!0 Projects by Kajsa swanson

for the graphic design student

Kajsa Swanson 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

First things first......................................................4 Typography terms and tips....................................6 All about color........................................................10

10 GRAPHIC DESIGN PROJECTS 1: From thumbnails to posters.............................12 2: Using the grid....................................................16 3: Word play...........................................................20 4: Position is everything.......................................24 5: Get to know a designer.....................................28 6: Type specimen...................................................34 7: Guess this letter................................................58 8: Design yourself a logo......................................60 9: Identity Package...............................................64 10: Make a book.....................................................68 3

FIRST THINGS FIRST This book is a compilation of all the projects that were assigned and the notes taken in my graphic design course. To tell you a little about myself, I am a sophomore at Asbury University, majoring in media communications with an emphasis in multimedia, and minoring in business management. I love all things design, typography and running. As a native Chicagoan, I love good deep dish pizza, which is something I must live without while here at Asbury. Some of my favorite things include napping in hammocks, eating watermelon, and playing in the snow.

TYPOGRAPHY TERMS AND TIPS Type Family: a collection of related typefaces which share common design traits and a common name

Style: Any variation in a type family (reg. & italic) Weight: how bold the typeface looks, how heavy the

strokes making up the characters are. Traditional weights are Regular and Bold, with Light and Black being the outward extensions on the weight scale, and sometimes a Semibold in between.

Width: determines how wide the characters are.

The traditional widths are Condensed and Extra Condensed or Compressed.

The distinction between typeface and font: In metal type,

a “font is one single typeface design in one specific type size, which means that metal Palatino 12 pt and Palatino 16 pt are two separate fonts. Yet when phototypesetting started replacing metal typesetting in the 1970, type became scalable (thus size-independent) and “font” came to signify a single type style, disregarding point size. And the terms “typeface” and “font” are now often used interchangeably. A similar thing happens when talking about typefaces and type families, and styles, weights, and widths.

Centered: Handy for prim, poetic passages. Not meant for large amounts of text.

Flush left: Type purists prefer this default for a good reason: itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the easiest to read because we read it most often.

Flush right: A nice break from the norm, but a bit hard to

read; should only be used for small captions or special callouts.

Justified: A crisp, handsome look, but vulnerable to

awkward hyphens and rivers (gaps running through the text.)

Leading: The amount of horizontal space between two

lines of text â&#x20AC;&#x201C;leading is measured from baseline to baseline. A healthy balance between point size and leading can keep things together and moving ahead smoothly.

Kerning: Adjusting the space between individual letters when awkward pauses come between them.

Letterspacing: The overall spacing between letters in a block of text, it is also known as tracking. Generally, the larger the type, the less letter spacing required.

Ligatures: An elegant expression of typographic

fondness, ligatures create a single character out of two.

TYPOGRAPHY TERMS AND TIPS

Smart Quotes: Make sure to always activate

smart quotes and standard ligatures in your application preferences.

Numbers: When set in body copy, numbers can

look large. Try reducing the point size of the numbers slightly so they blend in better.

Readability: Columns that are too short or too

wide are hard to read. An ideal measure is 60â&#x20AC;&#x201C;70 characters per line, or 40 online.

Clutter: Avoid distracting background patterns or busy photos behind the type.

Point size: Always choose the body copy size first, and make everything else work with it.

Spacing issues: Tighten up the letterspacing when using large type, such as in a headline.

Leading: The bigger the body copy, the smaller the leading, especially if you use all caps.

Hierarchy: Design a clear visual path for the viewer

to follow. Just like your significant other, the most important text should get the most attention. Use fewer fonts and typeface styles in your project. The old adage ‘two’s company three’s a crowd’ works with type as well.

Widows and orpans: Show compassion to orphans (words abandoned at the beginning of a column) and widows (words left alone at the end of a paragraph).

ALL ABOUT COLOR The color wheel: this basic map shows

relationships among colors. Children learn to mix colors according to this model, and artists use it for working with pigments (oil paint, watercolor, gouche, and so on).

