TY PE FUNDAMENTALS TA M M Y T R A N
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INTRODUCTION My name is Tammy and I’m a graphic design student at UC Berkeley Extension. This book is my take on the fundamentals of typography. Typography seems so simple yet when you dig deeper into the history and the reasons behind why type is the way that it is, it gets more complex than that. Type is an art form and when you put it all together, it becomes a great design. When it comes to typography, my focus is mainly on how the overall project looks, visually and aestically. I try to go for a simple, yet fun look, which is how I see type: simple, yet there are some aspects of it that are fun and have character.
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CONTENTS PROTOTYPE POSTCARD 6 Project 1
TYPE ANATOMY PAMPHLET 10 Project 2
TYPE SETTING EXERCISES 14 Project 3
SWISS DESIGNER 32 Project 4
TYPE CLASSIFICATION Project 5
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PROTOTYPE
POST CARD 7
Project 1 - Prototype Postcard “Love Letters” Objective
Approach
To create 9 letterforms of an original typeface within given parameters. This exercise will develop your command of InDesign, as well as hone your critical evaluation skills and ability to follow directions.
The font I decided to redesign was Beloved Sans. The line weights of that font were light and I wanted to keep a similar stroke on mine. I went for a delicate look so decided to name it “Love Letters.” I wanted my typeface to look handwritten like a typical love letter so I added a slight tail to the end of the letters. For each postcard, I wanted to make them look like a “Valentine,” which is why I chose the colors red, white, and pink as the dominant colors, and added some flower symbols to two opposite corners.
Brief Create a prototype typeface of 9 letters by either bitmap method designing letters either on a grid of squares, substitute the curves and diagonals of traditional letterforms with rectilinear elements, or calligraphic method constructing your letterforms using calligraphic strokes that you originate by experimentation.
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Project 1 - Prototype Postcard
Project 1 - Prototype Postcard
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TYPE
ANATOMY PAMPHLET 11
Project 2 - Type Anatomy Pamphlet Objective Introduce type terminology. Identify the structural aspects of type. Label the different kinds of strokes, junctions & negative spaces used to create letterforms. Identify a variety of differently shaped terminals and serifs. Increase awareness of letterforms and glyphs. Gain layout skills: hierarchy, negative space, focal point, and impact.
Brief Using the typeface Adobe Garamond Pro and 26 letters from the alphabet, identify the anatomy of a typeface, choosing at least 26 anatomical words, indicating one (don’t indicate the same thing over and over) of all the main elements, for example, the items on the list left. Use letterforms and/or numbers and/or special characters.
Approach For this project, I decided to line up my letters on a grid so that it looked clean and clear. Since “anatomy” has a science connotation to the word, I wanted my tri-fold to reflect that in the way that the letters were positioned. At the same time, I wanted it to be playful, so I chose colors that were bold and added little circle illustrations to the front and back cover. I decided to use every letter in the alphabet and matched each of them with a typography anatomy term, and highlighted the area in which each term referred to.
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Project 2 - Type Anatomy Pamphlet
Project 2 - Type Anatomy Pamphlet
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TYPE
SETTING EXERCISES
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Project 3 - Typesetting Exercises Objective Typesetting skill is a basic building block of graphic design. The emphasis on this project is on craftsmanship and accurate handling of type. Mastering these exercises will pay dividends in your design career. Understand typesetting rules. Demonstrate accurate and aesthetically pleasing typesetting. Recognize how different type treatments and alignments require unique handling of type.
Brief 3.1 Typesetting: Create 4 pages, each page showing one of these alignments: Set Left, Set Right, Justify, Center. Use the copy in the sample entitled Letters Have a Life and Dignity of their Own. 3.3 Paragraph Indicators: Explore the typographic differences in the following five ways of indicating paragraphs: Indent, Hanging indent, Extra Leading, First Word, First Sentence/Phrase. Explore these three methods of indicating the beginning of a text: Initial Cap, Drop Cap, First Paragraph (Intro Paragraph). 3.4 Hierarchy: Typeset the text supplied on the next page including title, subtitle and byline and show three levels of typographic hierarchy. Set the type according to the specifications and then typeset two more pages using any of the variables of placement, size, weight, style, or tonal value to show the levels of hierarchy.
Approach The different elements I used for this project were different typefaces, font families, and sizes. With this, each page of text has a simple and clean look to it. I tried to focus on how the body texts looked overall so that it looks pleasing to the eye. This project was all created on InDesign as that is the program that best supports text, placement, and typesetting. I used what we learned about kerning, tracking, and leading and applied it to this project so that the blocks of text look appealing. For this project, I really focused on the widows and tried to make sure that each last line of the paragraph had at least three words or more to avoid having widows.
