338.01 Type Journal by Paola Ramirez by Paola Ramirez

TYPE II

JOUR NAL

Winter 2016 |1

TYPE II JOURNAL Pao l a Ram i re z

Winter 2016

“Typography is the visual component of the written word.” – M AT THEW BUT TERICK

4 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

INTRODUCTION This journal compiles the notes of my Typography II class. Typography plays a very important part in graphic design. A good design can only be achieved if typography has been taken into account, whether it is to follow the rules, or brake them, it is very important for a designer to know them and under stand them. These are a few points from Butterick’s Practical Typography that clarified to me a bit more why typography is so important, so here is a reminder of them to start: 1.

Good typ ograp hy is meas ured by how well it reinforces the meaning of the text, not by some abs tract scale of merit.

For a given text, there are many typ og raphic solutions that would be equally good. Typ ograp hy is not a math problem with one correct an swer.

Your abili ty to prod uce good typ ography dep ends on how well you un derstand the goals of your text, not on taste or visual training.

4. Typ ograp hy matt ers bec ause it helps cons erve the most valuable re source you have as a writer—reader attention. Attention is the reader’s gift to you. That gift is prec ious. And finite. And should you fail to be a respectful stewa rd of that gift—most commonly, by boring or exasp erat ing your reader—it will be promptly revoked.

Introduction | 5

CL NO

LASS OTES

KEY RULES

POINTS AND PICAS Our measuring system for typography was originally devel足 oped for handset metal type, invented by Johann Gutenberg around 1450. Small sizes of text type needed a measuring system with extremely fine increments. There were no standards for typographic measurement until French type designer Pierre Simon Fournier le Jeune introduced the point system in 1737. The contemporary American measurement system, adopted in the 1870s, has two basic units: points and picas.

12 points = 1 pica 6 picas = 1 inch 0

1 inch

ABREVIATIONS: Point = pt Pica = p

6 Picas 72 Points

Measurements are written like this: 1p6 = 1 pica + 6 points

Class Notes - Key Rules | 9

POINT SIZE It should be 10–12 points in printed docum ents, 15-25 pixels on the web.

Factors to consider •

Typeface proportions and weight

•

Length of text

•

Format for viewing (printed on paper or viewed on screen or both)

•

Audience/reader of the text

•

Content of the text

LEADING The vert ic al dist ance bet ween lines. It should be 120–145% of the point size.

Too Tight (9/10.8)

Too Loose (9/15)

Just Right (9/13)

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut ultricies id quam at semper. Proin sem enim, porttitor id dui id, vehicula euismod sapien. Pellentesque eu mauris faucibus, auctor nunc sed, varius lectus. Suspendisse a tincidunt arcu, ut rutrum turpis. Nam orci neque, luctus et purus aliquam, hendrerit egestas tellus. Morbi id sem a enim molestie consequat. Integer nisl velit, bibendum in varius non, lobortis nec sapien. enatis.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,

consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut

10 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

ultricies id quam at semper.

ultricies id quam at semper. Proin sem enim, porttitor id dui

Proin sem enim, porttitor id dui

id, vehicula euismod sapien. Pel-

lentesque eu mauris faucibus,

auctor nunc sed, varius lectus.

Suspendisse a tincidunt arcu, ut rutrum turpis. Nam orci neque,

Suspendisse a tincidunt arcu, ut

luctus et purus aliquam, hendre-

rutrum turpis. Nam orci neque,

rit egestas tellus. Morbi id sem a

luctus et purus aliquam.

enim molestie consequat.

LINE LENGHT The dist ance bet ween the left and right edges of a text block. About 8–13 words per line, on average. Too wide – if a line of text is too long the reader’s eyes will ave a hard time focusing on the text. This is because the line length makes it difficult to gauge where the line starts and ends. Too narrow – if a line is too short the eye will have to travel back too often, breaking the reader’s rhythm.

TRACKING The adj ustm ent of the hori z ont al white space bet ween the lett ers in a block of text. If letters are too close together, the text is hard to read. Don’t just track your type willy nilly. Type set in small caps or all caps can handle more letterspacing than type set in upper and lowercase.

My letters are too loose. M Y L ET T ER S A R E J U S T F IN E .

Do not adjust tracking any tighter than -10.

Class Notes - Key Rules | 11

KERNING It is the adjustm ent of spec ific pairs of lett ers to improve spacing and fit. (It’s dist inct from tracking, which affects all pairs.)

World of Treats World of Treats -

- -

DASHES - Hyphen – if a word is too long for column length The red death had long devastated the country.

– En Dash – duration

The red death had devastated the country from 1892–1893.

— Em Dash – Break in the flow of a sentence.

The fourth was furnished and lighted with orange—the fifth with white—the sixth with violet.

