TYPE II JOURNAL WINTER 2017
INTRODUCTION This journal is a cumulation of my notes from lectures, readings and in-class critiques during Typography II. It also has process work and final graphics for all of the projects I worked on throughout the quarter. The journal is broken up by weeks so that you can see the progression of my knowledge on typography. During this class I learned more about how to create an engaging composition with type and establish clear typographic hierarchy. I also learned the importance of staying on top of in progress work, because the projects that I am most proud of have much stronger process work.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Week 1 ............................................................................................2 Week 2 ............................................................................................5 Week 3 ..........................................................................................12 Week 4 ..........................................................................................18 Week 5 ..........................................................................................21 Week 6 ..........................................................................................26 Week 7 .........................................................................................30 Week 8 .........................................................................................33 Week 9 .........................................................................................38 Week 10 .......................................................................................43
Week 1 READING Butterick’s Practical Typography: Typography in Ten Minutes, Summary of Key Rules, and Forward
LECTURE Typographic Refinement
LEGIBILITY EXERCISE
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READING Butterick’s Practical Typography: Typography in Ten Minutes, Summary of Key Rules, and Forward »» quality of typography depends on how body text is styled »» line length should be 45–90 characters, or 2–3 lowercase alphabets, for example: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuv wxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuv wxyz »» line spacing should be 120–145% »» body text should be 10–12pt in print and 15–25 pixels on a website (14pt+) »» use extra letter spacing on all caps text »» use proper punctuation marks (curly quotes v prime marks, ellipses, en-dashes, etc) »“typography » is the visual component of the written world” »» good typography measured by how well it reinforces the meaning of the text
LECTURE: TYPOGRAPHIC REFINEMENT »»there are 12 pos in one pica and 6 picas in one inch »» use optical to kern and manually kern large type »» pay attention to line length »» letter spacing/tracking matters »»PROOFREAD PROOFREAD PROOFREAD!!
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LEGIBILITY EXERCISE The most legible serif style is 9 pt size with 14 leading. 9/13 is good but a little too cramped, and 9/12 is way too cramped. 8 pt font is very hard to read. You can clearly see based on the different combination of point styles and sizes how much typesetting impacts legibility. Type that is too cramped makes me not even want to read it. How big the bowls of the font also impact legibility. The serif typeface I used have bigger bowls than the serif typeface, and needs more leading because the letters are bigger.
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Week 2 READING Butterick’s Practical Typography: Why Typography Matters
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS CRITIQUE Type Quotes
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READING Butterick’s Practical Typography: Why Typography Matters »»typography has consequences »»type is art »»typography is for the benefit of the reader, and readers are lazy, they are looking for excuses to stop reading »»you have to understand the text to typeset it well »»there are many typographic solutions to a given problem
PRACTICAL TYPOGRAPHY DISCUSSION QUESTIONS What is the main argument in Beatrice Warde’s essay “The Crystal Goblet”? Why does Matthew Butterick disagree with this? »»Beatrice Warde argues that text is like a fine wine, so typography should be invisible like a crystal goblet to let the character of the text shine through »»Matthew Butterick disagrees with this because he says that text is already visible, so typography cannot be, typography is part of the presentation of the text Why is the design of the butterfly ballot problematic? »»The design of the butterfly ballot is problematic for many reasons. The punch holes don’t exactly line up with each candidate’s name (some of the boxes overlap, which cre-
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ates confusion). Listing the candidate’s names on both sides of a spread is also misleading because someone might count the number of name’s down that their candidate is and fill in the numbered bubble instead of the correct one. The text is also weirdly aligned—some of the text is centered, some is right aligned to different margins—but there’s no consistency because the arrangement of the text. I think the ballot could also be improved by using traditional case instead of all caps because it would be easier to read.
BUTTERFLY BALLOT
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In what ways is Trixie’s resume better than Violets? »»Trixie’s resume is better than Violet’s because it looks much more professional. Violet’s has a really wide line length with a small margin, and uses a weird highlight/ box behind each section header than isn’t centered vertically. It uses weird bullets that look like some type of default system character and doesn’t hang the bullets. I think it should get rid of bullets altogether or go with a traditional bullet point. Trixie’s has a much clearer hierarchy of type and uses a nicer typeface.
