M A
E D U T PLI
CONTENT i. AMPLITUDE
viii. APPLICATIONS
ii. THE DESIGNER
ix. BIBLIOGRAPHY
iii. THE FOUNDRY iv. THE TYPEFACE FAMILY v. CLASSIFICATION vi. CHARACATERISTICS vii. COMPARISIONS
AMPLITUDE Amplitude, designed by Christian Schwartz, is a Humanistic, compressed and extensive sans serif series for text and display that turns function into style: deep angled cuts keep small sizes readable, while adding character at display sizes. A successful agate type (for tiny text) predicts the spread of ink on paper and effectively keeps legibility under less than ideal conditions.
Christian Schwartz describes the origins of the idea: “The seed was planted for this face when I used Matthew Carter’s Bell Centennial, originally designed to compensate for the print ing methods and point sizes used in phone books, for display on some posters I designed in college. When you blow this tiny type up to large sizes, it looks as crazy as any mid-nineties postmodern deconstruction. I wanted to draw a face that had this same quality as
Amplitude is designed to behave as two different typefaces when viewed at different sizes. At display sizes, all of the white spaces carved out to make text sizes legible give it a distinctive look. The quirkiness has function as its basis.
its primary goal rather than a side effect.”
Originally released in 2003, Amplitude derives inspiration from the “ink traps” found in typefaces designed for printing at small sizes on absorbent newsprint.
ABCDEFGHIJKLM NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 !"#$%&'()*+,/:;=>@[\]^`{}£¤ ¥¦¨©ª¬®¯±ÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈÊËÍÎÏÐ����� GLYPH SET (AMPLITUDE MEDIUM)
THE DESIGNER
Christian Schwartz (born December 30, 1977 in Concord, New Hampshire, USA) is an American type designer. He has been awarded the German Design Award and the Prix Charles Peignot. A graduate of the Communication Design program at Carnegie Mellon University, Schwartz first worked at MetaDesign Berlin, developing typefaces for Volkswagen and logos for various corporations. He then returned to the US and joined the design staff at Font Bureau. Schwartz’s typefaces have been honoured by the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum the New York Type Director’s Club and the International Society of Typographic Designers, and his work with Barnes has been honoured by D&AD and as part of the Guardian redesign team they were shortlisted for the Designer of the Year prize by the Design Museum in London. In 2006, Schwartz and Barnes were named two of the 40 most influential designers under 40 by Wallpaper magazine
Schwartz is based in New York City and works full-time as an independent type designer, mostly drawing custom typefaces for newspapers and magazines. Schwartz was named to Time Magazine’s “Design 100.” He is principal of Schwartzco Inc., and a partner in Orange Italic. Schwartz and Barnes were named two of the 40 most influential designers under 40 by Wallpaper in 2006. The fonts Schwartz calls the Pittsburgh Project— drawn while he was a student at Carnegie Mellon—apply sophisticated concepts to forms with humble origins. Interested in designing a monospaced typeface, where each letter gets the same amount of space in a line, Schwartz came up with Pennsylvania, which took inspiration from the state license plate. 5608 is based on a stencil set he found. Local Gothic derives its mismatched letterforms from a Rally’s hamburger stand Schwartz used to walk by on his way to class. “It looked like they had bought their letters at four different times, and it had this fantastic texture to it,” he recalls. “It was completely postmodern and
When asked about receiving the Prix Charles Peignot, Schwartz simply replied, “I’m just a guy who sits in a spare room in my apartment drawing letters all day, so it really means a lot to be recognized by my peers.”
deconstructed, but if you took one letter out and looked at it individually, it was a nice, well-behaved vernacular type. “I really like the idea of indigenous typographythings that are specific to a certain region,” Schwartz adds, citing travel as a source of visual fodder. “In each town along the way, one sign painter’s style would be the flavour for all the signs and all the type in the town. I like looking at that stuff.
