typography Final

PORTFOLIO The Art of Typography

Christian Acosta Fasion Institute of Design and Merchandizing

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Introduction

Character Studies

Sketchbook

34 Ubiquitous Type

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Pop Assi

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Terms Illustrated

Logo Development

Museum Report

36

ignments

46 Fonts Used

CHRISTIAN ACOSTA

Christian Acosta is a first year student at FIDM currently enrolled in his second quarter majoring in Digital Media. One of Christian’s favorite things about attending FIDM is the like minded creative people that he is surrounded with on a daily basis. He is passionate about Photography, Videography, and Film. After graduating, Christian plans on becoming a fashion editorial photographer and concert photographer.

character study

The Letter ‘A’

N

o one knows why ‘A’ is the first letter of our alphabet. Some think it’s because this letter represents one of the most common vowel sounds in ancient languages of the western hemisphere. Other sources argue against this theory because there were no vowel sounds in the Phoenician language. (The Phoenician alphabet is generally thought to be the basis of the one we use today.)

No one also knows why the ‘A’ looks the way it does, but we can construct a fairly logical chain of events.

Some say the Phoenicians chose the head of an ox to represent the ‘A’ sound (for the Phoenicians, this was actually a glottal stop).

The ox was a common, important animal to the Phoenicians. It was their main power source for heavy work. Oxen plowed the fields, harvested crops, and hauled food to market. Some sources also claim that the ox was often the main course at meals.

A symbol for the ox would have been an important communication tool for the Phoenicians. It somewhat naturally follows that an ox symbol would be the first letter of the alphabet.

BASKERVILLE John Baskerville was a 17th century publisher who developed many innovations across different elements of printing, including paper stocks, inks, and typefaces. He was much admired by Benjamin Franklin, his contemporary on the North American side of the pond.

Franklin– a printer himself, of course– popularized Baskerville’s work in the Colonies, eventually making the Baskerville typeface one of the official typefaces of the Federal government after the Revolution.

character study

the letter “g�

Didot Typeface The Didot Font Family began in Paris when Firmin Didot began work on a collection of related type fonts.

At the time the Didot family owned the most influential and successful print shop and font foundry in France. In fact, they were the King’s printers with seven members of the family working in some capacity in the varied branches of the book trade. Firman Didot completed the development and began to cut the letters and cast them between 1784 and 1811. His brother Pierre used the type for his printing business

G

enerally speaking, there are no launch dates for the letters of our alphabet. For the most part they’ve come down to us through an evolutionary process, with shapes that developed slowly over a long period of time. The G, however, is an exception. In fact, our letter G made its official debut in 312 B.C. Of course, the story begins a bit earlier than that. The Phoenicians, and the other Semitic peoples of Syria, used a simple graphic form that looked roughly like an upside-down V to represent the consonant ‘g’ sound (as in “go”). They named the form gimel, which was the Phoenician word for camel. Some contend this was because the upside-vdown V looked like the hump of a camel.

character study

Exclamation Point

T

Exclamation Point

imothy Dexter was a prominent citizen of eighteenth century New England, a businessman and sometime writer with a reputation as an eccentric. Dexter’s bestknown book, A Pickle for the Knowing Ones, was remarkable only for its complete lack of punctuation. To its second edition Dexter added a page filled with periods, commas, semicolons and other punctuation marks, so that readers could, according to Dexter, “pepper and salt it as they please.”

While to us it may seem that Dexter’s disregard for proper punctuation was one of his idiosyncrasies, this casual approach is absolutely in keeping with the heritage of our written language. The earliest hieroglyphic and alphabetic inscriptions had no punctuation symbols at all: no commas to indicate pauses, no periods between sentences. In fact, there weren’t even spaces between words. Nor did the early Greek and Roman writers use any form of punctuation.

It wasn’t till later, in formal inscriptions, that word divisions were indicated by a dot centered between words.

Still later, spaces were used in place of the dots, and by the seventh century the convention was quite common. In some early medieval manuscripts, two vertically aligned dots represented a full stop at the end of a sentence.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, quotation marks, the apostrophe, the dash, and the exclamation point were added to the basic set of punctuation marks in consistent use. The initial configuration of the exclamation point, which is descended from a logotype for the Latin word io (“joy”), was a capital I set over a lowercase ’o’. As with the question mark, the design of the exclamation point was gradually streamlined to its present form.Our repertoire of punctuation continues to expand. As recently as the 1960s, a new mark called the interrobang was proposed.

