ART 338
type II Course Journal
Gina Agapito California Polytechnic State Universit y W inter 2016
ART 338
type II Course Journal
Gina Agapito California Polytechnic State Universit y W inter 2016
COLOPHON This journal was created by Gina Agapito at California Polytechnic State University, in March, 2016. It was designed in Adobe InDesign CC, using the typefaces Merriweather and Open Sans.
CONTENT S 8
Week 1: Typography Review
16 Week 2: Typesetting Basics 24 Week 3: Using Type to Create a Voice 30 Week 4: Styles & Structure 38 Week 5: Grid Basics 46 Week 6: Compromise & Collaboration 54 Week 7: Planning a Zine 58 Week 8: Using Grids to Organize Content 64 Week 9: The Grid in Use 68 Week 10: Refinement & Details
INTRODUC TION Over the course of the quarter, this journal has been a place for me to compile all of the quizzes, readings, lecture notes, projects, exercises, and critiques that have allowed my sensitivity to typography to grow stronger and stronger. The Course Learning Objectives that I have achieved through this class are: •• Increased understanding of the principles, theories, and history of typography •• Developed understanding of how to use grids to organize content and graphic elements •• Refined technical skills for type composition, including the use of Styles and Master Pages in InDesign •• Able to distinguish among different type classifications •• Gained an understanding of font management
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one T ypography Review
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Quiz 1
Basic Typography Knowledge 1. In typography, what’s a ligature? A glyph combing two or more characters that are difficult to fit properly, such as ‘f’ followed by ‘i,’ into a single, more elegant shape. 2. How do you type an em-dash? Option + Shift + Hyphen 3. What’s a font? The delivery mechanism for letterforms. 4. In typesetting, a widow refers to: A word or word fragment by itself on the ending line of a paragraph. 5. What’s a typeface? The design of the letterforms. 6. Is it okay to use a text typeface as display in a headline sized at 72 points? Sometimes, if it looks alright and if the default letterspacing is reduced. 7. How would type nerds describe the difference between an eye and an ear? The eye is similar to the counter, but refers to the enclosed part of the letter ‘e,’ and an ear is the small stroke extending off the upper part of a lowercase ‘g.’ 8. What does the term monospace refer to? Each character is the same horizontal width.
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9. In letterform nomenclature, how is a the bowl different from the counter? The bowl is the completely enclosed round part of the letterforms such as ‘p,’ ‘b,’ and ‘R,’ both the positive and negative space, while the counter refers only to the negative space, whether it’s completely enclosed or not. 10. How many points are in one pica? 12 points 11. You are designing a book. Which of the following typefaces would be appropriate to use for the body text? Palatino Caslon 12. In typesetting, what’s a river? Text that has a noticeable continual, meandering vertical white space formed by accidentally stacked word spaces. 13. What is kerning? Manually adjusting the individual spaces between letter pairs for legibility 14. What is tracking? Adding or subtracting white space equally amongst all characters in a word, line, or paragraph. 15. What is leading? The vertical distance between baselines of type. 16. Your body text size in 10-point. Which of the following would be a good choice for the leading? 13-point
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17. What does the term “x-height” refer to? The height of a lowercase character, usually the ‘x,’ from the baseline to the top of the character. 18. An en-dash is used: Between numbers when indicating a duration of time 19. If you asked a typesetter what an orphan is, he/she would say that while there’s some disagreement, it usually refers to: A paragraph opening or ending line that appears by itself at the bottom or top of a page or column, separated from the rest of the text. 20. Which of the following typefaces are associated with the International, or Swiss Style? Helvetica Univers
Reading
Butterick’s Practical Typography: Typography in Ten Minutes, Summary of Key Rules, and Forward It’s interesting to read about typography from a text that is not intended for a graphic design audience. Practical Typography seems to break the rules of typography down in a way that is more clear and easily understood. This section of reading starts out with four basic rules that focus on body text: keep the point size between 10–12 points for print and 15–25 pixels on screen; leading should be 120%–145% of the point size; line-length should be 45–90
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characters; and use professional fonts rather than system fonts. These, and the Summary of Key Rules are all review of rules that we learned in Type I, but serve as a good checklist for proofreading and typesetting.
