Wrap Up

Well Fall semester is over! It has been a really great class. 
I think by understanding type, I'm going to be able to use it as a tool to elevate the copy in my ads. Good typography can add another layer of meaning to the copy. Bad typography can make your copy so unappealing that nobody will read it. Now that I understand how to make type appealing to the eye, I think I have a great advantage. 

Project 3

For project three I created a campaign for meta font based on the poster I created. I made meta match books, ash trays, and other collateral. I also made ads to be placed on taxi tops, billboards, and in subways. I created a web banner to be placed on toxel.com. The campaign was designed to target advertisers and designers in New York City to encourage them to switch the design basic font from helvetica to meta. Overall, I think it was quite successful.

(Web Banner Video Below)

New Layer of Frustration

Of course it's a good thing that I now know more about typography. I also genuinely believe that understanding typography will help me create more effective ads but now that I have all this typography knowledge, it's constantly holding me up! I find myself working on the spacing and margins of my papers for half an hour. I'm also constantly trying to identify the font of signs or books or websites. Now that I know about typography, I can't stop thinking about it!

Handwriting vs. Type

     Every Sunday I read the Post Secret Blog. Frank Warren, who compiles and publishes the weekly blog, receives thousands of post cards that people anonymously  send to his house with their secrets written on them. What I find interesting is that some people don't take full advantage of the anonymous factor and chose to write their secret by hand. 

     I wonder why someone would need to use type to share a secret as trivial as the one below. If someone recognized your handwriting there wouldn't be any real fall out, it would just be funny. Plus they have chosen a font that looks very anonymous, common and standard. 

     The secret below is far more serious than the first one but the person has written it by hand. It looks like they did a little bit of disguising but it's definitely hand written.

     This is just shocking. The person who wrote this not only wrote it by hand but made no effort at all to disguise her hand writing. I wonder if she wants someone to recognize her hand writing? If someone does recognize it, there will be fall out for both the person who wrote it AND the person she's writing about... it's a bold choice she made! 

They say your handwriting says something about you, perhaps your choice about when to use your handwriting and when to use type says something about you too. I think in the case of the third post card, her choice to write in her own plain hand writing says something bad about her - she needs to learn from her boyfriend, and hold some things back too.  I never recommend helvetica, but if you submit a secret like this - helvetica is better than handwriting. 

Some Good Uses of Type in Logos

I quoted Adrien Frutiger in a previous blog entry. He essentially said that good type is type that you don't notice or remember. I think that can be a function of type but I don't think that being invisible is the quality that can make excellent type. I believe that type can be simple and memorable and can be elevated through innovation and creativity to draw the reader in. Here are some logos I found that are examples of type that make me stop and look and make me remember the information. That is the true power of typography - excellent typography can supplement the power of the information contained in the text. 

This is a logo for Killed Productions. The type looks like it's probably AG Book which was designed by Gunter Gerhard Lange in 1980. Lange also designed Akzidenz-Grotesk which was the precursor to Helvetica. This font is a very simple font and in a large block of text it would be fairly "invisible" like Frutiger likes but here it's the way the designer has used the type that makes it special. The way the 'i' has been flipped on its side like a dead person, elevates the type from simply invisible to supplemental to the text's meaning. The design of the type makes me want to stop and look which is far better than if it just looked totally normal.

The logo below appears to be set in Clarendon font, which is a slab serif. It's more complex than a sans serif but it's still fairly simple. The designer has used the same concept here by flipping a 2 to replace the 'n'. Again this simple but smart design choice makes the type contribute to the meaning of the text. 

The designer of the logo below for Goodduck has actually changed the letterform to add a layer of meaning to the advertisement. The designer has taken a serif 'g' and changed the ear of the g to look like a duck's bill and the descender on the loop to look like a duck's tail.

These are just some examples of how type can still be simple but contribute to the over all effectiveness of the ad instead of just being invisible. I think that if the type can ad an extra layer of meaning and depth to the ad it is far more powerful than type that you forget the second after it's read.

Take off your pants, now.

