TYPOGRAPHY JOURNAL
ERIN CHAMP
Readings
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TYPOGRAPHY JOURNAL ERIN CHAMP WINTER 2017
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Typography Journal
INTRODUCTION This Typographic Journal is a compilation of lecture notes, readings, projects, critiques, and personal thoughts and reactions. The notes and readings are sometimes summarized or paraphrased in order to comprehend more easily. Creating the projects portion of the journal was a great way to rethink all of my design decisions and thought processes and come up with a way to talk about them in a detailed way. Looking back through the work that I have done this quarter helped me see improvement in my own work, and talking about the critiques helped me find ways to improve.
Introduction
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LECTURE NOTES
TYPOGRAPHIC REFINEMENT: THE DETAILS
POINTS & PICAS 0
1 INCH
0
1
0
12
2
3
4
5
6 PICAS 72 POINTS
Traditional sizes range from 5 to 72 points. Factors to consider • typeface proportions and weight • length of text • format for viewing (printed on paper or viewed on screen or both) • audience/reader of the text • content of the text
Screen vs Print Print sizes range from 9-12 points. On screen text should be 14 points or larger.
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Kern at display sizes. Kern at display sizes. Leading should be 120-145% of the point size. Optimal line length should be 8–13 words. -Hyphen: if a word is too long for the column length. – En Dash: used to indicate duration. — Em Dash: express a break in the flow of a sentence.
“‘’”
smart quotes
"''"
dumb quotes
"''"
prime marks
Lecture Notes
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CHOOSING TYPEFACES & UNDERSTANDING FONTS
CHOOSING TYPEFACES Design factors to consider • Content
• Audience • Format/Context Technical factors to consider • Glyphs and Punctuation
• Multiple Weights and Styles • Accented Characters
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BUYING FONTS Some places to buy fonts • Google Fonts • Lost Type Co-op • League of Moveable Type • Font Squirrel • Fontspring • House Industries • My Fonts • Fonts.com
Font Managing Font Book • Free and easy to use • Resolve conflicts • Can create library sets • Automatic activation feature Font Explorer X Pro • Full sets that include font names • Can deactivate fonts in the library • Can activate fonts in place You want to have the minimum number of fonts installed.
Lecture Notes
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TYPESETTING IN INDESIGN: TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES
USING STYLES Paragraph Styles • Leading
• Tabs • Indents • Space Before and After • Hyphenation and Justification Settings • Rules above and Below
Character Styles • Bold Text
• Italic Text • Run-in Subheads • Custom Bullets or numbers
Table Styles • Outside Border
• Dividing Lines • Space Above and Below • Fills of Fields
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Lecture Notes
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READINGS
BUTTERICK’S PRACTICAL TYPOGRAPHY
TYPOGRAPHY IN TEN MINUTES 1. Body Text Start here, there’s more of it than anything else.
2. Point Size Print: 10–12 Web: 15–25
3. Line Spacing Should be 120–145% of the point size
4. Line Length 45–90 Characters 8–13 Words 2–3 Lowercase Alphabets
5. Typeface Choice Ignore the ones that came with the computer, and get or buy professional fonts. Never Times New Roman or Arial.
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SUMMARY OF KEY RULES • The four most important typographic choices you make in any document are point size, line spacing, line length, and font (passim), because those choices determine how the body text looks. • Use curly quotation marks, not straight ones. • Put only one space between sentences. • Never use underlining, unless it’s a hyperlink. • Use centered text sparingly. • Use bold or italic as little as possible. • all caps are fine for less than one line of text. • If you don’t have real small caps, don’t use them at all. • kerning should always be turned on. • If you use justified text, also turn on hyphenation. • Don’t confuse hyphens and dashes, and don’t use multiple hyphens as a dash. • In a document longer than three pages, one exclamation point is plenty. • Put a nonbreaking space after paragraph and section marks. • Make ellipses using the proper character, not with peri ods and spaces.
Readings
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FORWARD By Erik Spiekerman “Typography is the visual component of the written word.” — Matthew Butterick
“Type is visible language.” “Good typography is measured by how well it reinforces the meaning of the text, not by some abstract scale of merit.”
Summary Erik Spiekerman discusses his ideas on type compared to Matthew Butterick’s definition of typography, apparently two very different words. He brings up the difference of hand writing and printed type, and talks about how if arguments are easy to follow, they’ll be followed.
