Category: typography

Project #2 – Design a Poster

November 3, 2017 / Prof. Mary Brown / 0 Comments

We are now working on our second project. This project should be fun and give you an opportunity to incorporate all that you’ve learned so far about typography and basic graphic design. This project will be graded on those points. If you didn’t get the design assignment in class, download a copy here.

On Monday, Nov 6, 2017, be prepared to present your initial sketch ideas. We will do this first thing when class begins, so don’t come to class and begin to do your sketches for the first time. Not having computer access will not hinder your ability to do the sketches. You should have a full page of thumbnail sketches and then another page that has 3-4 sketches of your better ideas. From those 3-4 sketches we will be able to determine which will make a better design layout for your project.

One of the main emphasis of this project will be use of the grid system and hierarchy. Here is a video what may give you more insight into developing hierarchy in your poster design.

In case you’re still a bit unsure about doing thumbnail sketches, here is a video that previous students have found to be helpful. Please note, the tutorial is done on a computer for the sake of recording, but you will be using pencil or pen and paper.

The Type Book: Assembly Instructions

October 23, 2017 / Prof. Mary Brown / 0 Comments

Every type book exercise is to be included. All of the exercises are listed below and should appear in your book in this order. 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 questions, please ask for clarification. Use the handout as a guide for the number of pages included for each exercise

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)
Hierarchy
Grid (2 pages)

Your type book is to be printed out (8.5″x11″ pages) and bound along the left edge where we left space for such details. Use a clear vinyl (acetate) 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 on 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 the next day.

The finished books are to be submitted no later than Monday, Oct 30, 2017. All projects submitted late will have lowered grades by 5%.

Class 12: Visual Hierarchy

October 17, 2017 / Prof. Mary Brown / 0 Comments

In graphic design, visual hierarchy is when elements are arranged in such a way as to imply the order of importance. If you missed the lecture or need a refresher, you can download the slide presentation or view the following videos that were shown in class.

Typographic Hierarchy Explained

Typographic Hierarchy

We also viewed a view on creating contrast with type

Reminder: Mid-Term on Wed Oct 18, 2017

Reviewing the Five Families of Type

October 17, 2017 / Prof. Mary Brown / 0 Comments

We have discussed the five families of type since the early days of the semester. Sometimes these are referred to as type categories. Make sure you are prepared to identify the differences.

Here is quick review:

Old Style: Garamond
(15th-17th century)

designed in France in 1615 by Jean Jannon (Claude Garamond was
given credit originally)
designed in a time when inks and paper were coarse and type
technology was still rather rough
relatively thick strokes and heavily bracketed or curved serifs
emulated classical calligraphy

Transitional: Baskerville
(mid 18th century)

designed in England in 1757 by John Baskerville
designed in a time when inks and paper were considerably smoother and
type technology was refined
increased contrast between thick and thin strokes and the serifs are more sculpted
sharper serifs and more vertical axis

Modern: Bodoni
(late 18th century)

designed in Italy in 1788 by Giambattista Bodoni
designed in a time when printing technology was refined by leaps and bounds
extreme contrast between stokes and hairlines
brackets virtually eliminated

Egyptian or Slab Serif:
Century Expanded
(19th century)

designed in the United States in 1894 by Linn Boyd Benton
type design, freed from technical constraints, became eclectic
characterized by heavy serifs
very little contrast between thin and thick strokes

Sans Serif: Helvetica
(19th-20th century)

designed in Switzerland in 1957 by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffman
sans serif fonts were usually considered too hard to read as text, but the Swiss refined this face until it became quite balanced and legible

Class 4 — Controlling Space, Leading, Tracking and Kerning

September 11, 2017 / Prof. Mary Brown / 0 Comments

We covered three main topics in today’s class that deal with spacing—tracking, kerning and leading. It is important to understand the difference between tracking and kerning.

Tracking deals with the adjustment of letter-space which will affect entire lines or blocks of text. By adding tracking, the letter-spacing, which is the amount of space between the characters, will be increased or decreased. The goal is to have consistently even space between all the characters
Kerning is often confused with tracking but kerning deals with the letter-space adjustments between a specific pair of letters. You only have to be concerned about kerning display or headline text. Certain letter pairs don’t fit well together, so the designer’s goal is to adjust the space so that letter-spacing looks consistent.
Leading is the amount of space between lines of text. It is measured from baseline to baseline. It is important that line-spacing is not too tight or too far apart.
All three of these—tracking, kerning, and leading—are important to the overall look and to make reading easier.

We viewed the following videos to help with clarity:

Kerning and kerning pairs

Kerning & Tracking

Design Principles – Typography, leading

To test our kerning ability we used The Kerning Game, which can be found online: http://type.method.ac

Homework — Due Wednesday, Sept 13

Finish lettering your phrase on the tracing paper. You are to trace a short phrase that is 2-3 lines long. You will have to pay attention to you letter-space and line-space. These will be collected on Wednesday.
Bring 1 or 3 magazines that you don’t mind cutting up.