Monday, January 25, 2016
Thursday, January 21, 2016
6 Designers Influential to the History of Design
Fred Woodard
Woodward is likely best known for his design work for Rolling Stone magazine, between 1987 and 2001. His work was bold, expressive, and comprehensive, incorporating a large range of styles. Elements of modernism and the English language, such as large, block typefaces, were often used, as well as a 'weathered' color palette.
Gail Anderson
Anderson was also known for her work for Rolling Stone magazine, especially for her expert typography work, particularly full spread, ecletic typography. Following her long carer at Rolling Stone, Anderson worked for SpotCo, creating posters for top knotch clients such as Broadway.
Tibor Kalman
Kalman was known for being a successful graphic designer of the mid-1980's, to both indivudals in and out of the design world. Therefore, his influence over how designers think and define their roles in culture and society is profound. He strongly advocated for the design profession, and relentlessly fought for designers to focus on the principles of good design and social responsibility. He did a lot of bold, sometimes controversial work for Color magazine as well.
David Carson
Carson joined in on the popularity trend of typography in the late 1990s, and created many bold designs for Ray Gun Magazine. Carson created his own style of grids, type, layouts, etc. He wasn't following anyone else's path. His designs challenged current standards of order and legibility. He was described as being "a new breed of visual author."
Woodward is likely best known for his design work for Rolling Stone magazine, between 1987 and 2001. His work was bold, expressive, and comprehensive, incorporating a large range of styles. Elements of modernism and the English language, such as large, block typefaces, were often used, as well as a 'weathered' color palette.
Gail Anderson
Anderson was also known for her work for Rolling Stone magazine, especially for her expert typography work, particularly full spread, ecletic typography. Following her long carer at Rolling Stone, Anderson worked for SpotCo, creating posters for top knotch clients such as Broadway.
Tibor Kalman
Kalman was known for being a successful graphic designer of the mid-1980's, to both indivudals in and out of the design world. Therefore, his influence over how designers think and define their roles in culture and society is profound. He strongly advocated for the design profession, and relentlessly fought for designers to focus on the principles of good design and social responsibility. He did a lot of bold, sometimes controversial work for Color magazine as well.
Alexey Brodovitch
Brodovitch is most known today as the art director of Harper's Bazaar magazine for nearly a quarter of a century. His black and white designs were elegant and fashionable. He also played a crucial role in introducing the United States to a radically simplified, “modern” graphic design style forged in Europe in the 1920s, which stressed visual freshness and immediancy.
Neville Brody
Brody studied design at the London College of Printing and first hit the design spotlight when he worked for the British independent music scene. Brody expieremented a lot with a mixture of visual and architectural elements into one cohesive design, before taking a design position at The Face magazine. Besides Brody's innovative designs, he's also known for his digital typefaces.
Carson joined in on the popularity trend of typography in the late 1990s, and created many bold designs for Ray Gun Magazine. Carson created his own style of grids, type, layouts, etc. He wasn't following anyone else's path. His designs challenged current standards of order and legibility. He was described as being "a new breed of visual author."
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Logo & Identity
The new London Luton Airport recently finished a re-branding project by ico Design, where they avoided the usual airport logo clichés of things in movement, and opted for a bold, simple, abstract monogram made out of 9 squares, assembled in 3 triangles, arranged in a unique vertical format. This branding project also included a new, custom type family designed soley for LLA's new identity. In full, this new identity provides a modern type with plenty of character and numerals.
I really like this new brand identity because its fresh, techno, and bright. The color blocking with intense, cheery colors is a good break from the norm of white, red, and blue seen in many airplane logos.
The San Fransisco Museum of Modern Art also has a new brand identity, following its renovation. The SFMOMA's new building is much more open to the city, so the new logo was designed to be airy, with mulitple points of access. This organic, free-flowing construction emulates the free-thinking and diverse culture of the San Fransisco Bay Area. The new logo was also designed to be as versatile and dynamic as the art found inside. The logo has two forms : contracted or expanded. In general, this is a minimal design, so the addition of the striped patterns in bags and other signage adds a touch of energy allows for some flexibility as well as a range of textures.
When I first saw the SFMOMA redesign I didn't like it all. Then, once I saw the logo being used in various applications, I liked it a lot more! I think it is much more interesting in its expanded view, although I'm sure having the contracted, simple logo around for other uses is very important to the brand identity as well.
Another re-branding project was recently completed by the Maurits House, an art museum in the Netherlands that houses more than 800 Dutch Golden Age paintings, including the famous Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer. The new logo is inspired by artists’ monograms, and is used on brand identity articles, such as key paintings to communicate a clear link between the Mauritshuis and its collection of art. The new logo hints at the museum’s heritage with its old-fashioned calligraphic feel, while still being modern and clean. Because it is usually used at large sizes, the logo needed to convey a sense of identiy. Rendered in gold metallic, the logo works as both a serious institutional identity, and as a bright, flamoyant brand aesthetic depending on the context of its use. In other words, its very interchangable.