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Project 3 - Typesetting Exercises
LETTERS HAVE A LIFE AND DIGNITY OF THEIR OWN Letterforms that honor and elucidate what humans see and say deserve to be honored in their turn. Well-chosen words deserve well-chosen letters; these in their turn deserve to be set with affection, intelligence, knowledge and skill. Typography is a link, and it ought, as a matter of honor, courtesy and pure delight, to be as strong as others in the chain. Typography is just that: idealized writing. Writers themselves now rarely have the calligraphic skill of earlier scribes, but they evoke countless versions of ideal script by their varying voices and literary styles. To these blind and often invisible visions, the typographer must respond in visible terms. In a badly designed book, the letters mill and stand like starving horses in a field. In a book designed by rote, they sit like stale bread and mutton on the page. In a well-made book, where designer, compositor and printer have all done their jobs, no matter how many thousands of lines and pages they must occupy, the letters are alive. They dance in their seats. Sometimes they rise and dance in the margins and aisles. Simple as it may sound, the task of creative non-interference with letters is a rewarding and difficult calling. In ideal conditions, it is all that typographers are really asked to do—and it is enough. —Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style
Tammy Tran | Project 3.1: Typesetting | Right Alignment | 8/12 Adobe Garamond | +20 Tracking
Project 3 - Typesetting Exercises
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LETTERS HAVE A LIFE AND DIGNITY OF THEIR OWN Letterforms that honor and elucidate what humans see and say deserve to be honored in their turn. Well-chosen words deserve wellchosen letters; these in their turn deserve to be set with affection, intelligence, knowledge and skill. Typography is a link, and it ought, as a matter of honor, courtesy and pure delight, to be as strong as others in the chain. Typography is just that: idealized writing. Writers themselves now rarely have the calligraphic skill of earlier scribes, but they evoke countless versions of ideal script by their varying voices and literary styles. To these blind and often invisible visions, the typographer must respond in visible terms. In a badly designed book, the letters mill and stand like starving horses in a field. In a book designed by rote, they sit like stale bread and mutton on the page. In a well-made book, where designer, compositor and printer have all done their jobs, no matter how many thousands of lines and pages they must occupy, the letters are alive. They dance in their seats. Sometimes they rise and dance in the margins and aisles. Simple as it may sound, the task of creative non-interference with letters is a rewarding and difficult calling. In ideal conditions, it is all that typographers are really asked to do—and it is enough. —Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style
Tammy Tran | Project 3.1: Typesetting | Left Alignment | 8/12 Adobe Garamond | +20 Tracking
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Project 3 - Typesetting Exercises
LETTERS HAVE A LIFE AND DIGNITY OF THEIR OWN Letterforms that honor and elucidate what humans see and say deserve to be honored in their turn. Well-chosen words deserve well-chosen letters; these in their turn deserve to be set with affection, intelligence, knowledge and skill. Typography is a link, and it ought, as a matter of honor, courtesy and pure delight, to be as strong as others in the chain. Typography is just that: idealized writing. Writers themselves now rarely have the calligraphic skill of earlier scribes, but they evoke countless versions of ideal script by their varying voices and literary styles. To these blind and often invisible visions, the typographer must respond in visible terms. In a badly designed book, the letters mill and stand like starving horses in a field. In a book designed by rote, they sit like stale bread and mutton on the page. In a well-made book, where designer, compositor and printer have all done their jobs, no matter how many thousands of lines and pages they must occupy, the letters are alive. They dance in their seats. Sometimes they rise and dance in the margins and aisles. Simple as it may sound, the task of creative non-interference with letters is a rewarding and difficult calling. In ideal conditions, it is all that typographers are really asked to do—and it is enough. —Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style
Tammy Tran | Project 3.1: Typesetting | Justified Alignment | 8/12 Adobe Garamond | +20 Tracking
Project 3 - Typesetting Exercises
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LETTERS HAVE A LIFE AND DIGNITY OF THEIR OWN Letterforms that honor and elucidate what humans see and say deserve to be honored in their turn. Well-chosen words deserve well-chosen letters; these in their turn deserve to be set with affection, intelligence, knowledge and skill. Typography is a link, and it ought, as a matter of honor, courtesy and pure delight, to be as strong as others in the chain. Typography is just that: idealized writing. Writers themselves now rarely have the calligraphic skill of earlier scribes, but they evoke countless versions of ideal script by their varying voices and literary styles. To these blind and often invisible visions, the typographer must respond in visible terms. In a badly designed book, the letters mill and stand like starving horses in a field. In a book designed by rote, they sit like stale bread and mutton on the page. In a well-made book, where designer, compositor and printer have all done their jobs, no matter how many thousands of lines and pages they must occupy, the letters are alive. They dance in their seats. Sometimes they rise and dance in the margins and aisles. Simple as it may sound, the task of creative non-interference with letters is a rewarding and difficult calling. In ideal conditions, it is all that typographers are really asked to do—and it is enough. —Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style
