B&E Magazine

IDENTITY

A Typo g r a p h i c I nstal l ati o n

TABLE OF CONTENTS 3

FLUID MECHANICS

6

TYPECASTING

3 6

FONT OF THE MONTH

5 Alternative Routes to a Design Education

12

IDENTITY

More Personality

BACK TO BASICS The Top 100 Greatest Fonts No. 65 Shelley

11

12 5 Ways to Give Your Website

22

5

22 26

GROOMING THE FONT 12 Steps for Setting Up A Student Freelance Practice

20

26

32

words are owing out like endless n i a r into a

FLUID MECHANICS:

Typographic Design Now Ellen Lupton

Monday Morning by: Todd Juliano

3

Liquidity, saturation, and overflow are words that describe the information surplus that besets us at the start of the twenty-first century. Images proliferate in this media-rich environment, and so too does the written word. Far from diminishing in influence, text has continued to expand its power and pervasiveness. The visual expression of language has grown increasingly diverse, as new fonts and formats evolve to accommodate the relentless display of the word.

Typography is the art of designing letterforms and arranging them in space and time. Since its invention during the Renaissance, typography has been animated by the conflict between fixed architectural elements-such as the page and its margins-and the fluid substance of written words. Evolutions in the life of the letter arise from dialogs between wet and dry, soft and hard, slack and taut, amorphous and geometric, ragged and flush, planned and unpredicted. With unprecedented force, these

photo: Cameron Zotter

A poetically theoretical take on the fluid state of type, design and the vernacular in digital form as they relate to language and contemporary culture.

conflicts are driving typographic innovation today. Typography is going under water as designers submerge themselves in the textures and transitions that bond letter, word, and surface. As rigid formats become open and pliant, the architectural hardware of typographic systems is melting down.

The flush, full page of the classical book is dominated by a single block of justified text, its characters mechanically spaced to completely occupy the designated volume. The page is like a glass into which text is poured, spilling over from one leaf to the next. By the early twentieth century, the classical page had given way to the multicolumned, mixed-media structures of the modern newspaper, magazine, and illustrated book.

Today, the simultaneity of diverse content streams is a given. Alongside the archetype of the printed page, the new digital archetype of the window has taken hold. The window is a scrolling surface of unlimited length, whose width adjusts at the will of

4

reader or writer. In both print and digital media, graphic designers devise ways to navigate bodies of information by exploring the structural possibilities of pages and windows, boxes and frames, edges and margins.

In 1978, Nicholas Negroponte and Muriel Cooper, working at MIT’s Media Lab, published a seminal essay on the notion of ‘soft copy,’ the linguistic raw material of the digital age. The bastard offspring of hard copy, soft text lacks a fixed typographic identity. Owing allegiance to no font or format, it is willingly pasted, pirated, output, or repurposed in countless contexts. It is the ubiquitous medium of word-processing, desktop publishing, e-mail, and the Internet. The burgeoning of soft copy had an enormous impact on graphic design in the 1980s and 1990s. In design for print, soft copy largely eliminated the mediation of the typesetter, the technician previously charged with converting the manuscript-which had been painstakingly marked up by hand with instructions from the designer-into galleys, or formal pages of type. Soft copy flows directly to designers in digital form from authors and editors. The designer is free to directly manipulate the text-without relying on the typesetter-and to adjust typographic details up to the final moments of production. The soft copy revolution led designers to plunge from an objective aerial view into the moving waters of text, where they shape it from within. Digital media enable both users and producers, readers and writers, to regulate the flow of language. As with design for print, the goal of interactive typography is to create ‘architectural’ structures that accommodate the organic stream of text. But in the digital realm, these structures-and the content they support-have the possibility of continuous transformation. In their essay about soft copy, Negroponte and Cooper predicted the evolution of digital interfaces that would allow typography to transform its size, shape, and color. Muriel Cooper (1925-1994) went on to develop the idea of the three-dimensional ‘information landscape,’ a model that breaks through the window frames that dominate electronic interfaces.

Viewed from a distance, a field of text is a block of gray. But when one comes in close to read, the individual characters predominate over the field. Text is a body of separate objects that move together as a mass, like cars in a flow of traffic or individuals

5

in a crowd. Text is a fluid made from the hard, dry crystals of the alphabet.

Typeface designs in the Renaissance reflected the curving lines of handwriting, formed by ink flowing from the rigid nib of a pen. The cast metal types used for printing converted these organic sources into fixed, reproducible artifacts. As the printed book became the world’s dominant information medium, the design of typefaces grew ever more abstract and formalized, distanced from the liquid hand. Today, designers look back at the systematic, abstracting tendencies of modern letter design and both celebrate and challenge that rationalizing impulse. They have exchanged the anthracite deposits of the classical letter for lines of text that quiver and bleed like living things.

The distinctive use of type, which can endow a long or complex document with a sense of unified personality or behavior, also builds the identity of brands and institutions. Bruce Mau has described identity design as a ‘life problem,’ arguing that the visual expression of a company or product should appear like a frame taken from a system in motion.

The flat opacity of the printed page has been challenged by graphic designers who use image manipulation software to embed the word within the surface of the photographic image. A pioneer of such effects in the digital realm was P. Scott Makela (1960-1999). In the early 1990s, he began using PhotoShop, a software tool that had just been introduced, as a creative medium. In his designs for print and multimedia, type and image merge in dizzying swells and eddies as letters bulge, buckle, and morph. The techniques he helped forge have become part of the fundamental language of graphic design. The linear forms of typography have become planar surfaces, skimming across and below the pixelated skin of the image. The alphabet is an ancient form that is deeply embedded in the mental hardware of readers. Graphic designers always ground their work, to some degree, in historic precedent, tapping the familiarity of existing symbols and styles even as they invent new idioms.

While some designers pay their toll to history with reluctance, others dive eagerly into the reservoirs of pop culture. Tibor Kalman (1949–1999) led the graphic design world’s reclamation of visual detritus, borrowing from the commonplace vernacular of mail-order stationery and do-it-yourself signage.