12 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

QUOTES Straight quotes The two generic vert ic al quot at ion marks located near the re turn key: the straight sing le quote and the straight doub le quote.

Curly quotes The quot at ion marks used in good typ ogr ap hy.

“”

SMART QUOTES

DUMB QUOTES

″″

PRIME MARKS

Use Alt + arrow to adjust kerning.

Always check spelling: command + i

Class Notes - Key Rules | 13

RE MEM BER! •

Avoid goofy fonts, mono spaced fonts, and syst em fonts, esp ec ially times new rom an and Arial.

•

If you use just if ied text, also turn on hyp hena tion.

•

Use proper tradem ark and copyr ight symb ols.

•

Put only one space be tween sent ences.

•

Fix rags when practical.

•

Never use und erl ini ng, unl ess it’s a hyperlink.

•

Make ell ipses usi ng the proper chara ct er, not per io ds and spaces.

•

Use cent ered text sparingly.

•

Avoid orphans and widows in paragraphs.

•

If you don’t have real small caps, don’t use them at all.

14 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

Class Notes - Key Rules | 15

UNDERSTANDING TYPEFACES

DESIGN FACTORS •

Content How long is the text?

•

What is it about?

•

Audience What is the age of the reader? What is the demographic of the reader?

•

Format/Context What is the size of the page/screen?t Is the size set or will it vary? At what distance will the text be read?

TECHNICAL FACTORS •

Does the font have a full character set, including all punctuation and glyphs necessary for the job?

•

Does the font have foreign accented characters and glyphs?

•

Does the font have multiple weights and styles?

•

Does the font have small caps?

•

Does the font have lining and old style numerals?

•

What is the format of the font? OpenType fonts are cross-platform.

•

Does the font have a Web Font version?

Class Notes - Understanding Typefaces | 17

Creating a font is complex. Well crafted typefaces can take years to develop, and often require huge teams, especially in the case of typefaces released in multiple scripts with support for multiple languages. Unlike many other art forms, typefaces are both design and technology.

When you buy a font, you purchase a license. A font license grants the owner the right to use a typeface in a specific manner as outlined in the license. As a designer, you need to ask: •

Can I use this font for commercial work?

•

How much does this cost?

•

Can I use it online, or just in print?

•

What about apps, and ebooks?

Places to Buy Fonts Google Fonts: Free for print and web. Downside: Chances are the font will be very commonly seen. Lost Type Co-op: donation. Pay attention to the license. Check if you have to give credit to the creator. League of Movable Type: Well-made, free, open source. Font Squirrel: Free fonts for commercial use. Fontspring: All of the fonts can be used for commercial proj ects. Fonts have very similar licenses. House Industries: Draw attention to under-appreciated art genres and the American vernacular. You can buy lines of text instead of fonts. My Fonts: has a wide range of fonts and an excellent news letter on font trends and design. Fonts.com: has an extensive collection of fonts

18 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

Class Notes - Understanding Typefaces | 19

GRIDS

A grid is the skeleton or framework that allows for arranging content within the space of the page. It is the building block of all digital images and marks and is not a rigid formula, but instead a flexible, resilient structure.

THE GOLDEN RATIO The formula for the golden section is a : b = b : (a+b). This means that the smaller of two elements (such as the shorter side of a rectangle) relates to the larger element in the same way that the larger element relates to the two parts com足 bined. Some graphic designers are fascinated with the golden section and use it to create various grids and page formats-in足 deed, entire books have been written on the subject. Other designers believe that the golden section is no more valid as a basis for deriving sizes and proportions than other methods, such as beginning from standard industrial paper sizes, or dividing surfaces into halves or squares, or simply picking whole-number page formats and making logical divisions within them.

Class Notes - Grids | 21

SINGLE COLUMN GRID The simplest grid consists of a single column of text suround足 ed by margins.Page layout programs assume that the inside margins are the same on both the left- and right-hand pages, yielding a symmetrical, mirror-image spread. You are free, however, to s.et your own margins and create an asymmetri足 cal spread

22 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

MULTICOLUMN GRID Multicolumn grids provide flexible formats for publications that have a complex hierarchy or that integrate text and illustrations. The more columns you create, the more flexi足 ble your grid becomes. You can use the grid to articulate the hierarchy of the publication by creating zones for different kinds of content.

Class Notes - Grids | 23

GRID AND HANGLINE In addition to creating vertical zones with the columns of the grid, you can also divide the page horizontally. For example, an area across the top can be reserved for images and cap tions, and body text can “hang” from a common line. Graphic designers call this a hang line.

24 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

MODULAR GRID A modular grid has consistent horizontal divisions from top to bottom in addition to vertical divisions from left to right. These modules govern the placement and cropping of pic足 tures as well as text.

