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OF CONTENTS
Definition of 2 Typography section
A brief introduction to the work, & process behind typographer Christian Schwartz, of Schwartzco.
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Talking Type
Portfolio work for the Typography Class, ART 2354, Instructed by Collin Hover & Robert Hower.
ty·pog·ra·phy–noun [tahy-pog-ruh-fee] A Modern definition of Typography.
Christian Schwartz, an Introduction
3
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Written examples of formal analysis and critique based off of projects completed throughout the summer semester.
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5 Art 2354: Portfolio
HOW WE ARE
Defining Typography & what type is
stem
Baseline
finial
descender
cross stroke ascender
tittle
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Everything
Cap Height x -Height
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Ellen Lupton, author of “Thinking with Type”, defines typography as “what language looks like”, and to many that truly that encompasses the definition. Typography is the art, craft, & process of composing type and printing from it; it’s language in action - the actions of shapes
TYPO G R A P H Y
communicating. Not only is typography the designing of symbols, glyphs, and letterforms, it is the creative expression of these individual pieces of work creating a whole form. In the use of everyday handwriting, or the more artistic venture of typists, designers, and art directors. Typography is utilized in every action of, it’s our daily surrounding.
Esquire Magazine re-work. March 2007. Schwartzco.
Custom sketch of Schwartz design process. www.schwartzco.com
“It’s a bit like training to be an architect and getting distracted by making bricks.” Giogia Sans. 2009. Commissioned by New York Times Sunday style magazine. Available directly from Commercial Type and through the Village.
-Christian Schwartz
INTRO TO A
Type Designer
christian schwartz Schwartzco is the studio of Christian Schwartz (b. 1977), a type designer and typography consultant based in New York City and a partner in the type foundry Commercial Type with London-based designer Paul Barnes. A graduate of the Communication Design program at Carnegie Mellon University, Schwartz first worked at MetaDesign Berlin, developing typefaces for Volkswagen and logos for a number of corporations. He then returned to the US and joined the design staff at The Font Bureau Inc., working for a wide range of corporate and publication clients. Schwartz set out on his own in 2001, first forming Orange Italic with product designer Dino Sanchez and recently Schwartzco Inc. He has released fonts with Village , FontFont and with digital type pioneers Emigre. Schwartz also designed the widely-used Neutraface family, based on the work of modernist architect Richard Neutra, for release by House Industries, who reissued Orange Italic’s infamous Luxury Collection in 2006. Schwartz has also released a number of typefaces through Font Bureau, including the popular Farnham, used in Sports Illustrated and Rolling Stone, and Amplitude, which was first seen in the pages of Wallpaper*. Many of Schwartz’s typefaces have been proprietary designs for publications, including the US edition of Esquire, the New York Times, Roger Black’s redesign of the Houston Chronicle, or The Guardian’s dramatic new look in 2005. Since 2004, Schwartz and Barnes have collaborated on most of their projects, including typefaces for the Empire State Building and Condé Nast Portfolio, and they decided to formalize the partnership in 2007 with the formation of Commercial Type. Schwartz was awarded the prestigious Prix Charles Peignot in 2007, given every four or five years to a designer under 35 who has made “an outstanding contribution to the field of type design” by the Association Typographique Internationale. As part of the team responsible for the redesign of The Guardian, Schwartz and Barnes were short listed for the Designer of the Year prize by the Design Museum in London.