Designers now frankly embrace the humor and directness of everyday artifacts. In the aesthetic realm as in the economic one, pollution is a natural resource-one that is expanding rather than shrinking away.

Thirty years ago, progressive designers often described their mission as ‘problem-solving’. They aimed to identify the functional requirements of a project and then discover the appropriate means to satisfy the brief. Today, it is more illuminating to speak of solvents than solutions. Design is often an attack on structure, or an attempt to create edifices that can withstand and engage the corrosive assault of content.

The clean, smooth surfaces of modernism proved an unsound fortress against popular culture, which is now invited inside to fuel the creation of new work. Image and text eat away at the vessels that would seal them shut. Forms that are hard and sharp now appear only temporarily so, ready to melt, like ice, in response to small environmental changes.

All systems leak, and all waters are contaminated, not only with foreign matter but with bits of structure itself. A fluid, by definition, is a substance that conforms to the outline of its container. Today, containers reconfigure in response to the matter they hold.

FONT OF THE MONTH

FONT OF THE MONTH: Skinny Bastard Every month we showcase the best fonts on the web. This month it’s Skinny Bastard by Marcelo Reis Melo, which is totally free to download.

Skinny Bastard

Here at Creative Bloq, we’re big fans of typography and we’re constantly on the hunt for new and exciting typefaces – especially free fonts. So, if you’re in need of a font for your latest design or just like to keep a collection so you’re prepared, we may be able to help out.

Every day, we’re running ‘Font of the day’, where we’ll be posting the best free and paid-for fonts the web has to offer.

Skinny Bastard by Marcelo Reis Melo The typeface of choice is handwritten design Skinny Bastard by Marcelo Reis Melo. Full of personality and with lots of energy, this new skinny handwritten font it great for creating stand-out headlines.

You can download Skinny Bastard for free over on Free Goodies for Designers.

Words: Kerrie Hughes Kerrie Hughes is content manager at Creative Bloq.

photo: Cameron Zotter

6

TYPE CASTING

Steven Brower

M

Bruno Mars by: Sean Williams

7

y first job in book design was at New American Library, a publisher of mass-market books. I was thrilled to be hired. It was exactly where I wanted to be. I love the written word, and viewed this as my entrance into a world I wanted to participate in. Little did I suspect at the time that mass-market books, also known as “pocket” books (they measure approximately 4” X 7”, although I have yet to wear a pocket they fit comfortably into), were viewed in the design world as the tawdry stepchild of true literature and design, gaudy and unsophisticated. I came to understand that this was due to the fact that mass market books, sold extensively in supermarkets and convenience stores, had more in common with soap detergent and cereal boxes than with their much more dignified older brother, the hardcover first edition book. Indeed, the level of design of paperbacks was slow to evolve as a box of Cheerios.

On the other hand, hardcover books, as if dressed in evening attire, wore elegant and sophisticated jackets. Next in line in terms of standing, in both the literary and design worlds, was the trade paper edition, a misnomer that does not refer to a specific audience within an area of work, but, rather, to the second edition of the hardcover, or first edition that sports a paperbound cover. Trade paperbacks usually utilize the same interior printing as the hardcover, and are roughly the same size (generally, 6” X 9”).

Mass-market books were not so lucky. The interior pages of the original edition were shrunk down, with no regard for the final type size or the eyes of the viewer. The interiors tended to be printed on cheap paper stock, prone to yellowing over time.

The edges were often dyed to mask the different grade of paper used. The covers were usually quite loud, treated with a myriad of special effects (i.e., gold or silver foil, embossing and de-bossing, spot

8

lamination, die cuts, metallic and Day-Glo pantone type during my employ: colors, thermography, and even holography), all designed to jump out at you and into your shopTypefaces Genre ping cart as you walk down the aisle. The tradition Square serif Western of mass-market covers had more in common with, Script and Cursive Romance and, perhaps, for the most part is the descendant of, LED faces Science Fiction pulp magazine covers of earlier decades, with their Nueland African(in spite of the fact that the colorful titles and over-the-top illustrations, than typeface is of German origin) that of its more stylish, larger, and more expensive Latin Mystery Fat, round serif faces Children’s cousins.

Sans Serif Hand scrawl 1950/s bouncy type

What I Learned

So, when I made my entry into the elite world of literature, I began in the “bullpen” of a mass-market house. I believed I would be afforded a good opportunity to learn something about type and image.

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 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

9

Nonfiction Horror Humor/Teen titles

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 the 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 publishing house. The problem was, I still knew little of and had little confidence in, typography.

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 series of collaborations with talented illustrators and photographers, in which the typography of the jacket was incorporated as part of the illustration. Mystery books especially lent themselves well to this 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 oft-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. Eventually,

my eye began to develop, and my awareness and appreciation of good typography increased. I soon learned the pitfalls that most novice designers fall into, like utilizing a quirky novelty face does not equal creativity and usually calls attention to the wrong aspects of the solution. 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 quote Eric Gill, as much “as any sculpture or painted picture.” I developed an appreciation for the rules of typography.

The Rules

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 addl.ng to, the content of the piece. It is no substitute for a well-reasoned conceptual solution to the design problem at hand.

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 body text throughout my career: Serif Bodoni Caslon Cheltenham Garamond

Sans Serif Franklin Gothic Futuro Gill Sans News Gothic Trade Gothic

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 intention, 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 0 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 letter spacing 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 shadows. Shadows these days can be rendered easily in programs such as Adobe’s Photoshop and Illustrator, and convincingly, too. The problem is, it is so easily done that it is overdone. Thus, the wholesale usage of soft drop shadows has become the typographic equivalent of clip art. Viewers know they have seen it before. Rather than being evocative, it mainly evokes the program it was created in.

