EXPLORING TYPOGRAPHY
Magazine Style Foreign Girl Photo Essay Finding places to get lost in Newspaper Style About the right practice: A ten topics manifesto Catalogue Style Get the point + EXTRA Geek to the Future
the foreign girl FERNANDA, BORN IN BRAZIL, ON 1995. HER MISSION IS TO BRING BEAUTY – IN ANY POSSIBLE WAY – TO THE WORLD, AND HER DREAM IS TO BE ALWAYS PASSIONATE ABOUT THE THINGS SHE DOES.
Writer Fernanda Zanette Photographer Fernanda Zanette
Previous page Fernanda’s face painted Right 01 Cement tiles pattern: Traditional – Contemporary 02 Gender equality posters (A Designer Ethics) 03 The Geek project: Typography to pattern Left Fernanda’s desk
SHE TRIED TO AVOID HARD QUESTIONS BUT IT WOULD HAPPEN SOMETIME, ANYWAY.
Q How would you describe your job to someone unfamiliar with your work? A My work as a designer is about messages and people. It involves creation and creativity: To create and think functionally while considering esthetic and beauty, all at the same time (not to mention culture, social aspects, history etc). And also the need to manage a bunch of elements: words, imagery, icons, all sort of medias, in order to answer a demand and deliver a coherent message to your audience. It’s an exchange: You need to get to know your audience so you can create to them in a language they can understand and relate to.
Q What do you love about what you do?
Q How does your work influence the way you see the world around you?
A What I love most in being a designer is to be able to work with areas that are not necessarily related to my own. The designer is a being naturally curious and the nature of the profession encourages us to always seek to learn new things: whether related to our professional practice or extra-curricular knowledge. The possibilities are endless! And knowledge is something that will never go out of style.
A My environment is my constant source of inspiration, but I find myself inclined to feel the most excited about what the youth produces and how they react to the general life happenings: their expression (language, symbols, icons, style, references…). The youth always represent the future: they are fresh, bold and unique! I hope to be able to reflect their best features in my own identity and work.
Q What parts do you avoid as long as possible? A I try to avoid anything that has to do with illustration. I am very ashamed to admit it… but I can’t draw! I am able to do basic shapes and simple sketches, but my level of detail (trace, 3-dimension or colour) is TOO poor. The worst is that I find illustration to be such a beautiful thing! It is very frustrating not to be able to produce anything beyond the ordinary through that medium. I admire (and envy!) so hard who really has that ability.
Q Where do you get your best creative thinking done? A I’m not sure if there is a specific place, for me, my ideas are unpredictable! They born at the middle of a class, chat or even in my way back home while I’m listening to Troye Sivan’s album on repeate. When it comes to the action time I love to sit by my (if possible, clean) desk, get all the creative supplies I need and start brainstorming, getting my hands dirty! But still, I wish I’ll be able to improve my desk into my own studio/ atelier place in a soon future.
A DESIGNER’S EVERYDAY PRACTICE IS TO TRANSLATE THINGS TO VISUAL LANGUAGE. FERNANDA HAS BEEN – LOVING – DOING THAT BEFORE SHE EVEN KNEW HOW TO NAME IT.
CEMENT TILES PATTERN This project was really interesting! We needed to do a reinterpretation of any traditional repeat pattern culture into a contemporary style. I chose to work with cement tiles for reminding me my origin: the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The technique originated in France and spread throughout Europe. Only arrived in Brazil with the Italianas, in the end of slavery, to adorn the floor of our coffee farms. During the project process we were able to understand the relationship between the old and the new, the similarities and differences between their style and language (Besides repeat patterns techniques and the introduction to website language). In other words: A little bit of everything I love! GENDER EQUALITY POSTERS (A DESIGNER ETHICS) This project was so intense! We were required to choose an issue, something that resonated to us, a value we could compromise to stand for in our careers. For me it wasn’t hard to find one, but to choose only one! In the end, from all of my ethics choices in life, I decided to work with Gender Equality. Since I was fifteen, I took myself as a feminist, I fought for gender equality and I watched feminism be misunderstood by people that didn’t even seek to know the true purpose of the movement. A lot of people interpret it as something complex, negative and/or complicated to make it real, when it is actually ridiculously simple. That’s why I chose “Simplicity” as my concept, that was the message I wanted to convey. THE GEEK PROJECT: TYPOGRAPHY TO PATTERN We researched a whole semester about this urban tribe (Geeks) and developed different kinds of work, by demand. First, I developed the typeface (that I named “Geek to the Future” — a reference to the film “Back to the Future”). The concept was “Spacial Futurism”, and the intention was to explore tribe’s passion for space and sci-fi. From the typeface, I created the motifs, being extremely careful to still be able to translate the overall feeling by combining characters and colours.
05 Type in Print
finding places to get lost in A LOOK AT MELBOURNE’S BOOK CULTURE — DISCOVERING WONDERLAND IN THE CITY.
