pre project 4

For some reason, I am having problems downloading the Mac is not a Typewriter pdf, but I'll do my best to try and answer the questions anyway. Here goes:
The reason multi column grids are used in design is so that the designer has an easy way of maintaining order in his or her work. By aligning everything to a grid, spacial differences will make more sense to the viewer and distances that would otherwise feel random become more relevant to the composition.
The next question, I am rather unaware of the answer. However, if I had to guess, I would say that the ideal number of characters to have in a line would be somewhere around 45-75 forming about 6-8 words.
The baseline grid can be used to establish optimal line spacing in relation to leading and help avoid text to appear as if it is floating.
Rivers are series of spaces that line up vertically and distract the eye from traveling left to right by suggesting a vertical directon down the text body.
One can incorperate white space into desigs by leaving marginal space, or space between text objects which should be givin a visual seperation.
type color/texture- differences between text fields of the same font. (can be done with tracking)
the x-height is the hieght of the character x in a typeface.
minimum, optimum, and maximum refer to word spacing, optimum being best possible.
There are many ways by which to indicate a paragraph, some include indenting, a larger line spacing, or indication of the first phrase, sentence, or line by changing font, color, or size. To my knowledge, there are no rules to what can be done to indicate a break. However, one should never indent the first paragraph.
Hyphens are specifically used for line breaks or contracted words. en dashes are used for periods of time or to indicate a range of numbers. Em dashes are used for a change in thought or a passing of time usually in conversation.
ligatures prevent certain cahracters such as f and i to interfere with eachothers space. fi (notice how the kerning is just enough for the terminal and the dot to satay distinguishable).
cmyk are the standard print colors which all other colors on printed medium are derived from. RGB are the comors that can be transfered through the web.
Hanging punctuation is exactly what it sounds like. It may be most commonly used when hanging a quotation so that the text body within the quote remains flush.
A footmark is a straight mark that hangs above the x-height used to indicate units of measurement. An apostrophe has a slight curve to it and is used in words to indicate posession or contractions. Inch marks and quote marks share the same difference, only there aretwo of them.
Hyphen em and en dashes were previously described.

Website and Final Flash

My website is finally up, check it out!

Polar Standard Graphic

storyboards

Here are my new storyboards for type.

key

ok so i take it back. the key is absolutely necessary. but you get the point with out it

stats

I found the reading from Data Flow to be really inspiring for our next project. Im excited to see what I can come up with. I really liked the examples from the book that used photos. I think that the viewer gets a more intimate representation of the data if they can relate to the image, and having an image from real life seems to do this very nicely. Can we use photos for our project?
Anyway, I really liked this spread because there is so much content and it is all represented in a completely clear way. I don't find anything hard to read or unclear. I don' even need a key.

final series

After all he revisions and bad ideas, here's what I got:

Music vs. SAT Scores

I found this and thought of the new viscom assignment. its pretty interesting. Although, it is a bit odd that Beethoven is at the top of the smart scale and then no other classical composer is ever mentioned... except for the genre as a whole which doesn't appear until the 0956 0996 range. That means it got beaten out on the smart scale by Kelly Clarkson, yellow card and Lincoln Park. f, wtf. Apparently Beethoven makes you smart, but he was the only one who got it right untill Sufjan Stevens made the completely achievable goal of writing an album for every one of the 50 states. (nothin against suf-J. dream big i guess..)

series 2

series 1

cropped letters

super BIG super COOL: performance in honor of the fall of the Berlin Wall

The Berlin Reunion: I would define this as truly awesome art.

check out the site: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/10/the_berlin_reunion.html

Grid Comp Revisions

Characteristics of Melior

The Largest difference in Melior, when compared to other Transitional fonts, is its boxy letters and large x-height. As I mentioned in a previous post, Zapf based all the letters off the form of a rectangle. This is easier to see in the capital letters than in the lower case simply because capital forms are more boxy in nature. However, the larger x-height allowed Zapf to reinforce this in the lower case letters by flattening the concave arches in characters such as m, n, c, and u, and leveling the tops and bottoms of applicable characters bowls. These choices were all made in order to easily determine seperate characters when in larger text bodies and they can be seen across the entire font family.

