THE NUMBER ONE TYPOGRAPHY MAGAZINE November 2009 £7.99
EVENTS Buchstabenmuseum DESIGNER Serial Cut TYPEFACES Simon Page TIPS How to create 3D type
EVENTS Sign 09 6 Buchstabenmuseum 10 Other Events 18 DESIGNER Serial Cut 22 TYPEFACES Barrett 32 Schaefer 34 Page 38 TIPS Wise Advice 45 How to... 46 Typography Mistakes 48
EVENTS Sign 09 6 Buchstabenmuseum 10 Other Events 18 DESIGNER Serial Cut 22 TYPEFACES Barrett 32 Schaefer 34 Page 38 TIPS Wise Advice 45 How to... 46 Typography Mistakes 48
SIGN 09 BUCHSTABENMUSEUM OTHER EVENTS
SIGN 09
An example of exhibition signage
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Sign Design Awards Exhibition IIIDspace / OPENING on Thursday Dec-3rd at 19:00 The Sign Design Society‘s 2009 Awards competition encouraged excellence in the design and implementation of signing and environmental communication wherever in the world it may be happening. Entries were assessed for innovation, environmental awareness, sustainability and accessibility as well as skill in design, planning, creativity and execution. The Public Wayfinding Award (sponsored by BAA Airports) Open to projects concerned with helping people navigate public spaces - towns, cities, local communities; parks and countryside; hospitals; universities; transport hubs; museums, etc. The size of the project was not a particular criterion, rather how the brief was met in the most appropriate way. The Commercial Signing and Identity Award (sponsored by Principle Group) Concerned with the commercial and retail sector shops and shopping centres; offices and advertising as well as identity and image creation projects and implementation of schemes for businesses large and small. Submissions could range from a one off sign or logo to more broadly based projects. The Product Innovation and Sign and Systems Design Award (sponsored by Lea Valley Colour) Recognising original ways of making signing work whether using new materials and structures for more traditional signs, the use of electronic and new display media or new approaches for information transmission to users. The Student Award (sponsored by Info Sign Systems) An opportunity for the next generation of designers, currently in college or university (or even school), to showcase their ideas for real and potential projects in any area of signing and wayfinding. Submissions could be part of course work or projects actually realised, but the same general considerations applicable to the other categories was given by the judges. In addition a Grand Prix Award will be given to the entry considered the best of all those submitted (sponsored by Merson Sign Design). A joint event on signage and wayfinding 
by IIID and The Sign Design Society The Sign Design Awards are organised by the Sign Design Society, based in the UK. The 2009 competition
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An example of city identity signage
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saw a record entry from across the world and presentations to the winners will take place on October 22nd in London. This will be followed by an exhibition of some 40 or more of the best entries at the Building Centre in London between 2nd and 14th November. In December, the exhibition will move to Vienna where, with the support of the Society, the International Institute for Information Design IIID will hold a series of seminars under the banner of ‘Sign 09’. Sign09 will be the first event of its kind to be held. It is a joint Austro-British enterprise and the organisers anticipate active engagement from designers, architects and manufacturers with the support from the British Council, the British Embassy in Vienna and the Austro British Chamber.
Road signage in France
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An example of pubic wayfinding signage
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BUCHSTABEN MUSEUM The Buchstabenmuseum is a typographer’s wet-dream. An entire museum dedicated to the preservation of letters and characters, the museum has a plethora of industrial signs old and new. Opened in 2005, the museum is unique in that it is the only collection that is dedicated to characters outside of context and content. Responding to a worldwide issue of the digitalization of signage and other related large-scale formats, the Buchstabenmuseum seeks to preserve the artisanal quality of traditional characters and typography. With erratic hours and a staff of two, the Buchstaben museum is a diamond in the rough—count yourself lucky if you are one of the few to sneak a peek at their immense collection. The Buchhstabenmuseum (Museum of Letters, Characters and Typefaces) is dedicated to the preservation and documentation of letters, regardless of culture, language and font systems. The museum stands to preserve the ever disappearing, quality, crafted letters and signs from our landscape; as a result it is reproposing old media, giving it a new home, recycling it. Furthermore anyone (museum or not) that is trying to raise public awareness of good type and brings interest to typography as a medium I’m backing. The museum is based in Berlin and currently visits are by appointment only (you need to contact them to arrange a viewing). If you can’t afford to go (and speak a bit of German) then check out their website Buchstabenmuseum.de >
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Luckily these super sized letters were found next door at the Buchstabenmuseum, since they were almost impossible to transport.
