jump to navigation

Typography and Layout October 4, 2009

Posted by kd49 in : Class 4 - Typography and Layout, Classes , trackback

Playful use of type: Bembo’s Zoo

Impact with type: Girl Effect/Nike

Review of last week’s assignment: name in six fonts and expressive words.
15 characteristics to look at

Recap of typography terminology
Type with Meaning

Obama versus McCain font NPR interview

Optima versus Gotham

Type decisions include Font

Avoid overuse. There are a few fonts that are used so much they have lost their distinctiveness.
Font Confessional

The point is used to measure the size of a font. One point is equal to 1/72 of an inch. When a character is referred to as 12pt, the full height of the text block, and not just the character itself, is being described. Because of this, two typefaces at the same point size may appear as different sizes, based on the position of the character in the block and how much of the block the character fills. Type is measured in Points. A document is set in 12pt type on 15 pt leading. means that it is a 12 point font, with 15 points between the baselines of two successive lines. Thus there are 3 points of additional space between lines. As a general rule of thumb leading should be about 120% greater than character font size.

For center-justify,  avoid rivers and crowding

The width of a line is normally from 45 to 75 characters. Anything more, and it’s hard to read a line at a time. This is why magazines and newspapers tend to use multiple columns.

•    Special treatments such as lead letter

The most readable fonts in print are straight-forward serif faces. These include fonts such as Times New Roman, New Century Schoolbook, and Palatino. Most displays have so little resolution that serifs don’t come out well. Many people believe sans serif fonts work better online. A look at some interesting choices of type, layout and kerning [ppt]

A look at some clever layouts of famous quotations. Note the use of the techniques of color, layout, type variation to reinforce the message.
These are from Designing with Type originally created by James Craig (ppt)
Pitfalls:

____________

BUSINESS CARDS
Business cards incorporate typography, color, layout and sometimes logo We will review the design of business cards and attempt to design our own as an exercise in applying many of the visual communication skills we have covered.

Business card design:
Standard size is 3.5″ x 2″

Choices to make:

Sample business card design discussion

Some creative examples

Cards of change

_______________

ASSIGNMENT
Produce a business card for yourself.  Post a digital copy to your blog but also bring 16 actual size cards to distribute to the class. size is 3.5″ x 2″ and please use both sides of the card.

Comments

Sorry comments are closed for this entry