Other than the unifying characteristics brought about by the large x-heiht and rectangular form, Melior's characters do lend themselves to some interesting individual distinctions. For example, the y has a small cut out where its stem meets its descender. Although, this characteristic is seen in other transitional fonts for printing purposes, it is still fairly uncommon.
The ear of the g is also quite interesting because it is squared off at the end instead of rounded into a terminal.
Both the K and k's legs are attached to the setm at the same point as the arm. Many other transitional k's legs, such as Baskervilles, attatch only to the arm.
The center of the w and W has no serif.
The A has a flat apex.
The lowercase a is a two story a in medium and bold, but in italic fonts they are a one story a.
Also differing in font styles the f's stem in italic descends below the baseline.
there is an interesting difference in the p and q's top serifs. The p has the usual flat serif, characteristic of transitional typefaces. But the q simply has a point with no serif.
it is the same case with the d and b.
In the OSF style there are no differences in characters from the medum style except for the numbers, which ascend to the cap height and descend below the baseline.

That's about all that I notice other than the Q's funny tail, but what font family doesnt have a few of those?

Posters for Type

The first few posters were a bit difficult, but by the end of the ten, I think I was starting to figure out how to make Melior work for me. I've got some stuff that I think will be good to work with, which feels pretty good at this stage of the project considering that never really got to the point last project where I was really getting the hang of it. I'm thinking this project will go a little smoother!

also, I tried to look up some logos that used Melior, but had a pretty hard time finding any. I came across a few universities that used caps for their school, but other than that I was pretty unsuccessful. That makes sence though, seeing as it was developed for larger printed texts like newspapers.

project one final

I did end up having a few regrets about my final poster for project one. It didn't turn out perfectly, and by that I mean: not how I had completely hoped it would. At this point though, I have nothing else to do except for live with it, and hopefully, I will be able to fix my mistakes so that this next project will turn out exactly how I want it to.
I'm kind of excited to make the process book, because it sounds like I will be able to have some fun with it and be proud of the work I put into it. However, I am still a little skeptical because I have never actually enjoyed making a process notebook before. So well see tomorrow i guess!

sources for Melior

Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Zapf

The Life Story of Hermann Zapf
PDF

ideofont
http://www.identifont.com/show?14C

The edward Johnston Foundation
http://www.ask.com/bar?q=hermann+zapf&page=1&qsrc=19&ab=9&title=Hermann%20Zapf&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ejf.org.uk%2Fhermannzapf.html

Melior (with paragraphs)

Designer: Hermann Zapf, 9/11/18 - current.

Origin: Designed in 1952 and released by the Stempel Foundry.

Classification: Transitional

Hermann Zapff created Melior as a typeface that would be ultimately suitable for newspapers, magazines and other long texts. It has a larger x-height so characters can easily be distinguished. The individual characters themselves, were based on the rectangle, which is especially noticeable in the capital O. Melior would be categorized under the Transitional classification, mainly because of its larger x-height (something not common to the Old Style), and its stress in line. The contrast in thick and thins is more exaggerated than Old Style fonts, yet the thins are still thicker than those of the Modern fonts.

Melior can be compared to other transitional fonts such as: Caslon, Mrs Eaves, and Baskerville




Other than an exciting new font being created by Mr. Zapf, here’s what else happened in 1952:

King George VI of England died, and on Feb. 6 his daughter Elizabeth was proclaimed Queen of England.

Harry S. Truman was U.S. President. Alben W. Barkley was U.S. Vice-President. Dean Acheson was U.S. Secretary of State. Frederick M. Vinson was Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Associate Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court included: Hugo L. Black, Stanley Reed, Felix Frankfurter, William O. Douglas, Robert H. Jackson, Harold H. Barton, Tom C. Clark, Sherman Minton.

Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union. Fulgencio Batista took power in Cuba. In Egypt, a military coup overthrew King Farouk.

In 1952, the hydrogen bomb was detonated for the first time. The contraceptive pill was introduced. Polio vaccine was developed. The transistor radio was developed.
Pius XII was Pope. Geoffrey Francis Fisher was Archbishop of Canterbury. Winston Churchill was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Vincent Auriol was President of France. Konrad Adenauer was Chancellor of West Germany.
Evita Peron, wife of Argentine President Juan Peron, died.