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Here is the type sign that appears outside the museum and can be seen lit at night, beautiful.
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Since May 2005, the Buchstabenmuseum organization has been rescuing typographic icons of our time. Today, the Buchstabenmuseum’s depot documents numerous historical letters from all over Berlin and beyond.
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> Buchstabenmuseum, is definitely a place to visit if you
are a typography lover. The collection preserves huge 3D letters and signs, old and new, from the industry world. One interesting piece that they have are the letters of the old Berlin east Haupbahnhof that with the fall of the wall was eliminated. Nowadays, we are entering into a digitalized world, where these typology of signs are despairing, for this reason is more important to preserve them. The museum is run by Barbara Dechant and Anja Schulze and is possible to visit by appointment. The Museum of Letters is devoted to preserving and documenting letterforms. We are currently in the process of putting together our permanent collection and are actively searching out outstanding letterforms and typographic objects that merit preservation. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have a suggestion for a new acquisition. Our goal is to open our collection to the public in a suitable exhibition space. A permanent collection and special exhibitions are planned as well as events designed to develop an appreciation for typography and for the items on display. The Museum of Letters is a non-profit organization founded on May 20, 2005. Members support the Museum’s goal of preserving and documenting letterforms and signs regardless of provenance or language. Would you like to support the Museum of Letters? Send us an email or fill out a membership application. The Museum of Letters is funded exclusively through donations and memberships. Donations can be made via bank transfer: Spendenkonto Buchstabenmuseum e.V. Cronbank AG KTO 00 00 26 69 06 BLZ 505 300 00
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Self lighting letters from the famous ZILLE STUBE beer house.
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OTHER EVENTS Beijing Typography Exhibition 2009 NOVEMBER 16, 2009 at 10:33 Opening ceremonies, keynote presentations, parallel sessions, and an education conference: these are all features of Xin: Icograda WDC Beijing 2009. In addition to these events, however, the Congress will also address issues surrounding communication design through a series of exhibitions, discussions and pre-Congress workshops. Beijing Typography Exhibition 2009 (or bt’09) is one such example. Typography, as a tool for information communication, not only engages traditional mediums (such as books and posters), but is also permeating into new mediums (such as interactive media and motion graphics). This shift from traditional practices into digitalised systems, especially in the past 30 years, means that graphic designers have had to confront (and solve) a new set of technological difficulties. Designers are now adhering to the traditional whilst looking forward to the unexpected. As a result, various discussions and understandings of typography have started to emerge. Chinese characters, for example, symbolise both word and image, indicating sound and meaning. In its 5000-year history as a language system that incorporates pictograms, ideograms and phonograms, the Chinese language has evolved into a highly sophisticated writing culture. Chinese designers, however, have started to question the role of typography in the face of today’s technological and socio-
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cultural transformations. For instance, can anyone become a designer when equipped with computerbased technologies and digitalised type? In what ways has the concept of “new life” affected typography and designers? Founded on the theme “Typography, Unity with New Life,” bt’09 will showcase both international and Chinese efforts to explore and answer these questions. It will be the most influential and largest graphics exhibition to take place in China to date. “We hope that, through this visual design exchange between different cultures and languages, the Chinese language will be able to inspire contemporary visual expression, informed by a cultural richness.” The Organising Committee are currently accepting submissions for bt’09. Please read the submission guidelines here before entering your work for consideration.