A ligature of the exclamation point and question mark, the interrobang would serve as a way to punctuate sentences like, “You did what?!”The basic form of the question mark was developed much later, in sixteenthcentury England. Most typographic historians contend that the design for the question mark was derived from an abbreviation of the Latin word quaestio, which simply means “what.” At first this symbol consisted of a capital Q atop a lowercase ‘o’.

character study

the letter “z”

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he twenty-sixth letter of our alphabet was the seventh letter in the Semitic alphabet. They called the letter “za” (pronounced “zag”) and drew it as a stylized dagger. The Phoenicians used roughly the same graphic sign, which they called “zayin” and which also meant a dagger or weapon. A similar symbol turns up in various other cultures, all having the same meaning.

Around 1000 B.C. the Phoenician zayin became the Greek “zeta.” The Greek character looked more like a dagger than the zayin did, but it didn’t bear much resemblance to the Z we currently use.

In fact, it looked a lot like our present capital I (especially as set in ITC Lubalin Graph, or another slab serif typeface).

The Romans adopted the zeta into their alphabet, but since the sound was not used in the Latin language the letter was eventually dropped, and the position of the seventh letter was given to the G. In fact, the Z might never have made it into our present-day alphabet, if not for a few stray Greek words that were incorporated into the Roman language after the Romans conquered the Greeks. In order to write these words a Z was required, and so, several centuries after it was first banished from the Roman alphabet, the Z was allowed to return. However, because the letter was not a part of the traditional Roman language, the Z was relegated to the last spot in the alphabetical hierarchy.

Charlamagne STD

During the reign of the Emperor Charlemagne in the eighth and ninth centuries, the use of classical roman letterforms was revived. These letterforms were the basis of the highly refined versal capitals of late tenth-century England, which were the inspiration for Carol Twombly’s 1989 Adobe Originals typeface. Charlemagne has spiky serifs, but retains clean lines and proportions.

It’s considerable charm makes it ideal for advertising, packaging, and other display uses that require a unique look.

ketch

Book

Terms Drop Cap Blackletter The Blackletter typeface (also sometimes referred to as Gothic, Fraktur or Old English) was used in the Guthenburg Bible, one of the first books printed in Europe. This style of typeface is recognizable by its dramatic thin and thick strokes, and in some fonts, the elaborate swirls on the serifs. Blackletter typefaces are based on early manuscript lettering.

Once upon a time, there was a letter at the start of the first paragraph of a text. It was bigger than the other letters, and, sometimes, it had different colors from the black of the text. It could even hide some symbol or some illustrations and was a way to introduce the reader to the text that followed.

At that time, books were hidden in the darkest rooms of religious places or castles, and the only light available to help readers when the sun was down was a candle and its dancing flame.

Serif Serifed typefaces were popular much earlier than sans-serif typefaces and include semi-structural details on many of the letters. People often refer to them as feet, although that is in no way a proper anatomical term when referring to typography.

Their are many different classifications for serifed typefaces, often named for their origins, including Grecian, Latin, Scotch, Scotch Modern, French Old Style, Spanish Old Style, Clarendon and Tuscan.

Some of these classifications can also be placed into broader classifications of typography including the styles below.

Egyptian Font In the early 1800s, when Napoleon returned from his three year expedition of Egypt all things Egyptian became the rage. The world was transfixed by cartouches, papyrus and the Pyramids. The type founders of the time chose to capitalize on the trend by naming their new font styles the Egyptian Hieroglyph Slab Serifs. I suppose the base of a cartouche does in some ways resemble the slab of a slab serif—but really there was no such thing as this type style, at least not in Egypt.

Raised Cap

Cursive While the history of recorded writing goes back thousands of years, we’ll focus solely on how cursive writing came about. Historians believe the Romans were one of the first to use written forms for corresponding and recording transactions., such as sales or stock. In the 600s, writing consisted mostly of upper case letters with some lower case letters mixed in, and it showed the telltale flow and curve of cursive.

Even before Gutenberg invented the craft of typography, fancy initials were used to begin chapters and decorate pages in medieval manuscripts. And while Gutenberg didn’t create initial letters to complement his fonts, he did leave a space in his typeset pages so these typographic embellishments could later be drawn in by hand.

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Reveresed

Reversing type – that is, placing light or white type against a darker background – is a useful way to add emphasis as well as to help develop a strong typographic hierarchy. A reverse headline can provide an inviting, eye-catching point of entry, signaling the viewer to “look here” before moving on to the other elements.

Woodtype Wood has been used for letterforms and illustrations dating back to the first known Chinese wood block print from 868 CE. The forerunner of the block print in China was the wooden stamp. The image on these stamps was most often that of the Buddha, and was quite small. Provided with handles to facilitate their use, they were not unlike the modern rubber-stamps of today. In Europe, large letters used in printing were carved out of wood because large metal type had a tendency to develop uneven surfaces, or crack, as it cooled.