Albert Schweitzer won the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize. François Mauriac won the 1952 Nobel prize for Literature.

Herman Wouk won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for The Caine Mutiny. Marianne Moore won the Pulitzer prize in poetry for Collected Poems. No Pulitzer award was given for drama in 1952.
Ernest Hemingway's novel The Old Man and the Sea was published in 1952. John Steinbeck's novel East of Eden was published in 1952.
In 1952, the Korean War continued. The U.S. launched bombing attacks against North Korea. The Indochinese War continued. The Mau Mau rebellion began in Kenya. Greece and Turkey joined NATO.
President Truman decided not to run for reelection. The Republicans held their convention in Chicago on July 7, and nominated Dwight D. Eisenhower for President. The Democrats held their convention in Chicago on July 21, and nominated Adlai E. Stevenson. In the elections on Nov. 4, Eisenhower defeated Stevenson, and became President-Elect, with Richard M. Nixon as his Vice-President.




Hermann Zapf is a German Typeface designer who currently lives in Darmstadt, Germany. He is married to the calligrapher/ typeface designer/ babe, Gudrun Zapf. Other than Melior, he created Palatino, Optima, and Zapfino. He was born in Nuremberg, near the end of World War I. In his early years he lost two of his siblings to the flu. In school, he was manly interested in technical subjects, and read books such as “The New Universe.” Zapf left school in 1993 to follow his brothers footsteps and pursue a career in electrical engineering. However, his father had been involved with some trade unions, which lead him to be sent to the Dachau Concentration camp for a short while. So due to the political situation, Zapf, who was in search for an apprenticeship, was widely denied. It wasn’t until he visited Rudolf Koch’s typography exhibition in Nuremberg that he became interested in the subject. In 1931, Zapf was sent to Pirmasens to help reinforce the Siegfried Line in the war against france. Luckily, he quickly developed heart trouble and was given a desk job keeping war records. After the war, he taught calligraphy in Nuremberg for a while and then in Offenbach. Zaph has designed typfaces in metal, phototypesetting, and digital typography. Palatino and Optima were developed 4 years apart beginning with Palatino in 1948. These are perhaps his two most famous fonts. Zapf has been working on typography in computer programs since the 1960s. His ideas were considered radical, not taken seriously in Germany, and rejected by the Darmstadt University of Technology, where Zapf lectured between 1972 and 1981. Because he had no success in Germany, Zapf went to the United States, where new ideas were more likely to be accepted. He lectured about his ideas in computerized typesetting, and was invited to speak at Harvard University in 1964. The University of Texas at Austin was also interested in Zapf, and offered him a professorship. However, Zapf's wife said that she would never go to Texas, having only seen it from the air, and Zapf's dreams of Texas ended. In 1976, the Rochester Institute of Technology offered Zapf a professorship in typographic computer programming, the first of its type in the world. He taught there from 1977 to 1987, flying between Darmstadt and Rochester. There he developed his ideas further, with the help of his connections in companies such as IBM and Xerox, and his discussions with the computer specialists at Rochester. A number of Zapf's students from this time at RIT went on to become influential type designers, including Charles Bigelow and Kris Holmes, who together created the Lucida type family. Other prominent students include calligrapher/font designer Julian Waters and book designer Jerry Kelly. In 1977, Zapf and his friends Aaron Burns and Herb Lubalin founded a company called "Design Processing International, Inc." in New York and developed typographical computer software. It existed until 1986 with the death of Lubalin, and Zapf and Burns founded "Zapf, Burns & Company" in 1987. Burns, also an expert in typeface design and in typography, was in charge of marketing until his death in 1992. Shortly before, two of their employees had stolen Zapf's ideas and founded a company of their own.

