Hello! I stopped teaching at GMU in Fall 2010, but I’ve decided to leave this blog up indefinitely in case anyone might find value in the posts. (Some links may be dead due to the fluid nature of the web.) Cheers!
Type Design/er Poster
The project sheets for #5 are in the Box. Please be sure to read it through, as we glossed over some of the details in class Monday. Please pick your topic by Wednesday’s class.
Project 3 Setup
I had an email question about how to setup Project 3 regarding sizing and spacing. First and foremost, you need to do what’s right for your particular project, in order to highlight the forms you’ve created for the project. Presentation is part of the job!
However, I prepared this diagram to assist those that may be somewhat mathematically challenged or otherwise unsure.
Project 3 setup diagram
The black area is your presentation matboard. The white area is your trimmed page printout. The small squares represent where you might place your “type things” on your 8×8-inch page. You should make this layout in Illustrator so that your arrangement can be printed all in one (then trimmed and mounted).
Be sure to use your palettes! Especially the Align palette and the Info palette. You can (and should) space and align objects perfectly.
Align palette
Info palette
Required Reading
There are several great sites for current, relevant posts about type and typography. I specifically recommend signing up for the email lists to get notified of updates, or to receive the HTML emails directly to your inbox.
Quote Exercise
Please be sure to bring these items to class today:
- your textbook
- tracing paper
- sharp pencils
- ruler
- a 10-word quote, or thereabouts; include author
Need help with a quote? Try these:
Learning and Looking
Sometimes resources on the web are incomplete, unattractive, or just plain wrong. You have to be careful of whose virtual word you take as truth. This site is not only legit, but has wonderful sketches to illustrate the concepts: learn or review type basics here.
LetterCult is a site that showcases custom letters. Their most recent series, AlphaBattle, shows some remarkably inventive and beautiful letters, as well as at least one sample that directly relates to your Project #3, Letter Thing: Tonya Doughty’s B.
Pixel Perfect
Just a reminder to make sure your pixel letter exercise makes its way into your sketchbook. If you want to do more/extras… great! If you need more graph paper, check this out. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, make sure you get the printed assignment from me at the next class. The exercise is from Ellen Lupton’s Thinking With Type, shown on this page.
Pixels and type structures go way back. Jonathan Hoefler wrote about a bitmap alphabet from 1567. And the avant garde movements of the early 20th century used blocks and perpendicular elements in some of their type as shown in these examples. In the mid 1980s Zuzana Licko designed pixel-based fonts that corresponded to the lo resolution output devices of the time, and ones that evoked type of the Constructivist period*. Even today pixel fonts are used for Flash designs and onscreen applications.
Want to experiment more with pixels and modular elements? Build, share, and download fonts (free) at FontStruct. It’s fun!
*P22 is a font foundry that specializes in type that references periods and artists. Their Constructivist Set also has a square (or pixel-based) style. As does their DeStijl Set.
Illustrator Exercise
You should all have the prerequisite AVT180 (computers in the arts, I think it’s called) or a very familiar working knowledge of programs used for design… specifically Adobe® Illustrator.
The exercise we did in class last Wednesday is posted to the Box, in case you want to have another go at it. This exercise uses some of the fundamental actions you need to create clean, efficient files. Get used to making things precise: use the info palette; enter in precise numbers for measuring and aligning; make it perfect.
For Project 3, I will want to see your outline mode as well as your final preview mode in your sketchbook (make a printout at the end).
Speaking of Project 3, the objectives of this project are also relevant to memorable logo design. Click the links below for a few examples.
- Hartford Whalers designed by Cummings & Good
- Rivet designed by Doug Fuller
- Egg n Spoon designed by Thoughtful
Projects in the Box
The PDFs of the project sheets for #1, #2, and #6 are in the Box.
Welcome to Summer Type
Classes start today for Summer B, and that means AVT 215. The syllabus, some notes, and the first two project sheets are in the “Box” to the right. It’s a little app to download PDFs which I post. Have at it, but know that I will have printouts for you as well. The syllabus contains the materials list, which we will go over in class, in case you have questions.
See you later!
AVT215: Typography 1 