This has to be a joke right?
Are people so obsessed with this played out font that they would really pay $60 for a pair of Helvetica leggings? Even the model is trying to rip out her hair!
Why are people so obsessed with helvetica? It just doesn't make a bit of sense to me. Who would buy these? Maybe I would understand if a random typography obsessed person had these custom made, but how could these seriously be mass produced?
Probably mostly for people who want to be weird for the sake of being weird.
If you're one of those people or if you're one of the few people who genuinely loooooove helvetica that much, here's the link to throw away your money:

YOU HAVE BAD TASTE

What is the purpose of type?

"If you remember the shape of your spoon at lunch, it has to be the wrong shape. The spoon and the letter are tools; one to take food from the bowl, the other to take information off the page... When it is a good design, the reader has to feel comfortable because the letter is both banal and beautiful."

Keynote Speech/Type90
Adrian Frutiger
Typographer, Designer of Univers Font (pictured below)

     Adrian Frutiger, the type designer who created Univers in the 1950's, said this in a speech. It's an odd way of looking at type but it seems fitting coming from the creator of Univers (pictured above), which is a particularly simple and unimposing typeface. I've heard of other typographers saying things like good typography makes reading the type effortless but I have to wonder if Frutiger takes it too far. I don't think that good typography is forgettable typography. In some cases it is; if you need a type that clearly conveys a message and is meant to do nothing more than get the information across, then sure, the typographic design doesn't have to be anything special. But, what if the typographic design was so unique and cool that it was what made you stop and read the information and it's the element that made you remember the information later? I think that's the best kind of typography. 
     I think that what Frutiger describes as "good typography" is like white paint on walls; white paint gets the work done, the walls are all one color, but it's not memorable and it's nothing special. What's special is the Sistine Chapel, that's how you paint a wall. Frutiger says that type is a tool, which it is, but he sells typography far too short. Maybe it's a reflection of the limit of his talents but I don't think his assessment is an accurate judgement of what typography should be or could be. Typography can be more than a tool, it can be an art it just takes the right designer to do it. Apparently, Frutiger is not that designer. 

What does your font say about you?

In the same way that hand writing has been analyzed to reveal personality traits, the same theory is now being applied to a person's choice of font. I think this could be true. As someone who knows a little bit about typography, I would say that generally:

People who use serif are traditional, organized, smart, and professional.

    ...BUT they might be using Times New Roman simply because they didn't bother to change the font at all

People who use script fonts are stuffy. 

People who use sans serif are modern, trendy and youthful.

    ...BUT people who use Helvetica are probably just lazy, followers, inexperienced in typography, or trying to fake the youth that sans serif usually implies. 

People who use decorative fonts for more than one or two words are trying way too hard and are far more likely to be experiencing a mid life crisis than users of other fonts.

Now that I'm done with my slightly offensive and definitely biased generalizations, as I am personally a fan of serifed types and very open about my disdain for Hellvetica, here's some more.

I found this hilarious chart in an equally hilarious article linked below:

Fonts by Cracked.com

Danger of Digital

     While studying for my finals I was reminded again just how much of a difference hand writing makes for memorization. It's so much easier to memorize things when I write them out by hand. I tried creating study sheets on my laptop but they were completely unhelpful. I ended up copying my digital study sheet by hand to learn the material. With the world becoming so heavily digital I wonder what the effect will be on learning. Digital fonts are convenient but might also be harmful to our ability to learn.

Annotated Bibliography

This is a bibliography of the sources I used during this course. I have also made some comments about each source.

Annotated Bibliography

Typography Class

Fall 2010

1.  Barker, Nicolas. Stanley Morison. London: Macmillan London, LTD., 1972. Print.

This book was pretty dry, it was far too long and factual. Morison was an interesting guy, but not interesting enough to justify a book that’s over 500 pages long! I found this book in the rare book room and I have to say I’m not surprised that it stopped being printed and is now a rare book… Once sifted through, it was useful for factual information.