“Type design is one of the most visible and widespread forms
of graphic expression in daily life. It is still not noticed by all
readers of newspapers, magazines or books. Nevertheless letter forms
reflect the style of a period, and its cultural background.
We are surrounded by them everywhere.” - Hermann Zapf

Melior

Designer: Hermann Zapf, 9/11/18 - current. Origin: Designed in 1952 and released by the Stempel Foundry. Classification: Transitional Hermann Zapff created Melior as a typeface that would be ultimately suitable for newspapers, magazines and other long texts. It has a larger x-height so characters can easily be distinguished. The individual characters themselves, were based on the rectangle, which is especially noticeable in the capital O. Melior would be categorized under the Transitional classification, mainly because of its larger x-height (something not common to the Old Style), and its stress in line. The contrast in thick and thins is more exaggerated than Old Style fonts, yet the thins are still thicker than those of the Modern fonts. Melior can be compared to other transitional fonts such as: Caslon, Mrs Eaves, and Baskerville Other than an exciting new font being created by Mr. Zapf, here’s what else happened in 1952: King George VI of England died, and on Feb. 6 his daughter Elizabeth was proclaimed Queen of England. Harry S. Truman was U.S. President. Alben W. Barkley was U.S. Vice-President. Dean Acheson was U.S. Secretary of State. Frederick M. Vinson was Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Associate Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court included: Hugo L. Black, Stanley Reed, Felix Frankfurter, William O. Douglas, Robert H. Jackson, Harold H. Barton, Tom C. Clark, Sherman Minton. Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union. Fulgencio Batista took power in Cuba. In Egypt, a military coup overthrew King Farouk. In 1952, the hydrogen bomb was detonated for the first time. The contraceptive pill was introduced. Polio vaccine was developed. The transistor radio was developed. Pius XII was Pope. Geoffrey Francis Fisher was Archbishop of Canterbury. Winston Churchill was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Vincent Auriol was President of France. Konrad Adenauer was Chancellor of West Germany. Evita Peron, wife of Argentine President Juan Peron, died. Albert Schweitzer won the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize. François Mauriac won the 1952 Nobel prize for Literature. Herman Wouk won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for The Caine Mutiny. Marianne Moore won the Pulitzer prize in poetry for Collected Poems. No Pulitzer award was given for drama in 1952. Ernest Hemingway's novel The Old Man and the Sea was published in 1952. John Steinbeck's novel East of Eden was published in 1952. In 1952, the Korean War continued. The U.S. launched bombing attacks against North Korea. The Indochinese War continued. The Mau Mau rebellion began in Kenya. Greece and Turkey joined NATO. President Truman decided not to run for reelection. The Republicans held their convention in Chicago on July 7, and nominated Dwight D. Eisenhower for President. The Democrats held their convention in Chicago on July 21, and nominated Adlai E. Stevenson. In the elections on Nov. 4, Eisenhower defeated Stevenson, and became President-Elect, with Richard M. Nixon as his Vice-President. Hermann Zapf is a German Typeface designer who currently lives in Darmstadt, Germany. He is married to the calligrapher/ typeface designer/ babe, Gudrun Zapf. Other than Melior, he created Palatino, Optima, and Zapfino. He was born in Nuremberg, near the end of World War I. In his early years he lost two of his siblings to the flu. In school, he was manly interested in technical subjects, and read books such as “The New Universe.” Zapf left school in 1993 to follow his brothers footsteps and pursue a career in electrical engineering. However, his father had been involved with some trade unions, which lead him to be sent to the Dachau Concentration camp for a short while. So due to the political situation, Zapf, who was in search for an apprenticeship, was widely denied. It wasn’t until he visited Rudolf Koch’s typography exhibition in Nuremberg that he became interested in the subject. In 1931, Zapf was sent to Pirmasens to help reinforce the Siegfried Line in the war against france. Luckily, he quickly developed heart trouble and was given a desk job keeping war records. After the war, he taught calligraphy in Nuremberg for a while and then in Offenbach. Zaph has designed typfaces in metal, phototypesetting, and digital typography. Palatino and Optima were developed 4 years apart beginning with Palatino in 1948. These are perhaps his two most famous fonts. Zapf has been working on typography in computer programs since the 1960s. His ideas were considered radical, not taken seriously in Germany, and rejected by the Darmstadt University of Technology, where Zapf lectured between 1972 and 1981. Because he had no success in Germany, Zapf went to the United States, where new ideas were more likely to be accepted. He lectured about his ideas in computerized typesetting, and was invited to speak at Harvard University in 1964. The University of Texas at Austin was also interested in Zapf, and offered him a professorship. However, Zapf's wife said that she would never go to Texas, having only seen it from the air, and Zapf's dreams of Texas ended. In 1976, the Rochester Institute of Technology offered Zapf a professorship in typographic computer programming, the first of its type in the world. He taught there from 1977 to 1987, flying between Darmstadt and Rochester. There he developed his ideas further, with the help of his connections in companies such as IBM and Xerox, and his discussions with the computer specialists at Rochester. A number of Zapf's students from this time at RIT went on to become influential type designers, including Charles Bigelow and Kris Holmes, who together created the Lucida type family. Other prominent students include calligrapher/font designer Julian Waters and book designer Jerry Kelly. In 1977, Zapf and his friends Aaron Burns and Herb Lubalin founded a company called "Design Processing International, Inc." in New York and developed typographical computer software. It existed until 1986 with the death of Lubalin, and Zapf and Burns founded "Zapf, Burns & Company" in 1987. Burns, also an expert in typeface design and in typography, was in charge of marketing until his death in 1992. Shortly before, two of their employees had stolen Zapf's ideas and founded a company of their own. “Type design is one of the most visible and widespread forms of graphic expression in daily life. It is still not noticed by all readers of newspapers, magazines or books. Nevertheless letter forms reflect the style of a period, and its cultural background. We are surrounded by them everywhere.” - Hermann Zapf