Type[&]Design Conference On the 18th of November 2009 The 4th DTL FontMaster Conference will take place at the five star Steigenberger Kurhaus Hotel in The Hague. The title is ‘Type[&]Design 2009’ and the conference is targeted on those who work professionally with type, such as graphic designers, typographers, printers, type designers and font producers. Posted on 19 October 2009 by Frank Blokland, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands The conference will provide insight in many (technical) aspects of type (design) and font production. Especially the focus will be on OpenType and the support of this font format by operating systems such
as Mac OS and Windows and by applications from leading companies, like for instance Adobe, Microsoft, Apple and Quark. Besides the OpenType format also the IKARUS system will have a central place in the conference program, especially because it is now 35 years ago that the era of the digital font production started with this invention by Dr. Peter Karow. Much of the actual font technology, like hinting and kerning, finds its origin in the still actual IKARUS system, on which for instance the DTL FontMaster modules are built. Dr. Peter Karow will be the guest of honor during the conference and he will also present the second Dr. Peter Karow Award for Font Technology & Digital Typography. Furthermore the new 3.0 edition of DTL FontMaster, which includes the 2.5 version of the Adobe Font Development Kit for OpenType (AFDKO), and version 1.5 of DTL OTMaster will be presented. The previous DTL FontMaster Conference took place at Castle Maurick in Vught, nearby ’s-Hertogenbosch in 2003. In the past three years the Dutch Type Library organized so called ‘FM Tracks’ in Lisbon (2006), Brighton (2007) and St. Petersburg (2008), as part of the ATypI TypeTech Forum sessions. So after six years the FM Conference has returned to the Netherlands. Speakers at the conference are Dr. Peter Karow (Digital Typography and Artificial Intelligence), Dr. Jürgen Willrodt (OpenType Status 2009), Thomas Milo (DecoType, ACE and Tasmeem), John Hudson (Scholarly Types), Peter Rosenfeld (Re-inventing font technology) and
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Frank E. Blokland (Automating type design processes). All talks will be held in English. The conference program can be downloaded from www.fontmaster.nl
Workshops at TypeTech 2009 This year, ATypI’s TypeTech Forum has outstanding options for business and education at both beginner and professional levels. Besides the usual techoriented lectures, there will be a whole day of sessions dealing with various topics such as type history, orthography, and Latin American typography. For the first time ever, TypeTech is hosting a full-day track about web and screen typography, and a batch of sessions about non-Latin alphabets. Attendees will also be able to attend the screening of Typophile’s Film Fest 5. Posted on 07 October 2009 by Mark Barratt, 1. Bending Letterforms with Mr. Softie (English) – Jason E Lewis, Bruno Nadeau Mr. Softie is an application for typographic manipulation that provides typographers, graphic designers, and animators with a tool for manipulating textual objects as image and as text simultaneously. 2. Big, Bold, Bright (English) – John Downer Using paint brushes and paint rollers to create a colorful, dynamic piece of large lettering. This workshop is now fully-booked 3. Dynamic newspaper design seminar (Español) – E. Gutiérrez Cortés, C. Rodríguez Alvarez Understand the challenges of designing a journal in its parts and its entirety. 4. Computational typography for beginners with NextText for
Processing (English) – Jason E Lewis, Bruno Nadeau, Elie Zananiri NextText, a Java library for creating dynamic and interactive text-based compositions. 5. Food for type – letters à la carte (Español) – Diego Mier y Terán, Héctor Galván Experimental workshop about the relation between letters and food. 6. La tipografía como principio del diseño editorial (Español) – Jorge de Buen El método aditivo: una novedosa forma de abordar el diseño editorial. 7. To make a logo (Español) – Felix Beltran Preceded by book presentation: Marcas y Trademarks, by Ximena Pérez Grobet 8. Type Design 101 (Español / English) – Cristobal Henestrosa, Dr Ted Harrison, Adam Twardoch This all-day workshop will provide an introduction to the mechanics of type design using FontLab. The International Type Conference The Type Conference in Spain takes place every two years in Valencia (Spain). It started for the first time in 2004. It has a three days programme that, mainly, consists in lectures, exhibitions, workshops and short academic reports. Conferences have been hosted at the Superior School of Art and Design in Valencia. It has as main aims to create a space to share experiences and draw strategies up to the design development, in this case, through typography. As well, to generate a place to exhange and discuss ideas. (Posted by Andreu Balius Planelles) congresotipografia.com
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In a for Span acr yours ish d e cre oss th elf, S sign e ati e rg scen w ve stu orld. io del e wh dio e . Meet Puert re yo the o h u ma as g must n b arn ehi e com nd red t pete Ma h dri e att to m d’s a e bes ntion ke a n tu p-a of cli ame nd- ent com s ing