Class Notes - Grids | 25

BASELINE GRID Modular grids are created by positioning horizontal guide足 lines in relation to a baseline grid that governs the whole document. Baseline grids serve to anchor all (or nearly all) layout elements to a common rhythm. Create a baseline grid by choosing the typesize and leading of your text,.Avoid auto leading so that you can work with whole numbers that multi足 ply and divide cleanly.

26 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

Not using a grid will cause you to never be able to repeat a look consistently. Your projects will never have visual harmony, and like anything which lacks structure or a strong foundation, your concepts will be visually inconsistent from one product to another and will always be a struggle to produce. Without a layout grid, graphic elements will not properly work together. This system is always the first test to see if that idea will work well and be applicable to a real world application. Any high-quality design project, campaign or identity/branding system needs a strong, tested and perfected layout grid sys tem to make it possible to split the work to many designers at one time, so that they all produce the same quality end result with consistency and visual harmony. It is critical when you go from print, where you have total control over your layout, and apply your design to the web, where you have less control, that you still apply these princi pals by managing the number of cells, white spaces, margins, borders and padding. It’s even more critical in this case, that your layout grid system is extra flexible for responsive web sites, where your designs can go from four columns to one and still keep its integrity and the client’s message. A layout grid is the invisible force that gives the visible its structure and holds everything in its proper place.

Class Notes - Grids | 27

SHORTCUTS

28 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

Ñ alt + 0209

alt + 0161

alt + 0191

alt + 0241

Á alt + 0193

alt + 0225

® alt + 0174

É alt + 0201

™ alt + 0153

alt + 0233

•

alt + 0149

alt + 0205

–

alt + 0150

alt + 0237

—

alt + 0151

Ó alt + 0211

’

alt + 0146

alt + 0243

‘

alt + 0145

Ú alt + 0218

“

alt + 0147

”

alt + 0148

alt + 0250

Class Notes - Grids | 29

IN DESIGN STYLES

PARAGRAPH STYLES Affect paragraph level attributes: •

Leading

•

Tabs

•

Indents

•

Space before and after

•

Hyphenation and justification settings

•

Rules above and below

Most styles in your document will be Paragraph styles.

CHARACTER STYLES Are used for styling text within a paragraph, for things like: •

Bold text

•

Italic text

•

Run-in subheads

•

Custom bullets or numbers

Class Notes - InDesign Styles | 31

TABLE STYLES Used for styling multiple tables within a document. The style defines: •

The outside border of the table

•

The dividing lines in the table

•

The space above and below the table

•

The fills of fields in the table

CELL STYLES Used for styling individual cells, or rectangular divisions of the table. The cell style defines: •

The borders around the cell

•

How the text is positioned within the cell

•

The style of the text within the cell

•

The fill color of the cell

•

If the cell is x-ed out

32 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

Class Notes - InDesign Styles | 33

TYPE ON SCREEN

ATTRIBUTES TO CONSIDER

TYPEFACE CONTRAST The amount of contrast between the thick and thin strokes of characters in a typeface impacts legibility. Higher contrast typefaces can be useful in small amounts or as headlines, but extreme variation in stroke width is burdensome in long text.

X-HEIGHT When choosing a typeface for text, a high x-height is ideal, especially for use on interfaces or wayfinding.

BEWARE OF X-HEIGHT EXTREMES If the x-height is too high, there is less room for other dis足 tinctive characteristics. The letters n and h, or a and d, can become difficult to distinguish as the x-height increases.

CHARACTER DISTINCTION Differentiating between different characters is essential for on screen legibility.

Class Notes - Type on Screen | 35

NUMBERS, PUNCTUATION, SPECIAL CHARACTERS Strive to use typefaces that support different types of num bers, correct punctuation,and special characters, especially if your text will be set in a variety of languages. ¿Tiene sentido? Buena tipografía es importante.

SMALL CAPS + LIGATURES Some fonts contain alternate styles or characters like small caps and ligatures. Using small caps on the web usually means specifying a separate font file with just the small caps. Ligatures combine two or more characters to create a joined letterform. The most common ligatures solve for letterforms that unappealing crash into each other.

OPTICAL SIZES Some typefaces have family members that suit a specific size range, called optical sizes.

FINDING ALTERNATIVES Classic typefaces are sometimes so overused that they begin tolook like generic defaults. Look for typefaces that share some similar traits to your favorite classics.

36 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

Class Notes - Type on Screen | 37

PRO

JECTS

EXERCISE 1 Legibility and Readability Study EXERCISE DESCRIPTION In this exercise, you will investigate and analyze text set in paragraph form (“body text” or “text blocks”). Using serif and sans serif text typefaces, you will create different versions of those settings by altering the leading and point size.