Distressed The age of digital type has brought with it many advancements and timesavers, but too much perfection can get boring.

When your eye craves type that exhibits the inconsistencies of the human hand and the natural wear and tear of age, it’s time to explore distressed typefaces.

With their irregular contours and weathered appearance, these designs are a great way to return a natural, handmade charm to typography.

Illustrated Ligature

Display Type A display typeface is a typeface that is intended for use at large sizes for headings, rather than for extended passages of body text. Display typefaces will often have more eccentric and variable designs than the simple, relatively restrained typefaces generally used for body text.

Fraction A more attractive choice is to use fonts that have “expert sets,” or fraction fonts.

Families such as Centaur, Bembo and Minion offer these supplementary fonts which contain fractions, as well as other seldom-used but important characters, in a range of weights. The upside is that the fractions are design-sensitive and blend beautifully with the rest of your work. The downside is that you have to change fonts to access them.

Tracking Tracking (also known as letter spacing) is the adjustment of space for groups of letters and entire blocks of text. It can make text appear more airy or more dense and affects the appearance and readability of text. Tracking can be applied to small portions of text or an entire block at a time.

Decorative While serifed and sans-serif typefaces can often be used for text typesetting, there are a vast majority of fonts and typefaces whose legibility wanes when used in smaller point sizes. These typefaces are often developed with a specific use in mind and are designed for larger point size use in headlines, posters and billboards. Decorative is less of a classification and can include a wide variety of typefaces underneath the umbrella of the term.

In writing and typography, a ligature occurs where two or more graphemes or letters are joined as a single glyph.

An example is the character æ as used in English, in which the letters a and e are joined. The common ampersand developed from a ligature in which the handwritten Latin letters e and t were combined

Hairline Rule In typeface anatomy, a hairline is the thinnest stroke found in a specific typeface that consists of strokes of varying widths.

Hairline is often used to refer to a hairline rule, the thinnest graphivc rule (line) printable on a specific output device. Hair or hairline is also a type of serif, the minimum thickness for a serif.

Ampersand Ampersand. A stylized character of the Latin et used to represent the word and.

Definition: The typographic symbol used to designate the word and (& ) is the Latin symbol for et which means and. The name, ampersand , is believed to be derived from the phrase “and per se and.”

Calligraphy Letters associated with the art of calligraphy and the fonts developed from their production can be classified as calligraphic. Calligraphic letters can be, although do not have to be, classified as Chancery, Etruscan or Uncial. Chancery letters have slightly sloping narrow letters and were influential in the development of serif italics. Etruscan faces do not have lowercase letters and are based on an early form of Roman calligraphy in which the brush was held at a steep angle. The Celtic style, Uncial letters are created from holding the brush at an almost horizontal angle.

There is only one case in Uncial designs, although they did become the basis for the development of the roman lower case.

Didone

Dingbat The word “dingbat” is sometimes used to describe an addle-brained person, but typographically speaking, dingbats have both feet on the ground. A dingbat is a decorative element available in font format. Dingbats can be graphic elements such as squares, triangles, hearts, checkmarks, pinwheels, lightning bolts, arrows or stars. They can also be small illustrations of anything you can imagine: a pointing finger, a pencil, a pair of scissors.

The Didone font styles, which originate in France, first became popular at the turn of the 18th century.

The Didone name comes from combining two popular Didone typefaces, Didot and Bodoni, together.

The Didone typestyles, also called Moderns or Neoclassicals, have never really gone out of style since they are practically synonymous with elegant and sophisticated type design. You can see Didone typefaces in use on the cover of most major fashion magazines. Luxury brands like Cartier and Christian Dior use Didone typefaces for their logo.

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Museum

The Museum of Contemporary Typography Presents

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n the ensuing years A.M. Cassandre was to become the towering figure we now celebrate for this century’s singularly brilliant achievements in the art of the poster. In the totality of his professional career, Cassandre worked only a relatively short time as a poster and graphic designer. But in that rich period he produced a body of work that remains unmatched for its unique beauty and impact. Almost five decades later, after countless visual styles, movements, vogues, and fads, the lustre of Cassandre’s

Adolphe Jean Marie Mouron. He was born of French parents who resided in Kharkov, a famed Ukrainian city.

In 1915, when only 14 years old, he had the exceptional blessings of his parents to become a painter and was sent to Paris to study at the stiffly academic École Des Beaux Arts.

His post-École education included a period of study with Lucien Simon at the Académie Julian, followed by a period of compulsory military service.

