations in any paragraph, and never hyphenate a heading.
CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (or black). These are the four colors of ink used in the traditional method of printing hardcopies of images (offset printing). The three colors, plus black correspond to the primary colors, from which can be mixed colors across the visible spectrum. CMYK is a color mixing system that depends on chemical pigments to achieve desired hues
RGB stands for the three primary colors of light - Red, Green, and Blue. All colors are perceived as a combination of these three colors. It is an additive mixing color model and red, green, and blue, are combined in several methods to reproduce all other colors
hanging punctuation must be adjusted so the text will appear aligned and not distract the eye. This applys to asterisks, apostrophes, commas, en dashes, hyphens, periods, and quotation marks.
difference between a foot mark and an apostrophe?
inch mark are used to denote feet and inches while quote marks (smart quotes) are angled or curved and open or closed while the inch marks are straight up and down. You need to use quote marks not inch marks when quoting someone!!!
hyphen is strictly for hyphenating words or breaking words in paragraph settings
en dash is a punctuation mark used in compound words and to separate items such as dates , locations, times, and phone numbers. (can also be used to separate thoughts within a text) when an en dash is used like this, spaces are added before and after the dash.
an em dash is a punctuation mark used to separate thoughts within a text. There are no spaces needed before and after, but kerning may be required.
a ligature is a specially designed character produced by combining tow or three letters into one unified form. It is one form used when two or more letters would normally touch or overlap. Common ligatures are fi or fl. Sometimes ligatures are not required because the typeface letterforms have be designed to minimize the problems that make ligatures necessary.
type project 4 article
The article i picked is On Creativity by Andy Rutledge. Andy Rutledge is a designer and the owner of Unit Interactive which is a web design agency in Texas. On his website he also hosts The Design View Show which is a weekly podcast that examines design fundamentals, business, culture, and professionalism. You can listen to it if you so desire!
On Creativity - The Article
On creativity talks about... creativity! well it looks into it a little more than that. In the article it talks about how to the rest of the world creativity is this free form of self expression that should not and cannot be judged by anyone else, but for designers it is completely different. It basically is what sets each one of us apart from the designer next to us. He talks about how not everyone is creative (despite what our gradeschool teachers told us) and more importantly that not everyone who is creative uses it or even knows how to use it.
"Creativity is an inborn capacity for thinking differently than most, seeing differently, and making connections and percieving relationships others miss. But most importantly, it is the ability to then extrapolate contextually useful ways of empoloying that data: to create something that meets a specific challange. By this definintion, creatitvity is merely a tool; it does not convey skill."
Most of the article talks about how creativity really doesnt have that much to do with design. Creativity is "free expression" and design isn't expressing ourselves but finding the best solution to the problem.
On Creativity - The Article
On creativity talks about... creativity! well it looks into it a little more than that. In the article it talks about how to the rest of the world creativity is this free form of self expression that should not and cannot be judged by anyone else, but for designers it is completely different. It basically is what sets each one of us apart from the designer next to us. He talks about how not everyone is creative (despite what our gradeschool teachers told us) and more importantly that not everyone who is creative uses it or even knows how to use it.
"Creativity is an inborn capacity for thinking differently than most, seeing differently, and making connections and percieving relationships others miss. But most importantly, it is the ability to then extrapolate contextually useful ways of empoloying that data: to create something that meets a specific challange. By this definintion, creatitvity is merely a tool; it does not convey skill."
Most of the article talks about how creativity really doesnt have that much to do with design. Creativity is "free expression" and design isn't expressing ourselves but finding the best solution to the problem.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Flash makes the world go round
Flash is a program that is specifically designed to integrate video into web pages. Designers use flash to create more appealing and interactive websites with animation and videos. Flash can manipulate vector and raster graphics. One of its greatest qualities is it enables designers to scale graphics to any size without losing image quality.
The first site I went to was http://www.hellomonday.net/ Your forced to interact with the site even before you enter it, where after scrolling up the page flips up. The site is also full of awesome animated images created with flash that enhance the page. After Trollback came to our hallmark symposium I checked out his website and its amazing. Tons of flash and amazing work! http://www.trollback.com/#/work/
My favorite website so far has to be Vitamin Water. ITS GREAT! GO LOOK AT IT! http://www.vitaminwater.com/ The motion is beautiful! The bottles dance and have multiple actions when you roll over them or click them along with graphics around each bottle.