OBJECTIVES •

To examine how changes in point size, leading, and typeface selection impact legibility

•

To set up an InDesign document according to given measurements and instructions

•

To use tools in InDesign to refine your text

40 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

Serif Without typography, one could argue, messages will still be legible, but if one really wants to communicate rather than simply display a heap of alphanumeric data, some consideration would be helpful. Paul Watzlawick’s first axiom of communication—“one cannot not communicate”—puts it very succinctly. If you fail to consider the effect of your message on the recipient, you may inadvertently communicate that you do not care how your message may be received. GARAMOND, 9/13

Without typography, one could argue, messages will still be legible, but if one really wants to communicate rather than simply display a heap of alphanumeric data, some consideration would be helpful. Paul Watzlawick’s first axiom of communication—“one cannot not communicate”—puts it very succinctly. If you fail to consider the effect of your message on the recipient, you may inadvertently communicate that you do not care how your message may be received. GARAMOND, 9/12

Projects - Exercise 1 | 41

Paul Watzlawick’s first axiom of communication—“one cannot not communicate”—puts it very succinctly. If you fail to consider the effect of your message on the recipient, you may inadvertently communicate that you do not care how your message may be received. GARAMOND, 9/15

42 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

Sans Serif Without typography, one could argue, messages will still be legible, but if one really wants to communicate rather than simply display a heap of alphanumeric data, some consideration would be helpful. Paul Watzlawick’s first axiom of communication—“one cannot not communicate”—puts it very succinctly. If you fail to consider the effect of your message on the recipient, you may inadvertently communicate that you do not care how your message may be received. GILL SANS, 9/13

Projects - Exercise 1 | 43

Without typography, one could argue, messages will still be legible, but if one really wants to communicate rather than simply display a heap of alphanumeric data, some consideration would be helpful. Paul Watzlawick’s first axiom of communication—“one cannot not communicate”— puts it very succinctly. If you fail to consider the effect of your message on the recipient, you may inadvertently communicate that you do not care how your message may be received. GILL SANS, 8/13

Without typography, one could argue, messages will still be legible, but if one really wants to communicate rather than simply display a heap of alphanumeric data, some consideration would be helpful. Paul Watzlawick’s first axiom of communication—“one cannot not communicate”— puts it very succinctly. If you fail to consider the effect of your message on the recipient, you may inadvertently communicate that you do not care how your message may be received. GILL SANS, 10/13

44 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

ANALYSIS What effect does varying the typeface have on legibility? The sans serif typeface I chose occupies more space than the serif one. It also seems bolder than the serif typeface, and I think the weight of the serif type is easier to read. What effects do the changes in leading have on readability? In some cases the space helps because having enough separation between lines of text gives the reader breathing room, which makes the paragraph more comfortable to read. Having little space makes it easier for the reader to get lost between lines of text, and text too close together creates groups of letter that can become too abstract to be readable. What point sizes look best with the given column width? 9 pt. paragraphs have confortable line lenght. Which typeface in which point size and leading is the most readable? The most readable paragraph of my study is written in Garamond, 9/14. The size of the text is very readable, and the separation between each line of text is just enough to be able to continue reading after finishing a line and giving breath足 ing room. Which is the worst combination of all three and why? To me, Gill Sans at 9/13 is very uncomfortable to read. The words in the paragraph are very close toguether. There is very little breathing room.

Projects - Exercise 1 | 45

PROJECT 1 Typesetting: Rules of Typography PROJECT DESCRIPTION For this project, you will research and document as many rules, ideas, or principles about typographyas possible. Your findings must be typeset on one side of an 8.5” × 11” piece of paper. A minimum of five examples must be presented on the page. Each entry must come from a different source, and each student must do their best to have unique entries. You must credit the author as well as the source, including the page number on which it appeared and the year it was published. Books and scholarly articles must be used as your primary reference, not the Internet. Consideration should be given to the typesetting and design of the page.

OBJECTIVES •

To research scholarly articles and books about typography

•

To compile a list of research findings

•

To establish information hierarchy in the design and layout of at least five quotes about typography

•

To consider legibility and readability when selecting typefaces

46 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

Solution 1

Projects - Project 1 | 47

Final Solution

QUOTES ON

TYPOGRAPHY “Type only exists when it’s made visible” JAMES FELICI The Complete Manual of Typography, 2011, Page 71.

“Working successfully with type is essential for effective graphic design” JOHN KANE A Type Primer, 2011, Page viii.

“No design is successful “Type is a beautiful group of witouth successful typography” letters, not a group of beautiful letters.” STEVEN HELLER

Typography Sketchbooks, 2011, Page viii.

“Design is as much an act of spacing as an act of marking” ELLEN LUPTON Thinking With Type, 2010, Page 91.

48 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

M AT T H E W C A R T E R Lara McCormick, Playing With Type: 50 Graphic Experiments on Exploring Typographic Design Principles, 2011, Page 10.