SAMPLE RESUMES
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FINAL CRITIQUE—TYPE QUOTES »» manually kern title, don’t not start a line with an ellipse. »»Blue title works as a focal point »»Text doesn’t need to be slanted , could also try using serif typeface for body text »» need more points of alignment between big text and paragraphs, such as aligning x-heights »»First draft: use curly quote instead of prime mark, don’t need type in background, use of negative space
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FINAL 8.5X11 SPREAD
s ʼ t le ta u o ab
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— EL D e si
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h isp , t y pe w s ie it l a s p e r s on t ion l ie ice s a nd mu n ic a o v m t o c o C n i . m d ist u l one s loud ly “ Wit h b e a ut i f d s h o ut d n n a a ly ic g t e n t a di m ,w del ic a om m a n It is dra c . t s x i e e n p e y h c or e . T uctive t nd instr a ic t hy t n ly ga .” a na pogra p extrava n t s , Ty d e n a m , le t r E s e d s ta n mode fo r U n . D e s ig ual ULLEN le M a n 7 S T IN C h ic St y p a r — KRI 2 , Pa g e G 1 ig n, 20 n ta ls : A s e e D m a s t d c Fun hy A ffe p o g ra p H o w Ty
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f t he nsions o e m i d t h as i len s — s uc e s t he s e t u la iq u n ip h .” ma n a nd te c ot heard g r a p hy n but n g habits e n e i s y e r lo a p at id e fo r b et , em ion — th ica l Gu t a it r u t C c A n : pu ge 91 h Ty p e ng and 10 , Pa in g w it
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n a r t, nc e a s a ie c s a t he ch items i n i s a s mu l l e a p n y e t ns.” we it h l solut io nc e b e t n ing w a a g l n i a s io b e t c e D t n “ l ic a a nd f u D ng a de ropr iate ICH A R p p requ i r i a r e A ND R iv Y l E e L d e A o iv t H s prehen fo r m a t A LL A N NTIS, f : A Co m eo ELE re n ce d Pra c t ic ON T S h y, R e fe y, a n d p — JA S r a r to g is o . Ty p ge , H Langua P OULIN to t h e e id u G 207 V isu a l 012, pg a p h y, 2 s, Ty p o g r
t t h at d o me w ay a s ion e it h s t o ac t s omp c it y , n e a c a in i n sp l simply t ure do v isua l; mater ia s of tex ld m e r fi o “ Ty pe is f d t n abst r ac lanes, a p b ei n g lines, p o t s ’t the n s do e n d in g thing.” e ... Ty pe n d e r s ta m U : o s s t s n 2 e it say age 16 n Ele m because . D e sig 2014 , P , RA k T hem SAMA to B re a OTH Y n e h W — T IM w in g nd K no R u le s a
p er s s at its o m e nt , a l, whimsic
a n d in g
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Week 3 READING Butterick’s Practical Typography: Type Composition, Text Formatting
LECTURE Choosing Typefaces, Understanding Fonts
CRITIQUE Diptych
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READING Butterick’s Practical Typography: Type Composition »» good typography starts with good typing »» use straight quotes for measurement and curly quotes or typographer’s quotes for text »» only put one space sentances »»the question mark is underused, the exclamation point is overused »» don’t mix up your hyphens, en-dashes and em-dashes »» use real trademark and copyright symbols »» don’t overuse ampersands Butterick’s Practical Typography: Text Formatting »» don’t use word spacing tabs to indent new line »»1.5-2in is usually a comfortable margin for 12 pt font »» make sure to set line length for webpages too »» don’t underline. ever »» don’t use goofy fonts (ex: dafont) »» monospaced fonts harder to read »» many system fonts aren’t good »» use bold and italic as litttle as possible »»all caps harder to read »»add extra letter spacing to all caps or small caps
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LECTURE—CHOOSING TYPEFACES, UNDERSTANDING FONTS »»Make sure to use typographer’s quotes in InDesign »»Use find and replace to batch edit text (a document that uses dumb quotes or two spaces after a period »»Being a graphic designer means being a good proofreader »»the best way to emphasize a heading is to put space before and after »» good place to look for font: lost type coop, league of movable type, font squirrel, font spring, house industries (vintage/retro, expensive!!!), my fonts »»space after paragraph should be roughly half of leading »» don’t hyphenate capitalized words!!! »» use line rules instead of lines aligned with text »» design factors to consider when picking a typeface: conent, audience, format/context, how full of a typeface family is it »» when you buy a font, you purchase a license »»should manage fonts on your computer, want to have the minimum number of fonts installed, keep fonts organized
IN-PROGRESS CRIT »» designs really boring »» need to engage the composition more by interacting the graphics with the type
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»» if you use two different typefaces they need to be noticeably different »» don’t make text big just to fill up page »» margins!!! »»for my design: need to make emphasis on graphic instead of on blue block of color, need to refine illustration so that style is either more realistic or more abstract Moyers: Why are there so many stories of the hero in mythology?
The place to find is within yourself.
Campbell: Because that’s what’s worth writing about. Even in popular novels, the main character is a hero or heroine who has found or done something beyond the normal range of achievement and experience. A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself. Moyers: So in all of these cultures, whatever the local costume the hero might be wearing, what is the deed? Campbell: Well, there are two types of deed. One is the physical deed, in which the hero performs a courageous act in battle or saves a life. The other kind is the spiritual deed, in which the hero learns to experience the supernormal range of human spiritual life and then comes back with a message. Moyers: Does your study of mythology lead you to conclude that a single human quest, a standard pattern of human aspiration and thought, constitutes for all mankind something that we have in common, whether we lived a million years ago or will live a thousand years from now? Campbell: There’s a certain type of myth which one might call the vision quest, going in quest of a boon, a vision, which has the same form in every mythology. That is the thing that I tried to present in the first book I wrote, The Hero With a Thousand Faces. All these different mythologies give us the same essential quest. You leave the world that you’re in and go into a depth or into a distance or up to a height. There you come to what was missing in your consciousness in the world you formerly inhabited. Then comes the problem either of staying with that, and letting the world drop off, or returning with that boon and trying to hold on to it as you move back into your social world again. Moyers: How do I slay that dragon in me? What’s the journey each of us has to make, what you call “the soul’s high adventure”? Campbell: My general formula for my students is “Follow your bliss.” Find where it is, and don’t be afraid to follow it. Moyers: Is it my work or my life? Campbell: If the work that you’re doing is the work that you chose to do because you are enjoying it, that’s it. But if you think, “Oh, no! I couldn’t do that!” that’s the dragon locking you in. “No, no, I couldn’t be a writer,” or “No, no, I couldn’t possibly do what So-and-so is doing.”
