Tag: typography (Page 1 of 2)

The Type Book – Putting it all Together

October 28, 2016 / Prof. Mary Brown / 0 Comments

Here are a few things to add some clarity on assembling your type books, which are due completed by Monday, Oct 31, 2016.

The Cover

Using the entire page, create a balanced and well-conceived cover with the following information:

Student Name
Type & Media, COMD1167-D143
Professor Mary Brown
Typography Book (if you choose to add your character’s name that is up to you)

Other reminders

Once you are certain you have all the pages and they have been revised, then you can print them out. The page for Legibility: Type and Color should be printed in COLOR. You can have the printing done at Staples or FedEx if you don’t have access to a printer.

Print on one side only
8.5″ x 11″ is the page size
If you have to print your files at Staples or FedEx, you will need to save your final files as PDF documents to print from.
Once all your pages are printed and assembled in the correct order, you have to get the binding done.
Get plastic/acetate for the cover (clear) and back (black).
Get coil binding
It may take more than 1 day to get your book bound, so don’t wait until the last minute.
You can refer to the previous post that includes the proper order of the pages. You can also download a copy of the handout.

October 25, 2016 / Prof. Mary Brown / 0 Comments

The mid-term exam is scheduled for Wednesday, October 26th. It will cover all that we’ve learned so far. Please take the time to review your notes, the reading assignments and the updates that have been posted on this website.

You may also want to download this document, Adobe Type Primer, which contains most of the information about typography that we’ve covered.

Type Book Assembly and What to Include

October 25, 2016 / Prof. Mary Brown / 0 Comments

Every type book exercise is to be included. All of the exercises are listed below, including the very last one, is a poster showing all that you’ve learned so far from this project. The titles are based on the assignment sheets. Some of those handouts included more than one exercise. Hopefully this list is clear. If you have question, please ask for clarification.

Front Cover
Anatomy
5 Families (5 pages)
Variations (6 pages)
Alignment
Alignment 2
Leading (2 pages)
Tracking (2 pages)
Kerning
Type on a Path
Legibility (in color)
Type Color
Hierarchy
Grid (2 pages)
Pattern
Embellished Quote
Logotype
Putting it All Together Poster (a poster design that incorporates everything you have learned about typography. In the 5th column, the Title will be Putting it All Together. You will use columns 1-4 only for your design)

These books will be printed out and bound along the short left edge, where we left space for such details. They should have a clear vinyl front cover and a black vinyl back cover with spiral binding along the left side. You can print the pages out in class, in lab or your own printer. The only page printed in color is the Legibility: Type Color page. The spiral binding is done at Staples or FedEx Kinkos. Don’t wait until the last minute to get this done because they may require that you pick it up later.

The finished books are to be submitted no later than Monday, October 31, 2016. All projects submitted late will have lowered grades.

Class 12 – Grid Variations and Typographic Embellishments

October 22, 2016 / Prof. Mary Brown / 0 Comments

In Wednesday’s class we covered how one grid can be used in many different variations. The more columns in your grid, the more variations you can have. It gives you more flexibility. We’ve covered the use of grids and we’ve been using grids to help us with your type book. Please review Using Layout Grids Effectively to refresh your memory of some of the things about grids that we covered. Also, it might be a good idea to go back to the notes from Lesson 5.

Zapf Dingbat font set.

We also talked about using decorative type and some of the decorative elements that might be a part of a typefaces.

Terms to know:

dingbats – Also known as ornaments, these are characters or font sets that are symbols and decorative ornaments. Zapf Dingbats is a popular set of symbols, icons and pictographs.
glyphs – a symbol within an agreed set of symbols, intended to represent a readable character. In typesetting and InDesign, the Glyphs panel is used to insert glyphs and special characters.

Homework – Due Monday, Oct 24

Complete the Type Book exercises:- Typographic Grid, Embellished Quote, Logotype, Typographical Patterns
On the exercise for the grids, only do the first portion and create your six variations. We will select the best in class on Monday.
Begin to prepare for the mid-term exam on Wednesday, Oct 26. Come to class on Monday with question for a review if you have them.

Class 11 – Typographic Hierarchy

October 18, 2016 / Prof. Mary Brown / 0 Comments

During Monday’s class we spent time learning about typographic hierarchy—the priority in which the view should read and design . Part of our job as graphic designers is to communicate words in a visual manner. We do that by using the tools and techniques of typography. If the words are all cluttered together with no distinction, it will be difficult for the viewer to no where to start. Therefore, we must determine prioritize and then emphasize what is most important, what has second level priority and what has third level priority. We accomplish this by using contrasting fonts, color, line spacing, alignment and groupings.

Hierarchy is created and supported by your use of:

typeface(s)
weight or style (bold, italic, etc)
type size
case (U&lc or all caps)
alignment and line spacing
color

We viewed several videos to help explain the concept:

Typographic Hierarchy

Typographic Hierarchy: Explained

Contrast

The Typographic Hierarchy from these videos is can be downloaded to use for studying.

Homework – Due Wednesday 10/19/16

Finish the Type Book—Typecolor
Finish the Type Book—Typographic Hierarchy
Watch the movie Helvetica. Take notes and be prepared for a test on the relevance of the typeface and it’s place in typography history.

