TYPOGRAPHY JOURNAL
ABCDEFGHIJKLMN O P Q R ST UVW XY Z a b cdefghijklmnopqrs tuvwxyz123456789 0!"#$%&'()+*,-./:< ;=>?@[\]^_`{}~¡¢©¶ ± ® ¿ ° ·ÀÆ Ç È Ø à ÷ ˆ ˇ ˉ Ω π–—‘˛˝˜≈≤≠∞∕∑€™Ω ℮∂∆∏™€ℓ⁄†kernan dtracktype Chris Castaneda Type II Winter 2017 Type Journal
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INTRO
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This class was a rather fun one. A lot of work but still a lot of fun. One thing I learned and had to really force into my head was to start soon rath er than later. This became really important at the end of the quarter with the magazine project. Another thing that I appreciate more now are the use of grids and columns within a document. I hardly used them before but they did become really helpful in laying out pages and text on a page. I still want to get more familiar with them especially in laying them down right in the future.
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LECTURE Typographic Refinement: The Details Point Size
Our measuring system for typography was originally devel oped for handset metal type, invented by Johann Guten berg around 1450. There are 12 points in 1 pica and 6 picas in 1 inch. Mea surements are written like this: 1p6 (which means 1 pica + 6 points).
How do you choose a point size?
Consider these options: typeface proportions and weight, length of text format for viewing (printed on paper or viewed on screen or both) audience/reader of the text con tent of the text Leading should be 120–145% of the point size. Fix rags when necessary and avoid widows in last lines of para graphs. Use smart quotes and keep lines at an ideal length which are usually between 45–90 characters or 8–13 words per line.
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READING Butterick’s Practical Typography Typography in Ten minutes Butterick explains the importance of five rules here in re gards to being a better typographer. Some of the rules are familiar such as picking the right typeface, spacing, line length and leading. It’s a good resource for designers to always keep in mind these rules.
Summary of Key Rules Here Butterick lists a good amount of rules when working with type that are easy to follow.
EXCERCISE Legibility and readability study This was an exercise done to compare the differences be tween different typefaces set at different sizes and leading. They included both serif and sans serif tyepfaces.
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READING Why Typography matters Typography is the visual component of the written word. It is for the benefit of the reader, not the writer. A text is a sequence of words. A text stays the same no matter how it’s rendered. Good typography reinforces the meaning of the text. Ty pography matters because it helps conserve the most valu able resource you have as a writer—reader attention.
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CLASS DISCUSSION Butterfly Ballot
Why is the before ballot a bad design? Before
The ballot is really confusing because it features the names of the candidates on both pages with the selection in the gutter. It makes it real easy to select the wrong candidate. There also is a lack of hierarchy in the type.
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After
The improved design lists all the candidates on one side of the ballot along with clear recognition of the names of the candidates through the typeface.
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PROJECT 1 Typography Quotes
First version
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Final version
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READING Type Composition This chapter goes in depth about the non-alphabelt char acters and how to use them correctly. He explains correct ways to use various symbols and quotations. The chapter is a big help with the inclusion of not only the correct way of using the characters but also giving the readers the short cuts. Before taking any type classes I had no idea about the differences between the straight quote and the curly quote. That little feature in here is going to help a lot in the future. Helpful shortcuts opening double quote– option + ] closing double quote– option + shift + [ en dash option + hyphen em dash option + shift + hyphen ellipsis option + semicolon copyright option + g trademark option + 2 Another helpful tip that I found interesting was that some times it is useful to just turn a topic sentence into a ques tion. The question mark is underused and helps make topic sentences simpler.
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READING Text formatting This chapter goes in detail about how to format the charac ters on the page. There are sections on tracking, headings, kerning, and point size. Some key elements: Kerning is the adjustment of specific pairs of letters to im prove spacing and fit. Letterspacing is the adjustment of the horizontal white space between the letters in a block of text. Unlike kerning, which affects only designated pairs of letters, letterspacing affects every pair. Monospaced fonts are named because every character is the same width. Ordinals are numbers that express position in a series. By default, your word processor will convert ordinals into su perscripts.
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LECTURE Choosing Typefaces and Understanding Fonts How do you choose the right typeface/font? Factors to consider. • How long is the text? What is it about? • What is the age of the reader? • What is the demographic of the reader? • What is the size of the page/screen? • Is the size set or will it vary? • At what distance will the text be read? Where do you get fonts? • Google Fonts • Lost Type • League of Moveable Type • Font Squirrel • My Fonts • Fonts.com
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READING Page layout This chapter talks about the various aspects that go into lay ing out a page. Some information offered here are the uses of correct line spacing, getting rid of orphans and widows, using justified or centered text, and body text with columns. Type composition was about picking the right characters. Text formatting was about the visual appearance of those characters. Page layout is about the positioning and rela tionship of text and other elements on the page.
