One Step at a Time: The Stages of Typographic Design

ONE the

Sarah D. Cripe

STEP

stages of

typographic design

AT A TIME

Sarah D. Cripe

ONE STEP AT A TIME

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Sarah D. Cripe

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ONE STEP AT A TIME

Visual Communications Design Department of Art & Design School of Visual & Performing Arts Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana A Publication of the School of Visual & Performing Arts

All copyright in the name of: Sarah Cripe, November 2013

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Kudos This book is dedicated to my father, Rico. Thank you for your honest opinions and genuine interest in my work. I appreciate all the simple things, such as making sure I have coffee when I pulled all-nighters and for making sure I was awake for class when I did not. You have always been there for me and I love you. This book is for you and I hope you enjoy it.

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Acknowledgments 2013, Art & Design 332 Class Kristine J. Anderson Professor Emerita, Purdue University Libraries Cathy Aper Manager, Purdue Printing & BoilerCopyMaker Scott Benham Vice President, Hayword Printing Co. Inc. Lafayette

K. Lynia Coates Copyright clearance & class notes, BoilerCopyMaker Dennis Ichiyama Professor, Purdue University Barbara Mayfield Continuing Lecturer, Purdue University Sherry Swank Design Manager, Purdue Printing Services

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Prep Time Design is not a simple wham bam thank you ma’am. It is not easy and there is no elevator to speed up the process.

It takes work and determination. There are many stages in the process. Starting slowly with many hand sketches and moving toward the computer sketching, all the while figuring out what designs are working and which ones need more work and which ones can you take the farthest. I started with two letters on a note card and in the following pages you will see how I spent many weeks going through the steps until I reach my final work. See how some rough scratches on a piece of paper became a well-designed work.

Everyone has to start somewhere, this is mine, and I invite you along with me for this journey ahead.

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“

We all have 10,000 bad drawings in us.

The sooner we get them out the better.

- Walt Stanchfield, Animator

1919-2000 www.brainyquotes.com

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STEP ONE: Sketching

I do not have 10,000 bad sketches but I do have quite a few. This portion of my book was the most tedious and mind crunching part. While working I felt like I had an alien sucking my life energy dry. What came from it is irreplaceable. I would be ashamed of my final design if I had stopped after the first 20 sketches or even the first 40.

My first sketches simple letter formations and easy ideas that a ten year old could come up with.

My two letters, AP, and I worked very closely. Sketching got me familiar with the curves of the lower case “a”, the harshness of the pointed capital “A”, and what a pain in the neck the descender on the “P”, was. It let me test what it meant to use those letters and how far could you push them until they became something else entirely. One Early example is when I mirrored a “p” across the vertical axis and it became a “q.”

Through sketching and critiquing, my design ideas vastly improved. My “chicken scratch” became clearer and more precise as my level of comfort with the letters improved.

The more sketches I did the better my designs became.

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The computer allows me to execute my ideas at the speed I think them.

-WILL.I.AM, Musician www.brainyquotes.com

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STEP TWO:

Computer Time I cannot describe the joy I felt when I got on a computer and started making cleaner versions of my sketches. No more hand cramping, accidental pencil smearing, or markers bleeding! I was back in my element and it became easier to focus and make changes. It was like being reintroduced to my letters because of the precision of the fonts. It was also nice to be able to manipulate them quickly without starting a new sketch. The only downside with the manipulation was the cause and effect factor. Slightly adjust one anchor point of a letter and all points next to it are adjusted as well. Overcoming this was difficult but it was not something that bothered me.

The computer sketches added an unexplored area to my design. Before all that mattered was sanserif or serif, Italic or Roman. On the computer, I had many more choices.

The decision of which typeface to use came down to qualities such as; the ball on the tip of the lower case “a” or the roundness of the bowl on a “p.”

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“

The details are not the details. They make the design.

- Charles Eames, Furniture Designer & Architect 1907-1978 www.brainyquotes.com

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STEP THREE: Refinement

There is a couple steps to refinement. The first is looking at the few ideas that work the best and choosing the idea.

The second part is the actual tuning. When you start refining one or two design you know you are almost done.

There are no more new ideas, just manipulating the one or two that made it to this phase. This work is tedious, unlike in the computer sketching stage. Little bulges or disconnects cannot make it through the refining process.

This is smoothing out and making a good design an awesome design.

Refinement is all about the subtle nuances in section of the formation. I zoomed into each portion and picked parts from previous iterations that worked the best in my design. Next, I zoomed out and made large scale changes in things such as positioning. When I got it just the way it needs to be, I zoomed back in and to comb it over.

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STEP FOUR: Completion

VICTORY!!! I did it! This is it, Satisfied? Well, I know I am. My final design is right here. I remember when I first drew this. It was awful, but I knew something was there. I did not pick it in that first critique after I drew it because the quality was not the worse than some others that I presented that day.

I stuck with this until the end every new iteration getting closer to what I wanted it to be. It needs to take the test of time, but as of right now I am proud of it and it is a good design. It has those specific criteria I was looking for when I started. Both letters are legible and there are many contrasts; black & white, positive & negative, thicks & thins, upper & lower case. Those are just basic quantifiable things. There is no reference to emotions or feelings, those things I leave of up to you to decide, my dear audience.

With that, I thank you for following me on my journey that started out just one step at a time.

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“

Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.

-Henry Ford, Founder, Ford Motor Company

1863-1947 www.brainyquotes.com

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STEP ONE

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STEP TWO

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STEP THREE

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STEP FOUR

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Keep Moving Forward This step is one of the most important steps. This is to keep going if you get the top do not stop when you get there.

This was all about my design and no matter how good it is, I cannot dwell on it. There HAS to be a drive to do better and keep on learning. I hope you enjoyed my book and that it will inspire you on your own work, whatever that may be.

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Colophon Type: Baskerville

8 pt, 12 pt, 30 pt, 100 pt

Bodoni Std.

100 pt

Adobe Caslon Pro 100 pt

Garamond

100 pt

Helvetica

Regular 32 pt

Light 12 pt

Bold 16 pt, 24 pt, 46 pt, 60 pt, 120 pt

Bold Oblique 12 pt, 18 pt, 36 pt

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About the Author Sarah Cripe is a Visual Communications Design student at Purdue University. She took many design courses in high school and found great pleasure in it. This is her first book consisting of more than six pages in which she wrote and designed herself.

She currently resides in Lafayette, Indiana with her family and Chihuahua, Raine.