SPACE - Rachel Blankenship

UNIVERSAL TYPOGRAPHY AND DESIGN

Fall 2014

Issue #1

Abundant Rachel Blankenship

Type Casting Steven Brower

Back to Basics John D. Berry

Grooming the Font Robert Bringhurst

Thoughts on Type and Design Stephan Sagmeister

Spot the Difference Emily King

Font Embedding Erik van Blokland

Designing the World We Know Paula Scher

From Type Snob to Macaroni Art Marian Bantjes

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Fall 2014 Issue #1 36 Pages

UNIVERSAL TYPOGRAPHY AND DESIGN

Hello Letter from the Publisher

about the details of typography that are often overlooked and why this must be fixed. Robert Bringhurst outlines the anatomy of a typeface in “Grooming the Font” and gives instructions for the proper way to clean up a typeface. And in our final article “Abundant” I’ll tell you all about a typographic installation that I made with my two friends, Abbey Osley

It’s so good to see you and thank you for being here!

and Monica Stauffer, so that perhaps you can be inspired to

This magazine that you are currently reading is SPACE and

use this knowledge to create your own typographic art and

it is a publication dedicated to all things type and design.

show the world how beautiful type can be.

The goal of this publication is to inform about typography

We also have a selection of columns to inform and

and design and to inspire you to take this knowledge and

inspire you. In three of our columns some prevalent graphic

create something amazing with it. Even the title SPACE re-

designers, including Stephen Sagmeister, Paula Scher and

fers to the idea of space in typography and the way that the

Marian Bantjes, answer questions concerning typography,

graphic designer must mold the space but it also refers to a

methods of creating typographic art, how they got started,

create space, one that we hope you’ll find while reading.

what inspires them and more. Our other two columns, “Spot

To help you find this creative space we’ve provided various articles and columns ranging in topics. This magazine features four articles on various subjects relating to

the Difference” and “Font Embedding” will inform you of comma policies and the perils of publishing fonts online.

It is my hope that these articles and columns will give

type. In the first, “Type Casting” Steven Brower takes us

you some new information that will entertain you, engage

through his beginnings in typography and his journey as

you, inform you and inspire you. With that, I salute you as

he learned some basic rules to design by and shares those

move forward through this plethora of type and design; I

rules with us. In “Back to Basics” John D. Barry informs us

wish you good luck and great designs!

Vicent van Gogh Editor in Cheif

Shel Silverstien Managing Editor

Mary Blair Creative Director

Leonardo Da Vinci Executive Director

Georgia O’Keefe Copy Editor

Pablo Picasso Assistant

Cover photo by Abbey Osley

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Manuscript Submission 8217 Emerald Boulevard, Big Windy, South Carolina, 29651-4849, US, (843) 023-4101

Customer Support (860) 585-3957

Thoughts on Type and Design Stephan Sagmeister

Type Casting

Column Column

Font Embedding Back to Basics Designing the World We Know

Cover Article

Column

Article

Spot the Difference

Article

Steven Brower

Column

Article

Column

table of contents

Emily King

Erik van Blokland

John D. Berry

Paula Scher

Grooming the Font Robert Bringhurst

From Type Snob to Macaroni Art Marian Bantjes

Abundant

Rachel Blankenship

4 6 14 15 16 20 22 30 32 3

Thoughts on Type and Design Stephan Sagmeister www.sagmeisterwalsh.com

Your handwriting is very distinctive. Do you consider it to be a typeface?

I am not obsessed with typefaces and find the selection of just the right one a rather tedious exercise.

Using my handwriting eliminates that process, personalizes the piece and can be interpreted as an anti-computer statement all in one easy move.

The series “Things I have learned in my life so far� is a typographical experiment. How does typography influence the transmission of the message?

The message is always very clear and straightforward, the typography much more ambiguous and open for interpretation. I found that by utilizing an open typographic approach combined with the clear message many viewers have an easier time relating their own experience. We do employ various typographic strategies from one project to another (within the series). Some are influenced by the environment they take place in, some by an outside person, some by personal experiences.

What do you think design students should be focused on?

They should concentrate to try out as many directions, possibilities and techniques as possible.

Even though this can be frustrating in the short term (as few masterpieces will be developed), the freedom to be able to utilize a whole array of strategies will be incredibly helpful as a professional. While in school, I dont think its helpful to use ones time to develop an original formal language, this can all be done later on.

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How would you describe the difference between a

impractical and it can be very difficult to drink from

graphic designer and an artist? You consciously

and it might have other functions than an ordinary

try to exceed the bounds of graphic design, but

water glass, it might have a function of representation

yet you seem very hesitant to take the title of

or it might tell me something about our time, but, in

artist. Why?

the end, in order to qualify as a glass it will also have

Well, I grew up as a designer, trained as a designer,

to hold fluid. And if I design it so wildly that it doesn’t

and always wanted to be a designer. Vienna was a

hold fluid anymore, well, then it becomes a sculpture

good city in which to become a designer in because

and we would have to talk about whether it is a good

there is no real hierarchy between the different

or bad sculpture. But I think functionality is central, and

applied and fine art directions. This is probably a

all of our work has a function even if some of it is quite

holdover from the turn of the last century, when art

removed from the regular promotional or informational

deco was big and the major players consciously did

function that so much graphic design has.

both. Kokoschka made posters, Klimt did murals for commercial use, Hoffman was involved with both design and art, and all lived under the same umbrella.

There is a wonderful Donald Judd quote: “Design has to work. Art does not.” Art can just be—it doesn’t really have to do anything—while design will have to function. This glass, for instance, can be extremely

All artwork by Stephen Sagmeister

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Type Casting Rules for good typography and how to break them

Steven Brower

Graphic Designer and Writer

My first job in book design was at New American

standing, in both the literary and design worlds, was

Library, a publisher of mass-market books. I was

the trade paper edition, a misnomer that does not

thrilled to be hired. It was exactly where I wanted

refer to a specific audience within an area of work,

to be. I loved the written word, and viewed this as

but, rather, to the second edition of the hardcover, or

my entrance into a world I wanted to participate in.

first edition, that sports a paperbound cover. Trade

Little did I suspect at the time that mass-market

paperbacks usually utilize the same interior printing

books, also known as “pocket” books 9they measure

as the hardcover, and are roughly the same size

approximately 4” x 7”, although I have yet to wear a

(generally, 6” x 9”).

pocket they fit comfortably into), were viewed in the

Mass-market books were not so lucky. The

design world as the tawdry stepchild of true literature

interior pages of the original edition were shrunk

and design, gaudy and unsophisticated. I came to

down, with no regard for the final type size or the

understand that this was due to the fact that mass-

eyes of the viewer. The interiors tended to be printed

market books, sold extensively in supermarkets

on cheap paper stock, prone to yellowing over time.

and convenience stores, had more in common with

The edges were often dyed to mask the different

soap detergent and cereal boxes than with their

grades of paper used. The covers were usually quite

much more dignified older brother, the hardcover first

loud, treated with a myriad of special effects (i.e.,

edition book. Indeed, the level of design of paperbacks

gold or silver foil, embossing and de-bossing, spot

was as slow to evolve as a box of Cheerios.

lamination, die cuts, metallic and Day-Glo pantone

On the other hand, hardcover books, as if dressed in evening attire, wore elegant and sophisticated jackets. Next in line in terms of

colors, thermography, and even holography), all designed to jump out at you and into your shopping cart as you walk down the aisle. The tradition of

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extend it by hand, which created less distortion but still odd-looking faces. Once, I was instructed by the art director to cut the serifs off a face, to suit his whim. It’s a good thing there is no criminal prosecution for type abuse.