Moyers: When I take that journey and go down there and slay those dragons, do I have to go alone? Campbell: If you have someone who can help you, that’s fine, too. But, ultimately, the last deed has to be done by oneself. Psychologically, the dragon is one’s own binding of oneself to one’s ego. We’re captured in our own dragon cage. The problem of the psychiatrist is to disintegrate that dragon, break him up, so that you may expand to a larger field of relationships. The ultimate dragon is within you, it is your ego clamping you down. Moyers: I like what you say about the old myth of Theseus and Ariadne. Theseus says to Ariadne, “I’ll love you forever if you can show me a way to come out of the labyrinth.” So she gives him a ball of string, which he unwinds as he goes into the labyrinth, and then follows to find the way out. You say, “All he had was the string. That’s all you need.” Campbell: That’s all you need—an Ariadne thread. Moyers: Sometimes we look for great wealth to save us, a great power to save us, or great ideas to save us, when all we need is that piece of string. Campbell: That’s not always easy to find. But it’s nice to have someone who can give you a clue. That’s the teacher’s job, to help you find your Ariadne thread. Moyers: Like all heroes, the Buddha doesn’t show you the truth itself, he shows you the way to truth. Campbell: But it’s got to be your way, not his. The Buddha can’t tell you exactly how to get rid of your particular fears, for example. Different teachers may suggest exercises, but they may not be the ones to work for you. All a teacher can do is suggest. He is like a lighthouse that says, “There are rocks over here, steer clear. There is a channel, however, out there”. Moyers: In all of these journeys of mythology, there’s a place everyone wishes to find. The Buddhists talk of Nirvana, and Jesus talks of peace, of the mansion with many rooms. Is that typical of the hero’s journey - that there’s a place to find? Campbell: The place to find is within yourself. I learned a little about this in athletics. The athlete who is in top form has a quiet place within himself, and it’s around this, somehow, that his action occurs…There’s a center of quietness within, which has to be known and held. If you lose that center, you are in tension and begin to fall apart.
A conversation between Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell
IN PROGRESS SPREAD
FINAL CRIT »» good job integrating text with graphics, title and subhead work well together, composition balanced, red type works, intro line a little awkward but it works to add interest to the composition, lines work to help activate the space
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FINAL 11X15 SPREAD
THE HERO’S JOURNEY
SLAYING THE DRAGON WITHIN
Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell
A CONVERSATION BETWEEN
Moyers: Why are there so many stories of the hero in mythology? Campbell: Because that’s what’s worth writing about. Even in popular novels, the main character is a hero or heroine who has found or done something beyond the normal range of achievement and experience. A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself. Moyers: So in all of these cultures, whatever the local costume the hero might be wearing, what is the deed? Campbell: Well, there are two types of deed. One is the physical deed, in which the hero performs a courageous act in battle or saves a life. The other kind is the spiritual deed, in which the hero learns to experience the supernormal range of human spiritual life and then comes back with a message.
A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.
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Moyers: Does your study of mythology lead you to conclude that a single human quest, a standard pattern of human aspiration and thought, constitutes for all mankind something that we have in common, whether we lived a million years ago or will live a thousand years from now? Campbell: There’s a certain type of myth which one might call the vision quest, going in quest of a boon, a vision, which has the same form in every mythology. That is the thing that I tried to present in the first book I wrote, The Hero With a Thousand Faces. All these different mythologies give us the same essential quest. You leave the world that you’re in and go into a depth or into a distance or up to a height. There you come to what was missing in your consciousness in the world you formerly inhabited. Then comes the problem either of staying with that, and letting the world drop off, or returning with that boon and trying to hold on to it as you move back into your social world again.
Psychologically, the dragon is one’s own binding of oneself to one’s ego. We’re captured in our own dragon cage.
Moyers: How do I slay that dragon in me? What’s the journey each of us has to make, what you call “the soul’s high adventure”? Campbell: My general formula for my students is “Follow your bliss.” Find where it is, and don’t be afraid to follow it. Moyers: Is it my work or my life? Campbell: If the work that you’re doing is the work that you chose to do because you are enjoying it, that’s it. But if you think, “Oh, no! I couldn’t do that!” that’s the dragon locking you in. “No, no, I couldn’t be a writer,” or “No, no, I couldn’t possibly do what So-and-so is doing.” Moyers: When I take that journey and go down there and slay those dragons, do I have to go alone? Campbell: If you have someone who can help you, that’s fine, too. But, ultimately, the last deed has to be done by oneself. Psychologically, the dragon is one’s own binding of oneself to one’s ego. We’re captured in our own dragon cage. The problem of the psychiatrist is to disintegrate that dragon, break him up, so that you may expand to a larger field of relationships. The ultimate dragon is within you, it is your ego clamping you down.