missing pictures!!

For some reason I was having trouble uploading pictures to my blog. Maybe I'm doing it wrong. Maybe its the website. Maybe its the force of a higher power. Whatever it is, I'm sure it can be fixed or reckoned with.

Adobe

Adobe’s Gateway into the world of typography was the production of the PostScript language. In short, this revolutionized the printing of digital type so that it could be much smoother. To compliment this invention, Adobe developed the Adobe Type Manager, which allowed type to appear on screen as it would printed. At first Adobe’s programs contained font libraries made up of existing ITC and Linotype fonts. However, it wasn’t long before the company decided to start developing their own typefaces under the name Adobe Originals. Examples of these fonts include: Trajan, Lithos, and Chaparral. Obviously, Adobe has its own website at www.adobe.com, and users of the brand can purchase sets of Adobe Origionals fonts via that site. What intrigued me in Adobe’s fonts is the simple fact that I use their products to create nearly half my school work, and as I turn from a student into a professional, I will use them even more. Adobe is basically for me now what Crayola was for me in grade school.

Matthew Carter

Matthew Carter, born in 1937, developed a early on knowledge of metal type, photo type, and digital type. With this kind of well roundedness, his success is no surprise. In his early years in the world of typography, Carter worked mostly as a freelance designer in Europe. However, he soon became associated with the large type company Linotype. His affiliation with the company ended as the digital era began to thrive. With the demand for personal computers taking off, Carter and a few co-workers broke off from Linotype to start their own type business. It was under this company that he designed what most would consider his best, and certainly most influential work (Verdana). However, with the companies success, Carter was left with little time to design due to the responsibility of managing the business. The company, now called Carter & Cone Type, have reserved the spot for carterandcone.com, but currently are without a website. However, Carters personally designed types can be purchased from myfonts.com for relatively reasonable prices. I was interested In Matthew Carter because of his individual success and widespread achievements as a typographer.

ITC

ITC, or the International Typeface Corporation was a typeface distributor in the 1970’s that redefined the vending of type. Because type was all done by metal typesetting at the time, most of the competing companies needed to provide their clients with the proper equipment to reproduce their type. Although this kept piracy to a minimum, ITC, having no ties to the metal foundries of type could provide their customers with a way to print their typefaces on any phototypsetting maching. This way their costumers could print ITC type on their machines with no problems concerning the equipment. They also offered their designers a royalty which was dependent on the success of their designs. ITC is still around today, they have developed and sold thousands of typefaces. However, they were bought out by Monotype, one of their metal typesetting competitors. The reason I was interested in ITC was that they redefined the type market by utilizing new technology. I think that especially in todays world, being aware of what new technology can offer is one of the most important and useful ways to stand out on top of what you do.