The first site I went to was http://www.hellomonday.net/ Your forced to interact with the site even before you enter it, where after scrolling up the page flips up. The site is also full of awesome animated images created with flash that enhance the page. After Trollback came to our hallmark symposium I checked out his website and its amazing. Tons of flash and amazing work! http://www.trollback.com/#/work/
My favorite website so far has to be Vitamin Water. ITS GREAT! GO LOOK AT IT! http://www.vitaminwater.com/ The motion is beautiful! The bottles dance and have multiple actions when you roll over them or click them along with graphics around each bottle.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
B E M B O
identifying characteristics
F has a long midbar
W has crossed misstrokes with meeting serifs
y with short descender
a / e small counters
italic Y has calligraphic quality with abrupt bottom serif
Italic A leans to the right
Italic k has a loop
italic g has a punched in bowl
italic z "off-kilter" curvy, quality
italic r divides close to the base
F has a long midbar
W has crossed misstrokes with meeting serifs
y with short descender
a / e small counters
italic Y has calligraphic quality with abrupt bottom serif
Italic A leans to the right
Italic k has a loop
italic g has a punched in bowl
italic z "off-kilter" curvy, quality
italic r divides close to the base
vertical posters...thank you blogger
after putting my hoefler series on blogger i noticed they work together visually when hanging vertically. never thought id say it ... thank you blogger
viscom readings - Marian Bantjes
One of the info designs i was immediately drawn to was by Marian Bantjes. Although it looks complex at first when you get closer she has made all of the details delicate and information easy to follow. The design has movement yet for the most part has information going vertical and horizontal. I was going through her website and everything she does is amazing! http://www.bantjes.com/
Monday, November 2, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
you know when your trying to do your blog homework and you just end up bopping around to random blogs? heres a fun one i found http://www.swiss-miss.com/fonts/page/3
Monday, September 28, 2009
the HOEFLER TEXT
2designer: Jonathan Hoefler born in 1970
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typeface created in 1991
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Serif, old style
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transitional serif (sorry i lied before!)
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examples of transitional
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1991 -
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His work has included typefaces for the magazines Rolling Stone (The Proteus Project) and Sports Illustrated (The Champion Gothic family) and for Apple (the Hoefler Text family) 9.
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Jonathan Hoefler
Jonathan Hoefler refers to himself as an 'armchair type historian' but many know his name from his typeface designs, mainly the Hoefler Text. Named one of the forty most influential designers in America by I.D. Magazine, Hoefler's publishing work includes award-winning original typeface designs for Rolling Stone, Harper's Bazaar, The New York Times Magazine, Sports Illustrated, and Esquire.
He was born in New York in 1970 where he always had a passion for type and typography. Instead of taking the traditional college route after highschool, Hoefler went straight into the workfield as a graphic designer. He found that graphic design didnt fulfill his love of type research or writing so he decided to create his own foundry, The Hoefler Type Foundry. Much of Hoefler's work has been influened by metal-found type. With inspiration from classical typography, his foundry brings together his fascination with the history of the craft with the creative aspect of designing new typefaces. Hoefler refers to his own work with type as 'experimental' The Hoefler Text was another type that he considered experimental but more in terms of technology. The Hoefler Text is now appearing everywhere as part of the Macintosh operating system. Hoefler's work has been exhibited internationally, and is included in the permanent collection of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum (Smithsonian Institution) in New York. In 2002, The Association Typographique Internationale (ATypI) presented Hoefler with its most prestigious award, the Prix Charles Peignot for outstanding contributions to type design. Hoefler and Frere-Jones' collaboration has earned them profiles in The New York Times, Time, and Esquire.