The art director usually commissioned the art for these titles. Therefore, the job of the designers was to find the “appropriate” type solution that worked with these illustrations to create the package. It was here that I learned my earliest lessons in the clichés of typography. Mass-market paperbacks are divided into different genres, distinct categories that define their audience and subject matter. Though they were unspoken rules, handed down from generation to generation, here is what I learned about type during my employ: Artwork by Stella Bjorg

mass-market covers had more in common with, and, perhaps, for the most part is the descendant of, pulp magazine covers of earlier decades, with their colorful titles and over-the-top illustrations, than

Typefaces

Genre

Square serif

Western

Script and cursive

Romance

LED faces

Science Fiction

Nueland

African (in spite of the fact that the typeface is of

that of its more stylish, larger, and more expensive cousins.

What I Learned So, when I made my entry into the elite world

Latin

Mystery

Fat, round serif faces Children’s Sans serif

Nonfiction

market house. I believed I would be afforded a good

Hand scrawl

Horror

opportunity to learn something about type and image.

1950s bouncy type

Humor/Teen titles

of literature, I began in the “bullpen” of a mass-

Indeed, in my short tenure there, I employed more display typefaces in a year and a half than I will in the rest of my lifetime. And, I abused type more than I ever dreamed possible.

There, type was always condensed or stretched so the height would be greater in a small format. The problem was that the face itself became distorted, as if it was put on the inquisitionist rack, with the horizontals remaining “thick” and the verticals thinning out. Back then, when type was “spec’d” and sent out to a typesetter, there was a standing order at the type house to condense all type for our company 20 percent. Sometimes, we would cut the type and

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German origin)

And so it went. Every month, we were given five to six titles we were responsible for, and every month, new variations on old themes hung up on the wall.

For a brief period I was assigned all romance titles, which, themselves, were divided into subgenres (historical, regency, contemporary, etc). I made the conscious decision to create the very best romance covers around. Sure, I would use script and cursive type, but I would use better script and cursive type, so distinctive, elegant, and beautiful that I, or anyone else, would recognize the difference immediately.

(When, six months after I left the job, I went to view my achievements at the local K-Mart, I could not

pick out any of my designs from all the rest on the bookracks.)

Soon after, I graduated to art director of a small

Eventually, my eye began to develop, and my awareness and appreciate of good typography increased. I soon learned the pitfalls that most

publishing house. The problem was, I still knew

novice designers fall into, like utilizing a quirky

little of and had little confidence in, typography.

novelty face does not equal creativity and usually

However, by this time, I knew I knew little about typography. My solution, therefore, was to create images that contained the type as an integral part of the image, in a play on vernacular design, thereby avoiding the issue entirely. Thus began a

calls attention to the wrong aspects of the solution.

series of collaborations with talented illustrators

quote Eric Gill, as much “as any sculpture or painted

and photographers, in which the typography of the

picture.” I developed an appreciation for the rules of

jacket was incorporated as part of the illustration.

typography.

Mystery books especially lent themselves well to this

The Rules

endeavor. A nice thing about this approach is that it has a certain informality and familiarity with the audience. It also made my job easier, because I did not have to paste up much type for the cover (as one had to do back in the days of t-squares and wax), since it was, for the most part, self-contained within the illustration. This may seem like laziness on my part, but hey, I was busy.

The importance of good letterspacing became paramount. Finding the right combination of a serif and sans serif face to evoke the mood of the material within was now my primary concern. The beauty of a classically rendered letterform now moved me, to

As I’ve said, it is a common mistake among young designers to think a quirky novelty face equals creativity. Of course, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. If anything, for the viewer, it has the opposite of the intended effect. Rather than being the total sum of individual expression, it simply calls attention to itself, detracting from, rather than adding to, the content of the piece. It is no substitute for a wellreasoned conceptual solution to the design problem at hand.

Artwork by Olivia Steele

As a general rule, no more than two faces should be utilized in any given design, usually the combination of a serif face and a sans serif face.

There are thousands to choose from, but I find I have reduced the list to five or six in each category that I have used as a body text throughout my career:

Serif Bodoni Caslon Cheltenham Garamond

Sans Serif Franklin Gothic Futura Gill Sans News Gothic Trade Gothic

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Artwork by Rylsee

You should never condense or extend type. As I stated, this leads to unwanted distortions. Much care and consideration went into the design of these faces, and they should be treated with respect. There are thousands of condensed faces to choose from without resorting to the horizontal and vertical scale functions.

Do not use text type as display. Even though the computer will enlarge the top beyond the type designer’s intentions, this may result in distortions. Do not use display type as text. Often, display type that looks great large can be difficult to read when small.

Do not stack type. The result is odd-looking spacing that looks as if it is about to tumble on top of itself. The thinness of the letter I is no match for the heft of an O sitting on top of it. As always, there are ways to achieve stacking successfully, but this requires care. Also, as I noted, much care should be given to letterspacing the characters of each word.

This is not as simple as it seems. The computer settings for type are rife with inconsistencies that need to be corrected optically. Certain combinations of letterforms are more difficult to adjust than others. It is paramount that even optical (as opposed to actual) spacing is achieved, regardless of the openness or closeness of the kerning. It helps if you view the setting upside down, or backwards on a light box or sun-filled window, or squint at the copy to achieve satisfactory spacing.