Moyers: I like what you say about the old myth of Theseus and Ariadne. Theseus says to Ariadne, “I’ll love you forever if you can show me a way to come out of the labyrinth.” So she gives him a ball of string, which he unwinds as he goes into the labyrinth, and then follows to find the way out. You say, “All he had was the string. That’s all you need.” Campbell: That’s all you need—an Ariadne thread. Moyers: Sometimes we look for great wealth to save us, a great power to save us, or great ideas to save us, when all we need is that piece of string. Campbell: That’s not always easy to find. But it’s nice to have someone who can give you a clue. That’s the teacher’s job, to help you find your Ariadne thread. Moyers: Like all heroes, the Buddha doesn’t show you the truth itself, he shows you the way to truth. Campbell: But it’s got to be your way, not his. The Buddha can’t tell you exactly how to get rid of your particular fears, for example. Different teachers may suggest exercises, but they may not be the ones to work for you. All a teacher can do is suggest. He is like a lighthouse that says, “There are rocks over here, steer clear. There is a channel, however, out there”. Moyers: In all of these journeys of mythology, there’s a place everyone wishes to find. The Buddhists talk of Nirvana, and Jesus talks of peace, of the mansion with many rooms. Is that typical of the hero’s journey—that there’s a place to find? Campbell: The place to find is within yourself. I learned a little about this in athletics. The athlete who is in top form has a quiet place within himself, and it’s around this, somehow, that his action occurs…There’s a center of quietness within, which has to be known and held. If you lose that center, you are in tension and begin to fall apart.
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Week 4 READING Butterick’s Practical Typography: Page Layout Family planning, or how type families work
LECTURE Typesetting in InDesign
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READING Butterick’s Practical Typography: Page Layout »» centered text=vanilla: safe, overused and boring »»turn on hyphenation when you justify text to avoid rivers »»first line indent should be 1–4x the point size »»should use first line indent or space after, not both »» line spacing should be between 120–145% of the pt size »» body text is the most important in determining how a design will look »»to make a block quotation: reduce point size and line spacing slightly, indent text .5-1in on the left »»always use a grid, no exceptions, grid->consistency »»adjust gutter to accommodate binding »» can use the rule of thirds and golden spiral as a compositional tool Family planning, or how type families work
BY PETER BIĽAK
»»typeface families have gotten huge recently, for example, United has 105 fonts with three styles, seven weights and five widths »» radically new approach to type conceived by a mathematician—called metafont—has a pen that constructs strokes of letter forms »» unlike a biological family, different generations of the same typeface not considered part of the same family
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»» each different style of the same family must be noticeably different, but still must maintain common principles
LECTURE— TYPESETTING IN INDESIGN »» use styles!!! you’ll save time »» use table and cell styles to style tables in a document
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Week 5 READING Using Layout Grids Effectively Typographica Mea Culpa, Unethical Downloading My Type Design Philosophy
CRITIQUE Elements of Design Part 1
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READING Using Layout Grids Effectively »»always use a layout grid to be able to maintain consistency, have structure, and visual harmony »» pay attention to the gutter »» use rule of thirds, the golden ratio, Fibonacci sequence
SAMPLE GRID IMAGES
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Typographica Mea Culpa, Unethical Downloading BY STEVEN HELLER
»» don’t copy fonts and share them, it’s illegal and unethical »» when you share fonts you are technically engaging in copyright infringement »»should outline type when sending it to a printer instead of sending them typeface »» many designers share fonts becasue they do not know that it is illegal »» ignorance is no excuse My Type Design Philosophy
BY MARTIN MAJOOR
»»talks about Martin Majoor’s personal approach to typography and how he went about designing the typefaces that he created. He emphasizes the need to find serif and sans serif typefaces that work together to use in design, especially book design, which is why he decided to design a typeface with a serif and sans serif counterpart »»the first sans serif typeface was released in 1816 by the Caslon type foundry, contained only capitals, had clumsy forms »»Akzidenz Grotesk which was published in 1898 became popular and widely used quickly »»Futura designed in 1928 by Paul Rand—most typefaces prior has been based on Akzidenz Grotesk, Futura broke this tradition because it was based on original hand
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drawn forms »»slanted romans standard for sans serif italics; Gill Sans the first Sans Serif to have true italic characteristics »»thinks sans serif and serif should only be mixed when modeled from the same skeleton »» designed Scala and Scala sans to follow this principle
CRITIQUE—PART 1 OF ELEMENTS OF DESIGN »» designs much better than first draft »» my point size needs to be smaller »»should find some way to distinguish between highlight text and body text—italic, lighter weight, etc »» cover does a good job creating an engaging composition with just type
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2
EXCERPTS FROM ELEMENTS OF STYLE BOOKLET
THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE William Strunk, Jr.
Section II: Elementary Principles of Composition New York, 1918
THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE
9
Make the paragraph the unit of composition: one paragraph to each topic.
If the subject on which you are writing is of slight extent, or if you intend to treat it very briefl y, there may be no need of subdividing it into topics. Thus a brief description, a brief summary of a literary work, a brief account of a single incident, a narrative merely outlining an action, the setting forth of a single idea, any one of these is best written in a single paragraph. After the paragraph has been written, it should be examined to see whether subdivision will not improve it.
Ordinarily, however, a subject requires subdivision into topics, each of which should be made the subject of a paragraph. The object of treating each topic in a paragraph by itself is, of course, to aid the reader. The beginning of each paragraph is a signal to him that a new step in the development of the subject has been reached. The extent of subdivision will vary with the length of the composition. For example, a short notice of a book or poem might consist of a single paragraph. One slightly longer might consist of two paragraphs: A. Account of the work. B. Critical discussion. A report on a poem, written for a class in literature, might consist of seven paragraphs: A. Facts of composition and publication. B. Kind of poem; metrical form. C. Subject. D. Treatment of subject. E. For what chiefly remarkable.