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So, you need retro graphics for a Nike T-shirt to sell in the US? Ask Serial Cut. You want to develop an identity for a new bar in Madrid? Ask Serial Cut. Searching for someone to art direct some still-life photography for your style magazine in France? Ask Serial Cut, the studio that provides illustration, graphic design and art direction, whatever the country and whoever the client. Sergio del Puerto, a graphic design and visual communication graduate, established Serial Cut in 1999 as a vehicle for his freelance work while simultaneously finishing his studies in Madrid and working for Spanish style magazine Vanidad. The man is clearly skilled at multi-tasking. “This magazine opened up opportunities to know the best professionals in the fields I love best-fashion design, graphic design, art architecture and music,” says del Puerto. During his three years at Vanidad, he quickly became art director and continued with freelance work under Serial Cut banner. He also worked in some of Madrid’s best creative studios, including CircusbyAcrylick, LataLatina and Andrew McConchie Design & Communication. However, his turning point, as in many people’s lives, was sex. A fellow Vanidad designer, Fernando Gutierrez, was changing the layout of Spain’s largest newspaper, El Pais. While tackling the paper’s supplements, Gutierrez created a weekly newspapersized publication with magazinestyle graphics, called Tentaciones (Temptations), and suggested del Puerto illustrate the sex section. “I started to do it and it was hard work,” says del Puerto. “I had to represent sex themes without being explicit.” Del Puerto’s illustrations began to develop a following and, thanks to the newspaper’s two million or so readers, he became known throughout Spain. Illustrating the regular Tentaciones section helped attract a range of new freelance clients. Creative collaborations Serial Cut’s steady evolution means that del Puerto remains the studio’s main figure. But, depending on the size and nature of a project, he’ll also call in freelance contributors. After ten years in the business, he established a team of people he likes to work with: a photographer, Paloma Rincon, “Who does the most of the shots I do and understands perfectly what I have in mind” >
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Pop-up Trains Renfe Real still-life pop-up books for Renfe’s new campaign, featuring the entire range of this year’s fleet of trains against different landscapes for each pop-up. Photographer: Paloma Rincón. www.renfe.es
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Perplex City Mind Candy 3D illustration for a card from a board game called Perplex City, blending six samples of two existing words into new words. Special guest designer: Mr. Oso速.
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a web and graphic designer, Sergio ‘Oso’ de la Varga, “My right hand”; and Tavo Ponce, “One of the best motion graphics artists in Spain”. Rincon, de la Varga and Ponce aren’t just talented collaborators, notes Serial Cut’s founder, they also understand the studio’s design philosophy. “The main objective is to provide clients with a very special, trendy and personal way of communicating their product. I always arrange to deliver quality artwork because good work attracts better work,” says del Puerto. He’s right. If a studio is seen to be producing great work, more will follow. Success begets further success. As such, Serial Cut doesn’t seek out new clients. “I know this could sound pretentious, but they look for us,” del Puerto says. All he needs to do is continually update the website with new work and send out a newsletter to a mailing list that has quickly expanded to more than 2,000 people. The work comes in seemingly without fail. Serial Cut’s projects vary, from clients asking for versatile and experimental illustration style based on del Puerto’s cut-and-paste technique- subtle mix of vector shapes, photo collage, pixels and pencil strokes where typography plays special role in generating impact – to graphic design work on identities, editorial projects, books and websites. Then there’s what del Puerto likes best: art direction. “An idea could be better if it’s art directed,” he says, before adding that the thrill comes from bringing to life the ideas he has in his head. “I usually make sketches, considering the client I’m working for, and the sketches that help the designer or photographer to get the right idea. I’m always open to other ideas from the people I work with, and the final result is then better than expected.” Other personal passions include music and nightclubs, which provide a lot of Serial Cut’s business. The love affair can be explained by the studio founder’s history as a clubber in his early 20s, when “Madrid has the best clubs ever”. It was during this time that del Puerto made many of his contacts, and it’s now an arena in which he feels comfortable. Having aligned himself to the scene, clients from that background trust him and give him space to create with freedom. And then there’s fashion, an exciting world that opened its often exclusive doors thanks to del Puerto’s tenture at Venidad.
