Journal Typography 2
Journal : Typography 2 By Chris Chappell
Introduction This is my Typography II journal. Virtually the entire time I thought about this journal I figured it would be over-designed. Now that it’s finally here, I’ve decided that I wanted to take the design into a significantly more utilitarian style. These are the very few notes I’ve taken in class, my responses to the reading, and the things I’ve taken away from critiques. I don’t believe the information should be cluttered, nor should a ridiculous overuse of color and graphic elements impede the natural flow of the text on the page, because like Buttericks said, good typography is measured based on how well it reinforces the meaning of the text. Therein lies its own message.
Entry: 01
Make the body text look good.
January 07
RESPONSE Buttericks Practical Typography was a resource Katie McKormick liked to make us aware of. He presents the material in a very clear manner, having impeccable heirarchy and sense of brevity. That said, some of the main points (as laid out by the author) are as follows: • Make the body text look good • Don’t use a dumb point size • 45–90 character line length • Use a niiiiice font
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Entry: 2
January 12
There is no one solution for type.
RESPONSE I am a typographer. Everyone is a typographer. Typography is everywhere and it affects everything that has words on it. In the text the first example is of the Florida ballot in 2000. The ballot design is very awkward for voters because of its distinct lack of design forethought. The place to punch the ballot choices is congested, and creates alignment issues that may be the cause of misvotes. I really like this section because he believes both typography and photography are both art, but at their core utilitarian. In addition, he believes good
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typography is based on how well it reinforces the meaning of the text rather than by some abstract scale. He also obviously likes pizza, like me. There is no one solution for typography like in math.
CRITIQUE In critique of our initial layouts, it seems as though my quotes needed only minor adjustment. The distance between the quotes was too cramped, so I’ll need to add some space.
Entry: 3
It turned out well, I think.
January 14
CRITIQUE For the final iteration of my design, I added the white space between the quotes that was recommended in critique. I believe it ended up turning out well without the need to make drastic changes.
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Entry: 4
January 19
Behold the interrobang
‽ RESPONSE
NOTES
This chapter is truly massive. In general, it is an overview of the proper use of symbols. Not just your standard em dash and curly quotes, but a huge variety. I like that the chapter goes into some grammar as well. Regardless of whether or not you’ve got great typography; nobody will forgive a random semicolon that should otherwise be a comma. Some other cool points:
Interestingly enough, the keyboard combinations discussed in class were geared toward students who own Mac OSX. Therefore, I am left to my own devices to learn the cppmlicated shortcuts on windows. Update: Some of the most basic shortcuts are the same, such as the en and em dashes, but most are different and only work in InDesign.
• The interrobang was invented in 1962 • Oddly enough, the paragraph symbol is also called a pilcrow • The okinas are a glottal stop
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Entry: 5
January 21
Don’t use ridiculous fonts. RESPONSE
NOTES
Here is a quick overview of the points made in this chapter:
Another interesting lecture about the merits of having a font manager on OSX. Though it pertains to OSX, there are some cool font managers for windows as well. Most look and function almost exactly the same, though my favorite is NexusFont. It is free, lightweight, open source, and feature rich.
• Don’t underline • Don’t use ridiculous fonts • Don’t use monospace fonts • System fonts are overexposed • Use bold or italic to emphasize • Use all caps judiciously
I think it’s too early to tell what really needs to be changed in my project. The diptych seems like a good time to try out some subtle messages through the use of layout and color.
• Consider point size • Use fewer heading levels • Don’t go crazy with letterspacing • Use kerning
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Entry: 6
January 26
Body text will change the entire document. RESPONSE
• Tables are tough
Buttericks’ chapter on page layout is another massive one. I think one of the most important parts of the chapter is line spacing. It’s probably the one that I always tweak back and forth. Here is another summary of key points, then:
• Silence can be contrast
• Use centered type sparingly • Be careful with justified text • Have a nice-sized indent • Or, space between paragraphs! • Check line spacing and length • Don’t be afraid of larger margins • Body text changes the whole document
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CRITIQUE Critique went about as expected for the diptych. It was noted that my poster lacked pull quotes, as well as the fact that the mountain looked unfinished. The look I was trying to go for was definitely more flat rather than a bunch of detail. Especially since I’ve not drawn a ton of mountains.
Entry: 7
January 28
Section II Elements of Style: Tables. RESPONSE
NOTES
This article was at points, I’ll admit, quite difficult to get through. However, I ended up liking the article. Generally, it is about the trend of creating large type families starting in the early 20th century. Notably, how the typographers Morris Fuller Benton and, by the latter part of the century, Adrian Frutiger aimed at creating typographic systems. In 1932, Jan van Krimpen first explored two different type styles in one system. One of the most interesting parts to me, however, was that a mathematician came up with Metafont, a tool to modify type based on parameters in a program. Ultimately, it is the foundation of years of expertise by practiced typographers that has allowed us to modify and create profound new typeface families and systems through modern methods.
I believe this journal entry is as good a medium as any to express how difficult this next project will be. Unfortunately, I got section II, the unholy mother of all tables. The thought of organizing those tables with awkward cell spans keeps me awake at night.