CRITIQUE NOTES Stay away from having different-colored text within a sen tence. They can become confusing. Be careful of putting excessive emphasis on curly quotes. Always have a purpose for everything. Make it more interesting, not just lines of text. Be thoughtful of white space and color. Use lines mindfully. (Jessica used them to separate a group of sentences that where not meant to be read as one thing). Be careful of using dark backgrounds. They usually require the text to be larger and more spaced out. Also not too orna mented or abstract. Be careful of using too many different weights, think about the concept if that is the direction you want to take. Don’t be afraid to experiment! Always hang quotes.

Projects - Project 1 | 49

PROJECT 2 A Dialogue PROJECT DESCRIPTION Using the dialogue provided, you will design a diptych that utilizes all of the text and emphasizes the fact there is more than one voice. Please consider all your choices and decisions carefully. Everything matters. Think about and utilize the various typographic families,and typographic hierarchies. You can use color, and images to help support your design, but care must be taken to make sure your typography is flawless. Think about how all of the typographic elements influence our interpretation of the text and how you, as a designer, can influence the viewer’s reading of the text.

OBJECTIVES •

To use typography to create a distinction between two different voices

•

To consider content when make decisions about typeface selection and imagery

•

To demonstrate an understanding of good typographic practice when setting text

50 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

Sketches

Projects - Project 2 | 51

Sketches

52 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

Projects - Project 2

Photography

Projects - Project 2 | 53

Final Solution

HOW DO I SLAY THE DRAGON IN ME? Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth — INTERVIEW BY BILL MOYERS

M: Why are there so many stories of the hero in mythology? C: Because that’s what’s worth writing about. Even in popular novels, the main character is a hero or heroine who has found or done something beyond the normal range of achievement and experience. A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.

M: So in all of these cultures, whatever the local costume the hero might be wearing, what is the deed?

C: Well, there are two types of deed. One is the physical deed, in which the hero performs a courageous act in battle or saves a life. The other kind is the spiritual deed, in which the hero learns to experience the supernormal range of human spiritual life and then comes back with a message.

M: Does your study of mythology lead you to conclude that a single human quest, a standard pattern of human aspiration and thought, constitutes for all mankind something that we have in common, whether we lived a million years ago or will live a thousand years from now?

C: There’s a certain type of myth which one might call the vision quest, going in quest of a boon, a vision, which has the same form in every mythology. That is the thing that I tried to present in the first book I wrote, The Hero With a Thousand Faces. All these different mythologies give us the same essential quest. You leave the world that you’re in and go into a depth or into a distance or up to a height. There you come to what was missing in your consciousness in the world you formerly inhabited. Then comes the problem either of staying with that, and letting the world drop off, or returning with that boon and trying to hold on to it as you move back into your social world again.

M: How do I slay that dragon in me? What’s the journey each of us has to make, what you call “the soul’s high adventure”?

C: My general formula for my students is “Follow your bliss.” Find where it is, and don’t be afraid to follow it.

M: Is it my work or my life? C: If the work that you’re doing is the work that you chose to do because you are enjoying it, that’s it. But if you think,“Oh, no! I couldn’t do that!” that’s the dragon locking you in. “No, no, I couldn’t be a writer,” or “No, no, I couldn’t possibly do what So-and-so is doing.”

M: When I take that journey and go down there and slay those dragons, do I have to go alone?

C: If you have someone who can help you, that’s fine, too. But, ultimately, the last deed has to be done by oneself. Psychologically, the dragon is one’s own binding of oneself to one’s ego. We’re captured in our own dragon cage. The problem of the psychiatrist is to disintegrate that dragon, break him up, so that you may expand to a larger field of relationships. The ultimate dragon is within you, it is your ego clamping you down.

“ ULTIMATELY, THE LAST DEED HAS TO BE DONE BY ONESELF”

“THAT’S ALL YOU NEED —AN ARIADNE THREAD” M: I like what you say about the old myth of Theseus and Ariadne. Theseus says to Ariadne, “I’ll love you forever if you can show me a way to come out of the labyrinth.” So she gives him a ball of string, which he unwinds as he goes into the labyrinth, and then follows to find the way out. You say, “All he had was the string. That’s all you need.”

C: That’s all you need—an Ariadne thread. M: Sometimes we look for great wealth to save us, a great power to save us, or great ideas to save us, when all we need is that piece of string. C: That’s not always easy to find. But it’s nice to have someone who can give you a clue. That’s the teacher’s job, to help you find your Ariadne thread.

M: Like all heroes, the Buddha doesn’t show you the truth itself, he shows you the way to truth.

C: But it’s got to be your way, not his. The Buddha can’t tell you exactly how to get rid of your particular fears, for example. Different teachers may suggest exercises, but they may not be the ones to work for you. All a teacher can do is suggest. He is like a lighthouse that says, “There are rocks over here, steer clear. There is a channel, however, out there.”