Shortly thereafter he created the Au Bucheron poster, whose inspiration

accomplishments has not dimmed.

The details of Cassandre’s youth are as lean as his working philosophy. In the classic French tradition, Cassandre was the nom de plume he took instead of his original name,

Cassandre modestly maintained, sprung from a struggling artist’s effort to support himself. A contemporary, Maximilien Vox, in his monograph on Cassandre, characterized him in his mid-career as “a thinker and an engineer, a lover of nature and a reader of books; such he was then, such he is now. A puritan in our midst, a worshipper of all things beautiful.” This fortuitous combination of qualities can be seen in one way or another in almost every one of Cassandre’s magnificent posters.

The leap from the Bucheron poster in 1923 to the succeeding one for Pi Volo aperitif embraced a quantum jump. This poster, with its fusion of bird, glass, light and dark forms and its art deco lettering, demonstrates that Cassandre had assimilated the revolutionary ideas of shape and interpenetration of form developed in the cubist and abstract paintings of Gris, Braque, and Picasso. Barely a year later came the immortal “L’lntransigeant” truck poster. The forceful head and radiating telephonic lines of its composition created an indestructible image, and who today would be daring enough to truncate the product’s name as Cassandre did in 1924? In each succeeding year, Cassandre’s posters show an increasing innovation enhanced by breathtaking execution. Images so seemingly literal and so directly rendered took on a new dimension. A shipping poster depicted cargo being hoisted. Railway posters conveyed the essence of locomotion and the rectilinear

purity of tracks. The magic of these posters lay in their bigger-than-life imagery and Cassandre’s extraordinary sense of the dramatic. Every poster bore an invention in letterforms, fashioned as an integral part yet providing a visual bonus—lyrical, playful, geometric or decorative, and above all never banal. Perhaps in the Cassandre “symbology” it was the fusion of puritan and thinker that was preeminent, and in the memorable railway documents, the engineer heightened the alchemy. Who can forget the exquisite distillation of the “Étoile Du Nord” poster, in which the velocity of the northern express is vivified by the acute perspective of pristine tracks culminating in a white star—an image that leaves us listening for the haunting sound of the train’s whistle. Five years later, Cassandre’s oeuvre took on a new poetic tone. He combined photography and drawing in the now classic club-car poster for the French Railway System.

Typographical work from A.M. Casssandre

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about this brochure Design By

Christian Acosta

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The presence of typography both good and bad, can be seen everywhere.

BY MILTON GLASER

T

ypography makes at least two kinds of sense, if it makes any sense at all. It makes visual sense and historical sense. The visual side of typography is always on display, and materials for the study of its visual form are many and widespread. The history of letterforms and their usage is visible too, to those with access to manuscripts, inscriptions and old books, but from others it is largely hidden.

This book has therefore grown into something more than a short manual of typographic etiquette. It is the fruit of a lot of long walks in the wilderness of letters: in part a pocket field guide to the living wonders that

are found there, and in part a meditation on the ecological principles, survival techniques, and ethics that apply. The principles of typography as I understand them are not a set

of dead conventions but the tribal customs of the magic forest, where ancient voices speak from all directions and new ones move to unremembered forms.

lawrence ferlinghetti hayley williams kristen stewart volume eleven visual project lebron james in this issue: andy warhol sam smith mac miller pop!

andy warhol in this issue: visual project pop! mac miller volume eleven hayley williams sam smith kristen stewart lebron james lawrence ferlinghetti

in this issue: mac miller

pop!

kristen stewart lawrence ferlinghetti

andy warhol volume eleven

lebron james

visual project

sam smith

hayley williams

in this issue:

andy warhol

pop!

visual project

volume eleven

kristen stewart

mac miller lawrence ferlinghetti lebron james

hayley williams

sam smith

volume eleven

sam smith

kristen stewart

pop!

andy warhol

visual project

lebron james

in this issue:

lawrence ferlinghetti

hayley williams

mac miller

in this issue:

visual project

pop!

volume eleven

lawrence ferlinghetti mac miller hayley williams sam smith kristen stewart

andy warhol lebron james

lawrence ferlinghetti

pop!

hayley williams

volume eleven

in this issue:

:eussi siht ni

lebron james

andy warhol

visual project

kristen stewart

mac miller

sam smith

andy warhol

lebron james

volume eleven pop!

in this issue: visual project

lawrence ferlinghetti hayley williams sam smith

mac miller kristen stewart

in this issue:

pop!

volume eleven

mac miller visual project sam smith andy warhol lebron james kristen stewart hayley williams lawrence ferlinghetti

Fonts

Used

Menlo