2.  Brewer, Roy. Eric Gill: The Man Who Loved Letters. Totowa, NJ: Littlefield, 1973. Print.

This book provided useful and extensive information about Eric Gill’s life and work. It’s another book that I found in the rare book room. It was written before Gill’s diaries were published and therefore, the dark part of his life – the fact that he was a pedophile, a rapist, etc. etc. – was not discussed. Knowing what we know about Gill now, this book is horrifically out of date.

3.  Frampton, Kenneth. Le Corbusier: Architect of the Twentieth Century. New York: Abrams, 2002. Print.

This is a beautiful book that celebrates the work of Le Corbusier. It shows his works from sketch to completion in full page, full color photos. It also gives interesting analysis and information about who Le Corbusier was and why he is such an important figure. I found Le Corbusier fascinating, and this book was by far the most enjoyable source I used in this project.

4.  Identifont.com

This isn’t the most traditional “academic source” but it has been extremely useful as a database for information about typefaces. You can search it’s database by designer, font name, font appearance, and font similarity. It has information about each font’s designer, creation, date, what fonts it was influenced by, what fonts it is similar to, what fonts it’s an influence on, where you can buy it and more. It has been extraordinarily useful.

5.  Lupton, Ellen. Thinking With Type. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 2004. Pgs 34-43.

Lupton’s break down of the parts of type is helpful to a limited extent. Her chart is helpful in identifying and naming the parts of type but because Lupton neglects to define the parts of type, her illustration isn’t helpful in understanding the parts of type. The lack of definition also leaves some grey areas when one starts to learn more about the anatomy of type and starts trying to distinguish between similar pieces; for example it’s hard to distinguish between a bowl and a loop but because there are no definitions, it’s even harder. Lupton’s break down of type anatomy is very “bare bones” and doesn’t name very many pieces of type. Perhaps it’s to avoid the confusions that would require her to define the names.

6.  Moran, James. Stanley Morison: His Typographic Achievement. London: Lund Humphries Publishers Limited, 1971. Print.

This was a much better book about Stanley Morison than Barker’s book. It is under 200 pages and focuses on what Morison did in the world of Typography. The information about his professional accomplishments was a nice compliment to the biographical information I already had about Morison.

7.  Morison, Stanley. Type Designs of the Past and Present. London: The Fleuron, LTD., 1926. Print.

This was useful because it’s a first hand source. The book shows how passionate and educated Morison was about typography, especially historical type faces.

8.  “Morris, William / Artist Index / Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History / The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: Metmuseum.org. Web. 1 October 2010. <www.metmuseum.org/toah/hi/hi_morriswilliam.htm>.

I used this for pictures of William Morris’s works. I grew up three blocks from the Met Museum in New York City so I’ve also been many times. When I went back to New York, I went specifically to see the Morris works that I saw on the website in person. They were even more impressive in person than they are online. The detail is incredible.

9.  Toxel.com

This website has been a long time favorite of mine. It has the coolest new things on it that inspire me and spark my creativity. I first saw the typography maps that I wrote about on my blog on this website. I also chose this website to place my Meta web banner on.

10.  Withrington, Delve. “Review: An Essay On Typography.” Type Books: For the Well Read Typographer. 2002. Web. 1 October 2010. <www.typebooks.org/r-essay.htm>.

This review of Eric Gill’s book An Essay on Typography helped me to appreciate Eric Gill more. Before reading this, all I could see was Gill the pedophile; after reading this review, I was able to appreciate that he was talented and intelligent on an artistic level. The article his posted on a website that has many articles and reviews on typography books.

HELLvetica

Helvetica is a neutral type. Many would say that modern society is fairly neutral and compliant and so therefore, it would make sense that Helvetica has become so ubiquitous. When researching Meta I was relieved to realize that there are designers out there who craft new type faces with the express purpose of creating the anti-Helvetica. Helvetica needs to be put in its place, I'm sick of it! It's like a song that's amazing when you first hear it but gets played so many times on the radio that you swear your ears are going to bleed every time you hear it. Pop type faces - like pop songs - need to have heights of popularity and then gradually fade out to make room for a new type of the day. Helvetica is far past its prime, it's dead and rotting our copy! Time to bury it and move on to something new. Hallelujah!

