Final Projects Fall 2009

Refined Posters Due Thursday

Mac is Not A Typewriter

_ What are the advantages of a multiple column grid?

Grids are all about control. They establish a system for arranging content within the space of a page, screen, or built environment. Consistency is key!

_ How many characters is optimal for a line length? words per line?

The average characters in a line range between 45-75 (65) Long column? add a little extra leading.

words: on average 10-12 words.

_ Why is the baseline grid used in design?

It is an imaginary grid upon which type sits. The baseline of a piece of type can be forced to 'snap' t this grid to maintain continuity across the pages of a design. 12 points long, use for horizontal alignment.

_ What is a typographic river?

are visually unattractive gaps appearing to run down a paragraph of text. They can occur with any spacing, though they are most noticeable with wide inter-word spaces caused by either full text justification or monospaced fonts.

_ From the readings what does clothesline or flow line mean?

A flow line is the horizontal line that guides your eyes through text.

_ How can you incorporate white space into your designs?

You use white space in the outer areas of the layout. You shouldn't trap white space between columns of text. White space help organize and clean up a layout.

_ What is type color/texture mean?

It is the non-white parts of the layout. Increase leading or tracking to make texture.

_ What is x-height, how does it effect type color?

It is the height of the lowercase 'x' in a typeface. It deals with the space of the type. It affects type color through the spacing with the type. If the type has a tall x-height it will look darker, smaller x height lighter.

_ In justification or H&J terms what do the numbers: minimum, optimum, maximum mean?

Minimum- the least amount of space between words

Maximum- the most amount of space between words

Optimum- the right amount of space between words.

_ What are some ways to indicate a new paragraph. Are there any rules?

There are very many ways to indicate a new paragraph: indent second line, tracking, hang indent, all caps, etc. Do not indent the first line of a paragraph
_ What are some things to look out for when hyphenating text.

Mainly hyphens are used for hyphenating words and line breaks, but En dashes are used for time like hours, days, or years and Em dashes are changes in thought or where a period is strong and a comma is too weak.
_ What is a literature?

"acquaintance with letters"
_ What does CMYK and RGB mean?

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black

Red Green Blue
_ What does hanging punctuation mean?

is a way of typesetting punctuation marks and bullet points, most commonly quotation marks and hyphens, so that they do not disrupt the ‘flow’ of a body of text or ‘break’ the margin of alignment.
_ What is the difference between a foot mark and an apostrophe?

An apostrophe and quote mark have a similar circle and curve that make it present the quote or word ("" '). To make apostrophes and smart quotes you have to hit the the option +[ (left bracket is quote, right bracket is apostrophe). to make them go the other direction and add shift.

_ What is a hyphen, en dash and em dashes, what are the differences and when are they used.

A hyphen is used for hyphenating words or line breaks like previously stated, it is found next to the equal sign on the keyboard. An En dash is used between words to indicate a duration of time like hours, days, months or years (there is a space en dash space). The short cut is option+hyphen. An Em dash is twice as long as the En dash, it is used in a similar manner to colon and parentheses, it indicates an abrupt change in thought.
_ What are ligatures, why are they used, when are they not used, what are common ligatures

Two or more letters that are grouped or 'tied' together, for example in some typefaces the 'fi' and 'oe' sequences overlapped which looks terrible.

Revised Visual Concepts Posters

Poster #1

Poster #2

2nd Poster for Visual Concepts

Poster #2

My Website for Typography

Memphis

Posters for Visual Concepts

Poster #1

Drawing Media Stuff

Responding to the Visual Concepts Article #2

"Scale is Read as spacial reasoning."

This quote from the book really stuck out to me because I do believe that hierarchy is very crucial to design and also white space. It is noticed when a designer deliberately keeps white space into a piece because it speaks as much, if not more, to the viewer in what the piece is trying to communicate.

Also taking the familiar and putting it into the unfamiliar. With the picture above, immediately I recognized the soccer fields but they were located in an unfamiliar place. Because I played soccer for most of my life, and even though I did not have an emotional attachment to the location of this picture, I found myself loving this picture because I could relate to the picture through the soccer fields. I think as a designer, you must give people the opportunity to relate their specific circumstances to their own lives. This could be difficult because you cannot relate one graphic to all lives on this Earth, but you can think of objects or things that do influence the majority of the world's population.

FINAL posters for Typography

LAST refined posters

Refined Posters Due Thursday #5

Refined Posters Due Thursday #4

Refined Posters Due Thursday #3

Refined Posters Due Thursday #2

Refined Posters Due Thursday

Cropped Images

I finally figured out how to put this up. Here it is. I will put up more of my favorites.