CRITIQUE Final critique for the diptych went about as expected as well. After a large number of tries getting detail on the mountain to look finished, but remain flat and readable as a mountain, I found it to be increasingly difficult to pull off. As pointed out, I was still unable to pull it off, and the rest of my project fell victim.
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Entry: 8
February 02
A grid is what makes it design. RESPONSE The article on Designer’s Insights is refreshingly direct and concise. The article goes through different possibilities and cause for concern about grid layouts and binding, but the most notable thing I took from it was one of the first sentences. It said that the difference between art and design is a grid. In order to reproduce a look in design you need to have a grid, otherwise it is art. I did find the article by Stephen Heller to be both compelling and interesting. Perhaps I’ve had more sleep recently. I totally agree with all of his points, though I am definitely guilty of the habits noted within. Unfortunately, it will be some time before I can afford to be an absolutely upstanding citizen
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with typefaces, so until then I am limited to the often crappy free typefaces I can find.
NOTES Grids are pretty cool. When I was in elementary school I wanted to be an architect, among other things. Creating grids in InDesign feels similar to all of the times I would draw buildings on graph paper. As for the booklet, it’s much harder than it seems at first. And at first it seemed very hard. The tables are a nightmare.
Entry: 9
Serif and Sans-Serif made for each other.
February 04
RESPONSE I now understand that typotheque.com is determined to produce the longest articles. There is so much to digest from this article, it’s tough to really place what the main points are. First, it starts off with Martin Majoor describing how he was at a loss for combining typefaces in book design, but then he continues into a massive traversal of history in typeface design. After his in-depth look at the beginnings of the sans-serif, he goes on to describe how it is slightly against his ideology to mix serif and sans-serif typefaces that weren’t designed with each other in mind. Finally, he returns from his ideology to his typeface design in mixed typeface styles. I can appreciate the well informed and comprehensive nature of the article, and it made it so much easier to read from Majoor’s perspective.
CRITIQUE The Elements of Style book was really challenging but I like the way my first version came out. It was moderately disappointing that we have to change all of our designs so drastically. After we worked together, I was almost certain that a number of my design elements wouldn’t be making it into the final booklet.
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Entry: 10
Developing inclusivity in type.
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February 09
RESPONSE The article by Peter Biľak is interesting in that I’ve never considered the bias of Latin type. There are several good topics of discussion in the article worth bringing the attention of a wider audience of designers. Where Biľak describes the increasingly common design of Greek typefaces as a step in the right direction, I think it could potentially be a trend of appropriation rather than developing inclusivity. When he says that italic should instead be considered oblique, however, I believe that it’s simply up to foundries to rename the ages old (and harmless) convention.
Entry: 11
Cohesive book design.
February 11
CRITIQUE What I like about the final critique was the cohesive designs of all the groups. After all, that was the project, but it was cool to see that people had actually pulled it off. I did notice that virtually everyone had trouble with the tables. I think it’s especially hard given the tiny format of the pages.
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Entry: 12
February 18
Works that Work and those that don’t. RESPONSE
CRITIQUE
Another article by Peter Biľak provides an insight into the design of Works That Work magazine. Rather, it looks at how the magazine was designed around the typeface Lava created by Biľak, who subsequently revisited it several times to fix bugs and quirks. The result was a magazine that worked visually on both print and screen.
Today, the journal project reared its ugly head finally. With no offense to the class, pretty much all of the journal designs looked sub-par, myself included. It is apparent that the journal project is an afterthought at the moment. I did like the one layout with a blue box on the left side with the journal entry information, though.
The article about Elana Schlanker is quite appropriate for our new project. It chronicles the creation of Gratuitous Type magazine and its effect on Schlanker’s career. It may have been her first true design, but ultimately it turned out quite successful for her career, too.
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Entry: 13
Ugliness and beauty make neutral.
February 25
RESPONSE Peter Biľak is back again and he presents a look at combining two typefaces, regarded as either beautiful or ugly, and ending up with a neutral typeface. To be honest, I think it was wildly convenient that the ugly typeface was perfectly opposite. I’d like to see some typefaces mashed up with the same “mathematical formula” whose forms are not such polar opposites, potentially resulting in… still an ugly typeface.
CRITIQUE I find it difficult to visualize the style of the magazine when we don’t really know the content. We know the type of article but most content and images haven’t been filled out. Regardless, I think that I’m going to do something different with my magazine than I normally do with my other designs.
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Entry: 14
It still needs to be read.
March 01
RESPONSE In Kai Bernau’s article, he describes his quest to create a totally neutral typeface. As he ultimately discovers, it is impossible to design something completely neutral, though I believe he gets close given the utilitarian restrictions imposed on typeface designers: it needs to be read. Angela Riechers article about Phoreus Cherokee somewhat relates to Pter’s article about bias in Latin type, and this typeface is one of those examples. The reason the typeface was designed is solely because there was no alternative with a variety of weights, even though there are 22,000 native speakers of Cherokee.
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Entry: 15
A long way to go.
March 03
CRITIQUE My magazine has a long way to go, and it seems to be looming over me daily; it’s around every corner, but I can never see it. Typically, I have some ideas right away on a project and I have to flesh out a few, but on this one I’ve had none of particular note. We’ll just have to jump on and see where it takes us.
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Design by Chris Chappell Typefaces used: Avenir & Calibri Published March 2016