Tammy Tran | Project 3.1: Typesetting | Centered Alignment | 8/12 Adobe Garamond | +20 Tracking
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Project 3 - Typesetting Exercises
Karl Marx had one. The Unibomber had one. When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in 1776, he drafted the manifesto that launched the American Revolution. Graphic design would not exist as we know it today if F. T. Marinetti hadn’t published his manifestos and instigated Futurism. By inventing the idea of art as a branded public enter-prise, Marinetti compelled many poets, painters and designers after him to state their principles in compact, incendiary speech. A manifesto is a short document that “manifests” or makes public a set of ideas and goals. A manifesto is passionate, personal and vivid. Such calls to action went out of fashion during the mid-20th century, replaced by more businesslike, professionally oriented statements of purpose and principle. But at the turn of the new century, just as at the turn of the old one, manifestos came back. Businesses started using “brand manifestos” to spell out the defining features of their products, and software companies and design firms started posting manifestos to publicize their approach in an edgy, direct way. Designers seem especially drawn to manifestos. A well-written manifesto is like a well-designed product. It communicates directly, it is broken into functional parts, and it has elements of poetry and surprise. And drafting one is more like writing an ad than writing a novel. Manifestos typically have a social function— they serve to bring together members of a group. Ten years ago, Bruce Mau published his “Incomplete Manifesto,” written as a list of commandments. These principles became the established creed of Mau’s own design office, but they can be used by anyone. Other designers with intriguing and influential personal manifestos include product designer Karim Rashid and the infamous post typographers Bruce Willen and Nolen Strals. Bruce Sterling’s “Manifesto of January 3, 2000” helped galvanize the contemporary green movement, which is the epicenter of manifesto-writing today. Sterling, in addition to demanding an overhaul of all social, political and military systems, pushed designers to create “intensely glamorous environmentally sound products; entirely new objects of entirely new mate-rials; replacing material substance with information; a new relationship between the cybernetic and the material” (iPhone, anyone?). Also in 2000, Rick Poynor published the “First Things First 2000” manifesto, based on a text written by Ken Garland in 1964, a controversial document that called for designers to use their skills to improve environmental, social and cultural life rather than to sell hair gel and dog biscuits. —excerpted from Manifesto Mania by Ellen and Julia Lupton
Tammy Tran | Project 3.3: Paragraph Indicators | Indent | 10/14 Iowan Old Style | +25 Tracking
Project 3 - Typesetting Exercises
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Karl Marx had one. The Unibomber had one. When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in 1776, he drafted the manifesto that launched the American Revolution. Graphic design would not exist as we know it today if F. T. Marinetti hadn’t published his manifestos and instigated Futurism. By inventing the idea of art as a branded public enter-prise, Marinetti compelled many poets, painters and designers after him to state their principles in compact, incendiary speech. A manifesto is a short document that “manifests” or makes public a set of ideas and goals. A manifesto is passionate, personal and vivid. Such calls to action went out of fashion during the mid-20th century, replaced by more businesslike, professionally oriented statements of purpose and principle. But at the turn of the new century, just as at the turn of the old one, manifestos came back. Businesses started using “brand manifestos” to spell out the defining features of their products, and software companies and design firms started posting manifestos to publicize their approach in an edgy, direct way. Designers seem especially drawn to manifestos. A well-written manifesto is like a welldesigned product. It communicates directly, it is broken into functional parts, and it has elements of poetry and surprise. And drafting one is more like writing an ad than writing a novel. Manifestos typically have a social function— they serve to bring together members of a group. Ten years ago, Bruce Mau published his “Incomplete Manifesto,” written as a list of commandments. These principles became the established creed of Mau’s own design office, but they can be used by anyone. Other designers with intriguing and influential personal manifestos include product designer Karim Rashid and the infamous post-typographers Bruce Willen and Nolen Strals. Bruce Sterling’s “Manifesto of January 3, 2000” helped galvanize the con-temporary green movement, which is the epicenter of manifesto-writing today. Sterling, in addition to demanding an overhaul of all social, political and military systems, pushed designers to create “intensely glamorous environmentally sound products; entirely new objects of entirely new mate-rials; replacing material substance with information; a new relationship between the cybernetic and the material” (iPhone, anyone?). Also in 2000, Rick Poynor published the “First Things First 2000” manifesto, based on a text written by Ken Garland in 1964, a controversial document that called for designers to use their skills to improve environmental, social and cultural life rather than to sell hair gel and dog biscuits. —excerpted from Manifesto Mania by Ellen and Julia Lupton