Lecture
Typographic Refinements: The Details POINT SIZE •• Measuring system originally developed for handset metal type •• Invented by Gutenberg around 1450 •• Includes the space of the ascenders and descenders •• Point system introduced with 2 basic measurements: points and picas •• 12 pts. in a pica, 6 picas in an inch •• Written like this: 1p6 (which means 1 pica + 6 points) •• Traditional metal type range in increments from 5 pt. to 72 pt. HOW DO YOU CHOOSE POINT SIZE? •• Factors to consider: •• Typeface proportions and weight •• Length of text •• Format for viewing (printed or screen) •• Audience/reader •• Content of text •• Screen vs. print •• Pt. size should generally be larger when read on screen
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•• Body text in print should generally be 9–12 pt. •• On screen body text should generally be 14 pt. or larger •• Phones are a totally different typographic challenge LOOKING FOR A HARDWORKING TYPEFACE? •• Should have: •• A good regular weight •• Robust proportions (strong stroke weight, serifs with mass, large x-height) •• At least 1 bold weight with noticeable contrast to compliment text weight •• Italic version •• Very legible numerals •• Economy: should be narrow enough to fit large amounts of copy into available space THINGS TO DO TO M AKE YOUR TYPE LOOK BETTER: •• Kern at display sizes •• Customize leading: 120–145% of pt. size •• Pay attention to line length: 8–13 words per line on average •• Letterspacing matters: all caps can handle more letterspacing; don’t go beyond -10 for body text •• Never use fake small caps •• Know your dashes: hyphen; en-dash (indicates duration—add a little extra kerning); em-dash (indicates break in flow of sentence) •• Customize hyphenation: words with at least 6 letters; after first 3 letters; before last 3 letters; hyphen limit: 2 •• Only use smart quotes: for feet and inches use prime marks whenever possible; if a typeface doesn’t have prime marks use dumb quotes
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•• Fix rags when practical •• Avoid widows and orphans •• Always check spelling (turn on dynamic spelling)
In-class Exercise
Legibility Exercise In this exercise we looked at the effect that changing typesetting variables such as leading, point size, and typeface have on the legibility of body text. I compared the typefaces Baskerville and Frutiger, and decided that Frutiger was more legible, based on its larger x-height and lower-contrast stroke weight. When the leading is too tight the text block looks too solid and is less pleasant to read, but when it is too loose the lines of type seem disconnected. The best point size for both Baskerville and Frutiger at this column width is between 8 pt. and 9 pt. I think that the least readable combination is 8 pt. Baskerville with 13 pt. leading because the point size is too small for Baskerville’s light stroke weight and the leading is too loose. The best is 9 pt. Frutiger with 14 pt. leading. WORST COMBINATION:
Without typography, one could argue, messages will still be legible, but if one really wants to communicate rather than simply display a heap of alphanumeric data, some consideration would be helpful. Paul Watzlawick’s first axiom of communication—“one cannot not communicate”—puts it very succinctly. If you fail to consider the effect of your message on the recipient, you may inadvertently communicate that you do not care how your message may be received. Baskerville, 8pt/13pt
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BEST COMBINATION:
Without typography, one could argue, messages will still be legible, but if one really wants to communicate rather than simply display a heap of alphanumeric data, some consideration would be helpful. Paul Watzlawick’s first axiom of communication—”one cannot not communicate”—puts it very succinctly. If you fail to consider the effect of your message on the recipient, you may inadvertently communicate that you do not care how your message may be received. Frutiger, 9pt/14pt
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two T ypesetting Basics
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Quiz 2 1. What is a good general rule for leading? It should be 120–145% of the point size. 2. In a paragraph, is it okay to have two hyphens in a row? Yes, two hyphens in a row is not problematic in a block of text. 3. How many points are in a pica? 12 4. On average, how long should a line of text be? 8–13 words 45–90 characters 5. What are some ways to fix a widow? Try adding some line breaks in the paragraph to force more text down to the line with the widow. Try setting the tracking to -10 to force the widow up to the previous line.
Reading
Butterick’s Practical Typography: Why Typography Matters The design of the butterfly ballot is problematic because of the way the two columns of candidates flank the column of bubbles. Because of this the lines that separate the candidates’ names align with the bubble that corresponds with the opposite column’s bubbles. It’s very confusing and hard to tell which bubble goes with which candidate.