Examples of ITC fonts include: Conduit, Franklin Gothic, and American Typewriter

www.itcfonts.com

color?

...still not god enough. maybe I will just have to use COLOR next time.

bolding my previous font

I figure a blog post on type styles should at least be easy to read. Im not sure what font I was using, but the bold was certainly not bold enough (it looked much better as I was typing it). So I changed my font to Arial, in hopes of a bolder BOLD. well see what happens. Sorry aobut the big, uneasy to read post.

Font Styles

Old Style- old style typefaces are characterized by their refined upright position and greater contrast in thick and thin strokes
Examples: Berling, Plantin, and Sabon
Transitional- the transitional style was created not so long after the old style, in the late 1600’s. It differs mainly in the characters curves and roundness, and continues to heighten the contrast between thick and thin strokes.
Examples: Utopia, Mrs Eaves, and Didoni
Modern- modern type carries on the tradition of heightening contrast in stroke and the use of vertical letters. However, modern serifs tend to be longer and thinner with minimal brackets.
Examples: Bodoni, Didot, and Computer Modern
Slab Serif- unlike the previous type styles, Slab Serif fonts usually have little contrast in stroke, their serifs thick and without brackets.
Examples: Clarendon, Rockwell, Courier
Sans Serif- sans serif fonts simply have no serifs.
Examples: Helvetica, Frutiger, and Futura
Script- script fonts are based on handwriting and try to capture the continuous flow of certain techniques of handwriting.
Examples: Kuensteler Script, Caflisch Script, and Dakota Handwriting
Blackletter- also commonly referred to as Gothic, blackletter fonts capture the calligraphic writing widely used in western europe in the 12th to 15th centuries.
Examples: Schwabacher, Fraktur, and Cursiva
Grunge- grunge type got its name after the musical movement and is directed towards capturing a new way or a rebellion of sorts. Often blurred and hard to read.
Examples: Dirty Ames, Sidewalk, and Trashed
Mono Spaced- in mono spaced fonts, all the letters occupy the same amount of space.
Examples: courier, Prestige Elite, and Fixedsys
Undeclared- undeclared typefaces have their name because of their presence and absence of serifs.
Examples: optima and copperplate gothic

*sigh*

2:29
finished laying out all my beautiful polar bears in InDesign! about time. but the work payed off. many of my final images turned out much better than I thought they would. However, some of the images dont look as good in InDesign as they did in Photoshop. I'm sure there is a way to fix this, and I plan on finding out. but first, im going to bed.

vis com troube

The last set of sketches turned out to be quite difficult. Some of the headings, such as the index and abstract categories, really stumped me. It was really hard to think of ways to capture a polar bear without actually showing one. I came up with the idea of using paw prints, and I think I will use it for my final image in one way or another, but I was not able to come up with ten ways to create different indexes of the animal. The abstract ones were just difficult because I found it hard to think of an outcome first and then work toward achieving it, which is the way I usually pursue such a creation. Rather, I found it worked better for me to try different techniques of distorting lines or scrambling an image and then working toward how to make it seem like a polar bear. However, I was not very impressed with any of the ideas that I came up with for the category, so I'll be continuing to find a good solution. One things for sure, I've got a lot of refining to do before Tuesday.

last set of polar bears

the last 60 polar bears have definitely proven to be the most challenging. I think the reason I'm having a harder time with them is because I cant simply do them in a sketchbook, and most of them, I cant even do with a pen or pencil. Sketching by hand is most likely the most efficient way for me to get things done. But by being pushed to use some other styles, I think will really help me to create some images I never would have otherwise.

Second Set of Polar Bears

The second set of polar bears went pretty well. I think that once I start working with them on the computer I will really begin to see what works and what doesn't. I may need to redo some of the cut and past and alternate marking pictures to really get the effects that I want, but it seems like I'm on the right path. Rather than trying to find out which images are going to be used for my final project, I am trying to concentrate on getting all the preliminary sketches done. That way, when it comes time, it will be easier for me to not overuse a pose or use a picture for one category that could better be applied to another category. But after Thursday, it will be time to glue myself to a computer screen and start trouble shooting.

