jane-typography-blog

[jane-typography-blog]

Reflection

Throughout the duration of this class, although short, I was able to gain knowledge on the basics of typography. In week 2, we were able to go very in-depth about the anatomy of type, where we were introduced to the different terms and classifications used for each part of a type, how letters sit on a line, the importance of sizing and scaling. We also discussed the variations in typefaces and how to use it, this includes tools such as tracking, kerning, leading, alignment and enlarged capitols. By completing the three exercises given, I was able to challenge my creativity and previous experience with the use of different typefaces and compositions and really learn how to utilise the tools on Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator.

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Week Three: Monogram

In this task, we were to design a monogram using our initials and through this monogram we were to display certain characteristics of ourselves within the design. The monograms were created in Illustrator and we were required to make 3 versions using only black and white. 

Choosing the typeface was the most difficult part of this task for me and initially I was trying to go for a bold, simplistic typeface like Arial or Helvetica Neue but I found it hard to make my initials fit in together. After a lot of experimentation and looking through Font Book I came upon the font, SignPainter and I really liked how the “j” and the “d” connected to each other. With that, I personalised the typeface by duplicating the “jd” and adjusting it behind the original, creating a shadow or 3D effect. I then added on a circle for the enclosed versions, as I thought it would be the best shape for the typeface.

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Baskerville

Baskerville is a serif typeface created by English type designer, John Baskerville in the 1750s. It consists of six variations including Baskerville regular, italics, Old Face, medium, medium italic and bold. John Baskerville’s intention while designing the typeface was to perfect the style of Caslon, a typeface created in 1692 by William Caslon. Baskerville's typefaces until this day remains to be a very popular choice for book designs and publications (Crum 2017).

John Baskerville was an English businessman, although best known for his work in printing and type design. He was a part of the Royal Society of Arts, where he gained recognition and admiration with his fellow members through the publication of his printed works for the University of Cambridge in 1758. His typefaces were very well-regarded and were taken back to the United States, where they were used for federal government publishing (Crum 2017).

When Baskerville was created, it was initially used for private press work and after John Baskerville’s death, a French foundry attained the typeface. In its earlier years, the typeface was not a popular choice, however it gained recognition thanks to the Monotype Revival. The distinctive features of the typeface set it apart from other typefaces of its time, categorising it as a transitional typeface (Wolson 2012).

Unlike many designs of the same period, Baskerville makes utilisation of thick and thin strokes rather dramatically and its curved strokes are more round, creating sharper-looking serifs and consistent characters (Yau 2010). Significant features of Baskerville are its “E” where the bottom arm extends further than the upper, a “J” with a circular terminal at its end, and where the loop rises to the top and right to join the main stem and a “g” where the bottom loop is open. Baskerville’s most distinctive is its italic form, in which the “J” has a centre-bar and many other italic capitals have flourishes. The “p” has a tail pointing downwards and to the left and the “w” has a clear centre loop and swash on the left (Wolson 2012).

Crum, M 2017, One of Today’s Most Popular Fonts Has a Wild, Centuries-Long History, weblog post, viewed 06 August 2017, < http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/baskerville-font-history_us_58e7fe09e4b058f0a02f4e30>

Wolson, A 2012, Baskerville, weblog post, viewed 06 August 2017, < http://fontslate.info/typefaces/baskerville.html>

Yau, C 2010, Know your type: Baskerville, weblog post, viewed 06 August 2017, < http://idsgn.org/posts/know-your-type-baskerville/>

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Gill Sans

Gill Sans, created by British designer, Eric Gill in 1926, is a sans-serif typeface. It has become one of the most recognisable sans-serif typefaces in history, used by many influential companies, ranging from Pixar to BBC. The typeface was released by the British branch of Monotype in 1928 and was marketed as a “classic simple” design that could be used for posters and advertisements, as well as for text of documents, such as book blurbs, timetables and price lists (Heller 2015).

Eric Gill was an English sculptor, sign painter and type designer, he attended the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London, where he studied typography under calligrapher, Edward Johnston. Later in his career, Gill began working for Monotype Corporation, in which he was able to revive several classic type styles to use as a foundation for a new Monotype typeface, resulting in the creation Gill Sans (Britannica 2014).

The typeface is classified as a “humanist” sans-serif as it proportionate and readable in both text and display work. The humanist movement began during the Renaissance, heavily inspiring the typeface as the style acquired the upright shapes of Textura and introduced roundness and uniformity, especially within the letters of “c”, “e” and “f”. It also uses the classic forms of the letters, “a” and “g”. Although Gill Sans has roots from the Renaissance, it is still considered a modern typeface and include geometric shapes that are commonly seen in the Art Deco movement (Freyalou 2017). The Gill Sans family consists of 36 derivatives, including Gill Sans Light, Gill Sans Condensed, Gill Sans Bold and Gill Sans Ultra Bold (Challand 2009). The typeface has roots from the Renaissance, however stands as a modern typeface.

In comparison to other sans-serif typefaces, Gill Sans has a somewhat small X-height and is also the only sans-serif without modular uses of strokes, which is usually considered for a high legibility typeface. The "O" used for the typeface is a perfect circle, the oblique and vertical strokes as well as upstrokes and downstrokes have a coherent thickness (Freyalou 2017).

Heller, S 2015, Gill Sans, One of the Most Popular Typefaces Ever, is Reborn for the Digital Age, weblog post, viewed 04 August 2017, < https://www.wired.com/2015/11/gill-sans-one-of-the-most-popular-typefaces-ever-is-reborn-for-the-digital-age/>

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2014, Eric Gill, weblog post, viewed 04 August 2017, < https://www.britannica.com/biography/Eric-Gill>

Freyalou, 2017, The History and Characteristics of the Gill Sans Typeface, weblog post, viewed 04 August 2017, < https://owlcation.com/humanities/gill-sans-typeface>

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Exercise Two: Setting for Sense

For this exercise, we were given a small body of text and two typefaces to work with, Adobe Garamond and Helvetica. With this we were to create six different composition using variations in alignment, leading line length, orientation and spacing which are tools that can be found in InDesign. To create more interesting compositions, we were given a little tutorial on how to create use the grids to align the text and signals such as drop capitals and pull quotes.

At first I found it difficult to come out with new compositions and realised that a lot of my designs looked quite similar to each other but after a while of playing around with the different settings I was able to come up with six designs that I was happy with. I found setting the tracking for the words was the most frustrating as it would leave big gaps or make the words look squashed together. However that just had to be rearranged by adjusting the other settings such as the font size. 

By completing this activity I was able to gain a sense of understanding about the importance of composition and knowledge on the typographic categories and how to implement them.

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Exercise One: Ransom Note

Our first task given was to create a short ransom note using found letter forms from newspapers, magazine and other print forms to compose a collage-type ransom note. However, unlike typical ransom notes, we were to consider the design elements while creating the note this includes usage of colour, negative and positive space and the overall composition. 

For my ransom note, I decided my ultimatum would be, “I’m cuddling your cat, send me $598600″. Finding specific letter forms proved to be a lot harder than I initially expected, especially with the numbers which is why the numbers I have on my ransom note are quite random. After we glued down and solidified our ransom notes, we went ahead and scanned them and were given instructions on how we can edit the colour scheme and adjust the brightness, levels... etc on Photoshop.

Through this exercise I was able to appreciate and explore letterforms in its printed form, which provided new insight on how different publications use different typefaces to communicate and showcase their ideas.