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WHY TYPOGRAPHY MATTERS What is Typography? A text is a sequence of words. A text stays the same no matter how it’s rendered., but once it’s printed, typography comes into play.
Who is Typography for? Typography is for the benefit of the reader, not the writer, but Mmost of the time, writers become readers as well. The most important question here is what does my reader want?
Why Does Typography Matter? Typography matters because it helps conserve the most valuable resource you have as a writer—reader attention. Without the reader, the writing is useless; the reader is giving you a gift by reading, and that gift can be taken away easily at any minute. Good typography is a great tool to help keep the reader interested and invested.
What is Good Typography? Good typography reinforces the meaning of the text; it makes the text more effective. • Good typography is measured by how well it reinforces the meaning of the text, not by some abstract scale of merit. • For a given text, there are many typographic solutions that would be equally good. • Your ability to produce good typography depends on how well you understand the goals of your text.
Where Do the Rules Come From? Bad typography habits get passed along. There is no acad emic typography, nor legal typography, nor business typog raphy. There is only typography.
Readings
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TYPE COMPOSITION
“”
Curly quotes are the quotation marks used in good typography.
???
The question mark is underused.
!!!
The exclamation point is overused.
; The semicolon is used instead of a conjunction to combine two sentences, and also separates list elements with internal commas.
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¶
The paragraph mar citing documents w numbered paragra
§
The section mark is citing documents or lettered section
(parent
Parentheses are for or other asides from
[brac
Brackets show chan
{bra
Braces are not typi in technical and ma
¶
rk is used when with sequentially aphs.
§
s used when with numbered ns.
theses)
&&&
The ampersand is a stylized depiction of the Latin word et.
…
An ellipsis is a sequence of three dots used to indicate an omission in quoted material.
éçü
In names, accented characters must always appear accurately, otherwise, the name is misspelled.
r separating citations m the body text.
ckets]
fi Ligatures were invented to solve a practical typesetting problem.
nges within quotes.
aces}
ically used except athematical writing.
Thoughts I learned a lot from this section, mostly small technical imporovements I can make, and why I have been doing what I do. Who knew the ampersand formed from two letters?
Readings
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TEXT FORMATTING
Fonts are an important part of typography. But there’s much more to typography than fonts. In a printed document, don’t underline. Ever. In monospaced fonts every character is the same width. All system fonts are overexposed. Many system fonts have been optimized for screen legibility, not print. Many system fonts are not very good. Bold or italic—always think of them as mutually exclusive. If you’re using a sans serif font, skip italic and use bold for emphasis. At body text sizes, capital letters are harder to read than normal lowercase text. Headings are signposts for readers that reveal the structure of your argument. Letterspacing (tracking) is the adjustment of the horizontal white space between the letters in a block of text.
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PAGE LAYOUT
Centered text is overused. Whole paragraphs should never be centered. Justification works by adding white space be tween the words in each line so all the lines are the same length. If you use a first-line indent on a paragraph, don’t use space between. And vice versa. Body text is the most common element in a document. Start with font, point size, line spacing, and line length. Styles let you define sets of formatting attributes that get applied together, let you change formatting across a class of related elements, and can inherit formatting from other styles. Columns are an easy way to get a shorter and more legible line length without having to use even larger
page margins. On a stan dard 8.5"× 11" page, two or three columns are fine; four is too many.
Thoughts Everything we read in Butterick’s Typography has helped me with my own work. Whether I previously had knowledge of the content or not, it is always a good refresher for me, and he speaks so well and so directly to his audience that I can understand his language even better.
Readings
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PETER BIL’AK
FAMILY PLANNING, OR HOW TYPE FAMILIES WORK Ever since the earliest use of movable metal type; certain typefaces have included versions cut for specific point sizes.
Typefaces made between 1960s-1990s almost entirely ignored optical sizes because photocomposition allowed unprecedented possibilities of mathematical scaling. optical size is just one parameter which determines the appearance of a typeface. Width and weight are two very important parts to design a type family or system. The incorporation of two different styles of typeface into one family was probably first explored in 1932.
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LAVA —VOICE OF A MAGAZINE Lava was designed to bridge the digital and print editions of a newly designed magazine. Since the magazine would be read both in print and on screen, Lava was designed to perform optimally in both high and low resolution environments. He wanted the typeface to be the voice of WTW—confident enough not to need to show off, with the comfortable, relaxed manner of an engaged storyteller, ready to handle long stories, but also small captions or titles. I named it Lava.
