BREAKING THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF TYPOGRAPHY
By Noramy Kipoto BA Graphic Arts: Illustration Self-Initiated Project 2013
introduction
T
his booklet contains a series of posters I have made in response to the book, The Ten Commandments of Typography/Type Heresy by Paul Felton. The book is a religious approach into how designers should use typography both traditionally and creatively. It is a book I have taken a lot of inspiration from also being what I believe to be an essential guide to any typographer or designer. The following posters are my own interpretation of Paul Felton’s book and its ideas concerning type. The posters I have created encompass the creative way in which I wanted to approach typography in this project. I have learnt a lot about the use of typefaces and how certain ones can apply a different h atmosphere to a message. It also gave me the opportunity to experiment with a lot playful ideas that would engage my audience, considering composition, legibility and size. On the whole, doing this project has taught me how far I can utilize type in my work and express the message I want it to, being inventive and creating something exciting for my readers to interact with.
The Ten Commandments of Typography According to Paul Felton
i ii iii iv
vi vii
THOU SHALT NOT APPLY MORE THAN THREE TYPEFACES IN A DOCUMENT Always remember that simplicity reigns over the disarray and confusion that the use of many typefaces causes.
THOU SHALT LAY STRESS DISCREETLY UPON ELEMENTS WITHIN TEXT The glory of God is to keep things hidden, but the glory of the foolish typographer is to over-emphasize them.
THOU SHALT LAY HEADLINES LARGE AND AT THE TOP OF A PAGE Raise the headline to a windy height, roar out your summons, and beckon with considerable type size.
THOU SHALT NOT USE ONLY CAPITALS WHEN SETTING VAST BODY COPY Let thine eyes be fixed on the ascenders, bowls and finials of lowercase type.
THOU SHALT EMPLOY NO OTHER TYPE SIZE THAN 8PT TO 10PT FOR BODY COPY The Lord will not leave unpunished he who disregards this rule. REMEMBER THAT A TYPEFACE THAT IS NOT LEGIBLE IS NOT TRULY A TYPEFACE The dingbats and the disordered fuse fonts that foundries hold sacred all worthless, and cursed are all who make them their delight.
v
HONOUR THY KERNING, SO THAT WHITE SPACE BECOMES VISUALLY EQUALIZED BETWEEN CHARACTERS Kerning will save the reader time in deciphering writings.
viii
THOU SHALT ALWAYS ALIGN LETTERS AND WORDS ON A BASELINE The Lord designed letterforms to coexist side by side on an invisible line, so thou halt give them a straight path to follow.
ix x
THOU SHALT USE FLUSH-LEFT, RAGGED-RIGHT TYPE ALIGNMENT Renounce the use of other alignments, for they bring extra torment on already busy eyes.
THOU SHALT NOT MAKE LINES TOO SHORT OR TOO LONG I command you to trust in an utmost of seventy characters per line, while a minimum of forty shall suffice.
for they can make a plain text document look wildly sensuous. Body copy is still legible and readable at the above size and this size as well. Stop boring your readers to death and give them some visual excitement.
into trying
and
typefaces, and
from the security of traditional fonts.
TR EAT K ER NING W ITH TO TAL IR REV ER ENCE AND
E X P O S E THE T DEVIOUS H E D E V I O U S
S P A C E BE T WEEN LET TER FORM S
B UT H R T E E The Lord designed letterforms to stand side by side,
in
L U
THEIR
HARM
is no
R E
D
B E
A
I
N G
W
A Y
FROM EACH OTHER
YIELD TO THE TEMP TATION TO ALIGN TEXT IN UNUSUAL WAYS