INSPIRATION Bell Centennial is a sans-serif typeface designed by Matthew Carter in 1975–78. The typeface was commissioned by AT&T as a proprietary type to replace their then current directory typeface Bell Gothic on the occasion of AT&T’s one hundredth anniversary.
Bell Centennial was designed to address and overcome most of the limitations of telephone directory printing. AT&T’s brief called for a typeface that would fit substantially more characters per line without loss of legibility, dramatically reducing the need for abbreviations and two-line entries, increase legibility at the smaller point sizes used in a telephone directory, and reduce consumption of paper. Carter's design increased the x-height of lowercase characters, slightly condensed the character width, and carved out many more open counters and bowls to increase legibility. To anticipate and blunt the degradation caused by ink spread, Carter drew the letters with deep ink traps. Christian Schwartz was still at college when he designed a poster using Bell Centennial , whose incisions looked highly absurd at a size of 10cm. What in Bell Centennial’s case was purely functional became a stylistic devise in Schwartz’ typeface Amplitude.
Amplitude derives inspiration from the “ink traps” found in typefaces designed for printing at small sizes on absorbent newsprint traditionally, these notches help prevent letterforms from filling in with ink, but Schwartz adapted the technique to create a dramatic effect at large display sizes. An ink trap is a feature of certain typefaces, where the corners or details are removed from the letterforms. When the type is printed, ink naturally spreads into the removed area. Without ink traps, the excess ink would blob and ruin the crisp edge.
THE FOUNDRY Font Bureau is a digital type studio and one of the leading foundries for typeface design. Over the past 22 years, Font Bureau has designed custom typefaces for almost every major American publication, and its retail library includes some of the most celebrated fonts on the market. Font Bureau was founded in 1989 by publication designer and media strategist Roger Black, and internationally known type designer David Berlow, initially to serve the emerging needs of microcomputer-based magazine and newspaper publishers seeking unique typographic identities. The company remains small and privately held, with independent designers providing infusions of creativity. Full-time staff and designers direct the studio operations in Boston, which serves as the company’s headquarters. The New York Times, Newsweek and Smart were among the first clients to commission type designs. Over the last few years, Font Bureau has designed over 1,000 fonts for over 300 publications, most of them becoming part of Font Bureau’s burgeoning Retail Library.
TYPEFACE FAMILY The large family of 7 weights in 5 widths, provides for a wide palette of typographic hierarchy. With roots in “agate” print typefaces for small sizes, Amplitude’s decidedly squarish forms help reduce irregularities on the course pixel grid of the screen. However, care must be taken with the especially bold or condensed members of the family, which perform best at the largest sizes. Although 35 styles seems like an overwhelming number, each has been designed with a use in mind. Book and Regular give subtle choices in text weight, depending on background color, heaviness of inking, and whether the text will be reversed out. Light and Medium are more display-oriented, although Medium is excellent for text that will be reversed out and inked heavily on absorbent paper. The Wides are meant for the smallest possible text, their counterforms are open enough and their x-heights so large that three to four point text is still readable. The Normal and Condensed styles are the core of the family - the basic workhorses - and are more space-efficient than Wide. Condensed is usable for text at sizes where Compressed is just too narrow. “The Extra Compressed styles were drawn with
movie posters in mind - the tiny text at the bottom is often illegible, so I tried to draw something readable in the same proportion.” Bold can be matched with Light, Book or Regular for emphasis. Black matches with Medium, and ultra should only be used for display, as its counter forms are very small.
CHARACTERISTICS
Z
Amplitude is recognizable by its deep angled cuts that allow it to remain readable even when sized down to the smallest agate. At its basis, Amplitude is a bit quirky yet highly functional with its legible characters that make it easy to read.
The light wells create an illusion, that makes the inner corners seem to become almost curvy.
A M W QR X Deep angled cuts known as light wells.
All the axes are always flat, in all the letters.
The light well creates an inward bend.
The M has straight stems.
The arms of the x do not cross at he center.
g mnd pq 1
The lower case g is double storeyed and has a ear.
