AUGUST 2014
Monologue Welcome to Dear. This publication we’ll be talking a little bit in depth of typography and match making. As part as a continuation of the previous publication, this time we’d focus more on typography than type design as we stated before. Before we started this month’s discussion we had a target, which made us turn our heads upside down. But in the end of the day, we may have managed something.
Nothing else special happened while working on the publication. So probably it’s safe to say we have learn quite enough to manage our every month deadline. Aside from the publication, our country, Indonesia, is having it’s democracy part by having an election for our next president. Things were getting intense but in the end it was announced that the next president for our country would be Mr. Joko Widodo and Mr Jusuf Kalla as the vice president. Congratulations.
Once Mr. Joko Widodo stated his personal interest on developing the creative industry here in Indonesia, he saw potential and he wanted the government to start supporting the creative industry. As an independent publication inside the creative industry we are glad. Overjoyed by the intention and eager to see how the industry would grow by being supported with the government. Well we hope things would turn out well.
Also in August Indonesia is having it’s independence day celebration. Just so you know =). anyway keep discussing guys. Hope for the best to come.
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Typography, being what we believe as one of the most essential and fundamental aspect in design, has various aspects that can define wether it is good or bad. Harmony and balance within type selection is one of them. This time we’re discussing ways to hook some of them together.
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W
hen we googled, the human population of the world goes around 7.177 billion, while last time
we checked, no one has any rough idea about how many typeface or fonts existed. One foundry to another, one font shop to another, or even undistributed personal customized typeface, there’s definitely a massive amount of typeface or fonts that existed. Some people may find it hard to have a good match, and so are typeface mixing. Easy to do, hard to master perhaps. The Diversity
After that you have to understand
First off let’s start with something
the function and purpose of the
general and cliche, the best way
mix and match. This process can
to mix and match typefaces for
be swapped with the first process.
your typography work is achieved
Take an example as in a date.
through practices, but not just
When you want to look a date for
practice, it’s practice by knowing the
your friend you have to know the
basic foundation and rules. Though
characteristics of your friend, maybe
the rules won’t be 100% absolute
his/her criteria for a date too, and
all the time, the rule does work in
then after knowing it, we can look
general.
for someone that would fit well with our friend, something that would
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When mixing typefaces we’d
compliment our friends trait well.
like to think each typeface as a
Another way to look at it is also by
person, or at least a personality.
the purpose of the coupling. You
The first step is to understand their
wouldn’t couple someone who is
characteristics, in this case the style
looking for a serious commitment
of the type, the treatment of the
with someone who just wants to
type, the weight, classifications, etc.
have fun and play around. If we
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can’t find a compatible person for
considered the easiest but most
our friend, at least we could’ve
appealing in results generally. Serif
look for someone who is serious in
provides good readability, while
commitment, that is if our friend is
sans serif give a better legibility in
looking for one.
most cases. Serif gives a classical feel while sans serif gives a more
The third part on the mix would be
modern look. They complement
how to relate them. Although in the
each other well. But there are cases
case of humans, they would’ve find
where using two serif could also
their own way to relate each other,
produce a nice result, or two sans
in the case of typography when we
serif can achieve more.
are sure that both the types would complement and work out together
Think sans serif and serif as a man
well, we have to make sure we mix
and a woman. Normally coupling
them with the right proportion, the
a man and a woman would be the
right spices.
obvious idea, but there are cases where a man could shine when
Serif & Sans Serif
complemented with another man,
Serif and sans serif typeface are
or a woman being able perform
different in forms and usage.
greatly when paired with another
Combining the two of them are
woman.
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Take a look at the six examples.
to the first three, they slightly
(1),(2),(3) are good examples which
perform less effective.
demonstrates a sans-serif, sans-sans
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and serif-serif combination. (4),(5),(6)
So this shows that the golden
are also combinations of sans-serif,
thumb isn’t that golden. If you
sans-sans, serif-serif but compared
have noticed in demonstrating the
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combinations we admit may have
could also create good results. But
cheated a bit, let’s get on to the
there are still considerations when
next point then.
playing with weight contrasts.
Weight Contrasts
Examples (7) and (8) has a same
As mentioned on our previous
typeface combinations, but one
publication, each typeface had
uses Helvetica Neue Light, and
different weights in their families.
another with Helvetica Neue Bold.
One way to create a good
The difference of both examples
combination - even when using only
could be felt, (7) shows a pleasant
one typeface - is to use it’s family
result than (8). Take example in
wisely. Combining a Helvetica Bold
a conversation, one has to listen
with Helvetica Regular is always
while the other one talks, if both
a safe choice. For some that are
people talk, then it would be more
daring more weight differences
tense and less harmony. Example
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(9) uses a similar weight for the two
Functions & Purposes
typefaces, similar to example no (8),
On example (11) the weight of both
but this time, both typefaces uses a
typefaces are shifted from example
light version of the family. This is like
(10), but it somewhat shows a less
a date when both of them are silent
pleasing effect. This has someone
and probably to shy to even see
to do with the purpose of the type
each other. The relationship would
itself. Example (10) uses Today Shop
be somewhat bland.
