descriptive words...
GLEEFUL SPARKLING ORNATE JOYFUL ENCHANTED FESTIVE LAVISH MAGICAL WONDERFUL
DIRECTION #2
descriptive words...
ROUND SOFT EASY SUBTLE ROLLING SWOPING
Monday, September 28, 2015
Font Comparisons
DIRECTION #1
descriptive words...
GLEEFUL SPARKLING ORNATE JOYFUL ENCHANTED FESTIVE LAVISH MAGICAL WONDERFUL
DIRECTION #2
descriptive words...
ROUND SOFT EASY SUBTLE ROLLING SWOPING
descriptive words...
GLEEFUL SPARKLING ORNATE JOYFUL ENCHANTED FESTIVE LAVISH MAGICAL WONDERFUL
DIRECTION #2
descriptive words...
ROUND SOFT EASY SUBTLE ROLLING SWOPING
Saturday, September 26, 2015
Hand Lettering vs. Typography
What is the difference between lettering and font design?
WHAT IS TYPOGRAPHY? "The style, arrangement or appearance of typeset matter, and is a product of the movable type printing system that much of the world has used for centuries." So basically, typography involves the design of a font- which is a set of characters (letters and symbols) that are made into digital files that can be resized and styled, and printed again and again. Typography is actually a subset of lettering.
WHAT IS LETTERING? "Lettering can be simply defined as the art of drawing letters." Unlike fonts or typography, which is a full alphabet and symbols/numbers, lettering is created for a specific combination of letterforms crafted for a single use and purpose (such as a quote or name) as opposed to using previously designed letters (a font) as components.
The following link provides more very interesting information concerning the difference between hand lettering and typography:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2013/01/understanding-difference-between-type-and-lettering/
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Famous type designers to know:
SUMNER STONE is the creative mind behind Adobe's typographic program, including the Adobe Originals and founded the Stone Type Industry Inc in California, which has produced a variety of award winning custom type designs including those for clients such as General Motors, Mobil, and The San Francisco Public Library. He continues to teach typography and calligraphy, lecture around the country, and has written two books.
http://stonetypefoundry.com/aboutsumnerstone.html
MATHEW CARTER is well-known for co-founding Bitstream in 1981. He also designed famous typefaces, Verdana and Georgia for none other than Microsoft, which are unique in their ability to be extremely legible at very small sizes on a screen. He has been awarded numerous awards for his work, including the a Medal from the Type Directors Club for having made significant contributions to the life, art, and craft of typography and a MacArthur Fellowship award for exceptional creativity.
https://www.myfonts.com/person/Matthew_Carter/
BRUNO MAAG is the co-founder and owner of Dalton Maag, possibly the largest independent custom type company in Europe. Maag studied in Switzerland, and has previously worked in London. With his company, he recently worked on a huge font project for Nokia and a font design for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
https://www.myfonts.com/newsletters/cc/201209.html
WHAT IS TYPOGRAPHY? "The style, arrangement or appearance of typeset matter, and is a product of the movable type printing system that much of the world has used for centuries." So basically, typography involves the design of a font- which is a set of characters (letters and symbols) that are made into digital files that can be resized and styled, and printed again and again. Typography is actually a subset of lettering.
WHAT IS LETTERING? "Lettering can be simply defined as the art of drawing letters." Unlike fonts or typography, which is a full alphabet and symbols/numbers, lettering is created for a specific combination of letterforms crafted for a single use and purpose (such as a quote or name) as opposed to using previously designed letters (a font) as components.