Max Miedinger

Other fonts:

• Helvetica
• Pro Arte
• Horizontal

“I always really enjoy using Helvetica because you know, some people say they use a different typeface because it gives a different feeling. I really enjoy making Helvetica speak in different ways. It’s been around for fifty years, coming up, and it’s just as fresh as it was. Obviously, it wasn’t intended to be this cool thing, but it’s just a beautiful font.” -Michael C. Place

For more Love/Hate relationships with Helvetica, please visit this website:

http://nubbytwiglet.com/blog/2007/10/31/helvetica-a-love-hate-relationship/

The History of Helvetica

The history of Helvetica

Think of the 60’s era and its advertising. What comes to mind? Style? Slick designs? Clean lines? That’s due in large part to Max Miedinger and his Helvetica font design. Even today, this is one of the world’s most popular fonts.

The sans serif style font was developed in 1957 by Max Miedinger. With its clean lines and good looks, it took the world by storm. But popularity has its downside. Due to widespread use, Miedinger’s font grew into an anonymous, almost generic-looking font. Because it was embraced and used so often, it became the norm. In fact, the Helvetica font ended up being the default font choice almost from its inception. And when laser printers and desktop publishing software took off, Helvetica had a firm foundation as the sans serif font of choice.

The term Helvetica means “Swiss” which is appropriate because the Helvetica type face uses the Swiss style of graphic design which relies heavily on sans serif styling and a preference for photography over illustrations. Strict grid systems are another hallmark of the iconic Swiss style graphics which rose to popularity in the fifties through early seventies.

The Helvetica Font quickly rose to the top and became emblematic of the Swiss style. The Swiss design movement was sweeping the graphic world at the time with their theories of objective communication of ideas over artistic expression. Graphic designers loved the bold new look and clean lines and found it hard to resist. Laser printers and desktop publishing software developers chose Helvetica as their default font and sealed its fate as the iconic font that it is.

The popularity of this font couldn’t last forever. In fact many who once embraced it came to shun it due in large part to its popularity and newfound stature as the default choice for laser printers and desktop publishing applications. Such is life on the cutting edge.

But the demise of the Helvetica typeface isn’t nearly in anyone’s sights. Because of its wide availability, typesetters and printers continue to use it, as do designers who appreciate the reason behind its popularity, and users who want a clean, workhorse font that will do their publications justice.

Helvetica

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

01923456789

@!*&? {}

Helvetica was first designed in 1957 by Max Miedinger. The name is derived from Helvetia, the Latin name for Switzerland. New weights were added by the Stempel foundry. Later, Merganthaler Linotype added new versions.

Max Miedinger (December 24, 1910 in Zurich, Switzerland - March 8, 1980, Zurich, Switzerland) was a Swiss typeface designer. He was famous for creating Helvetica in 1957. Marketed as a symbol of cutting-edge Swiss technology, Helvetica went global at once.^[1]

Between 1926 and 1930, Max was trained as a typesetter in Zurich, after which he attended evening classes at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich.

Later, he became a typographer for Globus department store's advertising studio in Zurich, and became a customer counselor and typeface sales representative for the Haas’sche Schriftgießerei in Münchenstein near Basle, until 1956, where he became a freelance graphic artist in Zurich.

Helvetica is usually used as a TRANSITIONAL OR ANONYMOUS SANS SERIF typeface.

SANS SERIF-- In typography, a sans-serif or sans serif typeface is one that does not have the small features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. The term comes from the French word sans, meaning "without".

In print, sans-serif fonts are more typically used for headlines than for body text.^[1] The conventional wisdom holds that serifs help guide the eye along the lines in large blocks of text. Sans-serifs, however, have acquired considerable acceptance for body text in Europe.

Sans-serif fonts have become the de facto standard for body text on-screen, especially online. This is partly because interlaced displays may show twitteringon the fine details of the horizontal serifs. Additionally, the low resolution of digital displays in general can make fine details like serifs disappear or appear too large.

Before the term “sans-serif” became standard in English typography, a number of other terms had been used. One of these outmoded terms for sans serif wasgothic, which is still used in East Asian typography and sometimes seen in font names like Century Gothic.

Sans-serif fonts are sometimes, especially in older documents, used as a device for emphasis, due to their typically blacker type color.

Century Gothic, Swiss 721, Fedra Sans are THREE examples of Sans Serif types

Font Classifications

What is font classification?

A basic system for classifying typefaces was devised in the nineteenth century, when printers sought to identify a heritage for their own craft analogous to that of art history.

Old Style

The roman typefaces of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries emulated classical calligraphy. Sabon was designed by Jan Tschichold in 1966, based on the sixteenth-century typefaces of Claude Garamond.

ex. Cordial bloom, Christiana, Dobra

Transitional

These typefaces have sharper serifs and a more vertical axis than humanist letters. When the fonts of John Baskerville were introduced in the mid-eighteenth century, their sharp forms and high contrast were considered shocking.

ex. Adrian Text, Winthorpe, Utopia

Modern

The typefaces designed by Giambattista Bodoni in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries are radically abstract. Note the thin, straight serifs; vertical axis; and sharp contrast from thick to thin strokes.

ex. Century Gothic, Champion Gothic, Nara

Slab Serif

Numerous bold and decorative typefaces were introduced in the nineteenth century for use in advertising. Egyptian fonts have heavy, slab-like serifs.

ex. Irma Slab, Brioni Text, Enzia

Sans Serif

Sans-serif typefaces became common in the twentieth century. Gill Sans, designed by Eric Gill in 1928, has humanist characteristics. Note the small, lilting counter in the letter a , and the calligraphic variations in line weight.

ex. Century Gothic, Fette Fraktur, Swiss 721

Script

Script typefaces often mimic handwriting techniques

ex. Mama script, Suave Script, Mousse script

Blackletter

Legacy German text typefaces now used for display

ex. Kaas, Fakir, Brea

Grunge

Font that looks dirty or grungy

ex. Badhouse, New Global, Behind the Typedia Logo

Monospaced

All the font's characters have the same width

Ex. Linux Libertine, Andale Mono, Courier

Representatives of Letterforms...