Meta Font Research Project

For this project I researched the Meta font family. I then created a poster to exemplify the feeling and purpose of the font. Meta was created in the 90's as the antithesis to Helvetica. I say, thank goodness! I'm SO SO SO sick of Helvetica so I decided to celebrate the extinguishment of Helvetica in my poster by using letters in Meta font to create a man putting out a cigarette that says "helvetica" on it.

The poster shows the wide range within Meta's font family and details the history of its creation. I think this poster does Meta's creator, Erik Spiekermann, proud.  

Typography Maps by Dirk Schächter

(Below: Actual Map, For Comparison)

    These typography maps were designed by German designer, Dirk Schächter, and are available for sale on typomaps.net .
    They are very visually appealing and interesting. I like the different use of colors and appreciate the amount of time it must have taken to hand set the type. That's right - he set all this type by hand not on a computer. He's also done a fairly good job of representing the countries realistically, although he left some out to make it happen. How very German of him to decide which countries deserve to exist on the map and which ones don't... that was a low blow! Just a little dark WW2 humor. 
    What really disappoints me is that for such a cool and different idea, he chose to use Helvetica Neue Black Condensed? SERIOUSLY? It's just such an obvious font choice and is so ordinary and boring for such an inventive and cool piece of art and cartography. 
    It would have been fun to see a range of fonts used that reflected the cultures of the countries or regions. The map shows new ways to use typography and showing that different fonts could reflect the variations of cultures would add another layer of discovery. And even if Shachter wanted to keep with one font for the whole map, I would have liked to see a more unique choice. It would have put this work over the top and made it something really special. 
    As it is, set in Helvetica Neue font, I'm not planning to spend 49 euros aka $66.50 on it. But if you're a fan of Helvetica, then you probably think this is pretty dern nifty. Again the link is:
typomaps.net .

Where Are the Serifs?

Serifs are really simple but the choice to use them or not use them makes a big difference. I think serifs have fallen out of fashion because people think that the message is clearer and stronger when set in sans serif type. I just think that the message looks cheaper. Everything is set in sans serif these days so the message just blends in with everything else instead of being louder and more clear. I'm so sick of sans serif! Why is everything so dressed down these days? Can we get some class back in this world? In general, society needs to put more effort into presentation and thoughtfulness and unless there's a real reason to use sans serif, ads and logos need to dress up their message and get some serifs back!

(Collage from: blog.thomasjquinn.com )


Serifs look more formal, more established and more credible. I feel like the ubiquity of sans serif type is simple laziness. Don't just choose sans serif. If sans serif is right for the message then fine but THINK FIRST! I'm so tired of the jeans and sneakers helvetica type. Please BRING BACK THE SERIFS!

See? Doesn't that just feel better?

Exercise #2: Type as Shape

In this exercise, we printed out 10 large letters each in a different font and cut out a bunch of 3” by 3” squares. We then took four of these squares and glued them together into a shape that we found visually interesting; above is the shape I formed and below are the letters I used to form it.

The upper left box is a cut out from a capital M in giddyup type (shown above), which is a sans-serif type. I used the loop from the M. A loop is a closed off or partly closed off counter as found here in the middle of the M.

The upper right hand box is a square cut out from a capital M in futura light condensed type (shown above), which is also a sans serif font. Here I’ve used the apex of the M, which is where two ascenders, vertical lines that go above the x-height, join together at the letter’s highest point.

The lower left hand box is a cut out from a capital E in mojo type (shown above), which is again a sans-serif font. Here, I’ve used the counters from the E. Counters are the negative or “empty” space that occur in letters like G or more obviously in the letter O.

The lower right hand box is cut out from a combination of a capital P in univers 39 thin ultra condensed type, which is a sans-serif type, and a capital V in clarendon roman type, which is a transitional type. From the P, in addition to the counter, (defined above) I also used the shoulder, which is a rounded stroke that is connected to an ascender or a stem. I also used part of the stem that the shoulder is attached to; a stem is a major line in the letter that has other parts of the letter attached to it. 

The way I combined the letters was based on nothing more than my sense of aesthetics. I liked the way that the black and the white flowed into each other and balanced each other out in the four quadrants.