Adrian Frutiger

Adrian Frutiger is a Swiss illustrator and typographer. He has worked for design firms and done freelance work, however, he is most noted for his creation of the Universe typeface. Universe was created in attempt to design a typeface that could be universally used. With these intentions, Frutiger wanted the caracters to be clean and concise so that the eye would not get lost in busy serifs or embellishments. As a result, the san-serif, Universe font was made. The typeface has become one of the most broadly used standard typefaces. It has been utilized world wide in public transportation venues and other many other locations. Nevertheless, Universe is most unique for its classification system, known as the Frutiger grid. The grid is a system which is used to identify and organize fonts within a typeface by assigning them to numbers. Each font is assigned two digits. The first digit refers to the fonts weight. The second, indicates both the face width of the font and whether it is roman or oblique. The Universe font was the first font to use this system, possibly because there were 21 variants of the original font. Regardless, many fonts today are still referred to by their numerical assignment according to the grid.

John Baskerville

John Baskerville was a business man, inventor, tombstone cutter, and an atheist. During his work as a printer, he was noted for many innovative techniques in the production of paper and ink, including the development of a method to make whiter paper. Nevertheless, Baskerville is now most remembered for his contributions to typography. Although he may have been responsible for many stylistic changes in the way type was used (he was one of the first to use wider margins and leading), he is most noted for his self-entitled font, Baskerville. In the creation of this typeface, Baskerville attempted to improve the fonts of William Caslon. He heightened the contrast between the thick and thin lining of the type so that the characters could be easily distinguished between. Also, to make the font more legible, he made the serifs of the typeface more narrow and rounded some of their edges. These unique changes lead to a more unified consistency of size between the individual characters. Benjamin Franklin, a fan of his work, brought Baskerville’s techniques and typefaces back to the United States, were he used them for many governmental purposes. However, some ridiculed the sharp contrast of the Baskerville font for hurting the eyes, and eventually the typeface lost its popularity. Years later, in 1996, Zuzanna Licko revived many of the characteristics of the original Baskerville font which can especially be seen in the upper case Q (the unmistakable swish of the tale). Licko named the font Mrs Eaves after Baskerville’s wife.

typDef.

Absolute Measurement- measurements that are expressed in finite units such as centimeters, inches or picas.
Relative Measurement- measurements that are not expressed in an actual size. Type that is measured by point (which is concerned only with the height of a character) would be considered a relative measurement.
Point- a unit of measurement used to gage the height of a fonts type block.
Pica- a font that was most commonly used on typewriters, designed to fit ten characters to an inch.
Em (and em dash)- a unit of measurement used determine spacing functions; 1 em is equal to the number of points that are being used to represent the current font. An em dash is a punctuation mark commonly used to express a lull in dialogue. It is the length of one em.
En (and en dash)- a unit of measurement that is half the size of one em. Consequently the en dash is half the size of an em dash.
Legibility- the extent to which a typeface can be read.
Rag- the ragged edge of a block of text.
Flush left- type is aligned to the left with the left side of the page.
Flush right- type is aligned with the right side of the page.
Centered- type is positioned in the center of the left and right margins and is not flush with either.
Justified- characters are spaced so that the type is aligned to both the right and left of the margins
advantages/disadvantages- can make text more accessible to the reader or more visually appealing. However, it can also do the opposite.
Word spacing (ideal)- as the character increases in size, so should the word spacing.
Rivers- a vertical white space that occurs when spaces between words line up.
Indent- the space at the beginning of a paragraph. Used to make the layout more accessible to the reader.
Leading-the direction the viewers eye was intended to be guided.
Kerning- when the space between tow letters is modified to something other than what is normal.
Tracking- the adjustment of space between all letters in general.
Weight- the thickness of a typeface (bold).
Scale- the point size of a font.
Typographic variation- the variation of how type is used by typographers.
Orphan- a small amount of lines that are pushed beyond the margins, creating a new column.
Widow- a last line of a paragraph that consists of only a few words.

my comment

Logos must have had a tough time before vectors came along..