Photographer Fernanda Zanette Bookshops Readings, Embiggen, The Paperback Books & Metropolis
About the right practice A communication designer’s manifesto in pro of a responsible – yet bold – design practice. Ten Topics Manifesto By Fernanda Zanette THE GENDER EQUALITY IS A FIGHT I’LL EVER BE PART OF – The different treatment to different genders is one of the things in the world that make less sense to me. Gender should not be seen as a limit for who we are, but as an addition! We should always be able to express and act the way we are (rather than how we appear to be). Refusing to join the struggle for equality and/or deny its achievements is like walking into the past. OUR PLANET IS EVERYONE’S RESPONSIBILITY: I WILL NOT CLOSE MY EYES FOR SUSTAINABILITY – Every little thing we do affects our planet somehow. We, designers, have the obligation to worry about the impact of products on the environment and try to minimize them as much as possible. Our choices in a project should be justified not only in a concept related context, but also in relation to the environmental context. EMBRACE THE DIFFERENCES – Some people seem to believe that being different is something bad and that you should want to be like everybody else. Don’t ever want to be invisible! Accepting the things that makes you unique and using it in your design will make great results, but accepting the things that makes every culture unique and design from that point of view will make awesome ones. ART AND DESIGN IS ALWAYS WORTH PAYING FOR – Art and Design are creative areas and relatively flexible comparing to other professional areas. Have a different practice does not make artists and designers less professional. We, workers driven by passion, inspiration, creativity (and often several cups of coffee) also need to pay our bills! Work for free or for “good exposure” devalues not only your work, but your whole profession. COLLABORATE MAKES ME BETTER – Sometimes the best for your design is that it is not just yours ! Decentralize your work. Allow yourself to be always open to new perspectives and soak up the most of new information that partnerships offer to you. And most importantly: Do not be afraid to share. Never. MONEY IS NOT EVERYTHING – Remember that when in doubt about accepting a work based on how much you will receive. If you are in doubt, investigate. Never go against your ethical values as a professional. There is no money in the world that can buy your reputation back. I’M CLEVER THAN MY COMPUTER – In our generation,
one of the first instincts when starting a project is to turn on your computer, look for the software as the first solution. You see, I am not against the software at all, but we should not limit our practice to them. After all, a degree is not necessary to have access to one. What we are able to produce beyond that is what matters. LITTLE ACTIONS ARE THE HEROES – It seems that society has agreed that change the world is only possible through grand gestures. Do not listen to them! The secret behind major changes is collective small gestures. The next time anyone discourage you to continue doing something good (like worrying about the economy of paper, for instance), give them a “silent treatment.” The end. I’LL ALWAYS BE PASSIONATE ABOUT THE THINGS I DO – It’s easy to feel stuck in a rut now and then. Always try to rediscover the things that make you excited, and especially do not let go of those that make you happy and proud and keen to show the world. Try always to get involved in projects that make you walk away with a smile on your face for the rest of the day. BE FRIENDS OF THE YOUNGER – You know the expression that “we must always listen to the elder”? The truth is that we must listen to the younger just as much! They may not have lived as long as us, but they are our future, and their ideas, perceptions and attitudes shape the world from now on. Not to mention that youth is bold, fresh and curious, always welcome features for the renewal of the spirit and its outcomes as result.
Balance is the key
A reverse of priorities
GDC Code of Ethics
First Things First
Graphic Designers of Canada
Manifesto (2000)
This code of ethics was created in order to find a balance between designer’s, client’s, profession’s, and world’s necessities.
This manifesto complains about a society that persistently presented techniques and apparatus of advertising as the most lucrative, effective and desirable means of talent’s use. The profession’s time and energy was being used up manufacturing demand for things that were (and are) inessential. In the 2000’s Manifesto what Graphic Designers, Art Directors and Visual Communicators were proposing was simple: To reverse priorities in benefit of more useful, lasting and democratic forms of communication.
The GDC code of ethics is very similar to AIGA’s standards of professional practice. Moulding your career around those statements is what differentiates you and gives you bonus reputation credits. It means that you takes your career and profession very serious, that you can still be professional, even in a “flexible” career. It means that you are commited to use your knowledge and skills the best way possible for not only you and your crew.
Ethics and values define a professional’s credibility Standards of professional practice By AIGA The AIGA Standards of Professional Practice is for professional designers who want to adhere to principles of integrity that demonstrate respect for the profession, colleagues, clients, audiences and consumers, and for society as a whole. The document discuss some responsibility terms for all kind of professional relationship a designer could be involved. The first one is designer and client. AIGA believes in
transparency and trust, and made through the process. shows this by defending The second term is actions like: “act in the designer and colleagues. client’s best interest within AIGA believes in honesty, the limits of professional autencity and respect. responsibility”. That topic One of the best examples is interesting because is the topic that says that that are clients that think a professional designer the designer should play “shall be objective and by their rules, as well as balanced in critisizing designers that allow that to another designer’s work happen, when, in true, the and shall not denigrate designer needs to assuume the work or reputation of the responsibility of the a fellow designer”. It is still design and be able to justify important to remind this the choices that have been because give and receive
feedback is essential for us to grow in our practice and is something we should be used to and confortable to do as well. It is a everybody wins! In this manifesto, we also go through how to act professionaly in regards of fees (our work must be valued), publicity, autorship, social/ p u b l i c /e nv i r o n m e n t a l responsibility; in order to use our profession for meaninful and nobel causes.