Ultra as the headline. Headline are usually designed to be more
Example (10) is quite extreme. The
attractive, if not decorative, to
difference of the scale of weight
attract readers attention. With
for both typefaces are quite large.
the massive weight the headline
One with an ultra light, and another
will surely attracts attention. After
ultra thick. The extreme gap would
reading the massive headline, then
create somewhat an imbalance
people will decide to continue to
relationship of the two, but some
read or to skip the article, either
would argue it still looked decent
way the Today Shop Ultra has fulfill
and still communicate well. Perhaps
it’s purpose, to attract as a headline.
it does, since we are still kind
While Example (11) Uses Today
enough to let the thick one placed
Shop Xlight as the headline and
as the headline. Check out example
Helvetica Neue Black as it’s body
(11).
text. Automatically the body text
Type classification based on the serif
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will somewhat look like a huge block of black, devouring the power and hierarchy of the headline that is performed by a light typeface.
Unfortunately we couldn’t think of a romantic analogy for this one, but when we try to visualize the typeface as a person, the headline would be somewhat the leader, the We would like to dedicate this space to
one with authority, while the body
C O N G R AT U L AT E
text is someone who follows and
CHRISTYA ISKANDAR
serve as the extendable for the
May you have a wonderful birthday, feeling blessed and loved by your dear ones. May your works receive recognition as it should have been. May your hard works pay off in an abundant way.
headline. The leader would have
our lovely illustrator,
Sncerely, Folks back at Dear Discussions, Weiss Graphic, Sncere & Split Second.
no problem leading it’s follower as long as the leader still have the upper hierarchy, but when the leader loses it’s impact to the follower, then there would not be a harmonic group, everyone yells and shouts to become the leader, and the leader’s persona is shadowed by the massive follower. Something like that perhaps.
Other Treatments Assuming you agree that example (11) is a bad example, so is there anyway to ‘fix’ it or to make it better? Well we wouldn’t mention
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it if there weren’t any. But still these treatments can help but do not entirely turn a mismatched combination to a perfect combination. The main problem on (11) is that the body text is far too dense than the headline, therefore crippling the headline’s impact. Knowing the issue of the combination, we can either reduce the density of the body text or simply increase the impact of the headline. In this scenarios, we simply do not change the typeface or the family of the combination.
(12) changes the color of the type. Since we were using a K100 for the early example, the easiest treatment would be to tone down the body text. By changing it’s color from K100 to K50, we have made the combination more suitable and more effective for the headline.
Another way to tone down the body text without changing the color would be the size. We reduced the size of the body text by 30%, but another problem will occur when we
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reduce the body text size. Ideally it
Aftermath
would be better to change typeface
In the end of the day the thing
to a more suitable typeface, since
that will make you an expert on
a bold typeface would lost it’s
typography would be the results of
readability when placed in a small
your training, the sharpened sense
size, but since we can’t change
of typography and the objective
another adjustment we can do is to
judgement you have when you
increase the tracking of the body
design. As we have shown that
text, therefore making the body text
some rules can backfire if you chose
area less dense and making each
your typeface blindly.
letter more visible to read. Not an entirely perfect or ideal solution, but
With creativity and style the
it does helps much.
combination of typography could also be better and more pleasant
(14) is a quite irregular approach
aesthetically. The sense for a
perhaps. When using a light
typographer is also what makes
typeface we can increase the
his work more distinct than other
readability and impact by various
typographers. In short keep
treatment. In this example we insert
practicing and don’t give up.
a block and switch the headline to
Back at college most of us also
a negative space of the block. This
have a hard time struggling with
treatment increases the density and
typography, but when you start
visibility of the typeface, and for a
to get it going, good typography
finishing touch we slightly increase
sense will be a strong arsenal for a
the tracking of the headline.
designer, especially a good, stylish typography sense.
Article References: http://www.noupe.com/design/a-crash-course-in-typography-principles-for-combiningtypefaces.html http://www.noupe.com/design/a-crash-course-in-typography-pulling-it-all-together.html
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Next Discussion: To be honest we’re still stuck with two options. Some things happen and made us rethink about our agenda. One option is a sort of continuation of type & typography discussion, and the other one a new discussion unrelated toe type & typography. So we’re probably going to keep things unanswered.
This publication we managed to bring out a more example oriented article like what we had planned, and we plan to do more in the next discussion. We want each publication to be timeless, where you can read again a year from now and still may find something applicable or useful. That’s why we decided to skip a ‘World Cup’-ish issue.
Anyway to stop making the next week section to a second monologue, we better end it here now. See you on the next publication.
PS. We found an error on the previous publication where the Folio stated it’s “JUNE 2014” where it was supposed to be “JULY 2014”. Sorry for that.
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