I love this design. Its simple, easy to read, and bold. The gold looks beautiful, sophisticated, and rich... like the whole content of the musuem.
I really like this new brand identity because its fresh, techno, and bright. The color blocking with intense, cheery colors is a good break from the norm of white, red, and blue seen in many airplane logos.
The San Fransisco Museum of Modern Art also has a new brand identity, following its renovation. The SFMOMA's new building is much more open to the city, so the new logo was designed to be airy, with mulitple points of access. This organic, free-flowing construction emulates the free-thinking and diverse culture of the San Fransisco Bay Area. The new logo was also designed to be as versatile and dynamic as the art found inside. The logo has two forms : contracted or expanded. In general, this is a minimal design, so the addition of the striped patterns in bags and other signage adds a touch of energy allows for some flexibility as well as a range of textures.
When I first saw the SFMOMA redesign I didn't like it all. Then, once I saw the logo being used in various applications, I liked it a lot more! I think it is much more interesting in its expanded view, although I'm sure having the contracted, simple logo around for other uses is very important to the brand identity as well.
Another re-branding project was recently completed by the Maurits House, an art museum in the Netherlands that houses more than 800 Dutch Golden Age paintings, including the famous Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer. The new logo is inspired by artists’ monograms, and is used on brand identity articles, such as key paintings to communicate a clear link between the Mauritshuis and its collection of art. The new logo hints at the museum’s heritage with its old-fashioned calligraphic feel, while still being modern and clean. Because it is usually used at large sizes, the logo needed to convey a sense of identiy. Rendered in gold metallic, the logo works as both a serious institutional identity, and as a bright, flamoyant brand aesthetic depending on the context of its use. In other words, its very interchangable.
I love this design. Its simple, easy to read, and bold. The gold looks beautiful, sophisticated, and rich... like the whole content of the musuem.
Monday, November 2, 2015
Letter Characteristics (some random info)
-- What are small capitals? How are they different than something set in ALL CAPS?
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.
-- Does your font have small caps? If not name a font that does.
No. 'Whitney' is a font that DOES.
-- Ligatures? why are they used? when are they not used? what are common ligatures?
A ligature occurs when two letters overlap one another when typed side by side, so a new letterform is created to fit both, such as an intersecting 'f' and 'i', the terminal of the f will be combined with the dot of the i. So, two letters are drawn to form one letter.
-- Does your font have ligatures? If not name a font that does.
Yes!
-- Difference between a foot mark and an apostrophe?
The foot mark is a single slanted, straight line, and the apostophe is curled.
-- Difference between an inch mark and a quote mark (smart quote)?
An inch mark is two slightly slanted, straight lines, and a quote mark is two curled apostrophes.
-- Hyphen, en dash and em dashes, what are the differences and when are they used.
Hyphens must be used for justifying text.
En-dashes are used between dates (2004 – 2005) (space on either side)
Em-dashes are the longest and are used for interrupting thoughts within other thoughts. (no space on either side)
Puncation rules:
"An em-dash is typically used as a stand-in for a comma or parenthesis to separate out phrases—or even just a word—in a sentence for various reasons
An en-dash is used to connect values in a range or that are related. A good rule is to use it when you're expressing a "to" relationship.
A hyphen is used to join words in a compound construction, or separate syllables of a word, like during a line break, or (self-evidently) a hyphenated name."
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.
-- Does your font have small caps? If not name a font that does.
No. 'Whitney' is a font that DOES.
-- Ligatures? why are they used? when are they not used? what are common ligatures?
A ligature occurs when two letters overlap one another when typed side by side, so a new letterform is created to fit both, such as an intersecting 'f' and 'i', the terminal of the f will be combined with the dot of the i. So, two letters are drawn to form one letter.
-- Does your font have ligatures? If not name a font that does.
Yes!
-- Difference between a foot mark and an apostrophe?
The foot mark is a single slanted, straight line, and the apostophe is curled.
-- Difference between an inch mark and a quote mark (smart quote)?
An inch mark is two slightly slanted, straight lines, and a quote mark is two curled apostrophes.
-- Hyphen, en dash and em dashes, what are the differences and when are they used.
Hyphens must be used for justifying text.
En-dashes are used between dates (2004 – 2005) (space on either side)
Em-dashes are the longest and are used for interrupting thoughts within other thoughts. (no space on either side)
Puncation rules:
"An em-dash is typically used as a stand-in for a comma or parenthesis to separate out phrases—or even just a word—in a sentence for various reasons
An en-dash is used to connect values in a range or that are related. A good rule is to use it when you're expressing a "to" relationship.
A hyphen is used to join words in a compound construction, or separate syllables of a word, like during a line break, or (self-evidently) a hyphenated name."
