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PROCESS JOURNAL
Julia Healy Arts 246 Professor Chi Spring 2020
TABLE OF CONTENTS 4
WEEK ONE WEEK TWO WEEK THREE
6 10 14
WEEK FOUR WEEK FIVE WEEK SIX WEEK SEVEN WEEK EIGHT WEEK NINE WEEK TEN
18 22 26 32 36 40 44
Chapter One Project One Process Chapter Two Project One Process Chapter Three Project One Final Chapter Four Project Two Process Chapter Five Project Two Final Chapter Six and Seven Project Three Process Chapter Eight Project Three Process Chapter Nine Project Three Final Chapter Ten Project Four Process Chapter Eleven Project Four Final
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WEEK ONE
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CHAPTER ONE
The Evolution of Typography Typography is an evolution of the written word. This chapter broke down the history of typography, and how it has evolved over thousands of years. Starting at the invention of writing and ending with typographic design in the twenty-first century. It is amazing how typography has changed and evolved to bring us to where we are at today. Typography is everywhere we look, and it is important to acknowledge the history behind it. The pictures included in this section are from the text book, and they show images from the invention of writing and typography today.
c. 1350 BCE: The earliest written documents, impressed clay tablet from Sumer.
c. 2100 BCE: Cuneiform tablet listing expenditures of grain and animals.
2007: Experimental Jetset, poster for the documentary film Helvetica, by Gary Hustwit.
2013: Experimental Jetset, Whitney Museum of American Art dynamic identity.
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Visual Identity and Stationery Project
PROJECT ONE
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For this project I am creating a logo type and stationery for a client. This week I chose my client and created a mood board with a few colors and images that I feel go along with her personality. I also came up with a few sketches for possible logo designs. I will begin creating them in Illustrator throughout the week and work on narrowing down the style and colors I would like to include. Miley’s style is kind of all over the place so it may be slightly difficult.
Logotype Thumbnail Sketches
WEEK ONE
Mood Board
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WEEK TWO
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CHAPTER TWO
The Anatomy of Typography
The word proportion, set in two sans serif typefaces, demonstrates extreme expansion and condensation
The basic shape of each capital letter can be extracted from this stucture.
In the beginning of the chapter typography is referred to as “thoughts made visible” and “frozen sounds”. Describing it as this made me think of typography in a different way, and it really made me think about how complex language is. Typography is an art form that communicates the words we speak, and the way that these letters are created is also more complex than one would think. I also found it interesting to learn about all of the parts of a letter and how their forms have evolved over time. They used to be based on handwritten words but then moved away from that. It was also interesting to see just how many pieces of a type font are shared among all the letters.
The major components of letterform construction.
On the same-size body (72 point), the x-height variation between three typefaces—Garamond 3, Bodoni, and Univers—is shown. The proportion of the x-height to the point size significantly affects the appearance of type.
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Visual Identity and Stationery Project
PROJECT ONE
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My client who I am designing stationery for is Miley Cyrus. I found it somewhat difficult to narrow down her style since she has gone through many phases in her life. I do know, however, that she is colorful, wild, and original. My initial sketches for her design weren’t very strong so I decided that I would give her an animal rescue business since she has so many pets. I’ve attached a picture of the logo that I have been playing around with and also a design for the business card. I am happy with the logo, but I’m not sure if I like the placement of the “animal rescue”. I like the business card with the branding pattern, but I will probably try and better format the text on the front of the card and choose a different font using my new knowledge fonts and the anatomy of typography.
Experimental Logo Designs
WEEK TWO
Experimental Business Card Designs
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WEEK THREE
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CHAPTER THREE
Legibility
The upper halves of words are read with ease, while the lower halves are less legible.
Chapter 3 from our reading this week was about the legibility of typography. It was interesting to learn about different letters and how easy it is to get them confused with each other while reading such as f, j, and i. The book explains how important it is to look out for these things and how to fix them. What I took away from this chapter was how sometimes overdoing type can make it illegible: such as making it too thin or too thick. I also learned that interline spacing is important when making legible type. This chapter also just reminded me again how much more complex typography is than you would think. Hours of thought and revisions go into almost everything we see on a daily basis.
Misfit letter combinations and irregular spacing can be a problem, particularly for display type. Optical adjustments should be made to achieve spatial consistency between elements. More letters remain recognizable when only their right halves are exposed; however, there are exceptions (b,p).
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Visual Identity and Stationery Project
PROJECT ONE
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This week I completed my stationery designs for Miley’s Animal Rescue. I applied them to a mock up as shown in the picture. I changed the logo so that it included the words “animal shelter”, and it was important to me that this was legible. I had to play around with the thickness of the divide between each line of letters. I found out from the reading that this is called interline spacing and it is very important to legibility. I also decided to place the branding pattern throughout the stationery so that it was more consistent and visually appealing to the eye.