The following link provides more very interesting information concerning the difference between hand lettering and typography:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2013/01/understanding-difference-between-type-and-lettering/
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Famous type designers to know:
SUMNER STONE is the creative mind behind Adobe's typographic program, including the Adobe Originals and founded the Stone Type Industry Inc in California, which has produced a variety of award winning custom type designs including those for clients such as General Motors, Mobil, and The San Francisco Public Library. He continues to teach typography and calligraphy, lecture around the country, and has written two books.
http://stonetypefoundry.com/aboutsumnerstone.html
MATHEW CARTER is well-known for co-founding Bitstream in 1981. He also designed famous typefaces, Verdana and Georgia for none other than Microsoft, which are unique in their ability to be extremely legible at very small sizes on a screen. He has been awarded numerous awards for his work, including the a Medal from the Type Directors Club for having made significant contributions to the life, art, and craft of typography and a MacArthur Fellowship award for exceptional creativity.
https://www.myfonts.com/person/Matthew_Carter/
BRUNO MAAG is the co-founder and owner of Dalton Maag, possibly the largest independent custom type company in Europe. Maag studied in Switzerland, and has previously worked in London. With his company, he recently worked on a huge font project for Nokia and a font design for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
https://www.myfonts.com/newsletters/cc/201209.html
Monday, September 21, 2015
The Letter Fountain; reading notes
Small Caps are not just smaller capital letters, but are actually specifically designed small capitals. Simple using a reduced font size of a capital letter can cause its appearance to become too light, and can affect the width of a character. Therefore, using a Small Capital font ensures the best appearance of small capital letterforms.
The ampersand symbol is a combination of the letters "e" and "t", which form the greek word "et", meaning "and." Sometimes, the ampersand symbol appears to resemble an "et", and other times it is more abstract in the commonly known "&" appearance.
Modular typefaces are digitally created using a dot matrix to fill in pixels into the stick, grid-like form of a character.
We take most of our letter references from ancient Roman inscriptions, which were created as geometric forms, anchored in a square/rectangular base. Compasses, triangles, and rulers were likely used to create the first letter forms. The letters A, C, D, G, H, K, N, O, Q, T, V, X, I, M and Y were found in the ancient roman alphabet, but we added the three letters J, U, and W after finding no Roman examples.
Sometimes, capital letters are bolder than lowercase letters in a typeface, to produce a more distinct feeling of importance to the start of a sentence (with a capital letter).
Characters should have an even white space between each other, created visual harmony.
In the 70s, type was changed by the influence of punk and graffiti styles, and the cutting off serifs from serif fonts, and adding to it sans serif fonts - creating 'mutant' typefaces. Art Chantry, Jamie Reid, Rob Schroder, and Lies Ros laid the foundations for created music posters, and hand lettering before it became digital.
Phototypesetting machines began slowly replacing mechanical typesetting machines during the seventies-eighties. The first digital type company was founded in 1980, called Bitstream. However, this new digital era also brought many limitations because of pixeling and legibility issues. Designers such as A. Frutiger and W. Crouwel fought against this problem, designing Univers and the New Alphabet.
The ampersand symbol is a combination of the letters "e" and "t", which form the greek word "et", meaning "and." Sometimes, the ampersand symbol appears to resemble an "et", and other times it is more abstract in the commonly known "&" appearance.
Modular typefaces are digitally created using a dot matrix to fill in pixels into the stick, grid-like form of a character.
We take most of our letter references from ancient Roman inscriptions, which were created as geometric forms, anchored in a square/rectangular base. Compasses, triangles, and rulers were likely used to create the first letter forms. The letters A, C, D, G, H, K, N, O, Q, T, V, X, I, M and Y were found in the ancient roman alphabet, but we added the three letters J, U, and W after finding no Roman examples.
Sometimes, capital letters are bolder than lowercase letters in a typeface, to produce a more distinct feeling of importance to the start of a sentence (with a capital letter).
Characters should have an even white space between each other, created visual harmony.
In the 70s, type was changed by the influence of punk and graffiti styles, and the cutting off serifs from serif fonts, and adding to it sans serif fonts - creating 'mutant' typefaces. Art Chantry, Jamie Reid, Rob Schroder, and Lies Ros laid the foundations for created music posters, and hand lettering before it became digital.