M: In all of these journeys of mythology, there’s a place everyone wishes to find. The Buddhists talk of Nirvana, and Jesus talks of peace, of the mansion with many rooms. Is that typical of the hero’s journey - that there’s a place to find?

C: The place to find is within yourself. I learned a little about this in athletics. The athlete who is in top form has a quiet place within himself, and it’s around this, somehow, that his action occurs. There’s a center of quietness within, which has to be known and held. If you lose that center, you are in tension and begin to fall apart.•

54 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

M: So in all of these cultures, whatever the local costume the hero might be wearing, what is the deed?

M: How do I slay that dragon in me? What’s the journey each of us has to make, what you call “the soul’s high adventure”? C: My general formula for my students is “Follow your bliss.” Find where it is, and don’t be afraid to follow it.

M: When I take that journey and go down there and slay those dragons, do I have to go alone?

“ ULTIMATELY, THE LAST DEED HAS TO BE DONE BY ONESELF”

C: That’s all you need—an Ariadne thread. M: Sometimes we look for great wealth to save us, a great power to save us, or great ideas to save us, when all we need is that piece of string.

C: That’s not always easy to find. But it’s nice to have someone who can give you a clue. That’s the teacher’s job, to help you find your Ariadne thread.

M: Like all heroes, the Buddha doesn’t show you the truth itself, he shows you the way to truth.

Projects - Project 2 | 55

INTERIM DEADLINE CRITIQUE Experiment more. Explore type within paragraphs that will be actually used to get a true idea of how the text will look. Think about the grid that will work better for the concept. Spend some time writing down the concepts that will be conveyed in the project. THINGS TO AVOID Breaking up the interview text with a lot of changes in text, style or weight. Wacky, decorative typefaces. Conservative/conventional layouts. NEXT STEPS Do not waste time working on customizing typography or elaborate illustration until you have a clear sense of composi足 tion based on a strong concep. Think about line length (will it vary or be consistent). Experiment with composition. Finalize body text styles, size and leading. Always use curly quotes. Emphasize pieces of text, because readers are not attracted by blocks of text. Always have a purpose for the shapes in your composition.

FINAL CRITIQUE Be conscious of the blank space. Always have a purpose for it, so it does not come across as random or awkward. Watch margins and elements to close to edges. Make sure both pieces go clearly together. Be mindful of abstract compositions. Help the viewer with clues to motivate them to dig deeper instead of getting frus足 trated trying to find meanings.

56 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

PROJECT 3 Elements of Style Booklet PROJECT DESCRIPTION The Elements of Style is a classic grammatical reference book for students and conscientious writers. The focus of the book is on composition, the effective use of plain English, and the principles of composition most commonly violated. The text is full of examples and comparisons, which necessitates the effective use of indents and shifts in typographic style. The text, written in 1918, is quirky, and, at times, a little archaic. Your job is to develop a design that would appeal to high school and college-aged students. We will be breaking up the text into smaller sections, and each student will be assigned a portion of the text to be used in the creation of a small reference booklet. The second phase of the project will require you to work in teams to create a single related series of booklets.

OBJECTIVES To develop a grid structure that ensures consistency in a mul tiple page document To design for a saddle stitched publication To properly apply paragraph and character styles To use typographic techniques to establish hierarchy and clarity in a given text To evaluate each other’s work and modify one’s design based on the strongest solution

Projects - Project 3 | 57

Solution 1: Individual

The

I ELEMENTARY RULES OF USAGE 1. Form the possessive singular of nouns with ’s.

your

with afte Thu

Follow this rule whatever the final consonant. Thus write:

Charles’s friend Burns’s poems the witch’s malice This is the usage of the United States Government Printing Office and of the Oxford University Press. Exceptions are the possessives of ancient proper names in -es and -is, the possessive Jesus’, and such forms as for conscience’ sake, for righteousness’ sake. But such forms as Achilles’ heel, Moses’ laws, Isis’ temple are commonly replaced by: SECTION I: Elementary Rules of Usage • 1

58 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

This Offi

In th omit

The com

2 • THE EL

the heel of Achilles the laws of Moses

3. Enclose parenthetic expressions between commas.

the temple of Isis

The best way to see a country, unless you are pressed for time, is to travel on foot.

pronominal possessives hers, its, theirs, s, and oneself have no apostrophe.

In a series of three or more terms h a single conjunction, use a comma er each term except last. s write:

red, white, and blue

This rule is difficult to apply; it is frequently hard to decide whether a single word, such as however, or a brief phrase, is or is not parenthetic. If the interruption to the flow of the sentence is but slight, the writer may safely omit the commas. But whether the interruption be slight or considerable, he must never omit one comma and leave the other. Such punctuation as:

honest, energetic, but headstrong He opened the letter, read it, and made a note of its contents.