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BUTTERFLY BALLOT:
BUTTERFLY BALLOT RE-DESIGN:
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Trixie’s resume is better than Violet’s because uses more professional typefaces, better hierarchy, more spacious margins, and less-distracting bullets. TRIXIE’S RESUME:
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VIOLET’S RESUME:
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Project Write-Up
Project 1: Typesetting: Rules and Principles of Typography Since this project was the first of the quarter it was important to me that my type treatments have very good legibility and to follow the rules of typography closely as I was getting reacquainted with my typesetting skills. I also wanted to use a unique title treatment to make my page visually interesting, and I did this by using scale, color, and spacing to set it apart from the body text. PROJECT 1 FINAL DESIGN:
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Critique Notes
Project 1: Typesetting: Rules and Principles of Typography MINOR ISSUES: •• Leading slightly too tight or too loose •• Typos in the quotes •• Lack of hierarchy/separation of information in the attribution •• Minor spacing issues BIGGER ISSUES: •• Legibility problems due to: typeface choice, type size, or background color •• Headline/title lacks weight •• Name of person lacks emphasis •• Hierarchy of text is confusing—parallel information is treated differently •• Spatial arrangement of elements lacks organization and negative spaces are awkward •• Layout is organized, but a little boring.
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three Using T ype to Create a Voice
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Quiz 3 1. Who proposed that good typography should be “invisible”? Beatrice Warde in her essay “The Crystal Goblet” 2. The semicolon (;) is used Instead of a conjunction to combine two sentences (example: He did the crime; he must do the time.) To separate list elements with internal commas (example: We vis ited Tulsa, Oklahoma; Flint, Michigan; and Paducah, Kentucky.) 3. What was the primary design flaw of the Florida “Butterfly Ballot”? The fill-in dots to select a candidate did not clearly line up with the candidate’s names. 4. When should you put two spaces after a period? When setting text in a typewriter-style monospaced typeface. 5. An ampersand: Is typographic shorthand for the word “and” Is a stylized depiction of the Latin word et (in fact, traditional ampersands take the shape of the letters et) Should be used when it is part of a proper name (Fromage & Cracotte Inc.)
Reading
Butterick’s Practical Typography: Type Composition Something that I learned from this reading is that the combination of a question mark and an exclamation point is called an
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“interobang.” This symbol is typically used in comic strips. I did not know that there was a term for this, or that in traditional print shops an exclamation point is also known as a “bang.” Some of the keyboard shortcuts for symbols will be helpful in the future for branding purposes and punctuation: SYMBOL KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS •• En-dash: Option + Hyphen
–
•• Em-dash: Shift + Option + Hyphen •• Bullet: Option + 8 •• Degree: Option + K
• ˚
•• Copyright: Option + G
©
•• Registered Trademark: Option + R •• Trademark: Option + 2 •• Ellipsis: Option + ;
—
®
™
…
•• Accent on a letter: Option + E, then type the letter
áéíóú
•• To bring up type menu: Command + Shift + T
Reading
Butterick’s Practical Typography: Text Formatting This chapter of Practical Typography is also a bit of a review of the rules of type that we learned in Type I. This review is especially helpful because it deals with the rules for type that are more subtle, and that require the designer to make choices about the formatting. This chapter is very informative.