Primary colors: Red, yellow, and blue are

pure; they cant be mixed from other colors. All the other colors on the wheel are created by mixing primary colors.

Secondary colors: Orange, purple, and

green each consist of two pimaries mixed together.

Tertiary colors: Colors such as red orange

and yellow green are mixed from one primary and one secondary color.

Analogous: Color schemes built from

hues that sit near to each other on the color wheel (analogous colors) have minimal chromatic differences.

Complements: Red/green, blue/orange,

and yellow/purple sit opposite eachother on the color wheel. For more subtle contrasts, choose â&#x20AC;&#x153;near opposites,â&#x20AC;? such as red plus a tertiary green, or a tertiary green, or a tertiary blue, and a tertiary orange.

PROJECT 1: FROM THUMBNAILS TO POSTERS This project practices making a composition out of simple shapes. Get thirty images of anything graphic design that you like. This can anything from be photographs, layouts, posters, and book covers. Then draw those images in thumbnail version. Draw boxes for the text and simple shapes for the other elements in the design. This helps break up the composition into parts, so you can see what is going on, where the shapes are leading your eyes, whether there is rythym or balance. Then take the thirty thumbnails and pick two that you feel have the strongest compositions. Make those thumnails into two posters, size 8.5 by 11 inches.

ESFJ

Extrovert, sensing, feeling, judging ESFJs project warmth through a genuine interest in the well-being of others. They are often skilled at bringing out the best in people, and they want to understand other points of view. They are serious about their responsibilities, seeing what needs to be done and then doing it. Generally proficient at detailed tasks, they enjoy doing little things that make life easier for others. They value tradition and the security it offers.

Project 1: From thumbnails to posters

ESFJ

PROJECT 2: USING THE GRID A typographic grid organizes text and images across the pages of a document. A grid can consist of a single column framed by margins, or it may have multiple columns. When you design a grid, you typically begin with vertical divisions (columns), and then add horizontal divisions. Create a new document in InDesign. Your page size is 8 x 8 inches. Create a grid with 1/4-inch margins all around and four vertical columns, 1/4-inch gutters. When your document appears on screen, use guidelines to divide the grid again horizontally. Arrange the text below on the grid. Create three different designs on three different pages, all using the same underlying grid. Use Helvetica. Do two layouts using 8-pt type only, and one layout that introduces one additional size of type.

Use this text: COMMON TYPOGRAPHIC DISEASES Various forms of dysfunction appear among populations exposed to typography for long periods of time. Listed here are a number of frequently observed afflictions. Typophilia An excessive attachment to and fascination with the shape of letters, often to the exclusion of other interests and object choices. Typophiliacs usually die penniless and alone. Typophobia The irrational dislike of letterforms, often marked by a preference for icons, dingbats, and—in fatal cases—bullets and daggers. The fears of the typophobe can often be quieted (but not cured) by steady doses of Helvetica and Times Roman. Typochondria A persistent anxiety that one has selected the wrong typeface. This condition is often paired with okd (optical kerning disorder), the need to constantly adjust and readjust the spaces between letters. Typothermia The promiscuous refusal to make a lifelong commitment to a single typeface—or even to five or six, as some doctors recommend. The typothermiac is constantly tempted to test drive “hot” new fonts, often without a proper license.

Project 2: Using the grid

PROJECT 3: WORD PLAY Choose two words from the list. In two different compositions, arrange each word to express its meaning (one word per composition). The composition is 6 x 6 inches square. You may vary the size, spacing, placement, and orientation of the letters. You may execute your project by tracing letters, cutting and pasting photocopied letters, using a computer, or any combination of these methods. Use the typeface Futura Med. You may repeat, omit, slice, block, or overlap words or letters. Do not use drop shadows or horizontal/vertical scaling (distortion). Consider the entire space of the square.