Thoughts It is incredibly impressive that he created his own typeface that has the capabillities to read well at both small and large sizes. I am still unsure why he named it Lava, but seems like it is versitile and beautifully made, and is definitely a typeface I and many others would use.
Readings
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A VIEW OF LATIN TYPOGRAPHY IN RELATIONSHIP TO THE WORLD A short essay scrutinising the general misconceptions of western typography, and the appropriateness of Euro-centric type terminology.
China Thanks to the present-day dominance of Latin script we have largely forgotten that there are parallel histories outside of Europe. Unlike Latin script which uses 26 letters, Chinese script uses thousands of characters, making type composition particularly complicated. Nevertheless, movable type has been in continuous use in China since the 11th century. The first recorded movable type system was most likely created in China around 1040 AD by Bi Sheng, not by Gutenburg in 1450.
Italy The term Roman is customarily used to describe serif typefaces of the early Italian Renaissance period. Italic, which refers to cursive typefaces inspired by the handwriting of Italian humanists. Greek Roman and Greek Italic are contradictions in terms, mixing two very different histories.
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BEAUTY & UGLINESS IN TYPE DESIGN Article on the process of designing Karloff typeface, showing just how closely related beauty and ugliness are. There is no such thing as conceptual type, since type design is a discipline defined by its ability to execute an outcome
The Beauty Bodoni and Didot are some of the most beautiful typefaces in existence. Bodoni was one of the most widely-admired printers of his time and considered amongst the finest in the history of the craft.
The Ugliness The eccentric ‘Italian’ from the middle of the Industrial Revolution was a clear choice. This reversed-contrast typeface was designed to deliberately attract readers’ attention by defying their expectations. No other style in the history of typography has provoked such negative reactions as the Italian.
Readings
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USING LAYOUT GRIDS EFFECTIVELY DESIGNERS INSIGHTS
Always use a layout grid for your design projects. No exceptions.
The Golden Ratio & The Fibonacci Sequence They are definied as the divine proportion in both mathematics and the arts.
Rule of Thirds This rule is used mostly by photographers, but can also be used in other types of design as well. Just like text, the subject should almost never be centered.
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TYPOGRAPHICA MEA CULPA, UNETHICAL DOWNLOADING STEVEN HELLER
Steven Heller describes the guilty revelation experienced when he learned that typeface software licenses are sold for use on specific, not unlimited numbers of CPUs. He calls for the ethical treatment of type designers, i.e. respect for their copyrights. Heller discusses previous experiences with purchasing typefaces, transferring them to coworkers and friends, and the problems that face him and others because of it.
Thoughts After reading this article, I really thought about all of the typefaces that I have on my computer, at my job, and at previous internships; I have no clue about any of the licenses. Although I have only ever obtained free fonts for my own use, I assume some at my place of work were purchased, and I should be more careful where I use them and for what purpose. Getting into legal issues can be touchy, and like Heller says, “ignorance is no excuse anymore.�
Readings
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MY TYPE DESIGN PHILOSOPHY MARTIN MAJOOR
This article by the designer of Scala and Seria is as much a typographic guide and history lesson as it is a personal account of his approach to type design. Officially, the very first sans serif typeface to be used for printing was published around 1816 by the William Caslon iv English typefoundry, and was thought of as clumsy.
Much more interesting is Akzidenz Grotesk, published in 1898 by the German Berthold type foundry in Berlin.
In 1928 Paul Renner designed his Futura.
Thoughts I never thought about the importance of knowing what text will do on different types of paper, and how that will definitely become an important part of my career in the future. All of these different typefaces are so common to me now, it is odd to think about the reactions that the first sans-serif typeface received, and how recent it was created, relative to when text was first made.
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THE FIRST THING I EVER DESIGNED: ELENA SCHENKER & “GRATUITOUS TYPE” MAGAZINE
MADELEINE MORLEY
Madeleine Morley had “a notoriously ambitious, time-consuming venture,” with a “combination of a passionate desire to make and say something new, a lot of head bashing with printers and distributors, and a clueless, frantic stab in the dark.” She says the name Gratuitous Type came from her and other designers’ love for large letters and how beautiful they can look at a large scale.