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Lecture
Choosing Typefaces, Installing Fonts and Managing Fonts CHOOSING TYPEFACES •• Factors to consider: •• Content •• Audience •• Format •• Technical factors to consider: •• Full character set •• Foreign accented characters •• Multiple weights and styles •• Small caps •• Lining and old style numbers •• Format of font? OpenType fonts are cross platform •• Does is have a Web Font version? WHERE DO YOU GET FONTS AND WHY ARE THEY SO EXPENSIVE? •• Creating a font is complex •• Requires large teams •• Designing can take years •• They are software applications with many conditions WHEN YOU BUY A FONT, YOU PURCHASE A LICENSE •• Dictates how and where the font can be used
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•• Can it be used commercially? •• How much does is cost? •• Usually depends on how many workspaces it can be used on •• Can it be used online or just in print? •• Can it be used in apps and ebooks? PLACES TO GET FONTS: •• Google Fonts •• Free for print and web •• Some good, some not so good •• Lost Type Co-op •• Pay what you want type foundry •• League of Moveable Type •• Provides well-made, free, open-source, and @font-face ready fonts (League Gothic) •• Font Squirrel •• Free for commercial use •• Lots of display fonts •• Fontspring •• All can be used for commercial projects •• Not free •• All have similar licensing •• House Industries •• Very expensive, unique revival fonts •• Can buy vector file of just a word or a line of type •• My Fonts •• Huge range
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•• Contemporary “rising stars” •• Range of prices •• Fonts.com •• Extensive and expensive HOW DO I INSTALL MY FONTS? WHERE DO THEY LIVE? •• They live in different places •• User: ~/Library/Fonts/ •• Local: /Library
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four St yles & Structure
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: Styles & Structure
Reading
Butterick’s Practical Typography: Page Layout The final section of this chapter will be helpful to me going forward because it lists "Principles of Balance and Consistency" to keep in mind when laying out a document. These are an important reminder that good typography is about the way the whole page works together, not just how the individual rules are applied. The nine Maxims of Page Layout are: •• Decide first how the body text will look. •• Divide the page into foreground and background. •• Make adjustments with the smallest visible increments. •• When in doubt, try it both ways. •• Be consistent. •• Relate each new element to existing elements. •• Keep it simple. •• Imitate what you like. •• Don’t fear white space.
Project Write-Up
Project 2: A Dialogue For this project I wanted to use type treatments to communicate my concept about the meaning of the article with which we were working. The article was an interview about the role of the hero in mythology and people’s personal lives. The way I interpreted the main point of the interview was that every person must go through
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their own “hero's journey,” and that that journey is a very personal and contemplative one. I used the meditative imagery of a labyrinth to construct the title of the piece: “HERO,” and to convey this idea of contemplation. I used a two column layout of body text to mimic the structure of the labyrinth title treatment and to enclose the pull quote at the center of the page. PROJECT 2 FINAL DESIGN:
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Critique Notes
Project 2: A Dialogue •• Don't get hung-up on voices…a shift in typefaces might be too much. Maybe just a little more emphasis to responses. •• Don’t let body text get too large.
Quiz 4 1. How a table looks is primarily defined by: The formatting of cell borders and cell margins 2. Paragraph and Character Styles allow you to: Define sets of formatting attributes that get applied together. So instead of selecting a heading, changing it to 13 point, bold, and all caps, you can define a style that includes these three attributes, and apply the style to the heading. Change formatting across a class of related elements. Inherit formatting from other styles. A change to the parent style will propagate to all the substyles. But a change to the substyle will only aff ect that one style. 3. To signal the start of a new paragraph, you can: Indent the first line of the new paragraph Add extra space between paragraphs 4. When you buy a font, you are purchasing: A license that grants the owner the right to use the typeface in a specific manner.
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5. Why is it important to organize your fonts into sets? So you can easily turn on and off fonts depending on what project you are working on. So you can categorize fonts and easily find them by style. So you can keep a minimum number of fonts open on your computer, thus improving the speed of the Adobe programs.
Reading
“Family Planning, or How Type Families Work” by Peter Bil’ak It’s very interesting to read about how the development of typesetting technology effected the design of type families over time. For example, optical sizes of type existed since the development of moveable type, but different weights did not exist until the mid-19th century when the industrial revolution brought them into demand.
Lecture Notes
Typesetting in InDesign: Tools and Techniques •• Control and customize using styles •• Styles save time by automatically formatting text •• Always name styles descriptively •• Styles increase your efficiency in the program
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PAR AGR APH STYLES •• Paragraph level attributes: •• Leading •• Tabs •• Indents •• Spacing •• Hyphenation and justification •• Most styles in the document will be paragraph styles CHAR ACTER STYLES •• Changes in the type within a paragraph •• Bold •• Italic •• Run-in subheads •• Custom bullets or numbers •• Don’t try to adjust leading—leading will always be inherited from paragraph style TABLE STYLES •• Automate how table looks •• Outside border •• Dividing lines •• Fills •• Space above and below table CELL STYLES •• How individual cells look •• Borders around cell
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•• How text is positioned within cell •• Style of text within cell •• Fill color •• Whether or not cell is x-ed out
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five Grid Basics
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Reading
Grid, Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton The Golden Section is interesting, and I think it’s tried and true that it has beautiful, pleasing proportions, but I think it is not always the most appropriate for a particular design project. There are other ways to make nice proportions such as with column grids and modular grids. It’s important to consider gutters and the content of the text when choosing a format for the text. This review of grids was a good reminder of all the possibilities that are possible even when sticking to a consistent grid. I was really interested in the section on baseline grids. I’ve only worked with a baseline grid one time, and I definitely need more practice to get good at it. It’s obvious that it will only work when the math works and when all the point sizes and leading are whole, divisible numbers. This might not be appropriate for projects when you need to adjust leading or point sizes to fit content in. But, it’s really nice to have all your text align and have nice, unified pages or books.