Choose 2 of these words:

compression transition contraction addition subtraction disruption repetition elimination migration expansion 21

Project 3: Word play

PROJECT 4: POSITION IS EVERYTHING Within a 6 x 6-inch square, compose the text provided below in a manner that expresses its meaning. Use Adobe Garamond only. Use variations in alignment, leading, line length, orientation, and spacing. Avoid variations in weight or size. You may break the paragraph into smaller elements and distribute them within the square. Be sure to have a concept in mind as you work. The most common problem students encounter with this project is what Lupton calls “swimming.” This happens when you start changing the size, style, spacing, and/or orientation of the type from word to word or line to line without having a sense of structure that holds the composition together. Avoid swimming by sketching ideas before you start working on the computer. Read the text; understand its basic meaning; break it into parts. How do those parts relate to typographic forms and structures? Don’t just jump in: think first.

Use this text:

Print situates words in space more relentlessly than writing ever did. Writing moves words from the sound world to a world of visual space, but print locks words into position in this space. Control of position is everything in print. Printed texts look machine-made, as they are. In handwriting, control of space tends to be ornamental, ornate, as in calligraphy. Typographic control typically impresses most by its tidiness and invisibility: the lines perfectly regular, all justified on the right side, everything coming out even visually, and without the aid of guidelines or ruled borders that often occur in manuscripts. This is an insistent world of cold, nonhuman, facts. Quote adapted from Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (London and New York: Methuen, 1982)

Print situates words in space more relentlessly than writing ever did. Writing moves words from the sound world to a world of visual space, but print locks words into position in this space. Control of position is everything in print. Printed texts look machine-made, as they are. In handwriting, control of space tends to be ornamental, ornate, as in calligraphy. Typographic control typically impresses most by its tidiness and invisibility: The lines perfectly regular, all justified on the right side, everything coming out even visually, and without the aid of guidelines or ruled borders that often occur in manuscripts. This is an insistent world of cold, non-human, facts.

Project 4: Position is everything

PROJECT 5: GET TO KNOW A DESIGNER Basically, write a research paper on one of the graphic designers on the list. Relate your chosen personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s contribution to the field of Graphic Design, and define their workâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s characteristics by highlighting a significant example of their design achievements. Include that example for reference.

Choose a designer:

William Morris Bauhaus Muriel Cooper Jan Tschichold Paul Rand Seymour Chwast Milton Glaser Willi Kunz Paula Scher Stefan Sagmeister Experimental Jetset Dexter Sinister Eric Gill Michael Bierut Ellen Lupton Massimo Vignelli David Carson Neville Brody Tibor Kalman Erik Spiekermann Karel Martens Jessica Helfand Paul Renner Adrian Frutig 29

Michael Bierut Imagine that you are in a room filled with 3,000 designers, and you are to give a presentation. While most people would give a powerpoint, show a film, or present a speech, Michael Bierut walked to center stage, and sang a song a cappella, which he had wrote himself. From posters, to logos, and packaging design, Michael Bierut has made his mark in the graphic design world. Originally from a small town, Bierut didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even know that graphic design had a name until he was in high school. Since then he has been creating innovative designs for top companies and firms, and receiving numerous prestigious awards. Michael bierut was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1957. His love of art, drawing, and music, lead him to start designing album covers, and various logos for people in his town. He didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even know graphic design had a name until he was 15 years old. He then went to the library where he found two books on graphic design one by Milton Glaser and one by Armin Hofmann two designers with very different styles. Bierut could see himself with a future in graphic arts so he decided to attend the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning. Right out of college he wanted to work for a big name designer. He worked for Massimo Vignelli for 10 years. Pentagram, one of the largest design firms, asked Bierut to partner with them. At Pentagram, Bierut has worked for clients such as the Walt Disney Company, Motorola, the Toy Industry Association, Princeton University, the Library of Congress, and the New York Jets, just