Sunday, October 18, 2015
All about "Swift", a Classic Typeface / Font Basics
SWIFT FONT BASICS
Type: Serif
Designer: Gerard Unger
Other fonts the Designer has designed: Markeur, M.O.I, Demos, Praxis, Hollander, Flora, Vesta, Argo
Date it was designed: 1985
Classification: Transitional Serif, Neue
Swfit's family members: Light, Light Italic, Regular, Italic, Medium, Medium Italic, Bold, Bold Italic, Heavy, Heavy Italic, Black Condensed
TYPE STYLES
Old Style: Roman typefaces of the 15th and 16th emulates classical calligraphy. (Sabon, Adobe Garamond Pro, Minion Pro, Livory).
Transitional: Letterforms with sharper serifs and more vertical axis, which makes for sharp forms and high contrast. (Baskerville, Americana, Bulmer)
Modern: Radically different from previous styles, and even considered to be 'abstract' for the 18th and 19th centuries, these letterforms have thin, straight serifs, vertical axis, and sharp contrast between thick and thin strokes. (Bodoni, Marconi, Walbaum)
Slab Serif: Orginally designed for advertising, these letterforms have thick, blocky, 'slab' serifs. (Rockwell, Soho, Clarendon)
Sans Serif: These letterforms are basically Old Style (Humanist Serifs) with the serifs chopped off. (Frutiger, Gill Sans, Mentor Sans)
Stroke Weight: The thickness of the stroke (the lines) that make up a letter
Axis or Stress: An imaginery line drawn from top to bottom, bisecting the top and bottom strokes of a letter form
example...
Small caps: Shrunken versions of ALL CAPS. They match the x-height of lowercase letters.
Lining Figures: Figures that are uniform in height and align with baseline and cap height, and are usually the size of capital letters.
Non-aligning figures:Also referred to as "Old Style figures", are numbers designed to harmonize with the proportions and rthym of lowercase letterforms.
Ligatures: When two letterforms of a font overlap when next to eachother in a word, such as a lowercase 'f' followed by a lowercase 'i', a ligature happens when a combined letterform is created in order to control letter spacing and allow to letter forms to harmoniously exist next to eachother.
Summarize Type measurement: [I believe this quote from Linotype Font Feature describes Type Measurement well] "When type was cast in metal, the printing surface – the “face” – was mounted on a block of metal called the “body”. The type sizes – measured in points – refered to this metal body rather than the face itself. The proportion of the face on the body could vary considerably from one typeface to another.
This principle still applied. For example a 10 point type is one that measures 10 points from baseline to baseline when set solid (ie without any extra space being added between the lines). So it is possible for one 10 point type to look smaller than another but they will both take up the same depth from line to line."
Type: Serif
Designer: Gerard Unger
Other fonts the Designer has designed: Markeur, M.O.I, Demos, Praxis, Hollander, Flora, Vesta, Argo
Date it was designed: 1985
Classification: Transitional Serif, Neue
Swfit's family members: Light, Light Italic, Regular, Italic, Medium, Medium Italic, Bold, Bold Italic, Heavy, Heavy Italic, Black Condensed
TYPE STYLES
Old Style: Roman typefaces of the 15th and 16th emulates classical calligraphy. (Sabon, Adobe Garamond Pro, Minion Pro, Livory).
Transitional: Letterforms with sharper serifs and more vertical axis, which makes for sharp forms and high contrast. (Baskerville, Americana, Bulmer)
Modern: Radically different from previous styles, and even considered to be 'abstract' for the 18th and 19th centuries, these letterforms have thin, straight serifs, vertical axis, and sharp contrast between thick and thin strokes. (Bodoni, Marconi, Walbaum)
Slab Serif: Orginally designed for advertising, these letterforms have thick, blocky, 'slab' serifs. (Rockwell, Soho, Clarendon)
Sans Serif: These letterforms are basically Old Style (Humanist Serifs) with the serifs chopped off. (Frutiger, Gill Sans, Mentor Sans)
Stroke Weight: The thickness of the stroke (the lines) that make up a letter
Axis or Stress: An imaginery line drawn from top to bottom, bisecting the top and bottom strokes of a letter form
example...
Small caps: Shrunken versions of ALL CAPS. They match the x-height of lowercase letters.
Lining Figures: Figures that are uniform in height and align with baseline and cap height, and are usually the size of capital letters.
Non-aligning figures:Also referred to as "Old Style figures", are numbers designed to harmonize with the proportions and rthym of lowercase letterforms.
Ligatures: When two letterforms of a font overlap when next to eachother in a word, such as a lowercase 'f' followed by a lowercase 'i', a ligature happens when a combined letterform is created in order to control letter spacing and allow to letter forms to harmoniously exist next to eachother.
Summarize Type measurement: [I believe this quote from Linotype Font Feature describes Type Measurement well] "When type was cast in metal, the printing surface – the “face” – was mounted on a block of metal called the “body”. The type sizes – measured in points – refered to this metal body rather than the face itself. The proportion of the face on the body could vary considerably from one typeface to another.
This principle still applied. For example a 10 point type is one that measures 10 points from baseline to baseline when set solid (ie without any extra space being added between the lines). So it is possible for one 10 point type to look smaller than another but they will both take up the same depth from line to line."
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/
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
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