Reading
Using Layout Grids Effectively, Designers Insights The diagrams in this reading are nice because they show so many possibilities for arrangements of text and images. I especially liked the way they used silhouettes in the compositions to activate the layouts. It’s easy to get stuck in a grid and end up with something uninteresting, and this was a nice reminder of good ways to break
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the grid successfully and create better compositions. This article also covered basic design principles like the Rule of Thirds and the Golden Ratio. It’s probably helpful to consider these things if you’re stuck, but might not always be the best solution.
Reading
“Typographica Mea Culpa, Unethical Downloading” by Steven Heller Steven Heller’s story about not fully understanding type licensing just because he didn't want to read the licenses is kind of humorous, because I think of him as someone who knows everything there is to know about design. The honesty of it is nice because I'm sure there are countless people who have always felt the same way. But Heller also does take this really seriously and emphasizes the necessity of supporting fellow designers through ethical practices in graphic design
Reading
“My Type Design Philosophy” by Martin Majoor Mixing typefaces is challenging, but I think that over the course of this quarter my ability to do so has improved. Reading this piece definitely helped me, because it discusses what goes into designing matching serif and sens-serif typefaces, and how sans-serif typefaces were originally based in serif typefaces to begin with. It seems that the most important thing is to use two typefaces that share a similar skeleton and therefore have similar proportions.
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Project Write-Up
Project 3: The Elements of Style Pamphlet, Version 1 This project was very challenging because of the large amount of differing information within the book and the corresponding styles that it required. Therefore, my main goal was to create very clear hierarchy with organized spacing and alignments in order to make the information as easy to understand as possible. Also, my audience was high school students, so I wanted to use bold title treatments and contrast to make the design engaging and set it apart from typical school books. PROJECT 3, BOOKLET 1 COVER:
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PROJECT 3, BOOKLET 2 SPREAD:
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Critique Notes
Project 3: The Elements of Style Pamphlet, Version 1 •• Make sure there are both cover and title page •• Cover just needs the section number and title •• Make sure folio has title and section with pagination •• Covers should be exciting •• Place titles and author’s name together on title page—publishing information can be on its own •• Don’t forget to italicize book titles in Introduction •• Develop a way to start all sections—a divider page •• No gray type •• Not necessary to shift weight and indent examples at the same time—one or the other •• Examples should be clear and easy to read—don’t make italic •• Make sure line length in tables is appropriate •• Make sure table outlines aren’t heavy and cells have enough offset for their text •• Eliminate unnecessary bullets •• Keep alignment variations to a minimum
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six Compromise & Collaboration
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Reading
“A View of Latin Typography in Relationship to the World” by Peter Bil’ak This made me realize that it really is true that we always talk about the history of printing and type from a western perspective pertaining to the Gutenberg Press, but forget to consider the fact that there was printing technology in eastern cultures from much earlier dates. 1000 AD was when eastern printing technology was invented and 1400 AD was when the printing press was invented in Germany. The Chinese invented it several hundred years before the Germans.
Project Write-Up
Project 3: The Elements of Style Pamphlet, Version 2 In this collaborative version of The Elements of Style booklet, my team and I worked together to combine our individual styles to create a version that was the best possible design. We used elements from each team-member’s booklet and adjusted out type treatments and layouts based on feedback from the first critique. Our goals were the same: to make the content clear and easy to understand through hierarchy and consistency. We created three coordinating covers that used the same design of the enlarged initials “E.O.S.” for The Elements of Style, but in different color combinations.