Tammy Tran | Project 3.3: Paragraph Indicators | Hanging Indent/Exdent | 10/14 Adobe Garamond Pro | +25 Tracking
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Project 3 - Typesetting Exercises
Karl Marx had one. The Unibomber had one. When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in 1776, he drafted the manifesto that launched the American Revolution. Graphic design would not exist as we know it today if F. T. Marinetti hadn’t published his manifestos and instigated Futurism. By inventing the idea of art as a branded public enter-prise, Marinetti compelled many poets, painters and designers after him to state their principles in compact, incendiary speech. A manifesto is a short document that “manifests” or makes public a set of ideas and goals. A manifesto is passionate, personal and vivid. Such calls to action went out of fashion during the mid-20th century, replaced by more businesslike, professionally oriented statements of purpose and principle. But at the turn of the new century, just as at the turn of the old one, manifestos came back. Businesses started using “brand manifestos” to spell out the defining features of their products, and software companies and design firms started posting manifestos to publicize their approach in an edgy, direct way. Designers seem especially drawn to manifestos. A well-written manifesto is like a well-designed product. It communicates directly, it is broken into functional parts, and it has elements of poetry and surprise. And drafting one is more like writing an ad than writing a novel. Manifestos typically have a social function— they serve to bring together members of a group. Ten years ago, Bruce Mau published his “Incomplete Manifesto,” written as a list of commandments. These principles became the established creed of Mau’s own design office, but they can be used by anyone. Other designers with intriguing and influential personal manifestos include product designer Karim Rashid and the infamous posttypographers Bruce Willen and Nolen Strals. Bruce Sterling’s “Manifesto of January 3, 2000” helped galvanize the con-temporary green movement, which is the epicenter of manifesto-writing today. Sterling, in addition to demanding an overhaul of all social, political and military systems, pushed designers to create “intensely glamorous environmentally sound products; entirely new objects of entirely new mate-rials; replacing material substance with information; a new relationship between the cybernetic and the material” (iPhone, anyone?). Also in 2000, Rick Poynor published the “First Things First 2000” manifesto, based on a text written by Ken Garland in 1964, a controversial document that called for designers to use their skills to improve environmental, social and cultural life rather than to sell hair gel and dog biscuits. —excerpted from Manifesto Mania by Ellen and Julia Lupton
Tammy Tran | Project 3.3: Paragraph Indicators | Extra Leading | 10/14 Avenir | +20 Tracking
Project 3 - Typesetting Exercises
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Karl Marx had one. The Unibomber had one. When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in 1776, he drafted the manifesto that launched the American Revolution. Graphic design would not exist as we know it today if F. T. Marinetti hadn’t published his manifestos and instigated Futurism. By inventing the idea of art as a branded public enter-prise, Marinetti compelled many poets, painters and designers after him to state their principles in compact, incendiary speech. A manifesto is a short document that “manifests” or makes public a set of ideas and goals. A manifesto is passionate, personal and vivid. Such calls to action went out of fashion during the mid-20th century, replaced by more businesslike, professionally oriented statements of purpose and principle. But at the turn of the new century, just as at the turn of the old one, manifestos came back. Businesses started using “brand manifestos” to spell out the defining features of their products, and software companies and design firms started posting manifestos to publicize their approach in an edgy, direct way. Designers seem especially drawn to manifestos. A well-written manifesto is like a well-designed product. It communicates directly, it is broken into functional parts, and it has elements of poetry and surprise. And drafting one is more like writing an ad than writing a novel. Manifestos typically have a social function— they serve to bring together members of a group. Ten years ago, Bruce Mau published his “Incomplete Manifesto,” written as a list of commandments. These principles became the established creed of Mau’s own design office, but they can be used by anyone. Other designers with intriguing and influential personal manifestos include product designer Karim Rashid and the infamous post-typographers Bruce Willen and Nolen Strals. Bruce Sterling’s “Manifesto of January 3, 2000” helped galvanize the con-temporary green movement, which is the epicenter of manifesto-writing today. Sterling, in addition to demanding an overhaul of all social, political and military systems, pushed designers to create “intensely glamorous environmentally sound products; entirely new objects of entirely new materials; replacing material substance with information; a new relationship between the cybernetic and the material” (iPhone, anyone?). Also in 2000, Rick Poynor published the “First Things First 2000” manifesto, based on a text written by Ken Garland in 1964, a controversial document that called for designers to use their skills to improve environmental, social and cultural life rather than to sell hair gel and dog biscuits. —excerpted from Manifesto Mania by Ellen and Julia Lupton