Phototypesetting machines began slowly replacing mechanical typesetting machines during the seventies-eighties. The first digital type company was founded in 1980, called Bitstream. However, this new digital era also brought many limitations because of pixeling and legibility issues. Designers such as A. Frutiger and W. Crouwel fought against this problem, designing Univers and the New Alphabet.
Sunday, September 20, 2015
Fuse Fonts
Can you Read Me:
Designer? Phil Baines
What is different about the font? It's titled "Can you read me" but its actually almost illegible because most of the characters are halfway horizontally cut off.
How is it constructed? As stated earlier, the bottom half of each character is almost completely gone, except for some choose dips and curves of descenders such as "p"s.
What letters stand out as different/awkward/interesting? "a" and "p" because they have bottom halves, unlike most characters in this typeface
5 words describing the font? unique, abrupt, complex, hooked, curled
Pop:
Designer? Neville Brody
What is different about the font? It's created out of little dots only.
How is it constructed? As stated earlier, its created in a retro, block form of a series of dots.
What letters stand out as different/awkward/interesting? "G" stands out because of its awkward serif that sticks out and "k" because of the wide counter and short right 'ascender leg.'
5 words describing the font? square, noisy, retro, dotted, light
Moonbase Alpha:
Designer? Cornel Windlin
What is different about the font? Each character has a chunk taken out of it.
How is it constructed? Bold, slightly curved blocks are interrupted by small square gaps taken out of corners of each character.
What letters stand out as different/awkward/interesting? "O" because it has a lot of white space and is so abstract that it resembles a flower or plus sign as much as it resembles an "o".
5 words describing the font? gooey, chunky, gapping, thick, round
Emigre Fonts
For each of the fonts you have “researched”: include an image of the font. Designer. What is different about the font? How is it constructed? What letters stand out as different/awkward/interesting. List at least 5 words about the Voice, Vibe, Feeling… (ex: strong, dynamic, gothic, awkward, pointed, sharp, aggressive,…
Base 9 & 12:
Designer? Zuzana Licko
What is different about the font? Thick and dramatic serifs. Extremely various weights.
How is it constructed? Thick, straight lines. Thick, blocky serifs. Even the thin typeface has thick serifs.
What letters stand out? r and a because of their sharp diagonals
5 Descriptive words? thick, bold, strong, square, stiff
Cholla:
Designer? Sibylle Hagmann
What is different about the font? Square-ish "o"s. Thin link/necks.
How is it constructed? Round, sans-sertif lines. Square "o"s, thin links/necks, flat at x-height.
What letters stand out? "a" because it looks different in the oblique form.
5 Descriptive words? round, square, retro, thin, arched
Oblong:
Designer? Rudy VanderLans and Zuzana Licko
What is different about the font? The serifs only go on the outside of the line.
How is it constructed? Thin, long counters. Thick serifs.
What letters stand out? "M" because its kind of splayed looking, "R" because of its gap between the top part of the R and the leg.
5 Descriptive words? blocky, digital, pixels, retro, splayed
Platelet:
Designer? Conor Mangat
What is different about the font? The serifs only go on the outside of the line.
How is it constructed? Thin, long counters. Thick serifs.
What letters stand out? "M" because its kind of splayed looking, "R" because of its gap between the top part of the R and the leg.
5 Descriptive words? Stout, rounded, clean, simple, circular
Variex:
Designer? Rudy VanderLans and Zuzana Licko
What is different about the font? The variety of heights and widths within each within each character.
How is it constructed? Slight curves, sound lines, abrupt terminals.
What letters stand out? "S" and "f" because of their silted titled, wide curves, and "h" because of its uneven height.
5 Descriptive words? unique, abrupt, slashed, modern, clean
*my pick*
Los Feliz:
Designer? Christian Schwartz
What is different about the font? The different families all look fairly different from each other.