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PROJECT 3, BOOKLET 2 COVERS:
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PROJECT 3, BOOKLET 2 SPREAD:
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Critique Notes
Project 3: The Elements of Style Pamphlet, Version 2 THINGS WE LEARNED ABOUT TYPOGR APHY: •• Breathing room is important •• Leading should not be too tight, it affects readability •• Italics are harder to read—don’t use them for large areas of text •• Avoid too many alignment variations •• Hierarchy is key—contrast helps •• Spacing is key •• Don’t use large type for body text •• Grey text often looks like a printing error •• Display text requires extra adjustments in kerning, tracking, and leading •• Typeface wright affects readability •• Do not hyphenate proper nouns or capitalized words •• Pages create a “creep” when folded into a booklet THINGS WE LEARNED ABOUT GR A MM AR: •• Proper grammar is super important •• Pay attention to placement of punctuations marks in the text •• Write in the active voice not the passive voice THINGS WE LEARNED ABOUT INDESIGN: •• How to use Paragraph and Character Styles properly •• Color selection process is difficult
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•• How to use table styles and cell styles •• How to create automatic page numbering •• Numbered lists can be very tricky •• How to print booklets properly •• cmd + fn + enter = page break shortcut •• Always name your styles logically
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seven Planning a Zine
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Reading
“Lava—Voice of a Magazine” by Peter Bil’ak This article is about a designer who needed to design a typeface for their magazine that would be published across multiple platforms both online and print. Before this quarter I hadn’t thought very much about what makes a typeface good for on-screen use or how a typeface that works for both screen and print is really versatile. But obviously a typeface that is optimized for the screen is extremely important for any web project, and this article has made me realize that.
Discussion
Brainstorming for Project 4: Type Zine POSSIBLE CONTENT •• Articles about designers •• Grafitti art •• Type on stickers •• Bio: Type Designers •• Improving type for the visually impaired •• Timeline of Popular type •• Best serif/Sans serif pairings •• How to hand letter • • NYC sign photos •• Why type is important
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•• Type in film/tv •• Type around the world (pix) •• Best book covers 2015 •• Type trends in surf culture by decade (pix w/ explanation) •• Evolution of Vogue covers •• Mid-Century Modern Type (article and images) •• Why Apple abandoned Helvetica Neue •• Type in Packaging—how it affects sales •• Game/Quiz •• Nike Typography POSSIBLE SECTIONS OF M AGAZINES •• Culture •• Trends •• Lifestyle •• Advice column •• Dating/romance •• Horoscope •• Gallery •• Letter from the editor •• Game/crossword •• Contributor bios •• Book reviews • • TOC •• Feature article •• DIY •• Staff picks/faves
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•• Events •• Spot the difference •• Music reviews •• Tips and tricks CONTENT DECISIONS •• Letter From the Editor: Why Typography is Important •• Features: Articles about designers •• Best of Type: Best Movies, Books, Magazines of 2015 •• Culture: Grafitti Art •• Culture: NYC Signage Photos •• Culture: Type Around the World •• Culture: Type Trends in Surf Culture by decade •• Culture: Evolution of Vogue Covers •• Culture: Nike Typography •• Culture: Mid-Century Modern Type •• Sidebar: Current Type Designer Bios •• Dating: Best serif/sans serif pairings •• DIY: How to Hand-Letter •• Case Study: Type in Packaging and How it Affects Sales •• Personality Quiz: Popular Type Styles
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WEEK
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Quiz 5 1. If you give a font that you have purchased to another designer who will work on your files, that means that they now have a free, illegally obtained copy on their computer. True 2. What city is Tad Carpenter from? Kansas City 3. Tad Carpenter’s passion project that features artists and designers from the Midwest is called: Made in the Middle 4. The use of the term “Roman” to denote the upright style of a typeface is inappropriate for typefaces which did not evolve in Western Europe. True 5. What is the difference between a multicolumn grid and a modular grid? A multicolumn grid has vertical divisions of space. A modular grid has consistent horizontal divisions from top to bottom in addition to vertical divisions. 6. Tad Carpenter’s dad has had a long career at: Hallmark Cards 7. Elana Schlenker’s “Gratuitous Type” magazine was: An independent, self-funded graphic design magazine 8. Scala and Scala Sans are both humanistic typefaces. True
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9. What is your favorite Tad Carpenter project? I love all of his children’s books because he was able to start with one project he created for himself that turned into a major part of his work. I got one of the books for my nephew and had Tad sign it. I can’t wait to share it with my nephew. 10. Peter Bil’ak’s typeface Lava was designed for: The magazine “Works That Work” Multiple platforms: online, eBook, PDF and print
Reading
“Eric Gill got it wrong; a re-evaluation of Gill Sans” by Ben Archer It was really interesting to me to see the history of Gill Sans and how it was designed. I did not know before reading this that it was such a prevalent typeface in Great Britain. I also found it interesting to see the comparison of Gill Sans to the original Johnston typeface it was based on. The author points out differences in the two typefaces and shows some of the ways that Gill Sans fell short in its alterations of the original, such as the lack of variation between the lower-case ‘L,’ capital ‘I,’ and the numeral ‘1.’