Tammy Tran | Project 3.3: Paragraph Indicators | First Word | 10/14 Nobel | +30 Tracking
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Project 3 - Typesetting Exercises
Karl Marx had one. The Unibomber had one. When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in 1776, he drafted the manifesto that launched the American Revolution. Graphic design would not exist as we know it today if F. T. Marinetti hadn’t published his manifestos and instigated Futurism. By inventing the idea of art as a branded public enter-prise, Marinetti compelled many poets, painters and designers after him to state their principles in compact, incendiary speech. A manifesto is a short document that “manifests” or makes public a set of ideas and goals. A manifesto is passionate, personal and vivid. Such calls to action went out of fashion during the mid-20th century, replaced by more businesslike, professionally oriented statements of purpose and principle. But at the turn of the new century, just as at the turn of the old one, manifestos came back. Businesses started using “brand manifestos” to spell out the defining features of their products, and software companies and design firms started posting manifestos to publicize their approach in an edgy, direct way. Designers seem especially drawn to manifestos. A well-written manifesto is like a well-designed product. It communicates directly, it is broken into functional parts, and it has elements of poetry and surprise. And drafting one is more like writing an ad than writing a novel. Manifestos typically have a social function— they serve to bring together members of a group. Ten years ago, Bruce Mau published his “Incomplete Manifesto,” written as a list of commandments. These principles became the established creed of Mau’s own design office, but they can be used by anyone. Other designers with intriguing and influential personal manifestos include product designer Karim Rashid and the infamous post-typographers Bruce Willen and Nolen Strals. Bruce Sterling’s “Manifesto of January 3, 2000” helped galvanize the con-temporary green movement, which is the epicenter of manifesto-writing today. Sterling, in addition to demanding an overhaul of all social, political and military systems, pushed designers to create “intensely glamorous environmentally sound products; entirely new objects of entirely new mate-rials; replacing material substance with information; a new relationship between the cybernetic and the material” (iPhone, anyone?). Also in 2000, Rick Poynor published the “First Things First 2000” manifesto, based on a text written by Ken Garland in 1964, a controversial document that called for designers to use their skills to improve environmental, social and cultural life rather than to sell hair gel and dog biscuits. —excerpted from Manifesto Mania by Ellen and Julia Lupton
Tammy Tran | Project 3.3: Paragraph Indicators | First Sentence/Phrase | 10/14 Bodoni 72 | +30 Tracking
Project 3 - Typesetting Exercises
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Karl Marx had one. The Unibomber had one. When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in 1776, he drafted the manifesto that launched the American Revolution. Graphic design would not exist as we know it today if F. T. Marinetti hadn’t published his manifestos and instigated Futurism. By inventing the idea of art as a branded public enter-prise, Marinetti compelled many poets, painters and designers after him to state their principles in compact, incendiary speech. A manifesto is a short document that “manifests” or makes public a set of ideas and goals. A manifesto is passionate, personal and vivid. Such calls to action went out of fashion during the mid-20th century, replaced by more businesslike, professionally oriented statements of purpose and principle. But at the turn of the new century, just as at the turn of the old one, manifestos came back. Businesses started using “brand manifestos” to spell out the defining features of their products, and software companies and design firms started posting manifestos to publicize their approach in an edgy, direct way. Designers seem especially drawn to manifestos. A well-written manifesto is like a well-designed product. It communicates directly, it is broken into functional parts, and it has elements of poetry and surprise. And drafting one is more like writing an ad than writing a novel. Manifestos typically have a social function— they serve to bring together members of a group. Ten years ago, Bruce Mau published his “Incomplete Manifesto,” written as a list of commandments. These principles became the established creed of Mau’s own design office, but they can be used by anyone. Other designers with intriguing and influential personal manifestos include product designer Karim Rashid and the infamous post-typographers Bruce Willen and Nolen Strals. Bruce Sterling’s “Manifesto of January 3, 2000” helped galvanize the con-temporary green movement, which is the epicenter of manifesto-writing today. Sterling, in addition to demanding an overhaul of all social, political and military systems, pushed designers to create “intensely glamorous environmentally sound products; entirely new objects of entirely new materials; replacing material substance with information; a new relationship between the cybernetic and the material” (iPhone, anyone?). Also in 2000, Rick Poynor published the “First Things First 2000” manifesto, based on a text written by Ken Garland in 1964, a controversial document that called for designers to use their skills to improve environmental, social and cultural life rather than to sell hair gel and dog biscuits. —excerpted from Manifesto Mania by Ellen and Julia Lupton