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Fresher 08 The Guardian The Fresher is a supplement for University students included in the British newspaper The Guardian. This 3D image showcases many themes pertinent to students’ flat-sharing lifestyle. www.guardian.co.uk 3d issue | quick brown fox | atypi
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Worldwide appeal Spain may love Serial Cut’s design work, but del Puerto’s not so complimentary about Spain’s. “I’m afraid the scene’s not really good,” he admits. “You can count the really good [designers] on one hand. I love the work from Albert Folch, Vasava and Neo2, but unfortunately Spain is a place with a low graphic design culture and there is a problem here with the clients, who don’t understand very well if you try to go further with complex but great graphic solutions. “Here in Spain, people also love ‘copy’ everything from abroad. If you’re from outside Spain you’re good; if your from here, you have to work really hard to get recognised. I have more fans from all over the world than I do in Spain, but I don’t really care. I know a lot of professionals who were recognised overseas first, and then the Spanish people caught on. It’s just so stupid.” It may be hard to get noticed, but del Puerto just shrugs it off. He refuses to play the game, instead preferring to focus on his work. He looks to side-step the bullshit and build strong professional relationships. Collaboration is something to be encouraged and embraced, not sneered at in a fit of design egotism. He’s always on hand if people need help, and he’ll always say ‘Yes’ if a fellow creative has a contribution to offer. It’s this positive, proactive attitude – as well as the sheer vitality and brilliance of the design – that has led to clients flocking to Serial Cut from as far and wide as America, Holland, France, Germany and the UK. It could potentially be daunting task to handle such a wide variety of work across different time zones, but del Puerto calmly keeps in touch from his Madrid base via email or phone. “Technology solves the distance problem,” he says, which happily leaves him with the much more creative challenge of developing the illustration, graphic design and art direction that has made his much-loved company the success it is. www.serialcut.com
Zune Marketplace Zune “Millions of tracks for the price of one CD,” is the claim visually represented here, displaying a variety of groups whose music can be bought at the online store of this MP3 player from Microsoft. www.zune.net 3d issue | quick brown fox | atypi
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MAX BARRETT MARCUS SCHAEFER SIMON PAGE
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MAX BARRETT
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In 2004 took it upon myself to complete this ‘negative space 3D typeface’ that I first saw years ago on one of the internet’s first viral emails back in the 90’s – ‘no sex causes bad eyes’. Unfortunately it would be extremely difficult to program it as a workable typeface as the shape of each ‘letter’ is dependent on the one that precedes and follows it. Meaning you would have to design thousands of different characters. I didn’t even consider designing any punctuation, any takers?
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MARCUS SCHAEFER
The idea was to create a typographic toy to show children different types of fonts. The 3 dimensional letters consist of three very different fonts, Actiontype Bold, Actiontype Light and Actiontype Serif (slab serif). Action Types do not only provide these 3 fonts. Using them as base models, several random fonts can be constructed by interpolation.
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SIMON PAGE
This brand new typeface by Simon Page is a great, innovative design. He uses the inspiration pages of a book and the interesting experiments that can be visualised when twisted and bent. The typeface comes in a range of colours from red through to blue. QBF have provided you with some great pull out images of this interesting typeface. www.simonpage.co.uk
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WISE ADVICE Don’t underestimate the importance of typography. The best ideas, the most beautiful imagery, the most harmonious colour combinations will be blighted by inferior typography. So work at it, study it. Look at all those great names in graphic design history; Tschichold, Schleger, Rand, Fletcher, Aicher, MullerBrockmann; and look at their beautiful type. They understood the need to understand it.
As always, make sure you play with silly ideas on paper too, they get the creative juice flowing.
Look at historical design masters, don’t dismiss them because they are old or because you have seen it all before. Richard Hollis’ book on Swiss Graphic Design is great because it covers so many masters and shows you so many examples of work. Also get a boring book about rules. The details is what I look at. If you haven’t got them down then they will stand out, but that’s just me: a dusty old fogey. If I see an en dash used properly I appreciate it. Robert Bringhurt’s book, The Elements of Typographic Style, is great for this.
Typography takes a great deal of practice – particularly when creating your own styles from scratch.
“THE BLACK SPACE CAN NEVER BE BEAUTIFUL UNTIL THE WHITE SPACE IS BEAUTIFUL.”
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HOW TO… …create 3D text CINEMA 4D Creative Suite 2 or later 3D text needs the right depth, lighting and texture. Nik Ainley tells you how to do this without re-rendering nightmares. Typography is huge at the moment in illustration, and 3D text is a big part of that. It literally gives the artist another dimension to play with, and the power of 3D programs provides a sense of realism that 2D typography just can’t match. This allows for seamless blending with photos and other renders. This tutorial explains how to create very simple 3D text that can be generated in minutes in any 3D package – or even in 2D software such as Illustrator – and give it life in Photoshop. The advantage of using Photoshop is that changes in texture, colour and lighting can be achieved much more quickly than in a 3D package. In a 3D program you’re constantly changing things, re-rendering to see the effect and then going back to make more changes. In Photoshop there’s none of that waiting around, and if you know what you’re doing the effect can be just as impressive.