Whats so Special about the Hoefler Text? When Jonathan Hoefler founded the company in 1989, few of the great type foundries had embraced electronic publishing and those that had were just beginning to remaster their most famous fonts for use on personal computers. Because they were just beginning to put digitalize type, they converted the most basic ones first. Digital type offered the potential for fonts to be not merely as good as traditional ones, but demonstrably better than anything that had gone before. Hoefler Text, designed in 1991, was impressive because it was an amazing looking font compared to others that were being digitalized at that time. Hoefler Text revived a number of other traditions that had once been central to fine printing: extended ligature sets, the engraved capitals of the early twentieth century, and the arabesques of the renaissance. Hoefler Text even invented a few traditions of its own, such as case-specific punctuation and italic small caps, and worked to expand the reach of digital typography beyond the United States by including a wealth of foreign symbols and accents. Hoefler Text’s caught the attention of the developers at Apple, where the technology “TrueType GX” was being created. Their goal was to make fine typography not only available to everyone but easy to use as well. Apple commissioned him to furthur expland the font and liscenced Hoefler Text to be included in the System 7 Macintosh Operating System. Even though GX never became a successful font format for designers, it did fulfill its original promise of turning Hoefler Text’s “advanced features” into a new baseline for digital typography. In the years since, small caps and old-style figures have become standard issue with the best text faces from all of the world’s great type foundries
characteristics of Hoefler Text
- medium contrast stroke width (A)
- subtly curved stems (hn)
- concave serif base with rounded ends to serifs (h)
- spur foot (b)
- high bar (e)
- full height ascender (f)
- crossed 'V's in the W
- serifed apex (w)
- single slightly stepped junction at stem (k)
- curved tail from center of base (Q)
- short triangular ascender (t)
The hoefler text has a unique inspiration in the range of its different styles and weights but still keeps a coherence between the 27 fonts including small caps, swash small caps, and swash italics. The letterforms are uniformly balanced making it a versitile text face. A tiltling face (for use at 36 pt. and above) was added to the family in 2002.
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“The worlds greatest typefaces, are quickly becoming some of the world’s worst fonts.” - Jonathan Hoefler
(during a time when type was just becoming digitalized, brought old styles to the new digital typeworld)
we just had to listen to Hoefler talking on "Please Explain: Typography" a few weeks ago for type
http://fontfeed.com/archives/please-explain-typography/
from... http://www.swiss-miss.com/2008/10/for-america-by.html
"This summer, the Obama campaign commissioned Jonathan Hoefler to design a typographic poster for the Artists for Obama series. It’s now available from the Obama for America website, in a numbered edition of 5,000."
Sunday, September 27, 2009
peacocks
In general my peacocks are going good. After my individual meeting i realized i had a lot of little things to fix and a few needed to be completely redone, like my behavior characteristic one. Overall i think i just need to start simplifying them and make sure all the marks are there for a purpose.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Font Classification
Font Classification: a system to classify typefaces; based on a historical approach (classics, modern and others)
Old Style
– 1475
– based on handwriting
– contrast between thick and thin strokes is more pronounced
– slight diagonal stress
– shorter x-height
– scooped serifs, sturdy without being heavy
(also called Gerald) generally considered "warm" or friendly
-main characteristics: low contrast with diagonal stress and cove or "bracketed" serifs
-Bembo, Carlson, Garamond
Transitional
– 1750
– contrast between thick and thin strokes is more pronounced
– very slight diagonal stress
– bracketed serifs
– tall x-height
Modern
Modern typefaces came about with copper and steel engraving techniques in the 17th and 18th Century. The appearance is technical exact. Modern types are named Didone after Didot and Bodoni, radically abstract, the thin, straight serifs; vertical axis; and sharp contrast from thick to thin strokes.
Slab Serif
classified in serifs, their defined by their thick square-ended serifs.
Sans Serif: Geometric
Sans-serif typefaces influenced by the Bauhaus movement and featuring circular or geometric letters, with little variation in stroke thickness.
like handwriting, script letters are infinitely differnt; strive to translate fluid and imperfect mark you get with pen on paper
-can be catagroized formal or casual, flowing vs. nonflowing, or tool used
- Bickham Script, Sonora, Choc
Blackletter
one of the most used and versitile typographic choices
-newspapers, labels, used for more than 600 years
- gradual and diverse evolution from the hand crafted scribes in the 19th century
- Fraktur, Rotunda, Textura
Grunge
scratchy typefaces, (early 1990's-2000's) - parallel to Grunge music movement
- no clear definition but share a jarring aesthetic and philosophy that contrasts with conventional classic typography
- dead history, Fallen Thyme, Turbo Ripped
Monospaced
-cue from typewriters where all letters conform to a specific physical width, resulting in letterforms that must expand or condense to make the best use out of the space - also known as "nonproportional" in contrast to normal typefaces, where each character has a differnt width.