My brother you will be pleased to hear, is now in perfect health,

s is also the usage of the Government Printing ice and of the Oxford University Press.

he names of business firms the last comma is tted, as:

Brown, Shipley and Company

is indefensible. Non-restrictive relative clauses are, in accordance with this rule, set off by commas.

The audience, which had at first been indifferent, became more and more interested.

abbreviation etc., even if only a single term es before it, is always preceded by a comma.

LEMENTS OF STYLE

Marjorie’s husband, Colonel Nelson paid us a visit yesterday,

SECTION I: Elementary Rules of Usage • 3

Projects - Project 3 | 59

Solution 2: Group

60 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

Projects - Project 3 | 61

62 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

PROJECT 4 Type Zine PROJECT DESCRIPTION In this project, you will be creating a digital magazine. The theme of the magazine is: Typography and the Everyday. Students in the class will be responsible for collecting and creating all the assets for the magazine, including: text, illus trations, and photographs. All found images and text (articles, interviews, etc.) must be properly credited.

OBJECTIVES •

To collaborate on the planning and creation of a maga zine

•

To develop typography that is informed by content

•

To improve and refine typographic techniques

•

To increase understanding of page layout, the importance of a grid use, hierarchy and pacing in a

•

multiple page document

•

To create an InDesign file using paragraph and character styles that can be easily modified and refined

•

To develop a visual design that is appropriate for on screen viewing

Projects - Project 4 | 63

Grid Sketches

64 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

Inspiration

Projects - Project 4 | 65

66 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

Projects - Project 4 | 67

68 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

Projects - Project 4 | 69

READI

INGS

A View of Latin Typography in Relationship to the World by Peter Bil’ak A short essay scrutinising the general misconceptions of western typography, and the appropriateness of Euro-centric type terminolog y. It is generally acknowledged that it was Gutenberg who invented movable type printing in 1436. It is generally for gotten that what is missing in that statement is the necessary qualifier “in Europe”. Thanks to the present-day dominance of Latin script we have largely forgotten that there are paral lel histories outside of Europe, but the first recorded movable type system was more likely created in China around 1040 AD by Bi Sheng. His early type was made of wood, which was later abandoned in favour of baked clay, which produced smoother imprints. Unlike Latin script which uses 26 letters, Chinese script uses thousands of characters, making type composition particularly complicated. Nevertheless, mov able type has been in continuous use in China since the 11th century. Elsewhere too, printing progressed. Choe Yun-ui, a Kore an civil minister, made the transition from wood to metal movable type around 1230 AD. Metal movable type was also invented independently of the Koreans in China during the Ming Dynasty. During the Mongol Empire movable type

72 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

moved further west. According to legend, Laurens Janszoon Coster, a respected citizen of Haarlem, could have been the first European to invent movable type, if the account pre sented by Hadrianus Junius is true. But the story is not wide ly believed, which brings us back to Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz, who invented movable type a decade later. In Europe. The new possibilities are exciting for designers working with “non-Latin” type. There is a modest interest in Arabic, Cyril lic, Greek, or Indic scripts, and even type design competitions have responded to the new situation by creating special categories. The new development is also good news even for designers working exclusively with Latin typography: while we might think that most of the possibilities of Latin type have been explored, traditions of typography from Greece, the Middle East, India and elsewhere can help us to rediscov er how we understand Latin type today.

Readings | 73

The First Thing I Ever Designed: Elana Schlenker and Gratuitous Type Magazine By Madeleine Morley “I have what’s probably not a great inclination to pursue what I love first and figure out the money later,” says Elana Schlen ker matter-of-factly as she recounts putting together the very first issue of Gratuitous Type, her celebrated “journal of typographic smut.” These words are ones that probably ring true to anyone who’s ever started their own independent magazine, a no toriously ambitious, time-consuming venture. The story of Schlenker’s first issue of Gratuitous Type is a lot like the story of many first issues, which are often a tense combination of a passionate desire to make and say something new, a lot of head bashing with printers and distributors, and a clueless, frantic stab in the dark. Magazines have become key portfolio pieces for young de signers, the perfect medium for showcasing a range of skills. For Schlenker, the self-initiated Gratutious Type was integral to launching her career. After impressing future clients with issue after issue, Schlenker has gone on to work for an art director at Condé Nast and as senior designer at Princeton Architectural Press.