Cultivating strong roots is the way to grow A reflexion upon a manifesto that leaves you wondering what you’ve been doing with your life. By Fernanda Zanette An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth By Bruce Mau This manifesto is interesting because it does not only speaks for the professional aspect of your life. It does not divide, but add and multiply. It assumes that who you are inwardly interferes in your career, in your professional choices (what it’s obviously true). It is all about growth. This is not something that you achieve in some point of your life, but it’s the path that will lead you to somewhere else. It’s not linear, and it is not easy, as well. All of the things Bruce Mau points are relevant but there are some that are the real shine in summarizing the whole meaning of this manifesto. First one, “allow events to change you” is pretty basic. There is always something you do not know, some-
thing to learn. We will never know don’t pay attention to the path you’re everything about everything and that following, you may end up in the is fine. That’s why we make mistakes same ease place. And you don’t want that because that we can learn from later. Then we have “as long as you stick “the wrong answer is the right answer to good you’ll never have real growth”. in search of a different question”. When This is absolutely true and also a real you know what you’re doing, you’re struggle, because you would never not asking new questions, you’re not naturally go for the bad. Despite the doubting, you’re not challenging yourdiscussion of what bad is, it is really self. If you’re doing this, you’re folhard to go against what you think it’s lowing a path you’ve followed before, the best choice you could possibly and while you got all the answers, you make and instead, make the worst. It’s are also missing new views and landscapes that may be as awesome (or against our nature. And that’s why i is important for more!) than the one you already know. you to do sometimes, it may surprise And finally, “don’t be cool”. Being cool means that you’re trying to you somehow. “Process is more important than please people and that means that you outcome” is a truth every design- will try to fit yourself in some sort of er should remember regularly. It is rules to be able to do it. Don’t. What so easy to worry so much about the you’re doing is limiting your potential results we desire and forget what by sticking to the status quo. Be cool the process is about. And the pro- with being who you really are and letcess is the most important part: It’s ting people get to know and react to what makes the result. Considering your real you. this, it is the same as driving. If you
get the point A COLLECTION OF TIPS TO HELP YOU IMPROVE YOUR PRACTICE IN TYPOGRAPHY AND DROP THE OLD BAD HABITS
Dashes & Ellipses
Glyphs
You certain know the hyphen, but there are several other dashes as well: en-dash, emdash, minus.
A glyph is simply a shape in a font that is used to represent a character code on screen or paper.
The ellipses is a se quence of 3 dots used to indicate an omission in quoted material. Use the character, not the approximations.
It is the letters, numbers, pontuactions, icons and symbols we use to communicate ourselves.
Curly quotes
Ligatures
The quotes used for mark speech or quotation (and even irony sometimes) are also known as curly quotes.
Ligatures exist to fix when certain characters have features that overlap with other characters.
The “straight quotes” your keyboard makes are also know as “dumb quotes”. Don’t use them.
They combine the troublesome letters into one, as if they were only one character.
Justify (& word spaces)
Widow and Orphan
When you add white space between the words in each line so all the lines are the same length, you’re justifying your text.
When only the last line of a paragraph appears at the top of the next page, that line is called a widow. If only the first line of a paragraph appears at the bott om of the first page, that line is called an orphan.
This alters the ideal spacing of the font, but in paragraphs of reasonable width it’s usually not distracting.
...happy ever after.
A a Once upon a time...
Leading Leading is the vertical distance between lines of type and is measured in points, from the baseline of one line of text to the baseline of the next line of text.
Grids The grid is a structure made up of a series of intersecting straight (vertical, horizontal, and angular) or curved guide lines used to structure content. It works as a framework for the designer to arrange graphic elements on.
geek to the future TYPOGRAPHY DEVELOPED FROM REFERENCES COLLECTED ABOUT THE URBAN TRIBE GEEKS, CONSIDERING THE “SPACIAL FUTURISM” CONCEPT. THE INTENTION WAS TO EXPLORE THE TRIBE’S PASSION FOR SPACE AND SCI-FICTION.
Place RMIT University, School of Media and Communication Program Communication Design Course GRAP 2278 Design Studio F (Intro to Publication Design) Designed and Produced by Fernanda Zanette Created using Adobe InDesign Fonts used included (Family) Abril Text & Abril Fatface Cover Fernanda Zanette