Hard drop shadows, ones that are 100 percent of a color, are easily achieved in Quark and placed behind the main text. This method is generally employed when the main text is not reading against the background, because of a neutral tone or an image that varies in tone from dark to light. The handed-down wisdom is: If you need a drop shadow to make it read, the piece isn’t working. These solid drop shadows always look artificial, since, in reality, there is no such thing as a solid drop shadow. There should be a better solution to readability.

Perhaps the background or the color of the type can be adjusted. Perhaps the type should be paneled or outlined. There are an infinite number of possible variations.

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 never be white. Why would a shadow be 100 percent lighter than what is, in theory, casting the shadow?

10

White shadows create a hole in the background, and draw the eye to the shadow, and not where you want it to go: the text.

Justified text looks more formal than flush left, rag right. Most books are set justified, while magazines are often flush left, rag right. Centered copy will appear more relaxed than asymmetrical copy.

Large blocks of centered type can create odd-looking shapes that detract from the copy contained within.

Another thing to consider is the point size and width of body copy. The tendency in recent times is to make type smaller and smaller, regardless of the intended audience. However, the whole purpose of text is that it 120 be read. A magazine covering contemporary music is different from the magazine for The American Association of Retired Persons.

It is also common today to see very wide columns of text, with the copy set at a small point size. The problem is that a very wide column .is hard to read because it forces the eye to move back and forth, tiring the read.er. On the other hand, a very narrow measure also is objectionable, because the phrases and words are too cut up, with the eye jumping from line to line. We, as readers, do not read letter by letter, or even word by word, but, rather, phrase by phrase. A consensus favors an average of ten to twelve words per line.

Lastly, too much leading between lines also makes the reader work too hard jumping from line to line, while too little leading makes it hard for the reader to discern where one line ends and another begins.

The audience should always be paramount in the designer’s approach, and it is the audience--not the whim of the designer, or even the cliJnt—that defines the level of difficulty and ease with which a piece is read. As Eric Gill said in 1931, “A book is primarily a thing to be read.”

A final consideration is the size of the type. As a rule of thumb, mass-market books tend to be 8 point for reasons of space. A clothbound book, magazine, or newspaper usually falls into tpe 9.5 point to 12 point range. Oversized art books employ larger sizes-generally, 14 point to 18 point or more.

Choosing the right typeface for your design can be time-consuming. There are thousands to choose from. Qyestions abound. Is the face legible at the setting I want? Does it evoke what I want it to evoke? Is it appropriate to the subject matter? There

11

are no easy answers. When a student of mine used Clarendon in a self-promotion piece, I questioned why he chose a face that has 1950s connotations, 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 simply based on its “coolness.” Later, I relayed the incident to Seymour Chwast, of the legendary Pushpin Group (formerly Pushpin Studios). He observed that 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 ace 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 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 hands of the right ... designer.” Of course, this was before the novelty type explosion that took place later that decade, and, again, after the advent of the Macintosh computer. Still, Jeffery Keedy, a contemporary type designer whose work appears regularly in Emigre, concurs: “Good designers can make use of almost anything. Th~ typeface is the point of departure, not the destination.” Note the caveat “almost.” Still, bad use of good type is much less desirable than good use of bad type.

When I first began in publishing, a coworker decided to let me in on the “secrets” of picking the appropriate face. “If you get a book on Lincoln to design,” he advised, “look up an appropriate typeface in the index of the type specimen book.” He proceeded to do so. “Ah, here we go-’Log Cabin!”’

While, on the extremely rare occasion, I have found this to be a useful method, it’s a good general rule of what not to do.

5 ALTERNATIVE ROUTES INTO DESIGN EDUCATION 03. Hyper Island

University isn’t your only option. Here are five different avenues into the creative industries.

A design degree isn’t everything – as Michael Johnson, the multi-award-winning creative and strategy director of leading branding agency johnson banks, explained earlier this week.

Beyond traditional higher education there are various different avenues into the creative industries on offer from design companies, colleges and accredited institutions. If university isn’t for you, here are five alternatives routes to kick-start your dream design career…

01. Typography Summer School

The one-week Typography Summer School run by designer Fraser Muggeridge is designed to bridge the gap between student and professional life. “It’s like a finishing school really, with visits from tutors and professionals,” explains Muggeridge. “With only 25 students per week, it’s smaller than most colleges. The course is structured almost like an MA in a week.”

02. Shillington

A recent arrival in the UK and US education sector is the Australian “design college with a difference”. In direct contrast to the academic structure of university courses, Shillington offers full-time courses lasting three months and parttime courses lasting one year. They say: “We’re convinced that a world-class education shouldn’t take forever if it’s well-planned, continually updated with the times, and presented by passionate professionals.”

Offering “immersive learning experiences for students and industry professionals, with the aim of developing lifelong learners,” Hyper Island is different from conventional courses in that it doesn’t have traditional teachers. “We build our programs in collaboration with the industry, based on experience-based learning. This means that instead of going to class, you will be going to interactive sessions and workshops where we bring industry players from around the globe to facilitate lectures and seminars.”

04. Werkplaats Typografie

A renowned two-year graphic design masters program founded by Karel Martens and Wigger Bierma, the Werkplaats Typografie places the emphasis on assignments and self-initiated projects, supported by “lectures, seminars, meetings and readings geared towards self-accountable and independently motivated work and research.”

According to the designer James Goggin, who taught at WT prior to moving to the USA, “the general success, of the school is based on its inherent flexibility and its capacity for spontaneity and improvisation.”

05. Parsons online degree

Courses offering remote learning are mushrooming. Typical of this trend is Parsons, the venerable New York design school. Its online program offers students the opportunity to “earn their Parsons AAS professional degree from anywhere. With the same curriculum as the AAS Graphic Design program on campus, the online program will provide an intense, rigorous course of study that prepares graduates to confidently enter or move up in the field of graphic design.”