3. The Font Bureau, Inc.

Uniting two complementary professional backgrounds, publication designer Roger Black and type designer David Berlow founded The Font Bureau, Inc., in 1989. Drawing letteres by hand early in his career at the New York office of Linotype in 10978, Berlow's interest in and knack for digital typography grew when he joined Boston-based Bitstream in 1981 and adapted to the technologies of Adobe Postscript and, later, Apple's competing TrueType in the late 1980's.

Also taking advantage of the Macintosh was Black, a seasoned art director of magazines like Rolling Stone, New York, and Newsweek. He started his own business focusing on the design of newspapers and magazines in 1989, the same year he and Berlow establish Front Bureau. With Black embarking on numerous publication designs and Font Bureau creating proprietary type families, the foundry's output has ballooned to more than 1,500 typefaces that have their own flair.

Representatives of Letterforms...

2. Matthew Carter

Born 1937

Matthew Carter had much experience with metal type, phototype, and digital type. He has excelled in designing an array of typefaces in the various technologies; his classical, experimental, functional, and decorative typefaces and type families have influences designers around the world for over 40 years.

Carter freelanced for six years in London as a typemaker and a type designer. In 1965 he moved to New York as house designer for Mergenthaler Linotype, where he spent the next six years. Back in London in 1971, Carter continued freelancing for Linotype, producing several typefaces, uncluding the technologically creative Bell Centennial.

Carter with a few other men later established Bitstream, a digital type foundry in 1981 in Cambridge, MA. They enjoyed great success in the 1980's but with the growing company, Carter had very little time to design.

In 1991, Carter co-founded the Carter & Cone Type, Inc., where he has designed some of his most lauded typefaces, including Verdana.

Representatives of Letterforms...

1. ITC

Est. 1970 in New York, NY

-- ITC, The International Typefaces Corporation, founded by Herb Lubalin and Aaron Burns. It used phototypesetting instead of metal typesetting. This use of phototypesetting made it easier to develop, distribute, and reproduce typefaces. ITC also triggered a change in the way typefaces where distributed and how designers were remunerated. ITC provided the source material to reproduce their typefaces on any phototypesetting machine and paid designers a royalty based on the amount of orders of their designs. Unfortunately, the wide availability of the material increased the risk for piracy.

"ITC built a significantly large library of typefaces with contributions from designers like Ed Benuiat, Tom Carnase, and Tony DiSpigna..." They offered an "optimistic selection of display typefaces that were heavily and attractively marketed by ITC through its popluar U&lc publication, which showcased the library while providing unique and engaging content to the growing list of subscribers."

In 1999, Esselte closed ITC and sold the library and name to Agfa Monotype Imaging

http://www.itcfonts.com/

Who is Adrian Frutiger

"Adrian Frutiger is best known as a type-designer. He has produced some of the most well known and widely used typefaces. He was born in 1928 in Interlaken, Switzerland, and by the age of 16 was working as a printer’s apprentice near his home town. Following this he moved to Zurich where he studied at the Zurich School of Arts and Crafts, under Professor Walter Kach.

After his education in Zurich, Frutiger moved to Paris where he started to work at the Deberny & Peignot typefoundry. Here he helped the foundry move classic typefaces used with traditional printing methods to newer phototypesetting technologies.

At the same time Frutiger started to design his own typefaces, a few of which became very significant, and this earned him his status as a great type designer. Throughout his career he has produced a number of books, such as:

Type, Sign, Symbol (1980)
Signs and Symbols: Their Design and Meaning (1989)
The International Type Book (1990)
Geometry of Feelings (1998)
The Development of Western Type Carved in Wood Plates (1999)
Forms and Counterforms (1999)
Life Cycle (1999)
The Univers (1999)
Symbols and Signs: Explorations (1999)"

http://typophile.com/node/12118

"Why is Univers unique?"

Univers is unique because:

"Different weights and variations within the type family are designated by the use of numbers rather than names, a system since adopted by Frutiger for other type designs. Frutiger envisioned a large family with multiple widths and weights that maintained a unified design idiom. However, the actual typeface names within Univers family include both number and letter suffixes.

Currently, Univers type family consists of 44 faces, with 16 uniquely numbered weight, width, position combinations. 20 fonts have oblique positions. 8 fonts support Central European character set. 8 support Cyrillic character set."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Univers