Nik Ainley A freelance illustrator and designer based in the UK, Nik has worked for many clients including Adobe, MTV and British Airways, but still finds time for his personal artwork. See it at www. shinybinary.com. Time needed 2-3 hours Skills Prepare a simple render Add texture to a 3D object Add dynamic colour and lighting
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First, arrange your text in a 3D package – I’ve used CINEMA 4D and the words ‘fresh science word’. I produced the text outlines in Illustrator then imported them, rather than using CINEMA 4D’s type tools, to get much more control over the position of each letter. Saving as an Illustrator 3 file minimises compatibility issues.
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We need to add a floor, for the shadows to fall on, and some lighting. I used a sky object with a high luminance to generate overall lighting. The final render is performed with Global Illumination turned on as well as an Alpha Channel for just the text, to save having to cut it out in Photoshop.
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Next, you have to give the text some depth. Use anextrude NURBS object and place your text shapes inside it. Change the movement to vary how deep each letter becomes. CINEMA 4D has various options for capping the extrusion – that is, how the ends join onto the sides. I chose a small fillet cap to round the ends very slightly.
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Take the render into Photoshop. Use the Alpha Channel generated by CINEMA 4D to Copy and Paste only the letters onto a new layer. You should still have the original letters behind with the shadows as well.
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Mask off the bottom of the Shadow layer. Add a layer mask and, using a black-to-transparent gradient, drag from the bottom up to fade the shadow. Change the blending mode to Multiply so only the dark areas are used. Run the letters layer through a light Shadow/Highlight adjustment, as well as Auto Levels to improve the lighting.
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Next, you need to isolate the front faces of the letters you’ve chosen. Trace around them carefully using the Pen tool to get the best selection. Doing this in Photoshop gives much better results than trying to produce a separate render with just the faces showing.
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Create a selection from this path and fi ll with grey on a new layer for each word above the letters. Copy the letter faces and Paste right at the top. Use Image>Adjustments>Curves to set the white point to the central colour of each letter, then change the blending mode to Multiply and the background layer to a deep cyan. Add a light texture over the top set to Multiply.
Next, add texture to the front of the letters – I Pasted a photo of some concrete above the face layer for ‘fresh’. Group the face layer and the new layer created by your pasting to create a clipping mask. Now use Edit>Transform>Distort to match their perspectives. You could use the Vanishing Point tool, but I find it slow and cumbersome.
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Change the blending mode of the texture to Multiply so that only the dark parts of the texture are visible. If it darkens things too much, set the white point lower with Image>Adjustments>Curves. Repeat this with a couple of different textures until all three words have been altered.
To make the letters more interesting, import a texture (I used scanned-in oil) and Paste it above the texture layer for the word on your top row. Group it with the layer below so they share a clipping group. Change the blending mode to Overlay or Multiply so you don’t just cover up the existing textures.
Use Filter>Distort>Pinch on the background texture. A setting of 50% or so works well. Create a new layer above the background and fi ll it with a radial gradient from white to black, from the centre outwards. Change the blending mode to Soft Light to focus light more centrally. I’ve also added some Adjustment Layers at the top of the image to change the colours a little.
Duplicate the old texture and create a white layer underneath. Merge the duplicate and white layers, Copy and Paste the result into a new channel, and delete that layer. Edit this channel until it’s all black except areas representing the darkest parts of the texture. Make a selection from this channel and add a layer mask to the newer texture.
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Repeat the process for the other two words, using different effects on the front to produce some variation. For ‘science’, I imported some parallel lines from Illustrator and matched their perspective to the front of the letters, though you can make a custom pattern in Photoshop instead.
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For a dramatic colour change, create a Gradient Map Adjustment Layer at the top of the image with a colourful gradient. Set the blending mode to Darken and drop the opacity to about 30%. Now use a radial gradient on the layer mask to fade the effect towards the edges and background.
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The final touch is to add another texture over the top of the image but below the Adjustment Layers. Make sure it’s mostly black with light highlights. I used the same concrete texture as for ‘fresh’, but inverted and darkened significantly. Change the blending mode to Screen and you’re done.
About the font The font used in this tutorial is Neutrino from the San Francisco-based type studio Neutura, run by freelance graphic artist Alexander McCracken. Alex featured in Computer Arts 149, June 2008, when he wrote his own article explaining how to convert a font design from a sketch to a functional electronic typeface. To find out more about Neutura, see www.neutura.org.