How is it constructed? Thick stokes, thin necks/links. Short, stubby serifs.
What letters stand out? "r" because it has a little hook in a very rounded typeface.
5 Descriptive words? classic, thick, painterly, stubby, rounded
Base 9 & 12:
What is different about the font? Thick and dramatic serifs. Extremely various weights.
How is it constructed? Thick, straight lines. Thick, blocky serifs. Even the thin typeface has thick serifs.
What letters stand out? r and a because of their sharp diagonals
5 Descriptive words? thick, bold, strong, square, stiff
Cholla:
Designer? Sibylle Hagmann
What is different about the font? Square-ish "o"s. Thin link/necks.
How is it constructed? Round, sans-sertif lines. Square "o"s, thin links/necks, flat at x-height.
What letters stand out? "a" because it looks different in the oblique form.
5 Descriptive words? round, square, retro, thin, arched
Oblong:
Designer? Rudy VanderLans and Zuzana Licko
What is different about the font? The serifs only go on the outside of the line.
How is it constructed? Thin, long counters. Thick serifs.
What letters stand out? "M" because its kind of splayed looking, "R" because of its gap between the top part of the R and the leg.
5 Descriptive words? blocky, digital, pixels, retro, splayed
Platelet:
Designer? Conor Mangat
What is different about the font? The serifs only go on the outside of the line.
How is it constructed? Thin, long counters. Thick serifs.
What letters stand out? "M" because its kind of splayed looking, "R" because of its gap between the top part of the R and the leg.
5 Descriptive words? Stout, rounded, clean, simple, circular
Variex:
Designer? Rudy VanderLans and Zuzana Licko
What is different about the font? The variety of heights and widths within each within each character.
How is it constructed? Slight curves, sound lines, abrupt terminals.
What letters stand out? "S" and "f" because of their silted titled, wide curves, and "h" because of its uneven height.
5 Descriptive words? unique, abrupt, slashed, modern, clean
*my pick*
Los Feliz:
Designer? Christian Schwartz
What is different about the font? The different families all look fairly different from each other.
How is it constructed? Thick stokes, thin necks/links. Short, stubby serifs.
What letters stand out? "r" because it has a little hook in a very rounded typeface.
5 Descriptive words? classic, thick, painterly, stubby, rounded
Who is Wim Crouwel?
Wim Crouwel is a dutch graphic designer, known for founding the design agency, Total Design (now, Total Identify, and creating famous typefaces such as the New Alphabet and Stedelijk.
Courwel was born in the Netherlands in 1928. He was both an Extremist painter and a functionalist designer. He designed the New Alphabet after noticing that the digital production of existing typefaces were not being produced correctly. The New Alphabet was a highly abstract form, consisting of a dot-matrix system. The New Alphabet was able to fit any grid system, making it widely popular and usable.
Sources:
http://www.iconofgraphics.com/wim-crouwel/
http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-24196.html
Courwel was born in the Netherlands in 1928. He was both an Extremist painter and a functionalist designer. He designed the New Alphabet after noticing that the digital production of existing typefaces were not being produced correctly. The New Alphabet was a highly abstract form, consisting of a dot-matrix system. The New Alphabet was able to fit any grid system, making it widely popular and usable.
Sources:
http://www.iconofgraphics.com/wim-crouwel/
http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-24196.html
Monday, September 7, 2015
Famous Designers to Know & {maybe} Love
Paul Rand was a well-known American graphic designer who specialized in corporate logos, including those of major companies IBM, USP, and ABC. Although American, Rand was one of the originators of the Swiss style of graphic design. Rand was very well-known for being able to sell his designs to a client, a skill essential for any graphic designer when presenting their ideas. For Rand, he valued his modernist ideals above all other design styles, a philosophy which can be seen in his simple and timeless designs to this day.
