WEEK FOUR / DIGITAL DESIGN STUDIO / CE 2404 01 / continuing education / fall 2006
typography resources
counter space
typographica
typolis
typography online
FUSE
fonts online-fuse
Herb Lubalin
House Industries
INTRODUCTION TO TYPOGRAPHY
Lecture: Ancient writing systems Drawings, pictographs, ideographs, Greek alphabet, Roman serif alphabet, Writing of the scribes, Ornamental type.
Parts of a character Roman/Italic, uppercase lowercase ascenders and descenders, Hairline stroke/stem stroke, Serifs brackets and san serif terminals, body height x-height, bowls and counters, arms and legs, ears, spurs, cross stokes, loops links and tails, swashes beaks barbs and finally point size.
Type categories Oldstyle, Modern, Slab Serif, Sans-Serif, Decorative, Script and digital effects
In Class Exercise
The Form of a Letter
This exercise involves removing as much of the letter as possible while leaving enough to allow it's identification. This assignment brings into focus those qualities of a letter that make it different from others. It is not important to end up with a letter form that is immediately identifiable; it is enough to insure that, after a process of elimination, the remaining form could not be derived from any other letter. The final composition should have roughly the same amounts of black and white, figure ground, form and counter form. Do not distort the integrity of the letter. Try several compositions of these using either Helvetica or Times. Remember, theory is nice but experiment is necessary! Work in Illustrator using masks on a 7" x 7" square. Convert the type to outlines before you mask it.
Letter Form and Color
Combine double letter form combinations to divide the space and work with the following color combinations:
IN ILLUSTRATOR
Six compositions using two analogous colors
Six using the different complementary colors
Five value studies of a single color
Five saturation studies of a single color
One using two letter forms and primary colors
One using two letter forms and secondary colors
One using two letter forms and tertiary colors
Out of class work Now that we have been working with type and form in our compositions, let's incorporate image into the mix. Start by working with one type character and a single image. For the image, begin by knocking out the subject. In fact, assemble the entire composition in Photoshop. You may want to set your type in Illustrator, but put the pieces together in Photoshop. To knock out the image, start by drawing a path with the pen tool around just the area you intend to keep. Make that a selection>invert>delete. This will remove all of the unwanted image. Select an image that is in concordance or contrast to the shape of the chosen type character. This is important since we are trying to understand the nature of these shapes and how to create a relationship between them. Try to do five compositions. The sample to the right is in gray scale, but try some in color. Once you've accomplished this, try some with an additional type character on the top layer. The idea here is to explore the dimensional illusion of the image with the flat form of the type.
If you have extra time on your hands: Using the devices we have explored up to this point; form/counter form, the grid, structure of composition and framing reference - Use these to create a poster that will showcase a typeface. The only other guidelines are that it be just black and white, on an 8.5 x 11" document. For content, use the name of the typeface and all it's characters (cap and lower case are optional) and numbers. Remember, we are still looking at issues of form and composition. Explore the space, explore the edges of the frame, explore form and counter form. Take a lusty approach to these issues, take chances, be aggressive, be thoughtful... then decide on what you like.
GOOD LUCK!
in class work
out of class work