- spaced perfectly even
- odd spacing, unusual letterforms, futuristic letterforms
-Courier, Orator, Ocr A
Undeclared
-two typefaces, optima and Copperplate gothic are uncatagorized with their flared serifs attached to san serif structures
Old Style
– 1475
– based on handwriting
– contrast between thick and thin strokes is more pronounced
– slight diagonal stress
– shorter x-height
– scooped serifs, sturdy without being heavy
(also called Gerald) generally considered "warm" or friendly
-main characteristics: low contrast with diagonal stress and cove or "bracketed" serifs
-Bembo, Carlson, Garamond
Transitional
– 1750
– contrast between thick and thin strokes is more pronounced
– very slight diagonal stress
– bracketed serifs
– tall x-height
Baskerville, Caslon, Perpetua
Modern
Modern typefaces came about with copper and steel engraving techniques in the 17th and 18th Century. The appearance is technical exact. Modern types are named Didone after Didot and Bodoni, radically abstract, the thin, straight serifs; vertical axis; and sharp contrast from thick to thin strokes.
– 1775
– extreme contrast between thick and thin strokes
– flat unbracketed serifs
– hairline serifs
– no horizontal stress
– mathematical construction /measurements
– no influence by handwriting
Slab Serif
classified in serifs, their defined by their thick square-ended serifs.
– early 1800's
– mono weight
– square ended serifs
– no stress
– bold machine like (industrial age/industrial revolution)
– uniform serifs
– bold display font (used at large sizes)
– rectangular
– geometric impact
Serifa, Rockwell, Memphis Clarendon
Sans Serif: Geometric
Sans-serif typefaces influenced by the Bauhaus movement and featuring circular or geometric letters, with little variation in stroke thickness.
Futura, Foilio, Gotham, Avant Garde
Scriptlike handwriting, script letters are infinitely differnt; strive to translate fluid and imperfect mark you get with pen on paper
-can be catagroized formal or casual, flowing vs. nonflowing, or tool used
- Bickham Script, Sonora, Choc
Blackletter
one of the most used and versitile typographic choices
-newspapers, labels, used for more than 600 years
- gradual and diverse evolution from the hand crafted scribes in the 19th century
- Fraktur, Rotunda, Textura
Grunge
scratchy typefaces, (early 1990's-2000's) - parallel to Grunge music movement
- no clear definition but share a jarring aesthetic and philosophy that contrasts with conventional classic typography
- dead history, Fallen Thyme, Turbo Ripped
Monospaced
-cue from typewriters where all letters conform to a specific physical width, resulting in letterforms that must expand or condense to make the best use out of the space - also known as "nonproportional" in contrast to normal typefaces, where each character has a differnt width.
- spaced perfectly even
- odd spacing, unusual letterforms, futuristic letterforms
-Courier, Orator, Ocr A
Undeclared
-two typefaces, optima and Copperplate gothic are uncatagorized with their flared serifs attached to san serif structures
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Representitives of Letterforms
The Font Bureau, Inc.
Empire: designed by Morris Fuller Benton in 1937 and used as the headline style for VOGUE magazine and revived by David Berlow in 1989 for Publish magazine.
Sloop: designed by Richard Lipton, inspired by the calligraphic work of Raphael Boguslav
Barcode: 5 part series, very condensed design where all the styles are the same weight while the form of the typeface is varied by style or size. in each new font the characters are not wider but taller making the font good for stacking and placement
The Font Bureau, Inc. was founded by Rodger Black, a publication designer, and David Berlow, a type designer in 1989. Black started his own business focusing on designing newspapers and magazines and that same year they both founded The Font Bureau. Today the foundry's output has balooned to more than 1,500 typefaces. Just clicking through their website http://www.fontbureau.com I found they had many unique fonts and tons of variation from san-serifs to more original fun fonts. Some examples i found were...