I would caution you in the judicious use of drop

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shadows. Shadows these days can be rendered

right. Most books are set justified, while magazines

easily in programs such as Adobe’s Photoshop

are often flush left, rag right. Centered copy will

and Illustrator, and convincingly, too. The problem

appear more relaxed than asymmetrical copy. Large

is, it is so easily done that it is overdone. Thus, the

blocks of centered type can create odd-looking

wholesale usage of soft drop shadows has become

shapes that detract from the copy contained within.

the typographic equivalent of clip art. Viewers know

Another thing to consider is the point size and

they have seen it before. Rather than being evocative,

width of body copy. The tendency in recent times

it mainly evokes the program it was created in.

is to make type smaller and smaller, regardless of

Hard drop shadows, ones that are 100 percent

the intended audience. However, the whole purpose

of a color, are easily achieved in Quark and placed

of text is that it be read. A magazine covering

behind the main text. This method is generally

contemporary music is different from the magazine

employed when the main text is not reading against

for The American Association of Retired Persons.

the background, because of the neutral tone or an

It is also common today to see very wide columns

image that varies in tone from dark to light. The

of text, with the copy set at a small point size. The

handed-down wisdom is: If you need a drop shadow

problem is that a very wide column is hard to read

to make it read, the piece isn’t working. These solid

because it forces the eye to move back and forth, tiring

drop shadows always look artificial, since, in reality,

the reader. On the other hand, a very narrow measure

there is no such thing as a solid drop shadow. There

also is objectionable, because the phrases and

should be a better solution to readability. Perhaps

words are too cut up, with the eye jumping from line

the type should be paneled or outlined. There are an

to line. We, as readers, do not read letter by letter, or

infinite number of possible variations.

even word by word, but, rather, phrase by phrase. A

If you must use a solid drop shadow, it should never be a color. Have you ever seen a shadow in life that is blue, yellow, or green? It should certainly

consensus favors an average of ten to twelve words per line.1 Lastly, too much leading between lines also

never be white. Why would a shadow be 100 percent

makes the reader work too hard jumping from line to

lighter than what is, in theory, casting a shadow?

line, while too little leading makes it hard for the reader

White shadows create a hole in the background, and

to discern where one line ends and another begins.

draw the eye to the shadow, and not where you want

The audience should always be paramount in the

it to go: the text.

designer’s approach, and it is the audience – not the

Justified text looks more formal than flush left, rag

whim of the designer, or even the client – that defines

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the level of difficulty and ease with which a piece is

decade, and, again, after the advent of the Macintosh

read. As Eric Gill said in 1931, “A book is primarily a

computer. Still, Jeffery Keedy, a contemporary type

thing to be read.”2

designer whose work appears regularly in Emigre,

A final consideration is the size of type. As a rule

concurs: “Good designers can make use of almost

of thumb, mass-market books tend to be 8 point for

anything. The typeface is the point of departure, not

reasons of space. A clothbound book, magazine, or

the destination.” Note the caveat “almost.” Still, bad

newspaper usually falls into the 9.5 point to 12 point

use of the good type is much less desirable than

range. Oversized art books employ larger sizes –

good use of bad type.

generally, 14 point to 18 point or more.

Choosing the right typeface for your design

When I first began publishing, a coworker decided to let me in on the “secrets” of picking

can be time-consuming. There are thousands to

the appropriate face. “If you get a book on Lincoln

choose from. Questions about. Is the face legible

to design”, he advised, “look up an appropriate

at the setting I want? Does it evoke what I want it to

typeface in the index of the type specimen book.” He

evoke? Is it appropriate to the subject matter? There

proceeded to do so. “Ah, here we go – ‘Log Cabin!’”

are no easy answers. When a student of mine used

While, on the extremely rare occasion, I have found

Clarendon in a self-promotion piece, I questioned

this to be a useful method, it’s a good general rule of

why he chose a face that has 1950s connotations,

what not to do.

mainly in connection with Reid Miles’ Blue note album covers. He answered, “Because I thought it was cool.”

I lectured him profusely on selecting type simple based on its “coolness”. Later, I relayed the incident to Seymour Chwast, of the legendary Pushpin Group (formerly Pushpin Studios). He observed that

Notes 1. Eric Gill, “An Essay on Typography” (Sheed and Ward, 1931), p. 136; (Godine, 1988).

2 and 3. Richard Hendel, On Book Design (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998).

Adapted from Publication Design (Delmar Learning, 2004).

Clarendon is actually a Victorian face, which he and his peers revived as young designers in the 1950s.

When I asked him why they chose to bring this arcane face back to life, he replied, “Because we

thought it was cool.”

Breaking the Rules Of course, there are always exceptions to the rules. An infinite number of faces can be used within one design, particularly when you employ a broadside-style type solution, a style that developed with the woodtype settings of the nineteenth century.

Another style, utilizing a myriad of faces, is that influenced by the Futurist and Dada movements of the early twentieth century. As Robert N. Jones stated in an article in the May 1960 issue of Print magazine: “It is my belief that there has never been a typeface that is so badly designed that it could not be handsomely and effectively used in the ads of the right…designer.”3 Of course, this was before the novelty type explosion that took place later that

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Steven Brower is an American graphic designer, and writer. His work appears regularly in international and national design annuals and books on design, and he writes for several publications. Brower is currently on the faculty of Marywood University in Scranton, Pennsylvania and The School of Visual Arts in New York City. During his tenure as Creative Director at Print, the magazine garnered two National Magazine Awards for General Excellence and a Gold and Silver award from the Society of Publication Designers. His work has been honored by AIGA, the Art Directors Club, the American Center for Design, the BRNO Biennale Association, and the Type Directors Club, among others. He has been an art director at the New York Times and The Nation, and his work is in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution.

Artworks by Steven Brower

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Spot the Difference Emily King

kingdesignoffice.com

On the left is the cover of the Air album 10 000

to the Air cover is mysterious. Designing the logo,

design group Abäke. On the right is the US version

Abäke have not chosen a font suited for skim reading.

of the same cover, still with logo design and layout by

It takes at least a couple of moments to figure out that

Abäke, but with the intrusion of an uninvited comma.

the last word says ‘legend’ and the ‘hz’ is decipherable

It’s only a little thing, barely visible really, but

only if you know it in advance. Why then make it

since when were logos subject to editing? No one

possible to take in 10,000 at a glance – to stop you

ever tried to full stops between the I, B and M of

confusing it with that other work ‘1,000 hz legend’?

Paul Rand’s famous logo, equally no one capitalised

Abäke themselves are very relaxed about the

the a of abc, another of Rand’s designs. It might

freeloading comma. Not wishing to create a rigid,

have been correct punctuation, but it would have

all-encompassing Air identity scheme and with the

had nothing to do with the workings of a large-scale

belief that meaning slips and slides between cultures

corporate identity. In Rand’s grand schemes letters

anyway, they have taken the view that legislating

are wrenched from their normal place and, through

against this pause would be pointless. But this chilled

design, taken to an alternative location where the

attitude isn’t entirely reflective of the relationship

rules of grammar and punctuation mean little and

between designers and editors. There is many a

corporate value is all. The ambitions of Air and Abäke

struggle between those who want to make meaning

are not equivalent to those of Rand and IBM, but you

clear with full stops, commas and colons and those

get the general idea.

who believe that other graphic and typographic devices

The reason that commas are inserted into

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is obligatory. But obligatory or not, to apply the style

hz legend with logo design and layout by the graphic

do the trick. Eventually it boils down to a difference

numbers is to make them easier to read. In the UK

between reading and looking. Editors may well find it

this style is optional (this magazine does) in the US it

appalling, but not all type is there to be read.

