more type notes

What are some ways to indicate a new paragraph?

A new paragraph can be indicated in many different ways.  There is the standard tab or extended space between the end of one paragraph and the beginning of the next.  Drop caps are also a standard way to break up paragraphs.  One could use symbols, rules, color, tracking, size and many other text applications to indicate a new paragraph.

What are some things to look out for when hyphenating text?

When hyphenating in text there are a few rules to keep in mind.  Hyphenating should occur where there are natural pauses, avoiding widows and orphans, and avoiding hyphenating names and proper nouns.  One should also make sure to leave at least 2 characters on the line and 3 following, avoid beginning or ending consecutive lines with the same word, and avoid ending lines with the words: the, of, at, a, by…

Define font hinting. Why is this necessary?

Hinting is a technique to avoid disturbing rounding errors in low-resolution digital type.  This is necessary for the display of type on screens, monitors and displays.

What is letterspacing/tracking? How do you track in Illustrator or InDesign?

The space between letters is known as letterspacing or functional white space.  It is essential for legibility.  Tracking is adjusting that white space between the letters.  There is a tracking adjustor in Illustrator and InDesign, when you have the letters you want tracked highlighted you can lessen the space or extend it.

Define Kerning? Name 8 kerning pairs. How do you kern in InDesign or Illustrator?


Kerning is moving type closer together in order to close gaps. It is necessary for certain letter combinations.  Av, Aw, Ay, Ta, Te, To, Tr, Tu, Tw are just a few of those pairs.  There is a kerning adjustor in Illustrator and InDesign, when you have the letters you want kerned highlighted you can lessen the space.

Try the kerning game (link). How did you do?

I got 80, needs some work.

What is word spacing?

Word spacing in typography refers to the size of the space between words, rather than the space between letters or sentences.

Explain DIN.

DIN is the standard sizes or starting points for paper sizes.

What is a baseline grid?

The baseline grid is an imaginary grid upon which type sits.  Type can be forced to snap to this grid.  The grid maintains continuity across the pages of a design.

How many characters per line is optimal? Is there a range?

It depends on the size of the font and the typeface.

Define aesthetic text alignment (optically hanging punctuation).

Some letterforms (such as the circular characters ‘o’, ‘c’, and ‘e’) extend over the baseline otherwise they would look optically smaller than their upright relatives.

What is a typographic river?

Occur in justified text blocks when the separation of the words leaves gaps of white space in several lines.

What is a widow?

A widow is a lone word at the end of a paragraph

What is an orphan?

An orphan is the final one or two lines of a paragraph separated from the main paragraph to form a new column

thanksgiving break

way, way too short.  Only two more weeks of classes though!  That means working hard to finish projects. Here is a snippet of what I'm working on for each class.

 

 

Above are my two favorite spreads thus far for my type project.

photographers you should know

Edward Steichen:

The Little Round Mirror — 1901

The Flatiron — 1904

     Edward Steichen was born in Luxembourg in 1879 but his family moved to the United States three years later and he was raised in Michigan.  At the age of fifteen he began a lithography internship and took up photography in 1895 but continued to paint as well.  Steichen denounced impressionistic photography and instead concentrated on realism. He later wrote: "I am no longer concerned with photography as an art form. I believe it is potentially the best medium for explaining man to himself and his fellow man."

HERE are some high quality images from Steichen, along with some from Stiegltiz and a couple other photographers.
HERE is a link to a short bio about Steichen.
HERE is a link to an exhibition of portraits by Steichen.  There are many varied images here.

Stephen Shore:

Coronado St., Los Angeles, CA —1975

Merced River, Yosemite National Park — 1979

     Although Shore has taught photography (he has been director of photography at Bard College since 1982) he became well known at an early age as a pioneer of color art photography. He is among the earliest fine art photographers to work almost exclusively in color. Shore became interested in photography as a child: Between the ages of six and ten he taught himself how to expose and print photographs. Walker Evans's book, American Photographs , made a big impression. At fourteen, the precocious teenager telephoned Edward Steichen, the photography curator of the Museum of Modern Art. They arranged a meeting, and Steichen purchased three of Shore's photographs for the museum's permanent collection. And at sixteen he met Andy Warhol and frequented the artist's studio, photographing the illustrious scene at the "Factory." In 1972 Shore embarked on a series of cross-country trips and made "on the road" color photographs of American landscapes.

HERE is a link to an interview with Stephen Shore and also a lot of his images.
HERE is a link to the gallery Shore often exhibits at and is a part of.  There are many images and some information about him there.
HERE is a short biography on Shore by the Getty Museum.

Robert and Shana Parkeharrison:

Flying Lesson — 2000

     Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison have been collaborating for years in creating artistic photographs.  Both Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison have college degrees in Fine Arts. After completing his bachelor’s in Fine Arts at the University of New Mexico, NM, in 1990, Robert ParkeHarrison obtained a Masters in Fine Arts at the Kansas City Art Institute, MO, in 1994 and Shana received a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts from Williams Woods College, Fulton, MO, in 1986. Currently, the ParkeHarrisons reside in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, near the college of the Holy Cross, where Robert teaches photography. In The Architect’s Brother, named in 2000 as one of “the Ten Best Photography Books of the Year” by the New York Times (DeCodorva), the couple portrays our environmentally shattering world in starkly poetic monochromatic photographs.

HERE is the link to their website.  There are many images of their current work and some past exhibitions.
HERE is a short biography on the two collaborating artists.
HERE is a post with some large images of their surreal photos.

Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin:

      Vinoodh Matadin studied fashion design in Amsterdam between 1981 and 1985, and started working after finishing his studies. When he met Inez van Lamsweerde in 1986,  she was an art student at Gerrit Rietveld Academie (1985–90), and the two became partners both professionally and in private. In their collaborations they moved between art and fashion, and rather than making comments on fashion from an outside point of view, they’ve instead become a part of the system. Still, they’re best known for images that can be interpreted as both critical and slightly disturbing. Matadin & van Lamsweerde introduced digitally manipulated photographs at an early stage, allowing them to explore questions about gender and sexuality, reality, superficiality, and identity.

HERE is their website, apparently they also dabble in music videos?
HERE is a magazine these two regularly shoot for with some links to some of their photographs.
HERE is a link to an article about them and their apartment.  It is interesting to see how their home is decorated and designed based off the type of photography they do.

Jeff Brouws:

Signs with Signification Grid

Abandoned Auto Packard Plant, Detroit

     Jeff Brouws' work in photography captures the social experience and cultural relevance of classic American iconography. From highway landscapes of run-down motels and neon-lit gas stations to carnival scenes of small-town side-shows, Brouws' "visual anthropologies" offer a somber view of contemporary Americana. Born in San Francisco in 1955, Brouws is a self-taught photographer. His work is in major museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; The Art Institute of Chicago; and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

HERE is his personal website with many of his works included.
HERE is an interview with Brouws.
HERE is a short biography of Brouws along with some images.

Ed Burtynsky:

     To describe Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky's work in a single adjective, you have to speak French: jolie-laide. His images of scarred landscapes -- from mountains of tires to rivers of bright orange waste from a nickel mine -- are eerily pretty yet ugly at the same time. Burtynsky's large-format color photographs explore the impact of humanity's expanding footprint and the substantial ways in which we're reshaping the surface of the planet. His images powerfully alter the way we think about the world and our place in it.

HERE is Burtynsky's website.
HERE is a short bio on Burtynsky along with links to other helpful websites with his works.  There are also videos of him speaking about his works.
HERE is an interview of this artist.

GDR 272-319

Packaging Notes:

Shown in these pages are some great examples of smart packaging and different ways to interpret concepts or ideas.

The Penguin Books are very clean, simple and elegant designs.  They also embrace vibrant colors, but in a limited sense.  Their books also embrace simple iconography with one illustration or one image or even occasionally just text.  Sometimes the connection between what the book is about and what is on the cover is easily seen (The Later Roman Empire) while other times, a bit more of interpretation is required (Books v. Cigarettes).

New Directions takes on a more modern practice.  There designs are more non-traditionally based using handmade elements.  It gives the covers a more one-of-a-kind feel.

Zone Books uses hardly any imagery - more patterned and typographic based designs.

McSweeney embraces a more package based approach — they're more complex designs that seem to interpret what the material is about and come up with a more interactive package design.  Their designs also seem more like collector's edition type designs.

Pocket Canons seem to be aiming at summing up the novel in one image - you could look at the cover and know what you are getting yourself into when you pick it up to read it.

The books that I respond to most in these pages are the ones with an interactive element.  I would like to try and incorporate something along these lines in my design.

Fast, Cheap and Out of Control does not have one overlying message or one interpretation — it was described by its director as low-concept.  Therefore, it leaves itself open to interpretation and maybe more room to explore package designs.

In order for ones product to grab the attention of consumers, it must be unlike anything else.  It must jump off the shelf and be completely original.  I need to reanalyze my initial sketches and come up with more out of the box ideas.

Packaging can be a ton of fun and the most successful packages interpret their products and present them to the consumer in a nice, easy to understand manner.  One must look at all aspects of their product in order to deliver the best design possible.

Serifa: Font Dissected

Posted my latest typography project to behance.  Check it out here.

Letter Fountain 37-51

Tonight I printed my poster set full size:

I'm afraid my background color on the informational poster is too dark :/ I'll have to play with that but I'm liking where they're heading.

Here are some notes on the Letter Fountain reading assigned:

• What are small capitals? How are they different than something set in ALL CAPS?

Small capitals are smaller versions of capital letters.  They are not simply reduced capitals but especially designed small capitals.  They have a slightly bigger x-height than lowercase letters and a matching weight — making them different from something in all caps.  They are also generally wider than capitals.

• Does your font have small caps? If not name a font that does.

Yes, Serifa has small caps.  Syntax is another font with small caps.

• What are ligatures? why are they used? when are they not used? what are common ligatures?

Ligatures are combinations of character that were designed because the overhanging ascender in 'f' would crash into an ascender of the dot of an 'i' if it directly followed the 'f'.  It is as if the terminal of the 'f' is extended to replace the end mark on the i.

For most sans serifs, this occurrence is not a problem and ligatures would not need to be used.  Another ligature is the & sign - originally a combination of the e and t.

• Does your font have ligatures? If not name a font that does.

Serifa does not have ligatures as it is virtually a sans serif.  Bembo is a font with ligatures.

• What is the difference between a foot mark and an apostrophe?

An apostrophe can be viewed as a 'nine' and is mainly used to show possession within a sentence.  A foot mark, on the other hand, is literally a foot mark.  5' is equal to five feet.

• What is the difference between an inch mark and a quote mark (smart quote)?

A quote mark is either a double 'six' or 'nine' depending on which side of the statement the mark is on.  They signify the statements in between were spoken word or quoted from another source.  An inch mark, signifies an inch.  They are two straight marks. 5" is equal to five inches.

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

A hyphen is used as a symbol to break words. (ex-ample)
An en dash is longer than a hyphen and is used to demarcate a parenthetical thought or to indicate a sudden change in thought. (here – there)
An em dash is used to demarcate parenthetical thought in English texts, but the dashes are unspaced. (here—there)