Thoughts Letting herself know that she would be changing each issue up a bit with typefaces, grids, and graphic elements is something I would like to be able to try. In my experiences, once I find something that works, it is difficult to stray from it.
Readings
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ERIC GILL GOT IT WRONG; A RE-EVALUATION OF GILL SANS BEN ARCHER
This article is a critique of the Gill Sans typeface and the idiosyncrasies of its creation from a contemporary perspective. The central argument is that an earlier typeface by Eric Gill’s mentor, Edward Johnston, is a superior piece of type design.
Gill vs Johnston Although the two are very similar typefaces, they bring controversy with them. Many prefer Gill Sans because it was made more recently, however some prefer Johnston. The article delves into the small and subtle differences in certain letter forms of both typefaces.
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THOUGHTS ON SHORTER ARTICLES
7 STRIKING DESIGN PAIRINGS The design pairings that were chosen to compare and contrast each have something in common with their partner—whether it be in their color palette, their typefaces, or their graphic elements. All of the combinations made me think of how many options there are when creating a design. Each have their own emotions and characteristics attached to them, but some still portray the same content, just in a different way.
AN IDEA OF A TYPEFACE KAI BERNAU This article begins talking about how there is no such thing as neutrality in text, which I agree with. There may be typefaces that are more common or widespread than others, but they still have the ability to engage with the viewer and react to the content and visual elements on the page. He then brings up the idea of a typeface and how that can sometimes be different than the typeface itself.
A TYPEFACE DESIGNED TO REVIVE THE ENDANGERED CHEROKEE LANGUAGE This article ties in perfectly with a video by Dean Merrill showing the creator of Phoreus and his though process behind it. Before him, the Cherokee only had two typefaces for their language. Having typefaces available for my use is extremely important to let my work become expressive and without different typefaces, they would not have the same effect. Because the Cherokee language is created in symbols for syllables, there is already meaning embedded into each one.
Readings
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PROJECTS & CRITIQUES
TYPESETTING: RULES OF TYPOGRAPHY PROJECT 1
PROJECT DESCRIPTION For this project, you will research and document as many rules, ideas, or principles about typography as possible. A minimum of five examples must be presented on the page.
SPECIFICATIONS Size: 8.5” x 11”, portrait or landscape Colors: B/W + 1 accent color Required Text: at least five quotes about typography: each should include the author, the source, the page number, and the year it was published / a title of your choice
PROCESS & CRITIQUE Initially, I went for a completely different approach than what I have for my final design. Although this was a very short, two day project, I wasn’t afraid to start fresh and rethink all of my previous designs. In the first critique up on the wall, it received neither good nor bad comments. A few things were that the color was nice, but not exciting, the text was hard to read when reversed out over the color, and the title was not interesting or engaging. Going into the final critique, it received better comments, but had a few things to change still before it was finalized. The quote pulled towards the bottom was too chaotic so I cleaned that up, and the large quotation marks were too big and distracted from the content of the actual quotes.
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Interacting with
Typography
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“Typography is the use of type to advocate, communicate, celebrate, educate, elaborate, illuminate, and disseminate.”
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- Frank Romano, The Complete Manual of Typography: A Guide to Setting Perfect Type, Second Edition, Foreward, 2003
“In a world rife with unsolicited messages, typography must often draw attention to itself before it will be read.” - Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, Second Edition, page 17, 1992
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“We like a typography that transcends subjectivity and searches for objective values, a typography that is beyond times - that doesn’t follow trends, that reflects its content in an appropriate manner.” - Massimo Vignelli, The Vignelli Canon, page 28, 2010
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“Always be asking yourself: what does my reader want? Because your reader is quite diferent from you.” - Matthew Butterick Butterick’s Practical Typography, Interactive Web Based Book, 2013
“Typefaces are what you get to admire after your work is finished, but fonts are the tools you have to wrestle with in the meantime to get the job done.”