Empire: designed by Morris Fuller Benton in 1937 and used as the headline style for VOGUE magazine and revived by David Berlow in 1989 for Publish magazine.
Sloop: designed by Richard Lipton, inspired by the calligraphic work of Raphael Boguslav
Barcode: 5 part series, very condensed design where all the styles are the same weight while the form of the typeface is varied by style or size. in each new font the characters are not wider but taller making the font good for stacking and placement
Emigre
On the Emigre website http://www.emigre.com/fonts.php if you go to typetease your able to select and view the types you are interested.
The font Mrs. Eaves intersted me because it was created by Zuzana Licko co-founder of Emigre, together with her husband Rudy VanderLans.
Underware ( i may have chosen it because it was named underware...)
In 1985 Rudy VanderLans' Emigre magazine was completly typefaces designed by his wife Zuzana Licko who was breaking ground with the emerging technology of digital desgin and developing typefaces through the Macintosh. In 1986 the magazine gained promience and they established Emigre Fonts. Because most designers werent working on the computer yet, when designers requested a particular font, Licko would print the font, reduce it with a photostat camera, and mail it to the designer (its easy to hate technology after you feel like youve been staring at a computer screen for weeks... this reminds me why id rather live with them than without them... ) Only later in the late 80's and 90's did Emigre distribute their fonts with floppy discs. in '94 Tim Starback, staff member at Emigre, made an online bulletin board, Now Serving, that allows users to purchase and download fonts, which is now the standard universal method.
On the Emigre website http://www.emigre.com/fonts.php if you go to typetease your able to select and view the types you are interested.
The font Mrs. Eaves intersted me because it was created by Zuzana Licko co-founder of Emigre, together with her husband Rudy VanderLans.
Underware ( i may have chosen it because it was named underware...)
Akiem Helming, Bas Jacobs, and Sami Kortemaki met at the Academy of Arts in The Hague, in the Netherlands and then began a studio in 1999 devoted to typography, which they named Underware. Their quirky name goes along with their huge range of unique fonts and fans far and wide. Underware gets really imaginitive and creative (ex. a typefont that can only be seen if your in a sauna due to the material and ink used) they also host a traveling radio show TypeRadio where they conduct one on one interviews. Their website seems so much more creative and imaginitve than other fonts.
i enjoy using ink to write things because of the originality and varied shape of line you get. I LOVE this new Underware font that i found on the website http://www.underware.nl/site2/index.php Liza, lettres d’amour
the website says... "Liza Pro is a live-script typeface. Thanks to its extremely intelligent OpenType arcitecture, she approaches human hand lettering as close as technically possible. Liza Pro deeply analyzes the text. Out of a stock of over 4000 hand crafted characters, Liza creates the most optimal combination. All of this works automatically."
i enjoy using ink to write things because of the originality and varied shape of line you get. I LOVE this new Underware font that i found on the website http://www.underware.nl/site2/index.php Liza, lettres d’amour
the website says... "Liza Pro is a live-script typeface. Thanks to its extremely intelligent OpenType arcitecture, she approaches human hand lettering as close as technically possible. Liza Pro deeply analyzes the text. Out of a stock of over 4000 hand crafted characters, Liza creates the most optimal combination. All of this works automatically."
Adrian Frutiger
Adrian Frutiger is best known as a type-designer. He has produced some of the most well known and widely used typefaces such as Univers and Frutiger. Born in Switzeerland in 1928, Frutiger worked as a printers apprentice at the age of 16 then soon after went to Zurich to study under professor Walter Kach at The Zurich school of Arts and Crafts. He moved to Paris and began work at the Deberny & Peignot typefoundry, helping move classic typefaces used with traditional printing methods to newer phototypesetting technology. He also began designing his own typefaces during this time. Univers was designed and released in 1956-1957. It is a sans serif that features optically even stroke weights and a large x-height for legibility. It is known for the variety of weights and set-widths included in the family. When it was designed it inclueded 21 variations and it was the first type family to implement a numbering system instead of using names. With over 27 differnt variations today, Univers is a very diverse typeface that can work well at large displays and small displays.
its never too late to learn about Mr. Baskerville...