Font Embedding Erik van Blokland

fontshop.com/designers/erik-van-blokland

In 1996 Erik van Blokland relays the problems

licenses for fonts or even policing the networks with

with font embedding, which a decade later has little

font-bots is not going to keep people from taking and

success…

using the fonts they find online. The web needs good

Current proposals to include fonts in the web

graphic design and typography. The web also needs

do not address intellectual property issues properly.

ways to reassure authors of all disciplines and make

Fonts embedded in webpages can be taken out and

them confident their works do not become public

used elsewhere by anyone who wants to. OpenType

domain when published online (unless they want it

does not really change that, it just means another

themselves of course). For fonts that could mean

format that can be taken out with the same ease.

developing a smarter format. Not just another data

Although the companies involved in webfonts, such

structure with points in it, but a real application. Such

as Adobe and Microsoft, talk a lot about ‘protecting

a font can interact with users, perform typographic

intellectual property’, they do not have a clue on how

tricks that were previously unthinkable. The font

to go about it. But they seem to be willing to risk their

would also be able to protect itself and report to the

libraries anyway, by porting existing technology like

owner. When it is tampered with it dies, when it is

PDF to a networked environment. Problems with font

copied it will make its new owner register first. In the

security that might have been acceptable in the office

mean time, HTML support for some form of bitmap

world scale up exponentially on the net and become

fonts (although not perfect) will provide some time to

a threat to the type industry.

develop something better for use on webs and nets

The safety of embedded fonts in current

that satisfies both designers and users of type.

proposals relies mostly on the honesty of the client software. Browser builders are kindly urged to not take advantage of the lack of protection, but that leaves a lot of opportunity to more dubious ‘developers’ to build utilities that suck fonts from webpages and present them in some usable format. It is naive to think this will not happen. Web documents with embedded fonts will cause broadcasting of proprietary typefaces.

Although it is possible to think of new structures of payment for typefaces along these lines, there are no concrete proposals in this direction. In contrast, the technology to include fonts in webpages is a reality: though perhaps not available to everybody right now, it works and can be made available to the general public. Embedding is a threat to all type

Artwork by Lauren Hom

manufacturers and type designers. Most of typeface sales are still for printing and other more conventional uses. Broadcasting the same fonts online will affect the conventional market as well. Why buy a font if you got it for free last night? Adapting end-user

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Back to Basics Stopping Sloppy Typography

John D. Berry Editor and Typographer

lookin’ at me?” The style of the letters is traditional,

To anyone with any sensitivity to the shapes of letters, whether they know the terms of typesetting or not, this straight apostrophe is like a fart in a symphony – boorish, crude, out of place, and distracting.

with serifs; it looks like a line of dialogue, which is

The normal quotation marks at the beginning and

exactly what it’s supposed to look like. Since this is a

end of the sentence just serve to make the loud

billboard, and that text is the entire message of the

“blat!” of the apostrophe stand out. If that had been

billboard, it’s a witty comment on the fact that you

the purpose of the billboard, it would have been

are looking at “me” – that is, the message on the

very effective. But unless the billboards along

billboard – as you drive past.

Highway 101 have become scene of an exercise in

There’s billboard along the freeway in San Francisco that’s entirely typographic, and very simple.

Against a bright blue background, white letters spell out a single short line, set in quotation marks: “Are you

But, as my partner and I drove past and spotted

typographic irony, it’s just a big ol’ mistake. Really

this billboard for the first time, we both simultaneously

big, and right out there in plain sight.

voiced the same response: “No, I’m looking at your

The Devil is in the Details

apostrophe!”

The quotation marks around the sentence are real quotation marks, which blend in with the style of the lettering – “typographers’ quotes,” as they’re sometimes called – but the apostrophe at the end of “lookin’” is, disconcertingly, a single “typewriter quote”, a straight up-and-down line with a rounded top and teardrop tail at the bottom.

Artwork by Dan Roach

This may be a particularly large-scale example, but it’s not unusual. Too much of the signage and printed matter that we read – and that we, if we’re designers or typographers, create – is riddled with mistakes like this. It seems that an amazing number of people responsible for creating graphic matter are incapable of noticing when they get the type wrong.

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This should not be so. These fine points ought to be covered in every basic class in typography, and

You see this in abbreviated dates (‘99, ‘01) and in

basic typography ought to be part of the education

colloquial spellings, like ‘em for them. The program

of every graphic designer. But clearly, this isn’t the

can turn straight quotes into typographers’ quotes

case – or else a lot of designers skipped that part of

automatically, making any quotation mark at the start

the class, or have simply forgotten what they once

of a word into an open quote, and any quotation mark

learned about type. Or, they naively believe the

at the end of a word into a closed quote, but it has no

software they use will do the job for them.

way of telling that they apostrophe at the beginning

Maybe it’s time for a nationwide – no, worldwide – program of remedial courses in using type.

Automated Errors As my own small gesture toward improvement, I’ll point out a couple of the more obvious problems – in the hope that maybe, maybe, they’ll become slightly less commonplace, at least for awhile.

Typewriter quotes and straight apostrophes are

of ‘em isn’t supposed to be a single open quote, so it changes it into one.

The only way to catch this is to make the correction by hand – every time.

Anemic Type The other rude noise that has become common in the symphony hall is fake small caps. Small caps are a wonderful thing, very useful and sometimes

actually on the wane, thanks to word-processing

elegant; fake small caps are a distraction and an

programs and page-layout programs that offer

abomination.

the option of automatically changing them to

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backwards, as a single open quotation mark.

Fake caps are what you get when you use a

typographers’ quotes on they fly. (I’, not sure what

program’s “small caps” command. The software

has made the phenomenon I spotted on that billboard

just shrinks the full-size capital letters down by a

so common, but I’ve noticed a lot of examples

predetermined percentage – which gives you a bunch

recently of text where the double quotation marks

of small, spindly-looking caps all huddled together in

are correct but the apostrophes are straight.) But

the middle of the text. If the design calls for caps and

those same automatic typesetting routines have

small caps – that is, small caps for the word but a

created another almost universal mistake: where

full cap for the first letter – it’s even worse, since the

an apostrophe at the beginning of a word appears

full-size caps draw attention to themselves because

they look so much heavier than the smaller caps

at least should) with a word in all caps; it makes the

next to them. (If you’re using caps and small caps to

word much more readable.

spell out an acronym, this might make sense; in that

Pay Attention, Now

case, you might want the initial caps to stand out.