INTERACTING WITH
- James Felici, The Complete Manual of Typography: A Guide to Setting Perfect Type, Second Edition, page 49, 2003
TYPOGRAPHY
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In a world rife with unsolicited messages, typography must often draw attention to itself before it will be read. — ROBERT BRINGHURST
The Elements of Typographic Style, Second Edition, page 17, 1992
We like a typography that transcends subjectivity and searches for objective values, a typography that is beyond times — that doesn’t follow trends, that reflects its content in an appropriate manner. — MASSIMO VIGNELLI
The Vignelli Canon, page 28, 2010
Always be asking yourself: what does my reader want? Because your reader is quite different from you. — MATTHEW BUTTERICK
Butterick’s Practical Typography, Interactive Web Based Book, 2013
Typefaces are what you get to admire after your work is finished, but fonts are the tools you have to wrestle with in the meantime to get the job done. —JAMES FELICI
The Complete Manual of Typography: A Guide to Setting Perfect Type, Second Edition, page 49, 2003
”
“ TYPOGRAPHY IS THE USE OF TYPE TO ADVOCATE, COMMUNICATE CELEBRATE, ELABORATE EDUCATE, ILLUMINATE D IS S EMIN AT E ”
&
— FRANK ROMANO
The Complete Manual of Typography: A Guide to Setting Perfect Type, Second Edition, Foreward, 2003
Projects & Critiques
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A DIALOGUE PROJECT 2
PROJECT DESCRIPTION Using the dialogue provided, you will design a diptych that utilizes all of the text and emphasizes the fact that there is more than one voice. Think about and utilize typographic hierarchy.
SPECIFICATIONS Size: 11” x 15” two page diptych Colors + Typefaces: no restrictions Required Text: all text in the document
PROCESS & CRITIQUE This project was easily one of my favorite projects we’ve ever had in a class. Right from the start I imagined this large scale, stretched out, grand image surrounding the text, and after reading through the dialogue, I knew that the lighthouse had to be the imagery I used. I sketched a few other options, but was drawn to the magnitude that the lighthouse held. In some of the first critiques I received good feedback, and overall I knew exactly where I wanted to take this with the typography and title. After pulling a few quotes to emphasize them and wrapping some of the text around the waves, I was content with the design for the final critique. Overall, the poster was liked by many, and there were only a few things that needed to be changed: the tracking in the authors names, the italicizing of a quote, and the size of the initial question.
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Projects & Critiques
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Initial Sketches
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Full S
Scale Sketch
Final Color Rendering
Projects & Critiques
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DIALOGUE PROJECT 3
PROJECT DESCRIPTION The focus of the book is on composition, the effective use of plain English, and the principles of composition most commonly violated.
SPECIFICATIONS Size: 5.5” x 8.5” / number of pages will be determined by your design, but must be divisible by four Colors: interior pages: black / cover: 2 colors, cover weight paper Required Text: assigned section of The Elements of Style and colophon
PROCESS & CRITIQUE As one of the larger and longer projects, I decided early that using styles would be very important, and would end up saving a lot of time. For my first booklet, I decided to use Caslon as my body text because it is readable at a small size and is beautiful at a larger size. Luckily, both of the others in my group also used Caslon and the same graphic style of showing examples, so the content of my inside pages didn’t change much after the first book was due. After talking to my group, we decided to go with the visual style of Matt’s booklet, and in addition, we updated the headers to Clarendon to match the cover and title page. For the critique, we received great feedback, and there was only one minor detail inside the copy that needed to change.
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Projects & Critiques
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TYPE ZINE PROJECT 4
PROJECT DESCRIPTION The theme of the magazine is: Typography, Design, Activism and Social Justice. Students in the class will be responsible for collecting and creating all the assets for the magazine, including: text, illustrations, and photographs.
SPECIFICATIONS Size: Page Size: iPad (768 px Ă— 1024 px), Portrait Orientation Colors: RGB Required Text: all student contributions
PROCESS & CRITIQUE This project is unlike anything I have done before, and it was interesting and challenging to see what I could come up with. At first, I was confused by the process of working with everyone to come up with the content, but once we started working on it I started to get in the groove and push myself to come up with new ideas and styles that I never have tried before. Starting with the sketching stage, I knew that I wanted to make it look like an editorial and have bold but beautiful typography, so I chose Didot for my cover and article headers. I appreciated getting feedback from my peers throughout the whole process because it was so lengthy, and the critiques I mostly received from them were to mix it up more and try to make each spread more different. Other in progress critiques taught me to also change it up a little bit, and really take a close look at my type setting and italicizing because it is easy to miss the little things. Overall I was happy with the result and happy to step out of my comfort zone and try new thins.
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Projects & Critiques
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Final Spreads
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Initial Sketches
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ERIN CHAMP GOTHAM