F. Wherein characteristic of the writer. G. Relationship to other works. The contents of paragraphs C and D would vary with the poem. Usually, paragraph C would indicate the actual or imagined circumstances of the poem (the situation), if these call for explanation, and would then state the subject and outline its development. If the poem is a narrative in the third person throughout, paragraph C need contain no more than a concise summary of the action. Paragraph D would indicate the leading ideas and show how they are made prominent, or would indicate what points in the narrative are chiefly emphasized. A novel might be discussed under the heads: A. Setting. B. Plot. C. Characters. D. Purpose. A historical event might be discussed under the heads: A. What led up to the event. B. Account of the event. C. What the event led up to. In treating either of these last two subjects, the writer would probably find it necessary to subdivide one or more of the topics here given. As a rule, single sentences should not be written or printed as paragraphs. An exception may be made of sentences of transition, indicating the relation between the parts of an exposition or argument. In dialogue, each speech, even if only a single word, is a paragraph by itself; that is, a new paragraph begins with each change of speaker. The application of this rule, when dialogue and narrative are combined, is best learned from examples in well-printed works of fiction.
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6 | ELEMENTS OF STYLE
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Week 6 READING A View of Latin Typography in Relationship to the World
CRITIQUE Elements of Design Part 2
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READING A View of Latin Typography in Relationship to the World BY PETER BIĽAK
»»Gutenburg wasn’t actually the first occurrence of movable type, movable type was used in China since the 11th century, and Korea since the 13th century »»typographic scholarship extremely eurocentric because they only study the history of Latin typography »» most existing type classification systems only apply to Latin type »» recent changes in technology has opened up the field of type more, such as unicode and opentype »»there’s now more interest in non-Latin typography
FINAL CRIT—PART 2 OF ELEMENTS OF DESIGN »» covers look really nice with craft paper »» everyone’s books look more cohesive and put together »» we talked about everyone’s process and what we learned during the project »» i learned that it helps to have a a second pair of eyes but it can be frustrating trying to design one thing together because usually one person will end up taking initiative and making it their design »» learned to use command[] to move stuff through layers WINTER 2017 | 27
and command shift[] to move stuff to from or back »» learned that i can use the AA button to put something in all caps (before i would use a character style to do it) »» learned more about using tables »» can use eyedropper tool to copy text formatting »» numbered subhead could use more weight »» example style not resolved consistently across the 3 books »»text needs more proofreading and revision
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EXCERPTS FROM ELEMENTS OF STYLE BOOKLET—PART 2
THE ELEMENTS OF
STYLE
THE ELEMENTS OF
01
STYLE William Strunk, Jr. New York, 1918
02
Elementary Rules of Usage
01
Elementary Principles of Composition
02
A Few Matters of Form
03
Words and Expressions Commonly Missused
04
03 04
9
Make the paragraph the unit of composition: one paragraph to each topic. If the subject on which you are writing is of slight extent, or if you intend to treat it very briefl y, there may be no need of subdividing it into topics. Thus a brief description, a brief summary of a literary work, a brief account of a single incident, a narrative merely outlining an action, the setting forth of a single idea, any one of these is best written in a single paragraph. After the paragraph has been written, it should be examined to see whether subdivision will not improve it. Ordinarily, however, a subject requires subdivision into topics, each of which should be made the subject of a paragraph. The object of treating each topic in a paragraph by itself is, of course, to aid the reader. The beginning of each paragraph is a signal to him that a new step in the development of the subject has been reached.
Elementary Principles of Composition
02
The extent of subdivision will vary with the length of the composition. For example, a short notice of a book or poem might consist of a single paragraph. One slightly longer might consist of two paragraphs: A. Account of the work. B. Critical discussion. A report on a poem, written for a class in literature, might consist of seven paragraphs: A. Facts of composition and publication. B. Kind of poem; metrical form. C. Subject. D. Treatment of subject. E. For what chiefly remarkable.