74 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

Readings | 75

A Typeface Designed to Revive the Endangered Cherokee Language By Angela Riechers Designer Mark Jamra was moved by the need for a typeface that would help preserve a nation’s language and culture, and began by adapting a Latin typeface he already had in the works. To develop the letterforms (including a cursive italic inspired by handwriting), Jamra studied the Cherokee syl labary developed between 1809–1824, along with 180 years of manuscripts provided by the Cherokee Nation and the Smithsonian Institute. Why’s it called Phoreus Cherokee? Phoreus is the ancient Greek word for bearer or carrier and refers to type (and the Cherokee syllabary) as a vehicle of language and visual culture. What are its distinguishing characteristics? This serif face is a harmonious mix of closed and open shapes, straight strokes, and playful curves. The ornate historic Cherokee glyphs have been opened up and simplified for legibility. The current 2.0 update features a new lowercase in different weights and styles—the first addition to the syllabary in its 195-year history. There’s also a small-caps version, so that bilingual

76 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

documents can be set in Cherokee text (which looks like small caps to a Latin reader, with sentences beginning with a large syllable and then continuing with smaller glyphs) that maintains the same visual density as English upper- and lower-case text.

Readings | 77

An Idea of a typeface by Kai Bernau Aware that there is no such thing as total neutrality, Neutral typeface explores how the absence of stylistic associations can help the reader to engage with the content of a text. In order to discover this Idea of a typeface I sought to distill all typefaces (excluding a few fringe groups) into an aver足 age. To keep my own background from interfering with the design process, I devised a system of comparisons of typeface genres and sub-genres to establish what kind of typeface Neutral would have to be to do any justice to its name. This system addressed questions such as: Which shapes are more restrained, closer to a possible archetype? Which of two forms is more commonly used? Which form is less dependent on physical methods or technologies? Which forms are more likely to result in distinguishable (but unobtrusive) letter足 forms? Which forms are more likely to provide a coherent word-image? Which of two otherwise equally suitable groups of shapes are the plainer, simpler ones? The plain, reserved nature of the typeface that resulted from filling in this framework of parameters will be quite neu足 tral to a quite large number of people, even though we may argue about the details. In the end we can not create some足 thing completely neutral, something to which none of us can

78 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

attribute any qualities. But we can approximate the formal idea of neutrality to some degree. And even if some would not consider this typeface to be neutral at all â&#x20AC;&#x201D; maybe it was only through this project that their own thinking about neutrality was triggered. And in that respect also the project would be a success. It is more important to ask the question than to answer it.

| 79

Typographica Mea Culpa, Unethical Downloading by Steven Heller Steven Heller describes the guilty revelation experienced when he learned that typeface software licenses are sold for use on specific, not unlimited numbers of CPUs. He calls for the ethical treatment of type designers, i.e. respect for their copyrights. Design is an honorable profession. Designers tend to respect one another’s intellectual property lines and do not as a rule engage in extreme larceny. And yet we have a skeweed sense of entitlement when it comes to type. Perhaps because type is the most common means of written communication we as sume the license to usurp it at will and without ramification as though it were decoupage. Type sharing is akin to tapping into cable TV. All font soft ware is protected by copyright and some typeface designs are protected by patents. “Once you purchase a copy, users can use the font on as many jobs, for as long as they want. And there is a way to hand your design job to a service bureau without breaching the font license. You can supply your documents as EPS files or Adobe Acrobat files with fonts embedded so you don’t have

80 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

to give the service bureau a copy of the font(s). Or users can buy a special license that allows them to take a font to their service bureau.â&#x20AC;? Nonetheless, veterans who are unfamiliar with the new or are used to the old methods may be confused by current procedures and, therefore, take the line of least resistance. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s easy to copy fonts, so they copy away. Younger designers, who are used to downloading shareware and other freebees may be spoiled by the bounty of entitlements (the Napster ethic). The education process continues. For years I have allowed designers working for me to infringe the agreement that I have failed to read. Forget about legality, without adherence to the fundamental principal, we place our colleagues in financial jeopardy and we become much less ethical in the bargain.

Readings | 81

Lava — Voice of a Magazine by Peter Bil’ak Lava was design to bridge the digital and print editions of a newly designed magazine. It was clear from the start that Works That Work would be a much more ambitious project: not only would it stretch across multiple platforms (online, eBook, PDF and print), but its con tent would also be available in various configurations. The typeface would be the sole constant characteristic, identify ing the magazine regardless of whether a reader purchased a single article online or a complete issue in print. I wanted the typeface to be the voice of WTW — confident enough not to need to show off, with the comfortable, relaxed manner of an engaged storyteller, ready to handle long stories, but also small captions or titles. I named it Lava. Lava has now been used in the first two editions of Works That Work magazine, giving us plenty of opportunities to test and improve the whole family. Making a single-purpose font is a relatively quick process, but creating a versatile tool like Lava that works across different platforms, languages, sizes and styles is a lot more complicated. After over a year of testing, we now feel confident enough to release it publicly as a no-nonsense workhorse typeface that can handle large quantities of text with ease. Lava was designed for magazine use, but far transcends its original application.

82 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016

Readings | 83

84 | Type II Journal - Winter 2016