Otherwise, it’s silly. (And – here comes that word again – distracting.)

If it weren’t for a single exception, I’d advise everyone to just forget about the “small caps” command – forget it ever existed, and never, ever, touch it again. (The exception is Adobe InDesign, which is smart enough to find the real small caps in an OpenType font that includes them, and use them when the “small caps” command is invoked.

Unfortunately, InDesign isn’t smart enough, or independent enough, to say, “No, thanks,” when you invoke “small caps” in a font that doesn’t actually

There are plenty of other bits of remedial typesetting that we ought to study, but those will do for now. The obvious corollary to all this is,

to produce well-typeset words, whether in a single phrase on a billboard or several pages of text, you have to pay attention.

Proofread. Proofread again. Don’t trust the defaults of any program you use. Look at good typesetting and figure out how it was done, then do it yourself. Don’t be sloppy. Aim for the best.

Words to live by, I suppose. And, certainly, words to set type by.

have any. It just goes ahead and makes those familiar old fake small caps.) You don’t really need small caps at all, in most typesetting situations; small caps are a typographic refinement, not a crutch. If you’re going to use them, use a real small caps: properly designed letters with the form of caps, but usually a little wider, only as tall as the x-height or a little taller, and with stroke weights that match the weight of the lowercase and the full caps of the same typeface. Make sure you’re using a typeface that has true small caps, if you want small caps. Letterspace them a little, and set them slightly loose, the same way you would (or

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Designing the World We Know Paula Scher

www.paulaschermaps.com

How did you get to designing album covers for CBS & Atlantic in the 70s? What was the first album cover you designed?

I worked at CBS Records designing small space ads for the Columbia and Epic labels. The Art Director of Atlantic Records saw them and offered me a job at Atlantic. I took the job because I would get to design record covers as well as ads. The first cover I designed was a John Coltrane album called Alternate Takes. I put type over a David Stone Martin illustration. I was told I had to use the illustration because it came from Coltrane’s management. I hated the illustration. I worked at Atlantic for one year and was then hired back to CBS Records to be East Coast Art Director of album covers.

What was one of the very first inspirational artworks or designs you remember seeing that left a lasting impression?

I remember seeing the cover for the Broadway show album of South Pacific. Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza’s head shots were stripped into the shape of an anchor.

I didn’t recognized it as an anchor and wondered why their heads had a funny shape. I remember it vividly to this day. I think it was designed by Alex Steinweiss.

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How did you get into editorial design? What notable photographers have you worked with?

When I left CBS Records, where I worked for 10 years, I designed hundreds of album covers but I had no experience designing magazines. Time Inc. hired me to design a prototype for a new magazine they were trying to launch called Quality. They also had 4 or 5 other designers working on prototypes and I was the “out of the box” choice, because I had no magazine experience. Time Inc. retained me to design another magazine prototype, but they never launched either publication. After that I had “magazine experience”. I never worked with famous photographers designing magazines. The budgets were always too low. However, I worked with Avedon, Scavullo and Irving Penn when I art directed album covers.

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22

Grooming the Font Thoughts on tuning up type

Robert Bringhurst Poet, Typographer and Author

Writing begins with the making of meaningful

professional. If you are the editor of a magazine

marks. That is to say, leaving the traces of

or the manager of a publishing house, that is

meaningful gestures. Typography begins with arranging meaningful marks that are already made. In that respect, the practice of typography is like playing the piano – an instrument quite different from the human voice. On the piano, the notes are already fixed, although their order, duration and amplitude are not. The notes are fixed but they can be endlessly rearranged, into meaningful music or meaningless noise.

probably the best way to proceed. But devoted

Pianos, however, need to be tuned. The same

typographers, like lutenists and guitarists, often feel that they themselves must tune the instruments they play.

LEGAL CONSIDER ATIONS Check the license before tuning a digital font Digital fonts are usually licensed to the user, not sold outright, and the license terms vary. Some manufacturers claim to believe that improving a font produced by them is an infringement of their

is true of fonts. To put this in more literary terms,

rights. No one believes that tuning a piano or

fonts need to be edited just as carefully as texts

pumping up the tires of a car infringes on the rights

do – and may need to be re-edited, like texts, when

of the manufacturer – and this is true no matter

their circumstances change. The editing of fonts,

whether the car or the piano has been rented,

like the editing of texts, begins before their birth

leased or purchased. Printing type was treated the

and never ends.

same way from Bí Shēng’s time until the 1980s.

You may prefer to entrust the editing of your fonts, like the tuning of your piano, to a

Generally speaking, metal type and phototype are treated that way still. In the digital realm, where

23

the font is wholly intangible, those older notions of

the only legal way to tune it is through a software

ownership are under pressure to change.

override. For example, you can use an external

The Linotype Library’s standard font license

kerning editor to override the kerning table built

says that “You may modify the Font-Software to

into the font. This is the least elegant way to do it,

satisfy your design requirements.” FontShop’s

but a multitude of errors in fitting and kerning can

standard license has a similar provision: “You do

be masked, if need be, by this means.

have the right to modify and alter Font Software for your customary personal and business use,

ETHICAL & AESTHETIC CONSIDER ATIONS

but not for resale or further distribution.” Adobe’s

If it ain’t broke…

and Agfa Monotype’s licenses contain no such

Any part of the font can be tuned – lettershapes,

provision. Monotype’s says instead that “You may

character set, character encoding, fitting and

not alter Font Software for the purpose of adding

sidebearings, kerning table, hinting, and, in an

any functionality…You agree not to adapt, modify,

OpenType font, rules governing character substitution.

alter, translate, convert, or otherwise change the

What doesn’t need tuning or fixing shouldn’t be

Font Software….”

touched. If you want to revise the font just for the sake

If your license forbids improving the font itself,

of revising it, you might do better to design your own instead. And if you hack up someone else’s font for practice, like a biology student cutting up at frog, you might cremate or bury the results.

If the font is out of tune, fix it once and for all One way to refine the typography of a text to work your way through it line by line, putting space in here, removing it there, and repositioning errant characters one by one. But if these refinements are made to the font itself, you will never need to make them again. They are done for good.

Respect the text first of all, the letterforms second, the type designer third, the foundry fourth The needs of the text should take precedence over the layout of the font, the integrity of the letterforms over the ego of the designer, the artistic sensibility of the designer over the foundry’s desire for profit, and the founder’s craft over a good deal else.

Keep on fixing Check every text you set to see where improvements can be made. Then return to the font and make them. Little by little, you and the instrument – the font, that is – will fuse, and the type you set will start to sing. Remember, though, this process never ends. There is no such thing as the perfect font.