Josef Muller-Brockman

Josef Muller-Brockman is considered the most prominent figure in Swiss graphic design by most critics. He is well known for his use of the grid and his clean and clear use of text. He was also a teacher, founder and head editor of New Graphic Design, and author of many books on design.
After leaving an apprenticeship, attending courses as the Zurich School of Arts and Crafts, doing some freelance design, and serving as a lieutenant in the Swiss military, Brockman pushed away from his previous illustrative style and reworked his studio for graphic design. His first successful poster, many critics agree was “Watch that Child!” which was designed for the Swiss Automobile Club. A few years later, now more established in the feild of graphic design, he became a teacher at the Zurich School of Arts and Crafts, where he once attended.
While teaching he created the New Graphic Design Magazine along with Richard Lohse. There were only eighteen issues, however, Brockman’s modular grid system was used to keep the layout between all of the issues uniform. He describes this system nearly two decades later in his book Grid Systems in Graphic Design. This book, quite possibly his most notable written work, offers a complete description of how the grid can be used to achieve visual harmony and rationality. Nevertheless, it does not encourage the designer to obey the grid in every respect. As one can see in Brockman’s work, he feels as though it is necessary to sometimes break our of the grid; the book describes this too.

Jan Tschinchold

Jan Tschinchold may be best known for the creation of the Sabon font, however, he was also a teacher, writer, and designer. Primarily trained in calligraphy, Tschinchold developed various work habits which set him apart from other typographers at the time. For instance, in his early years, he never used custom fonts, and he always preferred to use commercially produced hand paper, throughout his career, rather than hand made paper.
After visiting the first Bauhaus exhibit in the early 1920’s, Tschinchold devoted his intrests to modern design. This eventually resulted in the publication of his most notable book, Die neue Typography. In this book he advocates only serif fonts which is a bit ironic seeing how Sabon was in fact, a san-serif font. Other than this, the book also goes into detail about a number of his other design principles but puts a large emphasis on their application to book design. For example, Tschinchold strongly disliked centered type.
Tschinchold, originally from Germany, was tagged as a communist at the start of the Nazi’s rise to power. He was arrested, and the Nazis began to burn his books including Die neue Typography. Nevertheless, he somehow managed to flee to Switzerland, where he spent the majority of the rest of his life. He did, however, live in England for a short while where he worked for Penguin Books. While there, he redesigned hundreds of their books, leaving Penguin with a set of ground rules for typography. The company called it the Penguin Composition Rules. It was after his presence at Penguin that Tschinchold created Sabon. It does seem a bit odd that the designers most renown font happens to be a serif font, after he wrote a book which made a point to criticize all typefaces of that nature. However, he did, a few decades after the publication of Die neue Typography confess that he thought the book may have been a little too radical. Also, Sabon does happen to be a less elaborate serif font. Regardless, it is the only serif font Tschinchold created. He was also responsible for the production of the Transit and Saskia font’s, but those were finished much earlier in his career.

The Font Family

Fonts are categorized by, but not limited to, family and style. The style usually refers to a single typeface, which normally includes roman, italic, and bold. However, many fonts have extensive typefaces which incorporate different variations of the type that may be condensed or extended or have some other difference in display. These other styles are considered to be part of the same family of the same font because they are usually distinct but like enough to be related.

Graphic Heirachy

A hierarchy is a system of ranking in which items are ranked in an order which is typically based on status or authority. However, when applied to design and typography these items are ranked according to visual importance to the viewer of a two dimensional spread. Visual hierarchy can be achieved in typography in many ways, these all deal with varying the text. Some examples include, position on the page, weight of the characters, size, and graphic element.

The Grid

A grid is intended to break space or time into regular units. Often, these units are separated by spaces called gutters. The spaces surrounded by the gutters are referred to as modules; this kind of grid is called a modular grid. When applied to typography, this grid is used to make type selection simpler and more useful.

The modular grid is made up of five elements: the module, gutter, margin, column, and flowline/hangline.
The module is the rectangular area that is defined by the negative area between gutters.
The gutter as mentioned in the previous description of a grid is the space which falls between the modules and separates the modules from the edge of the layout.
Margins are the areas that lie at the top and bottom of the pace, ending with the first and last modules.
A column is an area that occupies the width of one module and ranges from margin to margin (top to bottom).
Flowlines and Hanglines refer to the lines of the modules; the flowline referring to those that are horizontal and the hangline referring to those that are vertical.