SECTION 2 5
6 ELEMENTS OF STYLE
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Week 7 READING Lava — Voice of a Magazine The First Thing I Ever Designed: Elana Schlenker and Gratuitous Type Magazine
CRITIQUE Zine Mood Boards
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READING Lava — Voice of a Magazine
BY PETER BIĽAK
»»started designing typeface first when he was designing Works that Work, wanted an element that would tie together a work that would be on display across print and web »» wanted a typeface that works well in hires and lores environments »» complicated to design because of the intended use The First Thing I Ever Designed: Elana Schlenker and Gratuitous Type Magazine
BY MADELEINE MORLEY
»»Elena Schlenker started her own self-funded independent magazine, Gratuitous Type »» used it as part of her portfolio, also used it to connect with artists she admired »» helped her get a full time position in publishing »» born because of her own passion and drive
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IN-PROGRESS CRIT: ZINE MOOD BOARDS »»should look towards outside sources not just Pinterest because there were a lot of the same images placed up on the wall; should use design resource library or actual print magazines »» need to decide if a I want a more clean, minimalistic style or crazy and busy with a lot of color and graphic elements, rough type
MOOD BOARD
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Week 8 READING Eric Gill got it wrong; a re-evaluation of Gill Sans
EXERCISE Grid Analysis
LECTURE Typography on Screen
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READING Eric Gill got it wrong; a re-evaluation of Gill Sans BY BEN ARCHER
»»Archer argues that Gill was incorrect in his claim that Gill Sans is the new and improved version of Johnston; while some characters in Gill Sans are well designed, the majority are actually worse than the originals. He argues that Gill Sans became so popular and well regarded because of the marketing and hype around it »»Gill Sans got rid of the curve on the bottom of the lowercase L that distinguishes it from the number 1 and uppercase I »» got rid of the terminus endings in b, d, p, and q. Later they revised so that they were preserved, but that feature is now only preserved in the lightest weight »» lowercase g changes form in the ultra bold weight because there is not enough space for the letter form »» he got rid of some curves at the end of letters but added others in an inconsistent way »»the weights are really inconsistent along with the proportions between the cap height and the stroke width Beauty and Ugliness in Type design
BY PETER BIĽAK
»» invited to a conference to speak on conceptual type: argued that conceptual type doesn’t exist since the purpose
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of type is to communicate, but went on to speculate what a conceptual typeface might look like »»started looking for the most beautiful and ugly typefaces in history »» decided that Bodoni/Didot the most beautiful typeface »»Italian typeface of 19th century the ugliest: it revered contrast by putting the stress on the horizontal strokes instead of the vertical strokes »»this typeface created a huge negative reaction »» designer thought it was interesting that both the ugliest typeface and the most beautiful had high contrast letter forms, but with such different reactions »» created a typeface called Karloff which combines the two letter forms
UGLIEST TYPEFACE
MOST BEAUTIFUL TYPEFACE
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EXERCISE—GRID ANALYSIS There is a relationship between the grids of both layouts. Both layouts use a seven column grid (nine including the margins) with the same amount of gutter space between columns. All of the columns are equal with a width of 5p6 but the text boxes in each spread are different widths and span multiple columns. The smallest text box is made up of 2 columns while the largest spans 4 columns. We think that the grid is composed of columns, not modules, but the text still aligns horizontally across spreads. There’s no obvious modular grid but there is some horizontal consistency with the height that the text box starts within the same article. The images align to the grid but also break outside of the margins of the grid. The images are the only elements that break the grid.
MAGAZINE SPREAD FOR GRID EXERCISE
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LECTURE—TYPOGRAPHY ON SCREEN What to consider when choosing type for screen: »»contrast: high contrast typefaces should only be used for headlines »»x-height: high x-height is ideal, but beware of extremes »»character distinction between 1, l and I. »»look for typefaces that have special characters »»small caps and ligatures »»optical sizes »»be careful with overused typefaces (cough Helvetica) Strategies for Pairing typefaces: »»don’t pair typefaces that are really similar »»pair display and text typefaces »»look for harmony: find typefaces with inherent visual relationships »»use a family: find a typeface that has both serif and sans serif versions »»build outward: choose one typeface and expand
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Week 9 READING 7 Striking Design Pairings We Didn’t Expect to See in Graphic: 500 Designs that Matter An Idea of a typeface A Typeface Designed to Revive the Endangered Cherokee Language
EXERCISE Grid Analysis
LECTURE Typography on Screen
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READING 7 Striking Design Pairings We Didn’t Expect to See in Graphic: 500 Designs that Matter
BY PERRIN DRUMM
»»Phaidon released a more accessible handheld version of the Phaidon Archive of Graphic Design »»Pairs design pieces from completely different styles and eras which creates interesting juxtapositions »»this article highlights seven of their favorite spreads »» it was interesting to see the similarities in designs that were made with completely different styles and disciplines. A lot of the combinations they picked had similar color palettes and compositions An Idea of a typeface BY KAI BERNAU »» Bernau began to design Neutral for her graduation project »» her goal was to create a typeface that was free of all connotations and would not distract the viewer in any way from the content—to create a typeface that was completely neutral »»touched upon the field of conceptualism in her design research—the field where artists work with concepts and meaning instead of shapes and form »»also took inspiration from the tea master Sen no Rikyu, who tried to create a perfect tea ceremony by removing any unnecessary elements
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»» used a system and began to measure typefaces to figure average features so that she wouldn’t be biased based on her cultural and academic background »» over the years she found herself using neutral less and less, and eventually decided she wanted to redesign it which resulted in a completely new typeface »» biggest changes are in spacing, punctuation, and figures »» in the end she doesn’t know if she achieved a neutral typeface, or the approximation of a neutral typeface A Typeface Designed to Revive the Endangered Cherokee Language
BY ANGELA RIECHERS
»» designer Mark Jamra decided to design a typeface for the Cherokee language because the existing typefaces were old and lacking italics or bold options. »» he named it Phoreus Cherokee because phoreus is the Greek word for carrier referring to type as a vehicle for carrying language »»the updated version has lowercase and a small caps version to be able to maintain the same visual identity as English upper and lowercase »»the typeface style is open with playful curves
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PHOREUS TYPEFACE
IN PROGRESS CRIT: TYPE ZINE »» my design is way too busy and colors make it illegible »» hand-lettering looks unfinished »» can use outside images if they’re loyalty free and properly credited »» need more white space and big images »»folios should recede and not be so prominent »»should blow up images of Brian Singer’s work to make sure you can get the point across »» don’t be afraid of giant images »»add bylines »»add credits and captions »» could use shapes with highlight colors from the images
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IN PROGRESS SPREADS Just my type | 9
Just my type | 8
Saltwater Brewery Creates Edible Six-Pack Rings by Heather Galanty The devastating effects that plastic six-pack rings can have to both wildlife and the environment have been proven time and time again. While many iterations of the packaging have been seen over the years, here’s a look at a very creative and sustainable alternative to the standard six-pack ring. Saltwater Brewery in Delray Beach,
Head of Brand at Saltwater Brewery Peter Agardy says, “It’s a big investment for a small brewery created by fisherman,
Fla., recently released edible six-pack
surfers and people that love the sea.”