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LECTURE Typesetting in InDesign: Tools and Techniques Paragraph Styles Affect paragraph level attributes: • • • • • •
leading tabs indents space before and after hyphenation and justification settings rules above and below
Character Styles Are used for styling text within a paragraph, for things like: • • • •
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bold text italic text run-in subheads custom bullets or numbers
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Table Styles Used for styling multiple tables within a document. The style defines: • the outside border of the table • the dividing lines in the table • the space above and below the table • the fills of fields in the table
Cell Styles Used for styling individual cells, or rectangular divisions of the table. The cell style defines: • the borders around the cell • how the text is positioned within the cell • the style of the text with in the cell • the fill color of the cell • if the cell is x-ed out
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PROJECT 2 A dialogue
In the original idea of the layout not much was solved. The colors did not work and there wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t a sense of direction. I took this and changed the design with an image and placed all the type on one page into three columns.
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Revised Version 24
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READING Using Layout Grids Effectively This article opens up with visual examples of different op tions for grid structures along with simple image and text representation. It hows both vertical and horizontal orienta tions. The articles stresses to always use a grid layout when doing design projects. I do remember a time when I didn’t use a grid primarily because I did not work in InDesign that much. Having used them for our projects this quarter, I have a new appreciation for them especially after the Zine proj ect. They are a great help in placement of various objects and text and really help the design go a long way.
My Type Design Philosophy In this article, Martin Majoor gives his approach to type design. The article starts off with mentioning that Majoor is the designer of the typefaces Scala and Seria. He talks about how helpful it was as a book designer and the im portance of mixing type such as serif and sans serif ones. He gives the origin of sans and explains that the first time a sans typeface was back in 1816 by William Caslon.
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PROJECT 3 Elements of Style Interim
The first version of section 2 of the ele ments of style booklet. It turns out that my whole group used similar typefaces and the stroke to separate lists instead of tables.
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READING A View of Latin Typography in Relationship to the World Peter Bilak, in this article talks about the false assumptions of western typography. He states that moveable type was actually created aroud 1040 AD in China by Bi Sheng al though many just assume that the first was invented by Gutenberg in Europe. This was an interesting fact and one that I’ve never heard. That becomes Bilaks primary point in that most knowledge about typography doesn’t reach far outside of Europe and that there is actually so much more to it.
Bi Sheng
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PROJECT 3 Elements of Style Final
The cover layout we decided to go with featuring large section numbers.
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We kept the same idea of using stroke lines to organize some of the informa tion given in the text.
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READING Lava — Voice of a Magazine In this article, Peter Bilak dis cusses the creation of the typeface Lava for a new mag azine he was working on at the time. The magazine was intended to be seen both in print and on screen so the typeface had to work across both platforms and so Lava was created.
Since WTW is available in various digital editions, we tested Lava on various e-readers.
Print edition of Works That Work magazine. The entire first issue was set using a single typeface family.
Besides Latin based languages, Lava also supports Cyrillic and Greek.
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PROJECT 4 Type Zine Inspiration
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READING Eric Gill got it wrong; a re-evaluation of Gill Sans In this article, Ben Archer critiques the well know typeface Gill Sans. He argues that the previous typeface by Edward Johnston is superior. He compares the two typefaces and goes into strict detail on the differences.
Icons of the British mid-20th century.
Examples of conflicts in stroke terminations; lowercase r, t and y compared.
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LECTURE Typography On Screen Attributes to consider when choosing type for the screen: Typeface Contrast The amount of contrast between the thick and thin strokes of characters in a typeface impacts legibility. Higher con trast typefaces can be useful in small amounts or as head lines. X-height When choosing a typeface for text, a high x-height is ideal, especially for use on interfaces or on wayfinding. Beware of extremes If the x-height is too high, there is less room for other dis tinctive characteristics. The letters n and h, or a and d, can become difficult to distinguish as the x-height increases. Character distinction Differentiating between different characters is essential for on screen legibility.
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Special characters Strive to use typefaces that support different types of num bers, correct punctuation,and special characters, especially if your text will be set in a variety of languages. ¿Tiene sen tido? Buena tipografía es importante. Small Caps + Ligatures Use the real stuff. Optical Sizes A typeface with individual designs for different types of content. Finding Alternatives Classic typefaces are sometimes so overused that they be gin to look like generic defaults. Strategies for pairing typefaces: Look for distinction Avoid pairing typefaces that are too similar. Pair Display and Text Faces Take advantage of display type Use a Family Some typefaces have both serif and sans serif version, which are built on the same structure. Type Journal
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READING 7 Striking Design Pairings We Didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Expect to See in Graphic: 500 Designs that Matter An article by Perrin Drumm that shows off favorite designs in 500 Designs That Matter.
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READING A Typeface Designed to Revive the Endangered Cherokee Language This article talks about the development of Phoreus Chero kee, a typeface designed by Mark Jamra. He felt the need to design it based on the need of the Cherokee culture to preserve its language. According to the artitcle, there are 316,000 members of the Cherokee making them the largest tribe in the United States but only 22,000 still speak in their native language.
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PROJECT 4 Type Zine Final Final critique tips: Add location captions on JR article Fix leading on Tattoo article Watch for the dashes Fix leading of subheads Book and album titles are italicized Dashes never begin a line
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Chris Castaneda Type II Winter 2017 Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Typfaces Used Avenir Univers LT STD
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