John Baskerville, born in England in 1706, was a stonecutter, letter designer, typefounder and printer. Mostly known for the creation of the font 'baskerville' he is also known for his innovative tecniques and transforming English printing and type founding. Along with Carlson, Baskerville is considered one of the greatest type designers of the 18th century. He began his work as a printer in 1757 and 3 years after became a printer for the University of Cambridge. Baskerville didnt complete his first book until 1757, but during that time he made many innovations in press construction. His success came from using a flatter, sturdier bed, printing ink that was more defined, dried quicker, and was blacker and darker. These along with his creative letter designs, cut by his punchcutter John Hardy, resulted in the success of his original typefaces and popular books from 1754 to 1755. His type faces introduced a modern style with large type, wide margins, and the eye catching contrast of his very white page to the dark black text. His masterpiece was a Bible printed for the University of Cambridge published in 1763.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
VC reading 1
Ive always had an idea of my job including art but i was unsure about what kind of job that would be. Graphic Design is so hard to understand or explain until your actually doing it, so I was a little apprehensive whether or not it would be for me. So far my graphics classes keep exceeding expectations. The more i read about graphic design the more i realize it is exactly what i want to do; everything about it interests me. The first reading explains the relationship between the graphic designer and its audience. In my english class we are reading about reading as an experience; the reader activly participating in what the author's message was and interpreting it how they intended while bringing our own personal experiences to the table. It is just fascinating to me how these two articles go hand in hand. As graphic designers we are trying to convey a specific meaning to a certain audience and hopefully the audience walks away with the thought we wanted them to take away from our art.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
absolute measurement - measurements of fixed values ex. points, picas, millimeters
relative measurement - a measurement that is linked to the size of type being used ex. type size, em, en, leading
point - the unit of measurement used to measure the type size of a font
pica - unit of measure in a layout. its typically 24 between each element
em / em dash - a linear unit of 1/6 inch used when printing; used to define basic spacing functions in typesetting such as paragraphs, indents, and spacing linked to the size of type. The dash is the same size as the type. ex. 16pt type has 16 pt em.
en / en dash - relative measurement; half the width of an em space. ex. in 16pt type it would be 8 points.
legibility - the ease with which the eye can identify letters, and distinguish them from one another
rag - when left justified copy causes ragged ends on the right; can create gaps, overhanging text, slopes or inclines
type alignments
Flush - all to one side, (-) informal and asymmetrical (+) harmony and consistent word space
Justified - (+) creates even margins (-) carries space between words
Centered - (+) good in design of one in formal context (-) harder to read, reduces legibility
word spacing -
rivers - separations of words that leaves gaps between several lines
indent - space used to introduce a new paragraph
leading - space between one baseline to the next
kerning - space between each letter (kerning pairs are made to create rhythm and enhance legibility
tracking - adjusting the overall space between letters rather than the space between the 2 characters
weight - bold, book. medium or demi choices; different for eacah typeface
scale - increase in point size, larger has more emphasis (need to increase by 2pts to be noticeable)
typographic variation - use of different typefaces, sizes, and weights to determine hierarchy and clarity of specific words
orphan - the last 1-2 lines of a paragraph separated from the main paragraph to form a new column
widow - a word at the end of the paragraph left hanging alone
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Josef Muller-Brockman
''I would advise young people to look at everything they encounter in a critical light . . . Then I would urge them at all times to be self-critical''
Josef Muller-Brockman was born in Switzerland in 1914 and studied design, architecture, and art history at the University of Zurich. He started his career as the apprentice to the designer Walter Diggelman, as well as being his advertising consultant. In 1936, Muller-Brockman established his own Zurich studio, which specialized in graphics, exhibition design, and photography. By the 1950’s he was thought of as the original leader in Swiss Style. His innovative technique used graphic expression through a grid-based design without frivolous illustration and subjective feeling. Muller-Brockman was founder and editor of the journal New Graphic Design which took his Swiss design principals international. After this he spent his time as a professor in Zurich. Not only did he revolutionized the design industry immensely with his use of the grid, clear use of text, the journal New Graphic Design, but wrote many design books. His most notable book, Grid Systems in Graphic Design, he explains and encourages the grid system and how it can be used to gain visual harmony within a space. His passion for use of the grid layout inspires many graphic designers to use this technique to this day. Although Josef Muller-Brockman died in 1996, his clean-cut, efficient posters speak for themselves of the benefits with using grid layout and simplicity with text.