12

IDENTIT Y

13

A Typographic Installation Todd Juliano, India Stephenson, Hannah Chittum

IDENTIT Y A Typographic Installation

Investigation

Photo: Artist (left to right) India Stephenson, Hannah Chittum, Todd Juliano

Situation

Identity is a typographic installation in the center of downtown St. Augustine. The goal of this installation is to identify the role and importance of typography as it relates to modern society. In a city defined by its history, we hope to unveil and showcase the identities of those immersed in St. Augustine’s rich culture.

15

When we sat down as a group, we collectively knew we wanted something that would appear cool at first, but as you investigated it more it would carry a deeper meaning. We also agreed that in order to engage views more easily, having some kind of interactivity would definitely be an eye-catching experience. Once we agreed upon these terms as a whole, the ideas started flying.

We started to explore words that related to typography as well as words that may also be relatable to the city of St. Augustine. We examined the different uses of typography through the various purposes that it holds. The majority of typography used on a daily basis is strictly informational based. If there is a need to display information, that seems to be the only time typography is called upon. As we explored this further we asked the question, what information do you seem to see or need every day? We landed on our own names, our own signatures, our own identities.

Insight

The insights achieved from my investigation supplied me with a brilliant concept. We decided to chose the word “Identity” and create our installation out of Hello my name is stickers to showcase the idea of ones role or “identity.”

Idea

As a young group of students so eager to explore, we decided to try and identify the role typography plays in this small, history rich city.

St. Augustine, our nations oldest city, is swamped 12 months out of the year with tourism from all over the world. Other than their own photographs and accounts, how can those people leave a little something behind for others to read and appreciate? We decided to create an environment, where these people could leave their mark letting someone know, that they had once stood on the corner of St. George and King Street in St. Augustine, Florida. What is the common amongst everyone in the world? Everyone has a name. Some people share names, but the chance they write their name the same way is highly unlikely. Everyone’s identity is unique. We first played with the concept of using thumbprints, but quickly ended up with the plan to use Hello my name is stickers. Creating

the opportunity for people to sign their names in the blank space of the stickers that make up the letters. This would allow us to achieve one of our goals, allowing our viewers to interact with out installation.

Budget

Identity Installation Check #:0003 Server: ART227

11/7/14 6:00 PM Guests: 498

Corrugated Cardboard Hot Glue Guns (6.99/ea) Hot Glue Stix (4.99/ea) HELLO my name is stix(500) Cardboard

37.50 13.98 14.97 27.80 FREE

Sub-total Labor TOTAL

94.25 FREE 94.25

Balance Due

94.25

Thank you for your patronage!

Research

Research was an important factor in understanding the meaning behind this project. First I needed to familiarize myself with the purpose of type and how we see it in society. Typography

16

Above: A woman leaves her mark on the “Identity” installation.

17

Below: Tourists signing their names on to the “identity” installation captured by a cleverly placed GoPro® camera.

surrounds us; it’s the gateway to understanding and learning; it not only represents knowledge, but has also altered its initial purpose form only informational use, to become an esthetically pleasing for of art. We can see that with our project that is typography displayed in a nontraditional artistic setting instead of the familiar environmental use.

The typography that is a fundamental part of our lives today is the culmination of improvements over time, as techniques evolved in time so do our methods of production.

After educating myself in the forms of typography I needed to see the historical use of it in St. Augustine’s history. Being that type plays a large role in communication its clear to see its role in the growth of St. Augustine. Without Henry Flagler’s monopoly on the railways he would not have had the ability to transport the amount of advertisement through the post office. He developed mass communication through typography in the form of magazine ads. These ads not only used type as a form of information, but also as an esthetically pleasing art form to draw the viewer in.

Overall Flagler’s ability to control the post office worked greatly to his advantage.

Once I had seen the historical side of typography in Saint Augustine I wanted to explore the many uses of type throughout the city. There are many typeface varieties throughout town and each possesses a distinct personality. Some typefaces are sharp and bold conveying authority, while others are loose and seem playful. Typeface usage can therefore tell a reader the attitude in which the message is trying to be expressed through.

The word identity defines typography not only in regards to St. Augustine, but also in our everyday experiences. We need typography to identify each other and the rules and regulations of the world we live in. Being that St. Augustine is a college town we are all finding our identity through the knowledge we are learning in class from the textbooks we read. Typography relates to everything around us in the same way the identity of ourselves, our town, and our surroundings relate to each other. Without typography there would be a lack of common ground between everyone.

Strategy Our Idea focuses mainly on the idea that our identity is something we like to share or commu-

nicate with others. We allow the viewer to become part of our art by creating our pixel out of Hello my name is stickers. This pixel gives our viewers the opportunity to go up to our piece and take a sharpie to write whom they are. They could either write their name, their role in society, or even their life story. We are setting our installation up in the center of downtown on two of the busiest streets in St. Augustine. With the art walk bringing in people from out of town we hope to catch the traffic of the exciting festivities.

Challenges

As a group, we all came across many of the same challenges. However, we all faced individual challenges, not all of them physical. Some of the challenges were mental and were emotionally draining. Being an athlete, it has been drilled in my head to become a leader in everything that I do. This of course extends to the classroom and my schoolwork. All great leaders have concurred the toughest part of leading. The toughest part of leading is knowing when to allow others to lead.

18

Everyone has strengths and everyone has weaknesses. Some people may only be able to utilize their strengths when they feel they are driving the train. Allowing people to get comfortable and produce their best work was exactly what our group accomplished. We had 3 leaders with 3 separate minds that found a way to play only the strengths and roll right over the weaknesses.

As far as physical challenges go, we had very little. Most of our physical challenges were met with quick remedies and were solved in little time. This came from the very account of everyone knowing their roles and filling them perfectly. Hannah making sure everything was done perfectly, India making sure anything and everything we may need was completed and worked with our big idea, and myself, creative solutions. The fluidness in which our three minds worked together was absolutely remarkable and honestly came as a complete shock to me. As I mentioned before our big challenges weren’t physical, they were emotional and creative. Having said that, all our challenges were approached and solved with quick solutions allowing us to achieve great success with our ideas.