FINAL
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WEEK FOUR
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CHAPTER FOUR
The Typographic Grid
The golden spiral winds through a series of conjoined golden rectangles. The spiral is linked to many forms in nature and is related to the Fibonacci sequence.
It is amazing how complex a grid is, even though it would seem so simple. There are grids behind almost all design layouts that we see every day. There are so many different layouts that you could come up with on a grid, and it is up to the designer to determine the one that best communicates the information being displayed. These grids were created through many design experiments throughout history and took many people to create what we have today. Grids are so common in design today that they usually go unnoticed. What’s interesting to me is that the average person may never realize that the reason that what they are looking at is visually appealing is because of the grid system behind it.
The shapes of typographic elements have directional qualities that are echoed as implied spatial corridors. These divisions establish proportional relationships and give the space movement and kinetic energy. Spatial interaction and compositional balance are achieved when modules define void spaces that are integral to the geometry of the page.
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PROJECT TWO
Book Cover Set
I decided to use Dr. Suess’s The Lorax and Oh the Places You’ll go to do redesigns of their covers. I have come up with the idea of contrasting dark and light on the front and back covers of each book since both books have dark and light scenes. I have started by drawing a few thumbnail sketches and making a mood board. I think I want to keep the design relatively simple. I want to try and stay away from Dr. Suess’s original style and create something new. This was kind of hard to do because of his unique illustration style and how all of the characters are made up. I have begun to start designing the covers in indesign.
Sketches
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WEEK FOUR
Mood Board
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WEEK FIVE
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CHAPTER FIVE
Syntax and Communication
This composition demonstrates contrasting visual characteristics of three letterforms. (Designer: Robert Boyle)
Two letterforms are each broken into two geometric shapes of varying size and density, and the four resulting forms are combinedinto a delicate, asymmetrically balanced symbol. (Designer: Frank Armstrong)
The reading this week discussed the importance of syntax in visual communication. I found it interesting how the human eye is able to make out words even when very little of it is visible. This is very interesting when it comes to typography because you can really get creative with what you include in your designs. The book also discussed how visual hierarchy plays a role in how words are read and in what order. It is important to make sure that the type is balanced on the page and you can use varying sizes of text, bold words, etc. to emphasize important information and make the words flow better to the viewer.
Through precise letterform drawing and carefully considered form-to-counterform interaction, two dissimilar letters form a cohesive sign. (Designer: Gail Collins)
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PROJECT TWO
Book Cover Set
I decided to go with a different design than originally planned. I went back to one of my first sketches shown below, and created pictures out of the type. For Oh, the Places You’ll Go I created a balloon shape and for the Lorax I created an outline of the Lorax. I ended up with the two designs below. I wanted to keep the color pallette somewhat limited and cohesive throughout both books. These colors compliment each other well. I did have somewhat of a hard time figuring out what to do with the back covers, but I am overall very happy with how it came out. I used a grid to figure out the layout for the back.
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FINAL
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WEEK SIX
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CHAPTER SIX
The Typographic Message This chapter focused on the choice of words and the importance of the way they are laid out. This can have a huge impact on the way the message is delivered to the viewer. It is interesting just how much thought and planning goes into the design and layout of typography and how this goes almost unnoticed by the average person and almost “taken for granted� as the book says. People remember the message portrayed because of the way the design drew their eyes to it and by the choice of words. It will be interesting to incorporate these principles into created a font poster.
Constructivistcover design for Veshch, Gegenstand, Objet. (Designer: El Lissitzky)
Typographic signs combine to form a more complex sign, suggesting a decorated Christmas tree. (Designer: Donna Funk)
Syntactic manipulations are controlled by such factors as repetition, size change, position change, or weight change. These enable words to visually mimic verbal meaning
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CHAPTER SEVEN
The Evolution of Typographic Technology The invention of typography has been called the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The evolution of typographic design goes along with the evolution fo technology because of the equipment available for designing. There have been limitations thoughout history that have made it more difficult to design typography. We now have access to digital typography, and it is much easier to create. It is important for designers to recognize different types of typographic technologies and their capabilities. By doing this designers are able to create thoughtful design and production.
A display phototypsetter.
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Type kit.
Film font for a display phototypesetter.
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PROJECT THREE
Type Posters
For my font poster, I decided to use Futura. I wanted to try extending the ends of the letters to make angles and break up the poster. Some of my sketches are below. I want to make more sketches and play around with the designs more before I start designing on my computer. For the conceptual poster, I want to do something more abstract and play around with lines.
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WEEK SIX
Informational Poster Sketches
Conceptual Poster Sketches
Mood Board
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WEEK SEVEN
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CHAPTER EIGHT
Typography on Screen
This illustration shows a text-size Georgia h as a bitmapped letterform and as an outline letterform. (Designer: Matthew Carter)
The reading this week discussed the quality of type on a screen and how this can be difficult with all the different types of screens these days. This is something that needs to be considered when making any design, and I believe it is something that isn’t thought about by most people. It is also interesting how designs turn out differently after they are printed. This is why it is so important to print your work before you finalize it. There are several things to consider when designing for a screen versus print. However, the same rules remain about visual hierarchy and basic design principles.