24

HONING THE CHAR ACTER SET If there are defective glyphs, mend them If the basic lettershapes of your font are poorly drawn, it is probably better to abandon it rather than edit it. But many fonts combine superb basic letterforms with alien or sloppy supplementary characters. Where this is the case, you can usually rest assured that the basic letterforms are the work of a real designer, whose craftsmanship merits respect, and that the supplementary characters were added by an inattentive foundry employee.

The latter’s errors should be remedied at once.

You may find for example that analphabetic characters such as @ + ± × = . - − © are too big or too small, too light or too dark, too high or too low, or are otherwise out of tune with the basic alphabet. You may also find that diacritics in glyphs such as å ç é ñ ô ü are poorly drawn, poorly positioned, or out of scale with the letterforms.

Artwork by Darren Booth

I+2=3 <9> 6±I 2×4 a + b = c a@b © 2007 I+2=3 <9> 6±I 2×4 a + b = c a@b © 2007 José Mendoza y Almeida’s Photina is an excellent piece of design, but in every weight and style of Monotype digital Photina, as issued by the foundry,

áèïû→ áèïû

If text figures, ligatures or other glyphs you need on a regular basis don’t reside on the base font, move them For readable text, you almost always need text

arithmetical signs and other analphabetics are out of

figures, but most digital fonts are sold with titling

scale and out of position, and the copyright symbol and

figures instead. Most digital fonts also include the

at sign are alien to the font. The raw versions are shown

ligatures fi and fl but not ff, ffi, fj or ffj. You may find at

in grey, corrected versions in black.

least some of the missing glyphs on a supplementary

éùôã → éùôã Frederic Goudy’s Kennerley is a homely but

font (an ‘expert font’), but that is not enough. Put all the basic glyphs together on the base font.

If, like a good Renaissance typographer, you

quite pleasant type, useful for many purposes, but in

use only upright parentheses and brackets, copy

Lanston’s digital version, the letterforms are burdened

the upright forms from the roman to the italic font.

with some preposterous diacritics. Above left: four

Only then can they be kerned and spaced correctly

accented sorts are issued by the foundry. Above right:

without fuss.

corrected versions. All fonts are candidates for similar

If glyphs you need are missing altogether, make them.

improvement. Below left: four accented sorts from Robert

Standard ISO digital text fonts (PostScript or

Slimbach’s carefully honed Minion, as originally issued by

TrueType) have 256 slots and carry a basic set of

Adobe in 1989. Below right: the same glyphs revised by

Western European characters. Eastern European

Slimbach ten years later, while preparing the OpenType

characters such as ą ć đ ė ğ ħ ī ň ő ŗ ș ť ů are usually

version of the face.

missing. So are the Welsh sorts ŵ and ŷ, and host

25

of characters needed for African, Asian and Native American languages.

The components required to make these

has as much to do with editorial style as with typographic design. Unless your fonts are custom

characters may be present on the font, and

made, neither the type designer nor the founder can

assembling the pieces is not hard, but you need

know what you need to prefer. I habitually increase

a place to put whatever characters you make. If

the left sidebearing of semicolon, colon, question

you need only a few and do not care about system

and exclamation marks, and the inner bearings of

compatibility, you can place them in wasted slots –

guillemets and parentheses, in search of a kind

e.g. the ^ < > \ | ~ ` positions, which are accessible

of Channel Island compromise: neither the tight

directly from the keyboard, or slots such as ¢

fitting preferred by most Anglophone editors nor

÷123 ™ 0/00 1/1, which can be reached through

the wide-open spacing customary in France. If

insertion utilities or by typing character codes or by

I worked in French all the time, I might increase

customizing the keyboard.

these sidebearings further.

If you need to add many such characters, you will need to make a supplementary font or, better yet, an enlarged font (TrueType or OpenType). If these are for your own use only, the extra characters can be placed wherever you wish. If the fonts are to be shared, every new glyph should be labeled with its PostScript name and Unicode number.

Check and correct the sidebearings The spacing of letters is part of the essence of their design. A well-made font should need little adjustment, except for refining the kerning.

Remember, however, that kerning tables exist for the sake of problematical sequences such as f*, gy, “A, To, Va and 74. If you find that simple pairs such as oo or oe require kerning, this is a sign that the letters are poorly fitted. It is better to correct the sidebearings than to write a bloated kerning table.

26

The spacing of many analphabetics, however,

abc: def; ghx? klm! <<non>> abc: def; ghx? klm! <<hmm>> abç: déf; ghx? klm! <<oui>> Three options for the spacing of basic analphabetics in Monotype digital Centaur: foundry issue (top); French spacing (bottom); and something in between. Making such adjustments one by one by the insertion of fixed spaces can be tedious. It is easier by far, if you know what you want and you want it consistently, to incorporate your preferences into the font.

Refine the kerning table Digital type can be printed in three dimensions, suing zinc or polymer plates, and metal type can be printed flat, from photos or scans of the letterpress proofs. Usually, however, metal type is printed in

three dimensions and digital type is printed in two.

(a(s(d(f(g(h)j)k)l … )a)s)d)f)g … -1-2-3-4-5 …

Two-dimensional type can be printed more cleanly

TqTwTeTrTtTyTuTiToTp … and so on. This will take

and sharply than three-dimensional type, but the

several hours for a standard ISO font. For a full

gain in sharpness rarely equals what is lost in

pan-European font, it will take several days.

depth and texture. A digital page is therefore apt to

Class-based kerning (now a standard capability

look aenemic next to a page printed directly from

of font editing software) can be used to speed the

handset metal.

process. In class-based kerning, similar letters,

This imbalance can be addressed by going

such as a á â ä à å ā ă ä ą, are treated as one and

deeper into two dimensions. Digital type is capable

kerned alike. This is an excellent way to begin when

of refinements of spacing and kerning beyond

you are kerning a large font, but not a way to finish.

those attainable in metal, and the primary means

The combinations Ta and Tä, Ti and T ï, il and íl, i)

of achieving this refinement is the kerning table.

and ï), are likely to require different treatment.

Always check the sidebearings of figures

Kerning sequences such as Tp, Tt and f( may

and letters before you edit the kerning table.

seem to you absurd, but they can and do occur in

Sidebearings can be checked quickly for errors

legitimate text. (Tpig is the name of a town in the

by disabling kerning and setting characters, at

mountains of Dagestan, near the southern tip of

ample size, in pairs: 11223344…qqwweerrttyy….

the Russian Federation; Ttanuu is an important

If the spacing within the pairs appears to vary, or

historical site on the British Columbia coast;

if it appears consistently cramped or loose, the

sequences such as y = f(x) occur routinely in

sidebearings probably need to be changed.

mathematics.) If you know what texts you wish to

The function of a kerning table s to achieve

set with a given font, and know that combinations

what perfect sidebearings cannot. A thorough

such as these will never occur, you can certainly

check of the kerning table therefore involves

omit them from the table. But if you are preparing

checking all feasible permutations of characters:

a font for general use, even in a single language,

1213141516 … qwqeqrqtqyquqiqoqpq …

remember that it should accommodate the

27

occasional foreign phrase and the names of real

glyphs: quotation marks, apostrophe, the letters

and fictional people, places and things. These

A, T, V, W, Y, and often to the numerals 1, 3, 5. It

can involve some unusual combinations. (A few

is not, however, normally kerned more than a half

additional examples: McTavish, FitzWilliam,

either to or away from a preceding lowercase f in

O’Quinn, dogfish, jack o’-lantern, Hallowe’en.)

either roman or italic.