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10 COMMON TYPOGRAPHY MISTAKES 1. NOT ENOUGH LEADING Leading/linespacing can improve the overall readability of large blocks of text on a page, making it easier on readers to follow lines of text without losing their place. Too little can cause a cramped feeling. It’s important to remember that different fonts need different linespacing. Varying heights in letterforms may demand more or less.
2. NOT ENOUGH TRACKING Tracking/letterspacing is applied to a group of letters. It prevents letters from running into each other, especially during print. It’s similar to leading in which it can improve or hinder readability, flow of text and the density/weight of a block of text.
3. GETTING TRACKING CONFUSED WITH KERNING While tracking is applied to a group of characters, kerning is the adjustment of space between two letter pairs. Effective for use with headlines, text with ALL CAPS and logo treatments (it helps with readability at various sizes). Don’t fall into the trap of letting your design software set this by default; it’s character specific. Same applies to the above, #1 & 2.
4. LENGTHY LINES OF TEXT Reading many long lines of type causes eye fatigue. Readers are forced to moves their heads and eyes more often from one line to the next. Various sources I’ve researched state to keep lines of text under 50 - 60 characters long.
5. MIXING TOO MANY TYPEFACES AND WEIGHTS Too many typefaces on one page can become distracting and disconnecting (lacking unity). Try keeping your fonts choices to three or less per project. Too many weights can cause a reader to be unclear where important elements are on a page. This creates the possibility of the reader missing something important.
3d issue | quick brown fox | atypi
tips | typography mistakes | 49
6. NOT USING SERIFS FOR LENGTHY-TEXT MATERIAL Serifs are known to make reading lengthy material, such as books and magazines, more sustainable for longer periods of time. It also helps with eye strain/fatigue, and we all know that we need our eyes! Although this can be argued, serifs seem to sit better on the baseline.
7. PRINTING SIMILAR VALUES OF COLOR ON TOP OF EACH OTHER For example, try printing a medium blue text on top of a medium brown box. Not only is it unappealing, but it makes it hard on the eyes. Also creates a muddy effect.
8. REVERSED OUT TEXT ON LESS THAN 50% TINTS Much like the above, this also increases eye strain and hinders readability. The words get lost in the background and typically prints less visible than seen on screen. This will save you time, money and Asprin for your printing headaches.
9. OVERUSING CENTERED TEXT Using centered text creates a jagged and broken appearance to text — very disconnecting! Can be viewed as amateurish in most instances. Save it for those wedding invitations.
10. LARGE BODY COPY Normally, designers and non-designers (and yes, I did it too!) will immediately use a 12 point font for body copy. Smaller (even slightly smaller) fonts sizes creates a more professional, modern look. Large body copy can be clunky — think about the font size of a children’s book. Clunky right?… unless it’s the look your going for. It’s also important to note that viewing text on a computer monitor is much different than printing it. In most instances, type on a screen appears smaller and less crisp. Also, most printers will advise you not to use font sizes under 7 points. May result in readability issues.
atypi | quick brown fox | 3d issue
QUICK BROWN FOX Seventh Floor Roland Levinski Building Drake Circus Plymouth Devon www.qbfmagazine.co.uk
DESIGN Designer & Art Director MARIO PICARIELLO mario@qbfmagazine.co.uk
EDITORIAL Publisher & Editor-in-Cheif MARIO PICARIELLO mario@qbfmagazine.co.uk Editor ANGHARAD LEWIS angharad@qbfmagazine.co.uk Senior Reporter ROBERT URQUHART robert@qbfmagazine.co.uk
PRINTING ROLAND LEVINSKI PRINT www.rlprint.co.uk PAPER SCOTT BUILDING MILL By Paul Collier
Sub-Editor ROBERT SHORE
PRODUCTION/WEB
Editorial Intern THOMAS MOULD intern@qbfmagazine.co.uk
Production & Web Assistant MARIO PICARIELLO mario@qbfmagazine.co.uk
COMMERCIAL Sales Director MARIO PICARIELLO mario@qbfmagazine.co.uk Marketing Manager NICOLE TOWNSIN nicole@qbfmagazine.co.uk
PUBLISHING Quick Brown Fox is published four times a year by Atypi
SUBSCRIBE www.qbfmagazine.co.uk BUY
DISTRIBUTION MARIO PICARIELLO mario@qbfmagazine.co.uk
Quick Brown Fox is sold on newsstands worldwide and in your local branch of WH Smith, Borders, Waterstones and Barnes & Noble
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atypi | quick brown fox | 3d issue