to name a few. He also served as the president of the New York chapter of American Institute of Graphic Arts, or AIGA, from 1988 to 1990. He was also the president of AIGA National from 1998 to 2001. He is now a Senior Critic in Graphic Design at the Yale School of Art, and a Senior Faculty Fellow at the Yale School of Management. He frequently writes about design, he has recently published a book called 79 Short Essays on Design. Michael Bierut’s style combines functionality and fun. Most of his designs involve some sort of humor, and that makes sense once you know his personality. His work is clever and makes the viewer think outside the box. When first starting out at Pentagram, he experimented a lot with each new project, but he always found himself coming back to the reliable Vignelli structure he learned while working for him. Bierut’s work that he designed for the Brooklyn Academy of Music relies heavily on classic Vignelli style, which includes the rules, the grid, and the fonts, but the cut-off type displays the “Bierut wit.” In the words of Paula Sher, another Pentagram Partner and leader in the graphic design world, “Michael Bierut has taken pure European formalism, added a layer of American populism and made it, through warm conversation, accessible to and appreciated by those who have listened to him. They in turn have made it accessible to everyone else. Formidable.” With his style and experience, Michael Bierut has made his mark on the design world. He has won several awards and has his work.His work is also displayed in permanent collections in the Museum of Modern

Art, or MoMA, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Bierut was also elected to the Alliance Graphique Internationale in 1989, and to the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 2003. Bierut was awarded what is considered to be the profession’s highest honor, the AIGA Medal, in 2006. He has been the speaker at conventions and conferences. Bierut also appeared in the film Helvetica, discussing how companies would redesign their logos from busy hand drawn type to clean looking helvetica. It is often claimed to be the funniest segment of the documentary. “Only good work leads to doing more good work.” This saying by Michael Bierut is evident in his own work. From a midwestern town to the big city. From not knowing graphic design even existed, to being a leader in the field. His witty, innovative, and functional style has won him several awards. All this good work will only lead him to create more good work and to continue to be a leader in the graphic design world. Bibliography “Eye Magazine.” Interview by Steven Heller. Eye Magazine. N.p., 1997. Web. 07 Oct. 2012. <http:// www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/michaelbierut>. Walker, Alissa. “Michael Bierut.” AIGA. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Oct. 2012. <http://www.aiga.org/medalistmichaelbierut/>. “Michael Bierut.” Design Observer. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Oct. 2012. <http://designobserver.com/author/ michael-bierut/1047/>.

Project 5: Get to know a designer 33

PROJECT 6: TYPE SPECIMEN Design and produce a 16-page “specimen” for a typeface using text from your Research Paper. A type specimen is a booklet that demonstrates the range of a typeface, applied to headlines and text in a variety of sizes. Each variation of the typeface should be labelled on the page. Type specimens have existed for centuries to help designers pick a font for a project. Type specimens today can be wildly flamboyant or classical in their approach. Choose a typeface for your project that has a substantial number of variations, such as Helvetica, Helvetica Neue, Gill Sans, Adobe Caslon Pro, Baskerville, Futura, or Bodoni. Look at a variety of typefaces before you choose one, and be sure that you have access to a good “cut” of the face (a full type family).

Contents of your book: TITLE PAGE This is the first full spread inside your book. It should include your title, your name as editor and designer, the year of publication, and the name of this course. (2 pages / 1 spread) TABLE OF CONTENTS This provides a map to the interior of your book. It could be simple or quite complex. (2 pages / 1 spread) MAIN CONTENT OF BOOK (10 pages / 5 spreads) BIBLIOGRAPHY Credit your sources COLOPHON A colophon describes the typefaces used and the paper or printing method. (1 page)

b 36

askerville Biography of Michael Bierut Editor and Designer Kajsa Swanson

Graphic Design 1 2012

t 38

able of Contents 6

Baskerville Style Types

Bierutâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Witty Style

Michael Bierut: Introduction

Awards and Achievements

Biography

sources and conclusion

Regular

Michael bierut was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1957. His love of art, drawing, and music, lead him to start designing album covers. He attended the University of Cincinnati, where he studied design.

Italic

SemiBold

Michael bierut was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1957. His love of art, drawing, and music, lead him to start designing album covers. He attended the University of Cincinnati, where he studied design.

tyle Types SemiBold Italic

Bold

Bold Italic

Michael bierut was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1957. His love of art, drawing, and music, lead him to start designing album covers. He attended the University of Cincinnati, where he studied design.

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