Effectiveness

My client believes the project is a success, and they are excited to implement my campaign. They are convinced that I am bringing my message to the community in a genuine, empathetic and honest format. I am using simple, creative solutions that are budget friendly, rely on reusable resources and portray the organization of Supportive Housing Communities in the manner in which they want to be recognized—as a partner in the fight to end homelessness once and for all.

I consider the project a success for many reasons.

First of all, I was able to take my design concepts, craft and passion to another level. Second, I have received very favorable feedback from my design peers in and out of school. Finally, I consider the project a success because my client is thrilled with the deliverables and desires using me in the future for all marketing and print-related designs.

Words by: Todd Juliano and Hannah Chittum

19

20

5 WAYS TO GIVE YOUR WEBSITE MORE PERSONALITY by: Mack McCullough

“Does your website tell a story? If not, it probably should.”

up of fables and parables used to teach and convert.

Why not just tell followers to treat each other better or serve one another? The parables served as both a practical example of the desired behavior and a way for listeners to connect emotionally with the material. We have been using that same formula ever since.

21

04. Make the consumer the hero

So how can your website tell a story? It doesn’t have a narrative arc like a novel, film or TV show. It can, however, utilize the elements of storytelling in order to create a memorable and persuasive brand message.

Pepsi’s brand site makes the consumer the hero What are some good brand sites that tell a good story? Who has mastered the art of character creation, with a formidable foe and clearly defined motivations?

01. Create a character

A good example is Pepsi’s brand site. Pepsi as a brand knows exactly who they are. Their site tells the story of the young millennial consumer who is always trying to stay fresh. Pepsi plays the part of the mentor, guiding them to what is now and even next. One would think that the major antagonist for Pepsi would be their competitor, Coke. It is, but not directly.

Which ‘character’ does your brand play in your story? Is your brand the hero, saving your customer from the clutches of some villainous foe? Is your brand the mentor, guiding the consumer on their quest for happiness and fulfillment? Is your brand the trickster, bringing levity and play to the seriousness of everyday life? Deciding on which character you wish your brand to play will go a long way in figuring out which story you’d like to tell.

Why is storytelling so important? Why has humanity, regardless of any sociological factor, chosen to use storytelling as a way to influence people? For the same reasons you should use storytelling to con- 02. Find an enemy vince people to choose your brand — it is memora- Your brand doesn’t necessarily have to slay dragons ble and persuasive. or save humanity from invading aliens. (If it did, that would be one hell of a value proposition.) It “Slow and steady wins the race.” We all know what does, however, need to do something. It needs to this phrase means and where it comes from. This is, overcome some sort of foe. You need to identify of course, one of Aesop’s fables used to illustrate the your brand’s antagonist. What is your brand fightimportance of consistency and determination over ing? If you are a financial institution, your antagospeed and carelessness. If Aesop had chosen to just nist could be careless consumer spending. Your foe say, “Hey, taking your time is better than rushing,” could be other financial institutions that you feel we probably wouldn’t remember it quite as well. By don’t have your consumers’ best interests at heart. tying his message to the story of a footrace between How will you save the day? Don’t get carried away, two seemingly mismatched opponents, we all reit is best to pick one conflict per story; otherwise, member his lesson and carry it with us. The story your message gets muddied. makes it memorable.

It is one thing for your message to be remembered, but you also want it to be persuasive. That is the point of advertising in the first place. Storytelling has been used to persuade people since the dawn of man. Every religion in recorded history is made

You could be a restaurant whose motivation is to make the world a little healthier by offering fresh ingredients at a reasonable price. You could be a shoe company that is motivated by the desire to be expressive, so you offer footwear that is unique and fashionable. Once you have figured out your character, your motivation and your conflict, you will have the makings of a great story.

03. Give your character motivation

What compels your character to act? Why do you care if the consumer reaches his or her goal? The obvious answer is to improve your bottom line, but that doesn’t make for a good story. It needs to be deeper than that.

things like “9 producers You Probably Don’t Know, But Should.” It allows the consumer to be the hero, and Pepsi to be the trusted guide.

05. Make the brand the hero

Patagonia’s site makes the brand the hero Another example of a great brand story is the Patagonia website. Patagonia is a brand of outdoor apparel and gear, yet their site doesn’t shout about the warmth of their fleece or how water-resistant their backpacks are. Instead, they tell the story of how their brand pushes the limits and challenges all that nature has to offer.

Patagonia is the hero of their story. Their brand is the explorer who goes out and hikes, climbs, camps and discovers. Their foe is the elements, like temperature, wetness or rough terrain. They are motivated by the desire to break through their limits and celebrate all that nature has to offer. Patagonia has a loving rivalry with nature, saying, “Bring it on.” It is inspiring and aspirational for the consumer.

What story does your brand tell? Are you memorable? Are your persuasive? If you’re not as much as you’d like to be, maybe you need to get your story straight.

On their site, Pepsi fights against tradition and the same ol’ same ol’. Because Coke has always been about nostalgia and tradition, Pepsi can combat them by taking on what they stand for. Pepsi is motivated by the need to stay ahead of the latest trends in order to be the brand of the young.

They do this through the language and content on their page. It isn’t about the drink itself, it’s about

22

BACK TO BASICS:

photo: Richard Evans

Stopping Sloppy Typography John D. Berry

23

There’s a 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 lookin’ at me?” The style of the letters is traditional, with serifs; it looks like a line of dialogue, which is exactly what it’s supposed to look like. Since this is a billboard, and the text is the entire message of the billboard, it’s a witty comment on the fact that you are looking at “me”-that is, the message on the billboard-as you drive past.

But, as my partner and I drove past and spotted this billboard for the first time, we both simultaneously voiced the same response: “No, I’m looking at your 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 a teardrop tail at the bottom.