It is also wise to check the font by running a

A cautionary example. Most of the Monotype

test file – a specially written text designed to hunt

digital revivals I have tested over the years have

out missing or malformed characters and kerning

serious flaws in the kerning tables. One problem in

pairs that are either too tight or too loose. On

particular recurs in Monotype Baskerville, Centaur

pages 204 – 205 is a short example of such a test

& Arrighi, Dante, Fournier, Gill Sans, Poliphilus

file, showing the difference between an ungroomed

& Blado, Van Dijck and other masterworks in the

font and a groomed one.

Monotype collection. These are well-tired faces

It is nothing unusual for a well-groomed ISO

of superb design – yet in defiance of tradition,

font (which might contain around two hundred

the maker’s kerning tables call for a large space

working characters) to have a kerning table listing

(as much as M/4) to be added whenever the f is

a thousands pairs. Kerning instructions for large

followed by a word space. The result is a large

OpenType fonts are usually stored in a different

white blotch after every word ending in f unless a

form, but if converted to tabular form, the kerning

mark of punctuation intervenes.

data for a pan-European Latin font may easily

Is it east of the sun

reach 30,000 pairs. For a well-groomed Latin-

and west of the moon – or

Greek-Cyrillic font, decompiling the kerning

is it west of the moon

instructions can generate a table of 150,000 pairs.

and east of the sun?

Remember, though, that the number isn’t what

Monotype digital Van Dijck, before and after

counts. What matters is the intelligence and style

editing the kerning table. As issued, the kerning

of kerning. Remember too that there is no such

table adds 127 units (thousandths of an em) in the

thing as a font whose kerning cannot be improved.

roman, and 228 in the italic, between the letter f

Check the kerning of the word space

and the word space. The corrected table adds 6

The word space – that invisible blank box – is the most common character in almost every text.

It is normally kerned against sloping and undercut

units in the roman, none in the italic. Other, less drastic refinements have also been made to the kerning table used in the second two lines.

Professional typographers may argue about whether the added space should be zero, or ten, or even 25 thousandths of an em. But there is no professional dispute about whether it should be on the order of an eighth of a quarter of an em. An extra space that large is a prefabricated typographic error – one that would bring snorts of disbelief and instantaneous correction from Stanley Morison, Bruce Rogers, Jan van Krimpen, Eric Gill and others on whose expertise and genius the Monotype heritage is built. But it is an easy error to fix for anyone equipped with the requisite tool: a digital font editor.

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easier to prove than infringements of copyright.

Nevertheless there are times when a typographer must tinker with the names manufacturers give to their digital fonts.

Text fonts are generally sold in families, which may include a smorgasbord of weights and variations. Most editing and typesetting software takes a narrower, more stereotypical view. It recognizes only the nuclear family of roman, italic, bold, and bold italic. Keyboard shortcuts make it easy to switch from one to another of these, and switch codes employed are generic. Instead of saying “Switch to such and such a font at such and such a size,” they say, for instance, “Switch to this font’s italic counterpart, whatever that may be.” This convention makes the instructions transferable. You can change the face and size of a whole paragraph or file and the roman, italic and bold should all convert correctly. The slightest

HINTING

inconsistency in font names can prevent this trick

If the font looks poor at low resolutions, check the hinting

from working – and not all manufacturers name

Digital hints are important chiefly for the sake of how the type will look on screen. Broadly speaking, hints are of two kinds: generic hints that apply to the font as a whole and specific hints applicable only to individual characters. Many fonts are sold unhinted, and few fonts indeed are sold with hints that cannot be improved.

Manual hinting is tedious in the extreme but any good font editor of recent vintage will include routines for automated hinting. These routines are usually enough to make a poorly hinted text font more legible on screen. (In the long run, the solution is high-resolution screens, making the hinting of fonts irrelevant except at tiny sizes.)

their fonts according to the same conventions. For the fonts to be linked, their family names must be identical and the font names must abide by rules known to the operating system and software in use.

If, for example, you install Martin Majoor’s Scala or Scala Sans (issued by FontShop) on a PC, you will find that the italic and the roman are unlinked. These are superbly designed fonts, handsomely kerned and fully equipped with the requisite text figures and small caps – almost everything a digital font should be – but the PC versions must be placed in a font editor and renamed in order to make them work as expected.

NAMING CONVENTIONS The presumption of common law is that inherited designs, like inherited texts, belong in the public domain. New designs (or in the USA, the software in which they are enshrined) are protected for a certain term by copyright; the names of the designs are also normally protected by trademark legislation. The names are often better protected, in fact, because infringements on the rights conferred by a trademark are often much

29

From Type Snob to Macaroni Art Marian Bantjes www.bantjes.com

How did you come to typography?

When did you start experimenting?

I didn’t. I just got a job. I was 18, and I needed work,

Not until much later. I became a type snob. The

and I saw a little job posted in a bookstore for a

typesetting that I was doing before was just for books.

publishing company. And I applied for it and got it.

It was very conservative. Once I started my design

It started out mostly filing magazines; quite quickly

company, I started doing different kinds of things,

they trained me in paste-up and layout, and I became

business cards and brochures, which require more

a typesetter, and learned a lot about typography.

decisions about what you do with type. That was a

Typesetting is not a creative job, it’s basically following

new learning curve. But I wasn’t really experimenting.

a designer’s directions exactly, but you learn the do’s

When I went out on my own, I felt like I had a lot of

and don’ts of typography, and you become an expert

knowledge of type, but it’s not really a passion. I can’t

on how things are done, and some designers know

really describe it.

more than others, and you add to that. Of course, they’re not going to handle all the details, like how you balance pages, rivers and things like that. You work really closely with type. You learn all the lingo and the whole thing; so over the period of ten years, I became an expert.

A lot of your work has a childlike sense of play, like the macaroni art or the sugar art for Stefan Sagmeister. What informs this sense of wonder?

What interests you outside of art and design?