Jan Tschichold
Jan Tschichold dedicated his entire life to designing and writing; It is safe to say he was one of the most significant typographers of the 20th century. Tschichold is most famous for creating of the font Sabon, but also influenced the design industry as a teacher, designer and writer. Born in Leipzig in 1902, Tschichold grew up around the written word having a father who was a script writer. He often helped his father with no regard for incorporating it into his profession later on. Early on Tschichold wanted to go into fine arts but due to his parents concern for stability in that particular field he became a drawing teacher. At the age of 16, Tschichold became inspired by the calligraphy and ornamental writings of Edward Johnson and Rudolf von Larisch and began studying type and editing typefaces from half finished letter from old works from the 17th century. After teaching for 3 years, Tschichold realized he wanted to be a typeface designer and went to the Academy for Graphic Arts in Leipzig. After visiting his first Bauhaus exhibit in the early 1920’s, he became interested in modern design. He is famous for his design of the font Sabon but also created others such as Transit, Saskia, and Zeus. Soon after he published his most notable book, Die Neue Typography (The New Typography). In this book Tschichold reinforces his interest in sans-serif fonts along with his dislike of centered design. During the Nazi’s rise to power, Tschichold fled to Switzerland remaining there for the majority of his life. For a while he lived in England and worked for Penguin Books redesigning hundreds of books. During his time with Penguin Books Tschichold created many rules and practices, which influenced future designers and typographers. Tschihold died in 1974 but his practices, fonts, and ideas are still influencing designers and typographers today.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Grids, Margins, Modules and More
Grid "a structure that breaks space or time into regular units"
Why do designers use a grid? What are the benefits or functions?
They vary in complexity and their definition but their main funtion is giving the the designer control. They give the designer a way of arranging their content in a systematic way. The grid benefits the designer by creating modules and equally spaced lines to create a more satisfying image.
Modular Grids have equally spaced lines (both horizontally and vertically) which form perfect square modules: spaces between these grids are called gutters.
Margins the space between the grid and the edge of the page; used to keep content from reaching the edge of the page
Columns a section of content or space going vertically used to organize the text throughout the grid
Grid Modules defined by the gutter, these lines create 18 small squares on the grid
Flowlines made by text, these lines lead the viewer's eye through the grid
Gutter the space between the modules that creates the outlines of the grid modules
Hierarchy & Ways to Achieve a Clear Hierarchy the way a designer places importance on a certain part of the image or makes the viewer to focus or look at certain parts of the image in a certain order. This can be used through manipulation of text or image placement. size, or certain elements in that design that draw the viewer in to see certain elements in the order that the designer wants them to
Type Family typefaces which include different versions of itself, including condensed and extended variations and display faces; they are seen as distinct yet still related
Type Styles any full set of standardized letter forms which are designed for print reproduction
Why do designers use a grid? What are the benefits or functions?
They vary in complexity and their definition but their main funtion is giving the the designer control. They give the designer a way of arranging their content in a systematic way. The grid benefits the designer by creating modules and equally spaced lines to create a more satisfying image.
Modular Grids have equally spaced lines (both horizontally and vertically) which form perfect square modules: spaces between these grids are called gutters.
Margins the space between the grid and the edge of the page; used to keep content from reaching the edge of the page
Columns a section of content or space going vertically used to organize the text throughout the grid
Grid Modules defined by the gutter, these lines create 18 small squares on the grid
Flowlines made by text, these lines lead the viewer's eye through the grid
Gutter the space between the modules that creates the outlines of the grid modules
Hierarchy & Ways to Achieve a Clear Hierarchy the way a designer places importance on a certain part of the image or makes the viewer to focus or look at certain parts of the image in a certain order. This can be used through manipulation of text or image placement. size, or certain elements in that design that draw the viewer in to see certain elements in the order that the designer wants them to
Type Family typefaces which include different versions of itself, including condensed and extended variations and display faces; they are seen as distinct yet still related
Type Styles any full set of standardized letter forms which are designed for print reproduction
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