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. The normal quotation marks at the beginning and end of the sentence just serve to

photo: Richard Evans

make the loud “blat!” of the apostrophe stand out. If that had been the purpose of the billboard, it would have been very effective. But unless the billboards along Highway 101 have become the scene of an exercise in typographic irony, it’s just a big ol’ mistake.

Really big, and right out there in plain sight.

The Devil Is in the Details 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.

This should not be so. These fine points ought to be covered in every basic class in typography, and basic typography ought to be part of the education of every graphic designer. But clearly; this isn’t the case-or else a lot of designers skipped that part of the class, or have simply forgotten what they once learned about type. Or, they naively believe the software they use will do the job for them.

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

24

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 actually on the wane, thanks to word-processing programs and page-layout programs that offer the option of automatically changing them to typographers’ quotes on the fly. (I’m not sure what has made the phenomenon I spotted on that billboard so common, but I’ve noticed a lot of examples recently of text where the double quotation marks are correct but the postrophes are straight.) But those same automatic typesetting routines have created another almost universal mistake: where an apostrophe at the· beginning of a word appears backwards, as a single open quotation mark. You see this in abbreviated dates (‘99, ‘01) and in colloquial spellings, like ‘em for them. The program can turn straight quotes into typographers’ quotes· automatically, making any quotation mark at the start of a word into an open quote, and any quotation mark at the end of a word into a closed quote, but it has no way of telling that the apostrophe at the beginning 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 elegant; fake small caps are distraction and an abomination.

Fake caps are what you get when you use a program’s “small caps” command. The software just shrinks the full-size capital letters down by a predetermined percentage-which gives you a bunch of small, spindly-looking caps all huddled together in the middle of the text. If the design calls for caps and small caps-that is, small caps for the word but a full cap for the first letter-it’s even worse, since the full-size caps draw attention to themselves because they look so much heavier than the smaller caps next to them. (If you’re using caps and small caps to spell out an acronym; this might make sense; in that 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 Open Type font that includes them, and’ use them when the “small caps” command is invoked. Unfortunately, InDesign isn’t smart enough, or indepen-

dent enough, to say, “No, thanks,” when you invoke “small caps” in a font that doesn’t actually 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 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 at least should) with a word in all caps; it makes the word much more readable.

Pay Attention, Now

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.

photo: Richard Evans

photo: Richard Evans

photo: Richard Evans photo: Richard Evans

25

26

GROOMING THE FONT ANONYMOUS

10.1 LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS 10.1.1 Check the license before tuning a digital font.

W

27

riting begins with the making of meaningful marks.

That is to say, leaving the traces of 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. Pianos, however, need to be tuned. The same is true of fonts. To put this in more literary terms, fonts need to be edited just as carefully as texts do - and may need to be re-edited, like texts, when their circumstances change.

The editing of fonts, like the editing of texts, begins before their birth and never ends. You may prefer to entrust the editing of your fonts, like the tuning of your piano, to a professional. If you are the editor of a magazine or the manager of a publishing house, that is probably the best way to proceed. But devoted typographers, like lutenists and guitarists, often feel that they themselves must tune the instruments they play.

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 rights. No one believes that tuning a piano or pumping up the tires of a car infringes on the rights of the manufacturer - and this is true no matter whether the car or the piano has been rented, leased or purchased. Printing type was treated the same way from Bi Sheng’s time until the 198os. Generally speaking, metal type and photo type are treated that way still. In the digital realm, where the font is wholly intangible, those older notions of ownership are under pressure to change.

The Linotype Library’s standard font license says that “You may modify the Font-Software to satisfy your design requirements.”

FontShop’s standard license has a similar provision: “You do have the right to modify and alter Font Software for your customary personal and business use, but not for resale or further distribution:’ Adobe’s and Agfa Monotype’s licenses contain no such provision. Monotype’s says instead that “You may not alter Font Software for the purpose of adding any functionality.... You agree not to adapt, modify, alter, translate,

convert, or otherwise the Font Software.... “ If your license forbids improving the font itself, the onllegal way to tune it is through a software override. For example, can use an external kerning editor to override the kerning built into the font. This is the least elegant way to do it, but multitude of errors in fitting and kerning can be masked, if need be, by this means.

10.2 ETHICAL & AESTHETIC CONSIDERATIONS 10.2.1 If it ain’t broke....

Any part of the font can be tuned - lettershapes, character set, character encoding, fitting and sidebearings, kerning table, hinting, and, in OpenType font, the rules governing character substitutions.

What doesn’t need tuning or fixing shouldn’t be touched. If you want to revise the font just for the sake of revising it, you do better to design your own instead. And if you hack up someone else’s font for practice, like a biology student cutting up a frog, you might cremate or bury the results.

10.2.2 If the font is out of tune, fix it once and for all.

One way to refine the typography of a text is to work your way it line by line, putting space in here, removing it there, repositioning errant characters one by one. But if these refinements are made to the font itself, you will never need

28

to make again. They are done for good.

10.2.3 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 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.

10.2-4 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.

10.3 HONING THE CHARACTER SET

The latter’s errors should be remedied at once.

You may find for example that analphabetic characters such as @ + ± x = · - - © 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 are poorly drawn, poorly positioned, or out of scale with the letterforms.

I + 2 = 3 < 9 > 6±I • 2 x 4 a + b = c • a@b •

© 2007

a + b = c • a@b •

© 2007

I + 2 = 3 < 9 > 6±I • 2 x 4

Jose 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, arithmetical signs and other analphabetics are out of scale and out of position, and the copyright symbol and at sign are alien to the font. The raw versions are shown in grey, corrected “versions in black.

10.3.1 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 assured that the basic letterforms are the work of a real designer whose craftsmanship merits respect, and that the characters were added by an inattentive foundry employee.

29

ê ù ô ã è

êùôã

Fredric Goudy’s Kennerley is a homely but quite pleasant type, useful many purposes, but in lanston’s digital version, the letterforms are budened with some preposterous diacritics.

