Category Archives: Classwork

Week 4, Class 1

Hello everyone! I missed you guys!

Classwork

InDesign

  • Multi-page documents: please use this template as i found a little mistake in the old one.
  • Page Panel
    • Master pages
    • Pagination
  •  Downloading and installing fonts
  • Well-crafted fonts vs. badly-crafted ones
  • Types of font files

Note: If you do want to grab a new font please download and install fonts from Font Squirrel or Lost Type Co-op. They are well drawn, legal, and usually pretty darn lovely.

Type Book: Assignment 2
Create a 5-page document. Each page should have 1 layout with specific characters of each of five families of type. Each page must display a sample of a font within a specific family, and list characteristics. See the Typebook, Exercise 2 handout for more details.

Homework

Finish Classwork

Study for Quiz 1

  • History of Letterforms
  • Typographical Anatomy
  • Drawing a Letterform
  • Kerning, Leading
  •  Five Families of Type

Week Three, Class Two

Let’s get back into the groove! Here’s a lovely video that will get us back into the mood for type:

Lecture:

Layout

  • Working on the Grid
  • Rules, strokes
  • Exploring InDesign: review
  • Guides, margins, and other layout aids
  • Project #1: The Type Book: Choose a performer, famous person, or fictional character about whom you will write your type book assignments. You will use this person’s name or text about them to tie the exercises together thematically.
    • How to create Type Book assignments:  
    • Type Book: Create a 1 page document which labels the following type components: baseline, meanline, capline, serif, counter, x-height, ascenders, descenders.

A note about the Typebook:
You need to collect all your assignments at the end of the semester to print the project out as a spiral bound book. I will have a sample today in class for you to see. You need to keep track of all the pages, and you need to turn them in on time.

Homework

Reading
Review The Five Families of Type

Journal: Due by Next Thursday

Find examples that use a typefaces that belong to each of the five families of type. In what scenario are they used? Put the printed examples together with paragraphs describing the family to which you think it belongs and why.

For example, find and identify a typeface that belongs to the Modern family. Describe what helped you classify it and why it may have been chosen for that particular layout.

Our class is cancelled today

Once again, to clarify:

I am not able to make it to school. Therefore, our class is cancelled. I have notified the office, but have not heard back, so I do not think there will even be an attendance sheet on the door. School has yet to be cancelled, but I am canceling our session for today as I cannot be there. We will be meeting tomorrow.

Journal Homework & the Weather

Hey there!

  1. As far as the CUNY system is concerned, we have class today. Absences will count the same as always, but seriously do not risk your lives if it gets too dangerous. Do the work, contact your professors, make every effort to keep up with your classes. If we do get cancelled, I can easily meet you on Skype to answer questions. Snow days are not breaks from doing the work, they are just safety precautions in terms of the commute.
  2. I am not getting many journal entries at all, nor have most of you completed them. Just to remind you, they are counted as a part of your grade, so step up! If you need help with anything, tell me in class. I am glad to help!

 

Week Two, Class Two

Today we PRINT!!!

Homework:

Journal: 

  • Take your best print of a single word, draw in and neatly label at least 10 parts of type anatomy. Scan it or take a good photo of it and post the results on Open Lab. Use the handout from last week as a reference.
  • Take your best and worst prints of stacked words and write a paragraph about why one works well and the other does not in terms of leading. Once again, take a picture and put it on your Open Lab site.

Carving Our Letters!

Okay, can I just say today was an excellent class!?? We did have 2 small boo-boos, but other than a teeny tiny little bit of blood loss, the letters are looking AMAZING. Here are a few I was able to immortalize today:

Week Two

Classwork

Software introduction

  • Introduction to Font BookŸ
  • Introduction to Font Squirrel, the only approved source of downloadable free fonts
  • Introduction to InDesign

Text

  • Arial is a Font (Short Documentary)
  • ŸBounding boxes and their implications
  • ŸKerning

 InDesign

  • Ÿ Creating a new document
  • Ÿ Orientation and setup
  • Ÿ Rulers and measurement
  • Ÿ Controlling kerning digitally
  • Ÿ Bounding and text boxes

Printing in Class!

Relief Printing

  1. Carve and print at least 2 individual letters (I will give you the letters for you to transfer onto your  blocks). Work to make your letters  as crisp and clear as possible.
  2. Print single words, concentrating on kerning. Use each other’s letters and feel free to print nonsense words.

Homework

Reading

Journal

Take your best print of a single word, draw in and neatly label at  least 10 parts of type anatomy. Scan it or take a good photo of it and post the results on Open Lab. Use the handout from last week as a reference.

Class Two

I am on a mission: last night I looked for resources to talk about other typographical systems: Arabic, Korean, and others. This is not going to be as easy as I hoped. I will be redressing this issue as soon as I can put together a useful lecture and such on the subject.

Agenda

  • Five Families of Type
  • How we read ŸŸ (on Lynda.com, you will need a subscription to see these at home)
  • Legibility vs. Readability: How they differ
  • Typographical Anatomy (handout to be given in class)
  • Terminology: typeface or font or family?
  • Structure of a letterpress character and how it relates to the bounding box of today
  • Setting up your Open Lab sites for this class: becoming members of the class site, setting up project sites, taking charge of what your digital presence.

Classwork

Today, we begin to PRINT!!! Hoorah!

Homework

Reading

Letterform Worksheet

Complete the worksheet given to you in class for class next week.

Journal

Choose a few of your photos from last night, say 3 or 4 of the best ones. Write 3 paragraphs about what the typography of your neighborhood says about the character and makeup of that community. Send me links to your writings.

Some things you could talk about:

  • Is the typography well-crafted or does it look as if it were done by a non-designer?
  • Is there more hand lettering than printing?
  • What language is most of it in?
  • Is it created by people in the community (businesses, etc.) or is it mostly produced by the government (street signs, etc.)?