Typography and Layout October 4, 2009
Posted by kd49 in : Class 4 - Typography and Layout, Classes , comments closed Playful use of type: Bembo’s ZooImpact 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
Type decisions include Font
- Font choice
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
- Leading
- Bad example Philly.com
- Kerning: Space between letters
- Line length: While there is no hard and fast rule, 39 to 75 characters are considered ideal.
(the above line is 72 characters)
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:
- Inappropriate font choices
- Too many fonts in a composition
- Mixing justification formats: bad alignment | cleaned up
- Density on the page
- Rivers of white space or edge issues
- Bad hyphenations
- Over use of !! and italic
- Proper spacing is critical. This includes spacing of all kinds: the space between lines, between words, and within words
- Avoid overuse. There are a few fonts that are used so much they have lost their distinctiveness. Font Confessional
- The movie font
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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″
- A successful card will help others know and remember you. Ideally it should convey a sense of who you are, what you do, or your interests
- Card must be legible
Choices to make:
- Typeface to use. stick with one, two at most and use the variations of weight available to you. Use weight and size to establish a hierarchy. The most important item should be either larger, bolder, in a distinctive color or set off by more white space – or some combination. Things that are related logically should be related visually.
- Logo or no logo
- Color
- Format: center justify, left justify, right justify, full justify
- Punctuation: for phone numbers option are dashes and parenthesis or periods or just space
Sample business card design discussion
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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.