http://www.paul-rand.com/foundation/biography/#.Vei1aGRVikp
Muller Brockman was also a founding father of the Swiss International design style, and is sometimes considered the most well-known of those such designers. Unlike Rand, Brockman was a true Swiss. He was born and raised in Switzerland where he attended the renowned Zurich school of arts and crafts. Some of his most widely recognized work were a series of posters for the Zurich Town Hall theatre productions.
http://www.designishistory.com/1940/joseph-mueller-brockmann/
Emil Ruder also was born and raised in Switzerland, where he helped start the Basal School of Design with fellow famous designer, Armin Hofmann, while contributing heavily to the growing style of Swiss graphic design. Ruder was a big fan of asymmetrical compositions, negative space, and "the counters of characters". Ruder was one of the pioneer users of the grid, and specifically paved the way for many web designers to come.
http://www.designishistory.com/1940/emil-ruder/
\
http://www.paul-rand.com/foundation/biography/#.Vei1aGRVikp
Muller Brockman was also a founding father of the Swiss International design style, and is sometimes considered the most well-known of those such designers. Unlike Rand, Brockman was a true Swiss. He was born and raised in Switzerland where he attended the renowned Zurich school of arts and crafts. Some of his most widely recognized work were a series of posters for the Zurich Town Hall theatre productions.
http://www.designishistory.com/1940/joseph-mueller-brockmann/
Emil Ruder also was born and raised in Switzerland, where he helped start the Basal School of Design with fellow famous designer, Armin Hofmann, while contributing heavily to the growing style of Swiss graphic design. Ruder was a big fan of asymmetrical compositions, negative space, and "the counters of characters". Ruder was one of the pioneer users of the grid, and specifically paved the way for many web designers to come.
http://www.designishistory.com/1940/emil-ruder/
F.H.K Henrion was born in Germany in 1939, and moved to Paris to study design from 1936-1939. Henrion is best known for his work for the Ministry of Information and the US Office of War Information, as well as many successful British branding campaigns. Unlike previous designers, his signature style was the use of photomontage and and collage, known as Surrealist juxtapositions.
http://www.rennart.co.uk/henrion.html
Piet Zwart was both a graphic designer, a photographer, architect, and an industrial designer during the 1920s-30s. Zwart was a member of the De Stijl art movement, and was instrumental in the development of modern graphic design. Zwart focused on abstract, linear, and geometric qualities of design with the use of primary colors, shapes, and varying typefaces and strong diagonals. Zwart also coined the phrase "typo tect", after realizing the importance of intertwining architecture and typography.
https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/people/18044821/bio
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stefan Sagmeister is currently one the most widely known graphic designers. Sagmeister is known for "upsetting norms" by pushing boundaries, creating controversial work, and using a variety of alternative mediums. Sagmeister jumped from design firm to design firm for years before starting his own studio in New York City, titled Sagmeister, Inc.
http://www.aiga.org/medalist-stefan-sagmeister/
Jessica Walsh is often spoken of in conjunction to Stefan Sagmeister. In 2005, Sagmeister shocked the design company by changing his studio to "Sagmeister & Walsh" and announcing the addition of a new partnership with young designer, Walsh. Jessica Walsh has sometimes been considered the "It Girl" of graphic design, and has already taken the design world by storm in her early age. After graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design, Walsh turned down a great job offer from Apple and started an internship at Pentagram where her . Walsh soon caught the interest of the larger design community and continues to produce innovative, energetic, new work alongside her mentor and partner, Stefan Sagmeister.
http://observer.com/2014/04/jessica-walsh-graphic-designer-profile/
Armin Hofmann was born in Switzerland in 1920 and studied art and design in Zurich. He taught at the Basal School of Arts and Crafts for forty years, and eventually became head of their graphic design program. created a variety of works, including stage designs, logos, typography, orientation systems, and some three-dimensional designs for public buildings. He is most known for his poster designs, which are rich in typographic elements and a focus on the purity of photographs. Hofmann is also known for his exceptional teaching ability, and is considered one of the few exceptions to the phrase, “he who can does; he who cannot teaches”. As a teacher, he was a balance of patience and energy, pushing his students to strip down their designs and work on them until fully satisfied.