Tammy Tran | Project 3.3: Paragraph Indicators | Intro Paragraph | 10/14 Iowan Old Style | +25 Tracking
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Project 3 - Typesetting Exercises
K
arl Marx had one. The Unibomber had one. When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in 1776, he drafted the manifesto that launched the American Revolution. Graphic design would not exist as we know it today if F. T. Marinetti hadn’t published his manifestos and instigated Futurism. By inventing the idea of art as a branded public enter-prise, Marinetti compelled many poets, painters and designers after him to state their principles in compact, incendiary speech. A manifesto is a short document that “manifests” or makes public a set of ideas and goals. A manifesto is passionate, personal and vivid. Such calls to action went out of fashion during the mid-20th century, replaced by more businesslike, professionally oriented statements of purpose and principle. But at the turn of the new century, just as at the turn of the old one, manifestos came back. Businesses started using “brand manifestos” to spell out the defining features of their products, and software companies and design firms started posting manifestos to publicize their approach in an edgy, direct way. Designers seem especially drawn to manifestos. A well-written manifesto is like a well-designed product. It communicates directly, it is broken into functional parts, and it has elements of poetry and surprise. And drafting one is more like writing an ad than writing a novel. Manifestos typically have a social function— they serve to bring together members of a group. Ten years ago, Bruce Mau published his “Incomplete Manifesto,” written as a list of commandments. These principles became the established creed of Mau’s own design office, but they can be used by anyone. Other designers with intriguing and influential personal manifestos include product designer Karim Rashid and the infamous post typographers Bruce Willen and Nolen Strals. Bruce Sterling’s “Manifesto of January 3, 2000” helped galvanize the con-temporary green movement, which is the epicenter of manifesto-writing today. Sterling, in addition to demanding an overhaul of all social, political and military systems, pushed designers to create “intensely glamorous environmentally sound products; entirely new objects of entirely new mate-rials; replacing material substance with information; a new relationship between the cybernetic and the material” (iPhone, anyone?). Also in 2000, Rick Poynor published the “First Things First 2000” manifesto, based on a text written by Ken Garland in 1964, a controversial document that called for designers to use their skills to improve environmental, social and cultural life rather than to sell hair gel and dog biscuits. —excerpted from Manifesto Mania by Ellen and Julia Lupton
Tammy Tran | Project 3.3: Paragraph Indicators | Drop Cap | 10/14 Nobel | +30 Tracking
Project 3 - Typesetting Exercises
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Karl Marx had one. The Unibomber had one. When Thomas Jefferson wrote the
Declaration of Independence in 1776, he drafted the manifesto that launched the American Revolution. Graphic design would not exist as we know it today if F. T. Marinetti hadn’t published his manifestos and instigated Futurism. By inventing the idea of art as a branded public enter-prise, Marinetti compelled many poets, painters and designers after him to state their principles in compact, incendiary speech. A manifesto is a short document that “manifests” or makes public a set of ideas and goals. A manifesto is passionate, personal and vivid. Such calls to action went out of fashion during the mid-20th century, replaced by more businesslike, professionally oriented statements of purpose and principle. But at the turn of the new century, just as at the turn of the old one, manifestos came back. Businesses started using “brand manifestos” to spell out the defining features of their products, and software companies and design firms started posting manifestos to publicize their approach in an edgy, direct way. Designers seem especially drawn to manifestos. A well-written manifesto is like a well-designed product. It communicates directly, it is broken into functional parts, and it has elements of poetry and surprise. And drafting one is more like writing an ad than writing a novel. Manifestos typically have a social function— they serve to bring together members of a group. Ten years ago, Bruce Mau published his “Incomplete Manifesto,” written as a list of commandments. These principles became the established creed of Mau’s own design office, but they can be used by anyone. Other designers with intriguing and influential personal manifestos include product designer Karim Rashid and the infamous post typographers Bruce Willen and Nolen Strals. Bruce Sterling’s “Manifesto of January 3, 2000” helped galvanize the con-temporary green movement, which is the epicenter of manifesto-writing today. Sterling, in addition to demanding an overhaul of all social, political and military systems, pushed designers to create “intensely glamorous environmentally sound products; entirely new objects of entirely new mate-rials; replacing material substance with information; a new relationship between the cybernetic and the material” (iPhone, anyone?). Also in 2000, Rick Poynor published the “First Things First 2000” manifesto, based on a text written by Ken Garland in 1964, a controversial document that called for designers to use their skills to improve environmental, social and cultural life rather than to sell hair gel and dog biscuits. —excerpted from Manifesto Mania by Ellen and Julia Lupton