The light wells are very prominent in many of the lower case letters such as m,n,d,a,r,p etc
The desender of the lower case p and q are flat.
HkfKijL
The extenders of all the lower case letters are higher than that of the higher case letters. The height of the tittle above i and j are both higher than the cap height of the letters. Amplitude has round and large tittles.
The base and apex of number 1 has serifs.
COMPARISIONS Bell Centennail-1978
a m x q R Z M
Amplitude (Medium)-2003
a m x q R Z M
The lower case ‘a’ in both is double storeyed, but Bell Centennial does not end in a swash like Amplitude does. The lower case m in both looks similar, but the light wells in Amplitude are more defined and are triangular in shape.
The centre of both the Xs cross at distinct angles. The qs in both are very similar, but there light wells in amplitude are wider and have rounded edges. While the ink traps in Bell Centennial have sharp edges. The upper case Rs are different at the junction, while amplitude has a deep light well, Bell Centennial does not have a deep ink trap.
The upper case Z in both are very similar, they both look almost curvy. The stems of both the upper case Ms have straight stems.
Plastizid Fett- 1999 Amplitude (Bold)-2003
a m x q R Z M
Atria -2010 The lower case a of amplitude and atria are very similar. While the a of plastizid fett is different it goes not have ink traps or light wells. The lower case m of amplitude and atria are similar, while the m of plastizid fett is does not have not have ink traps or light wells. The centre of the x in plastizid fett and amplitude are very similar since they do not cross exactly at the centre. While the x of atria is different with only one ink trap at the arm if the right extender. The lower case q of plastizid fett and atria are similar while the q of amplitude does not have an ink trap at that point. The R in amplitude and atria are vey similar with deep ink traps and light wells. Plastizid fett does not have it at that point. The Z of plastizid fett and amplitude are very similar since they both seem like they are curvy. Atria has a sharp edged Z. All 3 of the upper case Ms have straight stems.
APPLICATIONS Amplitude is designed to be an indispensable tool for corporate and publication designers. It covers all aspects of corporate design: from signage to the annual report, packaging to letterheads, business cards to billboards. Publication designers demand a wide range of widths for flexibility in copy fit, and Amplitude also pleases their editors, who demand headlines larger than life.
Amplitude Extra Compressed was designed for the tightly set credits on film posters, which are often very difficult to read
Amplitude is used in this book on the cover page for the titles and also inside the book. It is extremely versatile and can be used in many places.
Open magazine uses amplitude for sub-titles and qotes in their layouts.
Amplitude is used in posters as a display text and also in books as titles.
BIBLIOGRAPHY WEBSITES http://www.type.co.uk/open_type http://papress.com/thinkingwithtype/letter/classification.htm http://www.fontshop.com/glossary/ www.fontbureau.com/fonts/Amplitude/ www.myfonts.com/fonts/fontbureau/amplitude www.urbanfonts.com/fonts/Amplitude.htm www.linotype.com/496401/Amplitude-family.htm en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Schwartz www.christianschwartz.com www.fontbureau.com
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This book would not have been possible without the type designer Christian Schwartz, it is due to his brilliant work that I have been able to research the typeface, Amplitude. It is also because of the constant guidance, support and enthusiasm of Tarun Deep Gridher, my guide that I was able to start and finish this booklet. If it was not for him this booklet would not have been possible. I would also like to thank my batch mates for being there for me and giving me constant feedback and helping me make improvements where and when required. I would like to thank my roommate and friend Geetika for encouraging me and helping me out whenever required. I would also like to thank Mahindra Bhai for his technical assistance and for teaching us the basics of Adobe Indesign. He was there with us throughout and even helped us with the printing process. Lastly I would like to thank my parents and brother for all their constant support and love.
NOOSHEEN MEHTA GDPD GRAPHIC DESIGN SEMESTER 3, 2012-13 TYPOGRAPHY GUIDE: TARUN DEEP GRIDHER