Digital letterforms have decreasing resolution as the number of pixels is reduced.
Four sizes of a hinted letter a are shown enlarged and at on-screen reproduction sizes. (Designer: Matt Woolman)
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PROJECT THREE
Type Posters
For my informational poster I wanted to make it pretty simple with a limited color palette. I am still working on the placement of the text, and will probably add some to the top right. For my conceptual poster, I wanted to make it look like the type was kind of moving and floating around, and I wanted it to look modern to match the vibe of the font. The reading this week discussed the movement of type and I actually did use the technique of repeated letterforms to achieve this. I will probably add more repetitions of the letters and maybe make the o’s a solid color. I will also play around with color. Overall I am happy with both designs and I think that with a few small changes they will be great.
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WEEK SEVEN
Informational Poster Update
Conceptual Poster Update
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WEEK EIGHT
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CHAPTER NINE
Typography and Time in Motion
Interventionist Demonstration, by Carlo CarrĂ , 1914, puts type into circular motion with overlapping
In this image the camera was positioned high and to the left of the typography, showing the three-dimensional letterforms as part of the landscape. (Designer: Tiffany Small)
This chapter discussed moving typography and how this movement of the type contributes to the voice and message being conveyed. This immediately made me think of gifs and motion graphics where type is literally moving. This chapter also discussed how designers create the illusion of movement through things like repeated letterforms and uneven baselines. More specifically this chapter talked about kinetic typography which is an animation technique that mixes motion and text to express ideas. Speed and duration play a huge role in this technique along with Continuity, Time and Sequence, and Hierarchy. I would love to try this out at some point.
In this poster for an exhibition at P.S.1, a museum in New York, bold typography draws attention. (Designer: Level Design Group)
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PROJECT THREE
Type Posters
This week I finished my futura posters and I applied them to a mockup that I found online. I changed the placement of the essay in the informational poster. For the conceptual poster I added more repeats of the letters and filled in the shapes and moved things around a but. Overall I am very happy with how they both turned out, and I enjoyed this project a lot. I think Futura might be my favorite font now, and I enjoyed learning about it.
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FINAL
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WEEK NINE
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CHAPTER TEN
Case Studies in Typographic Design
The letters of the bookstore name were executed in outline slab serif letterforms that are drawn t conform to the horizontal, vertical, and diagonal movements of the labyrinth image. (Designer and photographer: Jean-Benoît Lévy
Lévy carefully retained enough of the overlapped letters to ensure their legibility. (Designer: Jean-Benoît Lévy; photographer: Alexandre Genoud)
The reading this week took a look at different case studies that are examples of typographic design problems encountered in professional practice. These include integrating type and image on posters, establishing a visual system to unify various materials, translating content to experimental form in publication design, thinking about typography in terms of time and motion, creating dimensional and environmental typography. One that I found interesting was establishing a visual system because this was similar to what we did for the font posters. The two posters needed to serve different purposes but still go together. This can be achieved by using the same fonts and colors.
Alignment of the type along the angled edges of the stars unifies word and image. (Designer: JeanBenoît Lévy; photographer: Tom Wedell)
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PROJECT FOUR
Process Journal
This week I started my process journal design. The journal will take me through all of the projects I’ve worked on this semester, and the process I went through for each project. I wanted to keep my design pretty simple and use the font Futura. For the front cover I want to design an abstract colorful design and then continue to use elements from it on the rest of the pages. I still need to work out the grid and choose which images I want to use. I started by creating sketches and then creating some basic outlines in InDesign.
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Sketches of Layout
WEEK NINE
Process Journal Rough Layout
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WEEK TEN
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CHAPTER ELEVEN Typographic Design Education With the rapid advance of technology, the role of visual media keeps expanding. It is a part of almost every field. It is important to keep the appreciation for our typographic heritage, ability to meet the standards of contemporary design practice, and an innovative spirit in facing the future. The chapter goes into the importance of a good design education. It is one that should include perceptual and conceptual development, technical training, and processes for solving multifaceted design problems. The book gives a few examples of projects that fulfill this requirement.
Designers: Virginia Commonwealth University sophomores layers, shadows, and dynamic juxtapositions to give a sense of time and space.
Designer: Joe Easter
Designer: Paul Dean
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PROJECT FOUR
Process Journal
This book is the finished product.
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Final Cover Design
FINAL
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COLOPHON
Header: Futura PT Bold 70pt Sub-Header: Futura PT Medium 30pt Body: Futura PT Book 12pt Caption: Futura PT Book Oblique 10pt Citations: Carter, Rob, et al. Typographic Design: Form and Communication John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2018.
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