Tammy Tran | Project 3.3: Paragraph Indicators | Initial Cap | 10/14 Bodoni 72 | +30 Tracking
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Project 3 - Typesetting Exercises
Verbal and Visual Equations
An examination of interactive signs excerpted from Typographic Design: Form and Communication By Ben Day and Philip Meggs
Language, in any of its many forms, is a selfcontained system of interactive signs that communicates ideas. Just as elocution and diction enhance and clarify the meaning of our spoken words, typographic signs can be manipulated by a designer to achieve mor elucid and expressive typographic communication. Signs operate in two dimensions: syntactic and semantic. When the mind is concerned with the form of a sign, it is involved with typographic syntax. When it associates a particular meaning with a sign, it is operating in the semantic dimension. All objects in the environment can potentially function as signs, representing any number of concepts. A smog-filled city signifying pollution, a beached whale representing extinction, and confetti implying a celebration—each functions as a sign relating a specific concept. Signs may exist at various levels of abstraction. A simple example will illustrate this point. Let us consider something as elemental as a red dot. It is a sign only if it carries a particular meaning. It can represent any number of things: balloon, ball, or Japanese flag. The red dot can become a
cherry, for example, as the mind is cued by forms more familiar to its experience. The particular syntactic qualities associated with typographic signs determine a specific meaning. A series of repeated letters, for example, may signify motion or speed, while a small letter in a large void may signify isolation. These qualities, derived from the operating principles of visual hierarchy and ABA form, function as cues, permitting the mind to form concepts. Simple syntactic manipulations, such as the repetition of letters, or the weight change of certain letters, enable words visually to mimic verbal meaning. In language, signs are joined together to create messages. Words as verbal sign, grouped together in a linear fashion, attain their value vis-Ă -vis other words through opposition and contrast. Words can also evoke meaning through mental association. These associative relations are semantically derived. Since typography is both visual and verbal, it operates in a linear fashion, with words following each other in a specific sequence,or in a nonlinear manner, with elements existing in many syntactic combinations.
Tammy Tran | Project 3.4: Hierarchy | Scale/Style Change | 10/14 Minion Pro | +20 Tracking
Project 3 - Typesetting Exercises
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Verbal and Visual Equations
An examination of interactive signs excerpted from Typographic Design: Form and Communication By Ben Day and Philip Meggs
Language, in any of its many forms, is a self-contained system of interactive signs that communicates ideas. Just as elocution and diction enhance and clarify the meaning of our spoken words, typographic signs can be manipulated by a designer to achieve mor elucid and expressive typographic communication. Signs operate in two dimensions: syntactic and semantic. When the mind is concerned with the form of a sign, it is involved with typographic syntax. When it associates a particular meaning with a sign, it is operating in the semantic dimension. All objects in the environment can potentially function as signs, representing any number of concepts. A smog-filled city signifying pollution, a beached whale representing extinction, and confetti implying a celebration—each functions as a sign
relating a specific concept. Signs may exist at various levels of abstraction. A simple example will illustrate this point. Let us consider something as elemental as a red dot. It is a sign only if it carries a particular meaning. It can represent any number of things: balloon, ball, or Japanese flag. The red dot can become a cherry, for example, as the mind is cued by forms more familiar to its experience. The particular syntactic qualities associated with typographic signs determine a specific meaning. A series of repeated letters, for example, may signify motion or speed, while a small letter in a large void may signify isolation. These qualities, derived from the operating principles of visual hierarchy and ABA form, function as cues, permitting the mind to form concepts. Simple syntactic
manipulations, such as the repetition of letters, or the weight change of certain letters, enable words visually to mimic verbal meaning. In language, signs are joined together to create messages. Words as verbal sign, grouped together in a linear fashion, attain their value vis-Ă -vis other words through opposition and contrast. Words can also evoke meaning through mental association. These associative relations are semantically derived. Since typography is both visual and verbal, it operates in a linear fashion, with words following each other in a specific sequence,or in a nonlinear manner, with elements existing in many syntactic combinations.