rings, a brand-new approach to sustain-
Brewery President Chris Gove notes, “We
able beer packaging. These six-pack rings
hope to influence the big guys and hope-
are 100 percent biodegradable and ed-
fully inspire them to get on board.”
What exactly is Living With? Living With: is a project dedicated to empower-
ible—constructed of barley and wheat
ing anyone dealing with mental health to be confi-
ribbons from the brewing process. This
dent in themselves and their approach to handling
packaging can actually be safely eaten by
daily obstacles. It started as a college thesis and
animals that may come into contact with
it’s grown to become a nationwide social endeavor
the refuse.
that sparks new conversations and new perceptions about mental health. Living With: is the degree-project-turned-real-project of Dani Balenson, a recent graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and
by Dani Balenson
designer working in Brooklyn, New York. Each shirt in the initial Living With: collection has a design that was developed based on the common behavioral patterns of a specific mental disorder. While a single disorder can have a very broad range of characteristics and affects each person differently, there are core behavioral patterns that persons living with each disorder experience. The meaning behind each design in this series can be broken down to color, module, and pattern.
Just my type | 12
Just my type | 13
How artists in a Trump America are embracing lessons from the civil rights era and momentum from the Women’s Marches. City streets around the world (and a ship deck in Antarctica) flowed pink Saturday as an estimated 5 million women and male allies donned rosy pussyhats and marched in a show of solidarity against newly minted President Donald Trump and an administration bent on dialing the clock back on women’s rights. The nonviolent but spirited display not only picked up a gauntlet thrown down by a campaign that won on homophobic, misogynistic, and racist rhetoric, but codified an integral part of resistance: creativity. It’s a strategy employed during 1960s civil rights movement, whose architects coordinated novel clandestine tactics and revealed them at opportune times to throw opponents off guard. While the Women’s Marches organized and publicized in advance, their momentum galvanized individuals into devising their own creative contributions—from whimsical signs, costumes, and T-shirts, to unleashing satirical songs and drawings on social media, to theaters, art shows, and apparel raising money for such advocates as Planned Parenthood, American Civil Liberties Union, and the Southern Poverty Law Center. “Each successive leap in nonviolent progress has built upon the acts that happened before,” Andrew Aydin, who co-wrote the bestselling March trilogy with congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis, told Co.Create last summer. (March sales skyrocket-
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Week 10 CRITIQUE Type Zine
WINTER 2017 | 43
IN PROGRESS CRIT: TYPE ZINE »»should use more color »» make sure you get everything in: folios, captions, table of contents, etc, before spending too much time on style »» don’t upload as spreads to issuu
FINAL CRIT: TYPE ZINE General comments: »» make sure story is checked »» italicize book and magazine names »» make sure all text is in magazine (including about author) »» ellipses shouldn’t start a line, make sure you’re using proper ellipses and not just three periods »» page numbers should start on the right page »» go over text with a fine tooth comb and look for orphans »» presentation is important »» best presentations talked about the concepts behind the design and not the actual design
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FINAL ZINE COVER
WINTER 2017 ISSUE 01
WINTER 2017 | 45
FINAL ZINE SPREADS
Table of Contents 6 WHY THE ACTIVIST POSTER IS HERE TO STAY Why posters remain a succinct, popular and powerfully immediate form of public speech.
12 SALT WATER BREWERY CREATES EDIBLE SIX PACK RINGS A look at a very creative and sustainable alternative to the standard six-pack ring.
14 WOMEN’S MARCH How artists in a Trump America are embracing lessons from the civil rights era and momentum from the Women’s Marches.
20 PLANNED PARENTHOOD MURAL A graphic installation highlights the dynamic history of America’s most trusted provider of reproductive healthcare.
23 LIVING WITH Living With: is a project dedicated to empowering anyone dealing with mental health to be confident in themselves and their approach to handling daily obstacles.
26 CULTURE STRIKE CultureStrike empowers artists to dream big, disrupt the status quo, and envision a truly just world rooted in shared humanity.
30 DR. BRONNER’S REDESIGN New Logo and Packaging for Dr. Bronner’s Spaceship Type
March 2017 | 5
FROM THE EDITOR
Typography and Social Justice
35 ACTIVISM POSTERS THROUGH THE DECADES Posters have been used to advocate rights for many people over the years, women have used
What is typography? Why does it matter? How does it impact our lives? The Merriam-Webster definition of “typography” is: “the work of pro-
design to fight for their rights.
ducing printed pages from written material” or “the style, arrangement, or
38
appearance of printed letters on a page.” How those letters, words, and
WHY EVERY DESIGNER NEEDS A CODE OF ETHICS An overview of the key principles that should be in every designer’s code of ethics.