Above left: four accepted as issued by the foundry. Above right: corrected versions. All fonts candidates for similar improvement. Below left: four accented sorts Robert Slimbach’s carefully honed Minion, as originally issued by in 1989. Below right: the same glyphs, revised

by Slimbach ten years while preparing the OpenType version of the face.

10.3.2 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 figures, but most digital fonts are sold with titling figures instead. Most digital fonts also include the ligatures fi and fl but not f, ai, ffl, fj or ffj. You may least some of the missing glyphs on a supplementary font font’), but that is not enough. Put all the basic giyphs together on the base font.

If, like a good Renaissance typographer, you use only upright and brackets (see §5.3.2), copy the upright forms from roman to the italic font. Only then can they be kerned and spaced correctly without fuss.

10.3.3 If Glyphs you need are missing altogether, make them.

Standard ISO digital text fonts (PostScript or True Type) have 256 slots and carry a basic set of Western European characters.

Eastern European characters such as A C D E G H I N O R S T U are usually missing. So are the Welsh sorts W and Y, and a host of characters needed for African, Asian and Native American languages.

The components required to make these characters may be present on the font, and assembling the pieces is not hard, but you need a place to put whatever characters you make. If you need only a few and do not care about system compatibility, you can place them in wasted slots – e.g., the ^ < > \ | ~ ` positions, which

are accessible directly from the keyboard, or slots such as ¢ + 1 2 3 ~ 11 %o , which can be reached through insertion utilities or by typing character codes or by customizing the keyboard. 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.

10.3.4 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/~ gy, it, 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.

The spacing of many analphabetics, however, has as much to do with editorial style as with typographic design. Unless your fonts are custom made, neither the type designer nor the founder can know what you need or prefer. I habitually increase the left sidebearing of semicolon, colon, question and exclamation marks, and the inner bearings of guillemets and parentheses, in search of a kind of Channel Island compromise: neither the tight

fitting preferred by most anglophone editors nor the wide-open spacing customary in France. If I worked in French all the time, I might increase these sidebearings further.

Digital type can be printed in three dimensions, using 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 iii two.

Two-dimensional type can be printed more cleanly and sharply than three-dimensional type, but the gain in sharpness rarely equals what is lost in depth and texture. A digital page is therefore apt to look aenemic next to a page printed directy from handset metal.

This imbalance can be addressed by going deeper into two dimensions. Digital type is capable of refinements of spacing and kerning beyond those attainable in metal, and the primary means of achieving this refinement is the kerning table.

Always check the sidebearings of figures and letters before you edit the kerning table. Sidebearings can be checked quickly for errors by disabling kerning and setting characters, at ample size, in pairs: 11223344 ... qqwweerrttyy ....

If the spacing within the pairs appears to vary, or if it appears consistently cramped or loose, the sidebearings probably need to

be changed.

The function of a kerning table is to achieve what perfect sidebearings cannot. A thorough check of the kerning ·table therefore involves checking all feasible permutations of characters: 1213141516 ... wqeqrqtqyquqiqoqpq ... (a(s(d(f(g(h(j(k(l ... )a)s)d)f)g ... -1-2-3-4-5 ...

TqTwTeTrTtTyTuTiToTp ... and so on. This will take several hours for a standard rso font. For a full pan-European font, it will take several days.

Class-based kerning (now a standard capability of font editing software) can be used to speed the process. In class-based kerning, similar letters, such as A A A A A A A A A A, are treated as one and kerned alike. This is an excellent way to begin when you are kerning a large font, but not a way to finish. The combinations Ta and Ta, Ti and Ti, il and il, i) and i), are likely to require different treatment.

Kerning sequences such as Tp, Tt and f( may seem to you absurd, but they can and do occur in legitimate text. (Tpig is the name of a town in the mountains of Dagestan, near the southern tip of the Russian Federation; Ttanuu is an important historical site on the British Columbia coast; sequences such as y = f(x) occur routinely in mathematics.)

If you know what texts you wish to set with a given font, and know that combinations such as these will never occur, you can certainly omit them from the table. But if you are preparing a font for general use, even in a single language, remember that it should accommodate the occasional foreign phrase and the names of real

30

and fictional people, places and things. These can involve some unusual combinations. (A few additional examples: McTavish, FitzWilliam, O’Quinn, dogfish, jack o’-lantern, Hallowe’en.)

It is also wise to check the font by running a test file - a specially written text designed to hunt out missing or malformed characters and kerning pairs that are either too tight or too loose. On pages 204-205 is a short example of such a test file, showing the difference between an ungroomed font and a groomed one.

It is nothing unusual for a wellgroomed rso font (which might contain around two hundred working characters) to have a kerning table listing a thousand pairs. Kerning instructions for large OpenType fonts are usually stored in a different form, but if converted to tabular form, the kerning data for a pan-European Latin font may easily reach 3o,ooo pairs. For a well-groomed Latin-Greek-Cyrillic font, decompiling the kerning instructions can generate a table of 15o,ooo pairs. Remember, though, that the number isn’t what counts.

What matters is the intelligence and style of the kerning. Remember too that there is no such thing as a font whose kerning cannot be improved.

10.3.6 Check the kerning of the word space.

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

It is normally kerned against sloping and 1, undercut glyphs: quotation marks, apostrophe, the letters A, T, V, W, Y, and often

31

to the numerals 1, 3, 5· It is not, however, normally kerned more than a hair either to or away from a preceding lowercase fin either roman or italic.

A cautionary example. Most of the Monotype digital revivals I have tested over the years have serious flaws in the kerning tables. One problem in particular recurs in Monotype Baskerville, Centaur & Arrighi, Dante, Fournier, Gill Sans, Poliphilus & Blado, Van Dijck and other masterworks in the Monotype collection: These are well-tried faces of superb design- yet in defiance of tradition, the maker’s kerning tables call for a large space (as much as M/4) to be added whenever the f is followed by a word space. The result is a large white blotch after very word ending in f unless a mark of punctuation intervenes.