Tammy Tran | Project 3.4: Hierarchy | Scale/Style Change + Typeface | 10/14 Minion Pro | +20 Tracking
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Project 3 - Typesetting Exercises
Verbal and Visual Equations
An examination of interactive signs excerpted from Typographic Design: Form and Communication By Ben Day and Philip Meggs
Language, in any of its many forms, is a selfcontained system of interactive signs that communicates ideas. Just as elocution and diction enhance and clarify the meaning of our spoken words, typographic signs can be manipulated by a designer to achieve mor elucid and expressive typographic communication. Signs operate in two dimensions: syntactic and semantic. When the mind is concerned with the form of a sign, it is involved with typographic syntax. When it associates a particular meaning with a sign, it is operating in the semantic dimension. All objects in the environment can potentially function as signs, representing any number of concepts. A smog-filled city signifying pollution, a beached whale representing extinction, and confetti implying a celebration—each functions as a sign relating a specific concept. Signs may exist at various levels of abstraction. A simple example will illustrate this point. Let us consider something as elemental as a red dot. It is a sign only if it carries a particular meaning. It can represent any number of things: balloon, ball, or Japanese flag. The red dot can become a
cherry, for example, as the mind is cued by forms more familiar to its experience. The particular syntactic qualities associated with typographic signs determine a specific meaning. A series of repeated letters, for example, may signify motion or speed, while a small letter in a large void may signify isolation. These qualities, derived from the operating principles of visual hierarchy and ABA form, function as cues, permitting the mind to form concepts. Simple syntactic manipulations, such as the repetition of letters, or the weight change of certain letters, enable words visually to mimic verbal meaning. In language, signs are joined together to create messages. Words as verbal sign, grouped together in a linear fashion, attain their value vis-Ă -vis other words through opposition and contrast. Words can also evoke meaning through mental association. These associative relations are semantically derived. Since typography is both visual and verbal, it operates in a linear fashion, with words following each other in a specific sequence,or in a nonlinear manner, with elements existing in many syntactic combinations.
Tammy Tran | Project 3.4: Hierarchy | Scale/Style Change +Typeface + Graphic Element | 10/14 Minion Pro | +20 Tracking
Project 3 - Typesetting Exercises
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SWISS DESIGNER
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Project 4 - Swiss Designer Objective To do research on a famous Swiss deisgner in order to get ideas and inspiration for the next project, Type Classification Posters. The history of typefaces is just as important as how we use them in design today.
Brief Research a major Swiss designer and submit 250 words and some examples of work. Take into consideration what was covered in class thus far.
Approach I started this project by first familiarizing myself with major Swiss designers’ names. I found Adrian Frutiger and did some research on him and thought his background was very interesting - how he didn’t plan to become a typeface designer. I then looked into his work and found that he was a designer in other aspects as well, such as logo design, which drew me into him even more.
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Project 4 - Swiss Designer
ADRIAN FRUTIGER Adrian Frutiger (1928-2015) was a Swiss typeface designer who influenced type design in the second half of the 20th century. He is one of the only designers whose career spanned the hot metal, phototypesetting, and digital typesetting era. In his early life, he initially was going to pursue training as a pastry chef before he received an apprenticeship at a printing house. Some of his most famous typeface designs are Univers, Avenir, Frutiger, all san-serif fonts. Universe was one of the first sanserif fonts to have a family across a wide-range of widths and weights. Frutiger saw creating san-serif typefaces as his main life’s work because of the difficulty of designing them compared to serif typefaces. Though he is most known for his typefaces, he has designed a number of logos as well.
Project 4 - Swiss Designer
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TYPE
CLASSIFICATION
POSTERS 37
Project 4 - Type Classification Posters Objective To research the various periods and design from its influence, to visually communicate the evolution of type, and to practice the principles of typography that we have studied.
Brief Design three type classification posters in the Vox System. The book Letter Fountain lists 9 categories—5 Serif and 4 Sans Serif—Humanist, Old Style, Transitional, Modern, Slab-Serif and Sans Serif. Design a poster for two Serif and one Sans Serif font.
Approach I started off this project doing some research on a typeface designer in order to get a better understanding of the history of typefaces. Then for my creative process, I first
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drew some thumbnail sketches of possible poster layouts. When I had an idea of what I wanted to incorporate into the posters, I took my ideas to InDesign to create them. I was drawn to giant letters taking up the whole page so I made them big enough so that they would bleed off the page so that it didn’t look obvious that it was letters; you would have to really look at it to tell. I knew I wanted to incorporate the whole alphabet and numbers on the posters as well, so I just placed them in the negative spaces, along with the body copy. I put the name of the typefaces and their classification on the stroke of the large letters that I used as the background and made the date large and placed it where I thought would look nice. As for the color scheme, I wanted it to be simple but with a pop of color as the accent.
Project 5 - Type Classification Posters
Project 5 - Type Classification Posters
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Project 5 - Type Classification Posters
Project 5 - Type Classification Posters
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“Typography must be as beautiful as a forest, not like the concrete jungle of the tenements It gives distance between the trees, the room to breathe and allow for life.� - Adrian Frutiger
Designer Tammy Tran Instructor Victoria Arriola Typefaces Futura, Flegrei School UC Berkeley Ext. Program Graphic Design Course Typography Fundamentals
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