41 NOT JUST ANY GUY, BUT SOMEGUY Interview of Brian Singer by Leif Steiner & Emily Potts
sentences are styled and arranged affects how they are perceived. Good typography clarifies content, establishes hierarchy, and presents information in a manner that makes it easier to read, and, therefore, to understand. Good typography is good communication: it can start a dialog or advance an idea or make a difference in the world. Typography is also intertwined with our daily lives—we encounter type in everything from the products we buy, the signage around us, the books we read, the news we consume, and the directions we follow. Typography can be beautiful, functional, persuasive, and inviting. It can also fail, especially when there is a disconnect between how the type looks and what the text says. This debut issue of Just my Type examines typography and design viewed through the lens of activism and social justice. Topics range from the recent presidential election to ethics within the design industry to the power of the poster as a means of expression and protest. The content was conceptualized, collected, curated, and created by students in Art 338: Typography II at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo during winter quarter 2017. The magazine reflects the diverse interests and talents of the students who brought this project to life. Charmaine Martinez Editor, Instructor and Type Enthusiast
AP: SAIT SERKAN GURBUZ
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March 2017 | 15
Just my type | 14
Women’s March How artists in a Trump America are embracing lessons from the civil rights era and momentum from the Women’s Marches. City streets around the world (and a ship deck in Antarctica) flowed pink Saturday as an estimated 5 million women and male allies donned rosy pussyhats and marched in a show of solidarity against newly minted President Donald Trump and an administration bent on dialing the clock back on women’s rights. The nonviolent but spirited display not only picked up a gauntlet thrown down by a campaign that won on homophobic, misogynistic, and racist rhetoric, but codified an integral part of resistance: creativity. It’s a strategy employed during 1960s civil rights movement, whose architects coordinated novel clandestine tactics and revealed them at opportune times to throw opponents off guard. While the Women’s Marches organized and publicized in advance, their momentum galvanized individuals into devising their own creative contributions—from whimsical signs, costumes, and T-shirts, to unleashing satirical songs and drawings on social media, to theaters, art shows, and apparel raising money for such advocates as Planned Parenthood, American Civil Liberties Union, and the Southern Poverty Law Center. “Each successive leap in nonviolent progress has built upon CHANG W. LEE
the acts that happened before,” Andrew Aydin, who co-wrote the bestselling March trilogy with congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis, told Co.Create last summer. (March sales skyrocketed after Trump insulted Lewis.) “One of the key proponents in the national sit-ins was that there was also a boycott going on of
Just my type | 16
March 2017 | 17 LIZA DONOVAN
stores that wouldn’t sell to African-Americans. So you took one tactic, you added another, and put it all together to put pressure.
JENNIFER MARAVILLAS
So if young people today creatively used tactics from that moveSAIT SURKAN GURBUZ
ment, and added social media, that’s how they’ll make the next great leap.” The mounting artful protests since election day seemed to take their cue from this approach. For every celebrity statement, like Shia LeBouf’s He Will Not Divide Us livestream and Fiona Apple’s “Tiny Hands” are explosions of individual and grassroots efforts, like the Pussyhat Project, New York’s Nasty Women, and Uprise/Angry Women art show fundraisers, and the anti-Trump banners gracing New York bridges and skies. Some were spontaneous. Within hours of alt-right leader Richard Spencer getting punched on camera, Microsoft engineer and technical evangelist Rachel White offered a T-shirt bearing a video screengrab of the event, with all proceeds going to the ACLU. Some were subtle. A film series on women directors at the University of Southern California used today’s political backdrop
for a timely screening and panel on Triumph of the Will, a famous Hitler propaganda film. Yet others were just artistic outbursts. Disney Imagineer
The expression crescendoed with the Women’s Marches. The Missile Dick Chicks, dormant since the George W. Bush administration, resurrected for the New York and Oakland
Nikkolas Smith, an NAACP Image Award nominee who received
marches. The antiwar protest group began in New York to pro-
a signed thank-you letter from Barack Obama for an Incredibles-
test the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions, attended protests
inspired drawing of the former First Family, honored fan
dressed as buffoonish war mongers with missile strap-ons and
requests to continue the theme with Trump, who he reimagined
oversized stuffed bras (war chests).
as Incredibles’ villain Syndrome. The political turmoil has proven fertile ground for veteran
Madefire CEO and graphic designer Ben Wolstenholme, crafted a free-use anti-Trump campaign design for the San
comic writers and illustrators. Neil Gaiman, Amanda Palmer,
Francisco march that could be expanded into a line of petitions
David Mack, and Olga Nunes teamed for a video of Leonard
to run through Trump’s tenure.
Cohen’s Democracy to raise money for PEN America’s quest to defend freedom of expression. Mack also contributed writer portraits for PEN America’s Writers Resist protest. Meanwhile, Bill Sienkiewicz weighed in on social media with emotional farewell portraits of Obama, March illustrator Nate Powell created women’s empowerment signage art based on a
VICTORIA GARCIA
concept by his wife and her friends marching in D.C., while political artist Mark Bryan offered a line of anti-Trump posters. Not to mention, an exploding anti-Trump craft industry. ART TO MARCH WITH KATE DECICCIO
JESSICA SABOGAL
WINTER 2017 | 47
DESIGNED BY AUDREY GERUGHTY Winter 2017 Typeface: Open Sans