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than the 4 column. The top and bottom margins on both spreads are the same, but the second column on the third column grid breaks into the top and bottom margins. The folios are consistent on both grids. T Y P E I I CO U R S E J O U R N A L
Is there a mathematical relationship between the different columns on the page?
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It doesn’t seem as though there is a mathematical relationship.
How do images relate to theWEEK grid?
: Using Grids to Organize Content
On the four column grid, images usually remain within the column, but some break out slightly into the gutter. For the 3 column grid, the decorative brackets break the grid and fall into the gutter. The diagrams are arranged somewhat organically inside the column and appear centered.
In-Class Exercise Do any elements break the grid? Yes. For example, the images of breakfast and the brackets break the grid and extend slightly into the gutters. Also, the Grid Analysis second column in the three column grid breaks into the top and bottom margins. The 3rd column in the three column grid uses a border around the text. It looks like the border is the same width of the column, but the text within it is narrower to account for space between the border. In the four column grid, the text above the image stretches across 2 columns. SPREADS FROM BLUEPRINT M AGAZINE:
Three Column Grid -equal gutter space -larger inside/outside gutter space -equal top/bottom margins -images do not break the grids -use of borders and smaller text width within the grid
Four Column Grid -equal gutter space -smaller inside/outside gutter space -equal top/bottom margins -images break grids -Doctor name breaks grid
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Is there a relationship between the grids of the two different layouts? It appears that they are using two different grids in the layouts, one is a 3 column grid and other is a 4 column grid. It looks like the gutters are about the same width. The inside and outside margins on the 3 column grid are slightly larger than the 4 column. The top and bottom margins on both spreads are the same, but the second column on the third column grid breaks into the top and bottom margins. The folios are consistent on both grids. Is there a mathematical relationship between the different columns on the page? It doesn’t seem as though there is a mathematical relationship. How do images relate to the grid? On the four column grid, images usually remain within the column, but some break out slightly into the gutter. For the 3 column grid, the decorative brackets break the grid and fall into the gutter. The diagrams are arranged somewhat organically inside the column and appear centered. Do any elements break the grid? Yes. For example, the images of breakfast and the brackets break the grid and extend slightly into the gutters. Also, the second column in the three column grid breaks into the top and bottom margins. The 3rd column in the three column grid uses a border around the text. It looks like the border is the same width of the column, but the text within it is narrower to account for space between the border. In the four column grid, the text above the image stretches across 2 columns.
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Reading
“Beauty and Ugliness in Type design” by Peter Bil’ak This article is about Bil’ak’s endeavor to design a completely neutral typeface. For him this meant a typeface that was the exact middle point between ugly and beautiful. To determine this middle point he took the measurements of what he considers the most beautiful typeface, Bodoni, and those of the most ugly typeface, Italian. He then produced a design that was the average of those measurements, and it ended up being really nice.
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Reading
A Typeface Designed to Revive the Endangered Cherokee Language This article was really interesting to me because I really hadn’t thought about what it would be like to design a typeface in another language, especially one like Cherokee which has few-to-no existing examples of typefaces to reference. I think it’s really important that this language now has a typeface that will help preserve it and allow Cherokee speakers to type documents in the language. I also like the English version and the combination of the two typefaces is really beautiful.