Hans Wichmann. Armin Hofmann: His Work, Quest, and Philosophy, Hofmann, Armin, and D. Q. Stephenson. Graphic Design Manual: Principles and Practice, Poyner, Rick. "Armin Hofmann."
April Greiman is another contemporary style graphic designer who is well known for her transmedia work and innovative, new methods of creating graphic design. She creates work that combines and moves through time, space, images, and color, and specialized in the fusion of technology and art. She established her own practice called, Made in Space in 1976 in Los Angeles, after living, going to school in, and working in various locations from Switzerland to Kansas City.
http://aprilgreiman.com/
http://www.rennart.co.uk/henrion.html
Piet Zwart was both a graphic designer, a photographer, architect, and an industrial designer during the 1920s-30s. Zwart was a member of the De Stijl art movement, and was instrumental in the development of modern graphic design. Zwart focused on abstract, linear, and geometric qualities of design with the use of primary colors, shapes, and varying typefaces and strong diagonals. Zwart also coined the phrase "typo tect", after realizing the importance of intertwining architecture and typography.
https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/people/18044821/bio
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stefan Sagmeister is currently one the most widely known graphic designers. Sagmeister is known for "upsetting norms" by pushing boundaries, creating controversial work, and using a variety of alternative mediums. Sagmeister jumped from design firm to design firm for years before starting his own studio in New York City, titled Sagmeister, Inc.
http://www.aiga.org/medalist-stefan-sagmeister/
Jessica Walsh is often spoken of in conjunction to Stefan Sagmeister. In 2005, Sagmeister shocked the design company by changing his studio to "Sagmeister & Walsh" and announcing the addition of a new partnership with young designer, Walsh. Jessica Walsh has sometimes been considered the "It Girl" of graphic design, and has already taken the design world by storm in her early age. After graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design, Walsh turned down a great job offer from Apple and started an internship at Pentagram where her . Walsh soon caught the interest of the larger design community and continues to produce innovative, energetic, new work alongside her mentor and partner, Stefan Sagmeister.
http://observer.com/2014/04/jessica-walsh-graphic-designer-profile/
Armin Hofmann was born in Switzerland in 1920 and studied art and design in Zurich. He taught at the Basal School of Arts and Crafts for forty years, and eventually became head of their graphic design program. created a variety of works, including stage designs, logos, typography, orientation systems, and some three-dimensional designs for public buildings. He is most known for his poster designs, which are rich in typographic elements and a focus on the purity of photographs. Hofmann is also known for his exceptional teaching ability, and is considered one of the few exceptions to the phrase, “he who can does; he who cannot teaches”. As a teacher, he was a balance of patience and energy, pushing his students to strip down their designs and work on them until fully satisfied.
Hans Wichmann. Armin Hofmann: His Work, Quest, and Philosophy, Hofmann, Armin, and D. Q. Stephenson. Graphic Design Manual: Principles and Practice, Poyner, Rick. "Armin Hofmann."
Jessica Hische grew up in Pennsylvania, where she began her career as a freelance graphic designer. After a few years of working, Hische began specializing in what would later earn her the title "The Drop Cap Girl". She began working relentlessly in type design, lettering, and illustration. Her clientele ranges from Wes Anderson to Penguin Books, and works in a studio alongside fellow hand lettering fanatic, Eric Marinovich.
April Greiman is another contemporary style graphic designer who is well known for her transmedia work and innovative, new methods of creating graphic design. She creates work that combines and moves through time, space, images, and color, and specialized in the fusion of technology and art. She established her own practice called, Made in Space in 1976 in Los Angeles, after living, going to school in, and working in various locations from Switzerland to Kansas City.
http://aprilgreiman.com/
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