A WRITTEN REPORT
Talking Type
for ‘descriptive pairs’
For this task and in my opinion, one of the most successful solutions to the “descriptive pairs” project (which asked to design a clever way of expressing the relationships between a pair of words that have opposing meanings) was the set “OBVIOUS” and “SUBTLE”. Immediately the eye is drawn to the evenly balance word, centered and weighted perfectly within the picture plane. The sans serif typeface also seems to add to the timeless perfection or presence the word carries; as if it was an excerpt from years ago just as appropriate today. The definition is further enhanced by the artistic use of value. By creating “obvious” within the entire word in a full opacity and the remaining negative space almost bowing down to the word, 2 separate emotions emerge. They are continuously held together by tight kerning and the invisible linking the mind perceives. In addition, the literal duality of the word “obvious” is illustrated from an artistic perception
tALKING TYPE FORMAL ANALYSIS
by manipulating the letter forms to fill the entire space on separate baselines, delicately balancing it within the boundary box the piece creates. Overall, the voice and tone of piece clearly speaks to an audience, the word itself seems to become animated to demonstrate that with in itself lies a part of the whole. The exceptional craftsmanship & overall attention to details in this piece provide it with the artistic professionalism, combined with higher thinking design process, to make it one of the strongest examples of good typography provided in this critique. In opposition, the “subtle” poster delicate balances the inherent meaning, and even the multiple meanings behind the word. Bringing a visual connotation to mind, not merely a description. The precise use of tones and opacity in this piece explore the eye’s movement while reading, straining to create a work of art. A great emphasis is placed on the final set of wording by the weight and placement within the page. Anchoring the entire set of words in the bottom creates a visual “gravity” to complex to understand that binds the complexity hidden behind the definition of subtlety. Both create successful examples of the project outline and clearly demonstrate the artist presence the designer’s taste and attitude brings to each piece. A movement and energy while applying an underlying message sometimes available for interpretation, and often beyond the strains of the mind.
subtle subtle subtle “Obvious”. 2011. Logan Malone
“Subtle”. 2011. Logan Malone
ExpeRiMentatiOn EXPLORatiON
“Subtle”. 2011. Logan Malone
COMPLETED PROJECTS
Art 2354: Portfolio introduction to typography Descriptive Pairs
PROJECT A
“Obvious”. 2011. Logan Malone This piece was created with the stacking of Milton Glaser’s I Love NY logo in mind. By establishing a heavy block of text to hold the entire word within the space, and give it this “obvious” appeal, while delicately balancing the negative space. Without blacking out the entire poster with heavy thick letterforms, the legibility and aesthetic experience is heightened by using thinner letterforms. The hardest part of this design concept was to create the uniform paragraph style reading that would be vital to its success. In the end, I would say that it was successful to the project as well as my design ideas.
“Subtle No. 2”. 2011. Logan Malone In this second attempt at establishing a successful portrayal of the word “subtle”, I design the idea of a hide-away-letter. With the phonetics of the word aiding in this idea, and providing a silent B, the construction of the poster was formed to illuminate the true irony and complexity within the words meaning. For this example, I strived to embrace Gestalt design principles to master implied shape and form similar to such logos as the FedEx branding. Exploring the spatial intervals and letter weight and shape was absolutely vital to this piece. By only inferring to the mind that the shape of the letter B was present was a challenge only emphasized by the tight, overlapping letterforms of the rest of the word.
PROJECT B
3D Interpretation phase 2 of ‘descriptive pairs’
The second phase of this project had taken the first solution and pushed it even farther - becoming a 3D interpretation. The materials used and texture created was an important component of the second phase of project [B]. As a designer, it was appropriate to utilize the word to infer the definition of choice, I felt that the word subtle lends to the complexity beyond much of our understanding. While there is a quietness to subtlety, there is also a sense of awe beyond what can be put into other words. Immediate the thought of passing time was brought to mind, with this beginning objects were picked to support a general context - time and its effects. A cinder block was chosen for the construction context it brought to the work, by breaking the brick from its original piece a taste of destruction and the implications time can bring over a long duration heavily weighs in the background, much as it remains in the human mind. From here objects were found to imply texture, emotion, and memory. Eggs, a mirror, a clock face, ivy, feathers, legs, sand, and pieces of a broken heart can be found among the cavalcade of items. The hidden-esque feel behind these items was a sense of having to hunt for the “subtle� objects time can hide. The letterforms in the foreground were chosen as preconstructed letters held in place by the sand dwindling at there baseline. Which in effect was placed not only for stability but to allow the letterforms to disappear within the white and black backing.
PROJECT C
Found Constructed alphabets
Surreal Alphabet
PROJECT c
This project asked you to observe your environment in search of objects which can be seen or interpreted as letterforms. Designs were focused on creativity, and originality of photography, framing, and composition. All leterforms were derived from one thematic concept, for my project - Surrealist Fine Art. By searching and zooming, cropping, and rotating, letterforms were found within paintings of artists such as Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dali, Jean Hans Arp, Victor Brauner, Leonora Carrington, Marchel Duchamp, Joan Miro, Man Ray, and Hans Belimer. As Surrealist works feature the element of surprise, and unexpected juxtapositions I searched for mismatched shapes and forms as well as exploring mulititudes of color to represent this alphabet.