Lecture Notes
Typography On Screen: Legibility Issues and Choosing Typefaces Two typefaces designed for the screen by Matthew Carter: Georgia and Verdana ATTRIBUTES TO CONSIDER WHEN CHOOSING TYPE FOR THE SCREEN: •• Typeface contrast: The amount of contrast between the thick and thin strokes of characters in a typeface impacts legibility. Higher contrast typefaces can be useful in small amounts or as headlines, but extreme variation in stroke width is burdensome in long text. •• Ex. Bodoni has high contrast, Chaparral has lower contrast
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•• X-height: When choosing a typeface for text, a high x-height is ideal, especially for use on interfaces or wayfinding. •• Ex. Mrs. Eaves and Futura have lower x-heights, Officina Serif and Core Rhino have large x-heights. •• Beware of x-height extremes: If the x-height is too high, there is less room for other distinctive characteristics. The letters ‘n’ and ‘h,’ or ‘a’ and ‘d,’ can become difficult to distinguish as the x-height increases. •• Ex. Century Gothic has little distinction between these characters •• Character distinction: Differentiating between different characters is essential for on screen legibility. •• Ex. Gill Sans has little variation between the capital ‘I,’ lowercase ‘l,’ and numeral ‘1.’ Verdana has good variation between these characters. •• Numbers, punctuation, and special characters: Strive to use typefaces that support different types of numbers, correct punctuation, and special characters, especially if your text will be set in a variety of languages. •• Small caps and ligatures: Some fonts contain alternate styles or characters like small caps and ligatures. Using small caps on the web usually means specifying a separate font file with just the small caps. Ligatures combine two or more characters to create a joined letterform. The most common ligatures solve for letterforms that unappealing crash into each other. •• Ex. Sabon and Meta both have small caps •• Optical sizes: Some typefaces have family members that suit a specific size range, called optical sizes. •• Ex. Adobe Jensen Pro
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•• Finding Alternatives: Classic typefaces are sometimes so overused that they begin to look like generic defaults. Look for typefaces that share some similar traits to your favorite classics. •• Ex. Museo Sans instead of Helvetica or Droid Serif instead of Georgia STR ATEGIES FOR PAIRING TYPEFACES: •• Look for Distinction: Avoid pairing typefaces that are too similar. •• Ex. Adobe Caslon Pro and Adobe Garamond is a poor pairing choice. Museo Sans and Adobe Garamond is a good pairing choice. •• Pair display and text faces: Take advantage of display type. •• Ex. ITC Century Ultra Condensed Italic with Adobe Garamond or League Gothic with Adobe Garamond •• Look for harmony: Find typefaces with inherent visual relationships in their structure. •• Ex. Bauer Bodoni and Helvetica Neue share the same skeleton.
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Preliminary Critique Notes
Project 4: Type Zine •• Come up with a better title •• Revise cover: make it stand out on page •• Issue number •• Spring 2016 •• Subtitle •• Use bolder title treatments •• Improve use of color •• Jon Contino credits should be just name and website •• Check for widows and orphans •• Eames credits: use all information, change byline to “excerpted from” instead of “by” •• Quiz: have sidebar for answers •• Add caption to T.O.C. and Letter from the Editor images •• Change title of Graffiti as Art to The Art of Graffiti •• If there’s a blank page at the end use a large image or image collage •• Work on T.O.C. •• Tone down header and bump up actual titles of pieces •• Change Looking Back title to make it separate from Vogue cover •• Make Type Around the World title pop off of image •• Change rule below in sub heads to have more offset •• Keep text as 2-column in Graffiti and Contino articles
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Project Write-Up
Project 4: Type Zine For the final Type Zine Project my design approach was to organize the magazine in a way that made the best sense for the reader. I wanted it to be really easy to navigate through and have a nice build throughout the layout. This meant organizing the smaller, single-page articles together in the beginning, then moving on to categories such as “Looking Back” or “Brand Focus” that contain secondary articles that go together, and finally reaching the main features at the end of the magazine. I wanted the overall layout to have consistent structure, but to flexible enough to have lots of organizational possibilities, so I went with a twelve-column grid. I used large images whenever I could, especially for the features, in order to appeal to a design conscious audience. I also used images and negative space to break up long passages of text so they the text was not overwhelming on the page. I chose typefaces that could be easily read on screen and used consistent type styles so that the reader has a comfortable reading experience and always knows what type of information they are reading.
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PROJECT 4 COVER:
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PROJECT 4 SPREAD:
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PROJECT 4 SPREAD:
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PROJECT 4 SPREAD:
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