October 10, 2016 / Prof. Mary Brown / 0 Comments

Watch the documentary before class on Monday, Oct 17, 2016. You should take notes of the key points that you learn and be prepared to answer questions and discuss in class.

Class 8 – How Text and Paragraphs are Affected by Different Alignments

September 30, 2016 / Prof. Mary Brown / 0 Comments

We took a look at the various formats of text alignments and how text is affected. Here are some the things we noticed:

flush left/ragged right – when using this text alignment, we are given a bit of breathing room, or negative space. This makes the page seem less crowded with text and allows places for the eyes to rest. In our culture, we read from left to right, and setting type flush left gives the reader an exact starting place on each line. The reader isn’t slowed down by trying to find the starting place for the next time.
flush right/ragged left – when using this text alignment, the reader is slowed down because the eye has to find the starting point of each line. Have the left margin set as ragged means each line will begin at a different location. It is ok to use this very small amounts of type such as for captions, but you wouldn’t use this for large bodies of type.
center alignment – not a good choice for large bodies of text. Again, each line of text has a different starting place and this slows down the reading. Poetry and songs often use this alignment.
justified alignment – both sides of the type are justified and line up evenly. Because of this, type is pushed out which can cause excess word spacing, which can cause rivers. In order to fix the word and letter spacing problems, each line may need tracking. Another problem that may arise might be too many hyphenated words. InDesign will try to fit as many words on each line as possible but so justified text can also fit more text on a page.

Homework – Due Wed, 10/5

Type Book – Type Alignment exercise. You can download the pages of instructions here.
Type Book – Type Alignment 2. This packet contains the rest of the exercises for alignment, leading, tracking and kerning. Download that file here. Both assignments are due Wednesday, 10/5. Write the directions for each exercise very carefully.

Class 7 – Text Alignment, Tracking, Weights and Variations

September 23, 2016 / Prof. Mary Brown / 0 Comments

This class was dedicated to the variations in type styles that are available. We discussed the differences in type — width, weight, posture, stress, serifs, and contrast. We also did an in-class exercise to help the class understand how to use the type variations to create emphasis and expression.

width – condensed or extended

weight – light or bold

posture – italic or oblique (fake italic)

stress – vertical or diagonal

contrast – extreme or medium or low/none

serif – bracketed or unbracketed

For more details on this topic, and new terminology, you can review with article: Styles, Weights, Widths — It’s All in the (Type) Family

You can download a copy of the slide presentation here to use for review.

Homework due – Monday 9/26/16

Study for Quiz #1 which will cover EVERYTHING from the beginning of the semester.
Type Book—Weight & Variations exercise that was handed out in class. You can download an extra copy here.
Due for next Wednesday – Textbook reading: Letters, Words, Sentences, pgs 51 – 79

Class 4 – Introduction to Adobe InDesign CC

September 12, 2016 / Prof. Mary Brown / 0 Comments

During class we reviewed letterspacing/tracking and kerning. We also began to explore the working environment of Adobe InDesign.

Areas covered:

Creating a new document
The InDesign workspace
Working with text boxes, fonts, point sizes, leading alignment
Leading, measurements, kerning

We also discussed increments of measurements:

type is measured in points (pts)
12 pts = 1 pica
6 picas = 1 inch
72 pts = 1 inch

If you missed the class, or need a review, here is a video that might help you with getting started in InDesign. It is a bit long but pretty thorough in helping your get started:

Others Videos Viewed in Class:

Homework — Due Wed, 9/14/16

Reading Assignment in textbook: Grid System pgs 177 -221 (be prepared to answer one quiz question on this topic)
Spend a some time reviewing the articles posted by your classmates and leave comments.
Watch the video: Typography & Design – How Typography Impacts Design below, and be ready to discuss during class.

Class 3 – Kerning, Tracking and Letterspace

September 8, 2016 / Prof. Mary Brown / 0 Comments

The main topic of the discussion was kerning, tracking and letterspace. But as a review of the Five Families of Type, here’s a link to an added resource. Navigate through the links highlighted in yellow: Designing with Type

Kerning vs Tracking

Do you know the difference between kerning and tracking? You need to make sure you understand.

kerning = adjustment of the space between two letters to improve the appearance. Kerning is more specific than tracking. Kerning becomes more important with large or display type.

tracking = adjustment of the space between letters for the a whole word, sentence, page or document.

Other Terms We Covered

points – unit of measurement in typography: 72 points = 1 inch. All type is measured in points.
pica – typographic unit of measurement: 12 points = 1 pica; 6 picas = 1 inch; 72 points = 1 inch.

To help with the concept of kerning, we played The Kerning Game online. If you didn’t get a good score during class, give it another try: www.type.method.ac

Video Tutorial – Kerning and Kerning Pairs
We didn’t use this video in class but I think it’s helpful.

Homework Due – (9/12/16)

Reading Assignment in textbook: Tracking: Kerning and Letterspace pgs 90-93;
Letters, Words, Sentences pgs 52-79. Also, the reading that was due on Monday should be completed. Be prepared to for a quick one question quiz about the reading assignment.
Finish the Letterform Drawing Worksheet
Complete and submit any assignments that you haven’t finished before.