All sorts of things. I’m interested in science. I’m an atheist, so I’m very interested in atheists and the atheist movement, and non-religious forms of gatherings sharing information and creation. I’m interested in animals, and started scuba diving a few years ago. I don’t know if I have a problem-solving mind. Maybe I do. I’m quite good at figuring things out. I can fix my own plumbing.

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Why has there been such a resurgence of this handcrafted typography?

It always goes forward and back, clean and simple, always comes back into something else.

A lot of people credit me with starting some kind of design revolution. I know I contributed to it, but that pendulum was just starting to swing. People are taking interest, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a move away from the computer into handwork.

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32

Abundant A typographic installation

Rachel Blankenship

Graphic Design and Fine Art Student

Typography is a basic part of daily life from a

we chose to be something that applied universally to

logo on a box of cereal to the billboards that line

all typography and we realized that the only thing that

highways to the magazines on the newsstands. Of

all typography has in common is the amount of it that

course those are just a few examples but there are

exists in the world, thus we found our word: abundant.

millions and millions more. Because typography

We all agreed from the beginning that we wanted

is so plentiful we often overlook it and take it for granted as just another accessory of our daily lives. But in fact, type can be as beautiful as any work of art and deserves to be appreciated as such, at least sometimes.

our word to be displayed in a beautiful flowing script

In order to foster this appreciation for typography,

typeface because we wanted our word to show off the beautiful flowing forms that typography can have.

Now that we had our word and a general idea of our typeface we had to decide on a material to use to create the installation. Part of the assignment was

myself and two of my piers, Abbey Osley and Monica

to use man-made materials as pixels to construct

Stauffer, were tasked with the assignment of creating

the piece. The word abundant led our brainstorming

an installation that would showcase a characteristic of

session because we wanted our word and our

typography. When brainstorming about which word to

material to work together to convey the message.

choose we ran through many ideas including words

So we started thinking about man-made objects that

like radical, serious, fundamental and limitless. But

are abundant. A few of the ideas that made it to the

while discussing these ideas we realized that none of

top of the list were plastic utensils, drinking straws,

these qualities applied to all typography; sure some

pennies, and thread. All three of us had our own

type might be serious but others might be fun or

favorites we were pushing for but overtime we started

romantic or scary or serene. We wanted the word that

eliminating options. After doing a bit more research on

All photography by Abbey Osley

33

typographic installations that already exist we realized

all very concerned about the project and didn’t know

that thread art was overdone and pennies had already

what to do now. Then our professor, Luciana Gasset,

been done by Stephen Sagmeister (see page 5) better

suggested an artisan soap shop for the location of

than we ever could have done it, also they probably

our installation because it was right in the heart of

weren’t monetarily feasible for us anyways. That left

the art district, had an enormous front window and

us with plastic utensils and drinking straws. When we

had beams on the ceiling that would be perfect for

really thought about it we realized that using the plastic

hanging something from. As soon as she mentioned

utensils would probably create a gagged looking pixel

the soap shop it all just clicked and we knew our pixel:

which would create a jagged looking installation and

cotton balls. They’re soft, light for hanging, related to

the whole point of our piece was to create something

the location, round to create a curving letterform and

soft and flowing. That left us with drinking straws as

abundant in the world, it all fit perfectly. We were back

our pixel.

on track and ecstatic. In order to hang the cotton balls

With the decision of the pixel material done we all

on strings from the ceiling we decided that the best

split up and experimented with how to use the drinking

way to attach them to the string would be to thread

straws to create a pixel. I tried several different ideas

them all then glue them into place if the wouldn’t stay.

including bending them, layering them, taping them

Again Luciana gave us some advice and told us to

together and hanging them on strings. None of the

skip the threading and go straight for the glue and that

ideas worked particularly well because they were

advise made the whole process so much easier.

either so transparent that the word wouldn’t be legible

34

Now it was time to begin assembling the

or they were too angular and wouldn’t work for a

installation. Our plan was to get 8 dowels and attack

script typeface or they took way too long to make. The

o-hooks to them that we would tie the string to. This

one that I felt looked the best out of my experiments

would give us 4 panels of string with cotton balls. We

would have involved simply gluing the straws onto a

decided to do it this way so that we could assemble

backboard, which was something we said all along

the installation in the studio and then transport it to

that we wanted to avoid doing. We agreed that gluing

the shop instead of having to assemble it there. Each

a pixel on a backboard seemed like an unoriginal

member made different contributions to this process.

answer that would create a dull installation. Our

For example, Abbey and I went out and bought the

answer to this problem was that we wanted very

materials, Monica bought and cut the string into 8

much to somehow hang our installation on strings

foot pieced, Abbey found the typeface that we used

from the ceiling but we didn’t know how to make that

for the template and printed the template, all three of

work and whether to somehow try to make drinking

us assembled the template, Abbey and Monica put

straws work or just scrap that and find something else.

together the dowels, we all tied and retied the strings

At this point, with all these problems, we were

when they weren’t the right length and hot glued the

cotton balls to the string and the template. In order

and when we said how many cotton balls, feet of

to attach the cotton balls to the string and have them

string and hours of work went into making it. Overall

dry properly we had to just glue them both onto the

the responses we got from people were very positive.

template. Later I removed the template from the back

Most people seemed impressed by the sheer size of

so that the cotton balls would appear to be floating on

the piece, it measured about 8 feet tall and 10 feet

the string. Although this step in the process was not

wide, and the amount of work we put into it. It was also

planned it actually turned out to be a happy accident

nice to see our goal achieved when people stopped

because the remnants of the template that were left

and were in awe of how beautiful this giant typographic

on the back of the installation served to reinforce the

word was. The owner of the store was so happy with

glue and increase its strength. It was a good thing they

the piece that she asked us to leave it up for another

had the extra strength because even though we were

week after the exhibition.

extremely careful with them during the transportation

This project was so much fun to make and

they still took quite a beating. After we got it installed

although it was a huge challenge it was so worth

in the window we had to go back and touch up some

all the time and work when I saw it in that window

areas that had broken apart in the move but overall it

and saw the way people reacted to it. Abundant has

transported well.

become one of my favorite projects that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve ever been

The night of the exhibition the three of us stood

a part of and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m am so proud of the beautiful piece

outside the window of the shop and handed out cards

that we made and the positive effect that it had on the

explaining the project, who we are and why we did it.

people who saw it, especially myself.

It was a lot of fun standing out there talking to people.

It was amazing to see the look on their faces when we told them that it was actually made of cotton balls

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S PAC E Issue #1 Fall 2014 Abundant Type Casting Back to Basics Grooming the Font

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The making of letters in every form is for me the purest and the greatest pleasure, and at many stages of my life it was to me what a song is to the singer, a picture to the painter, a shout to the elated, or a sign to the oppressed. It was and is for me the most happy and perfect expression of my life.â&#x20AC;?

Rudolph Koch One of the first German type designers in the 20th century

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