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 eigth or 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 Stanely 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.

10.4 Hinting 10.4.1 If the font looks poor a low resolutions, check the hinting Digital hints a re 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.)

10.5 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 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 qne to another of these, and the 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 sho.uld ali convert correctly. The slightest inconsistency in font names can prevent this trick from working - and not all manufacturers name 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 renamed in order to make them work as expected.

We’re counting down the 100 greatest typefaces in existence.

Here is number 65...

FontShop AG, the renowned type foundry, conducted a survey based on historical relevance, sales at FontShop. com, and aesthetic quality. With a few additions from the experts at Creative Bloq and Computer Arts magazine, the best fonts ever were selected for the new book, 100 Best Typefaces Ever.

Here we are counting down the 100 greatest fonts, but you can read interviews with some of the typefaces’ creators, a brief history of type, the anatomy of a font, and much, much more in the book – find out how to get your copy in print or digital formats at the foot of this post.

But without further ado, here is the 65th best typeface…

65. Shelley

Shelley script font Matthew Carter, 1972 Shelley is a classic cursive handwriting script crafted by legendary type designer Matthew Carter in 1972. The small family of typefaces have small x-heights relative to their

asenders and descenders, but longer descenders compared to Snell – another script designed

by Carter in 1966.

Shelley is a revival of the handwriting of the early eighteenth century English writing master, George Shelley, and has five styles: Shelley Script Pro, Andante Script, Volante Script, Allegro Script and Script Pro Cyrillic.

The 100 Best Typefaces Ever This is an extract from The 100 Best Typefaces Ever, the definitive guide to the greatest fonts ever created, in association with FontShop AG. Over 180 premium pages, the book dissects the world’s greatest typefaces, bringing you some insightful background on each and interviews with their creators.

You can pick up the book at all good newsagents today or order it online. Or you can download a digital edition directly to your iPad from the Computer Arts app on iTunes.

Words: Rob Carney

32

12 STEPS FOR SETTING UP A STUDENT FREELANCE PRACTICE Anne Wollenberg You don’t need to wait until you graduate to grow your client list. Savvy students can gain valuable experience, cash and contacts by taking on freelance projects well before finishing formal education. It’s a great way to bridge the gap between studying and working. Go about it the right way and you’ll gain new design and business skills, make contacts and add real-world commercial experience to your CV. You’ll earn some money, too.

01. Think about what you’re selling

There are two main things to consider: your abilities and your time. Consider what skills you have to offer and what you most want to demonstrate, because successful freelance projects will be tangible proof of what you can do. Think about how much time you can realistically spend freelancing and when you actually plan to work.

03. Get the essential equipment

Before you start, it goes without saying that you must own – or have unlimited access to – a computer (it doesn’t have to be a Mac, although they do tend to be the creative tool of choice) with Adobe Creative Suite, or a Creative Cloud subscription.

You’ll need regular access to email for communicating with clients, somewhere private and quiet to work, and a way of backing up files in the Cloud and/or on a physical device. You may also need a drawing tablet, printer and scanner. Use a dedicated sketchbook for freelance work rather than mixing it up with your studies.

Try looking at contract templates – AIGA’s standard agreement is a good list of things to cover, although it’s geared towards the US. If you know any other freelancers, ask if they’re willing to show you the ones they use. And speak to organisations like the Association of Illustrators (AOI), who can advise on and check contracts.

Business cards are also worth having. They look professional, plus they’re a physical object for clients and contacts to keep – which may help them remember you, and remind them to hire you again.

10. Stay on top of your accounts

You’ll need to spend some of your time on tedious pursuits like accounts. Reduce stress by gathering information as you go. From the start, keep track of how much you earn, when you get paid and any money you spend on your business, and hold onto receipts and invoices.

07. Always read the client’s contract

If a client issues a contract, read it thoroughly and ask someone else to look over it too. It may include a confidentiality or non-disclosure agreement (NDA), read this carefully if so to avoid inadvertently tweeting something that breaks it, for instance. Watch out for anything relating to payment for cancelled projects, or if the client decides not to use the creative.

It’s crucial for freelancers to have a website, even if it’s just a holding page with your name and contact information. Ideally you should set up a portfolio site that shows off your best work.

04. Start professionally

It’s all too easy to get carried away with excitement when you land your first commission, but make sure you get everything in writing. If you agree something on the phone, send an email confirming it. Clients won’t think badly of you – it will make you look professional.

05. Draw up a contract

Freelancing is a business, so treat it like one. That ideally means having a contract in place to cover the essentials: payment (how much and any deposit or installments); the scope of the job (brief, deliverables, and provisions for client amends); the times-

33

06. Check out some contract templates

09. Think about self-promo

08. Set up your online presence

02. Identify your goals

Whatever your schedule, you can only spend so much time freelancing – so it helps to know exactly why you’re doing it. Write down some objectives, like the types of clients you’d like to work for and the kind of experience you hope to get. You can keep those goals in mind when you’re deciding what projects to take on.

cale; copyright (you always want this to remain with you until you’ve been paid); and what happens if things go wrong, such as the project being delayed or cancelled. Plan for it. It happens.

11. Draw up a comprehensive invoice

You’ll probably invoice by email, but you must include your postal address and phone number, your clients’, an invoice date, project details, completion date and monies owed. It’s also a good idea to include a payment deadline, and don’t forget your bank details so the client knows how to pay you.

Make sure you stay on top of invoicing – that way your clients can stay on top of paying you.

12. Always view freelancing as a job

Plan your time, meet your deadlines and keep things polite and professional. Also, know your limits and be realistic about what you can and can’t do.

From the moment you start your freelance career, think about assembling a support network, starting with fellow students and tutors.

It helps to have people in your corner if you need someone to cast a fresh pair of eyes over a project.

You’ll be working solo, but you don’t have to handle everything alone.

34

“Because Nobody Else”