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Type Compendium 2013 Fall

Type Compendium 2013 Fall

Anatomy of Type

Individual letter forms have unique parts which have changed in visual form over the centuries. A nomenclature helps identify major elements of their construction. The evolution of lettering styles over time is a result of optical adjustments to the basic components by type designers over the ages.

Shoulder

Stroke

Bowl

Ascender

Stem

Typography
Descender Counter Loop Link Tail Hairline Serif

Fillet

Arm

Ear

Capline Meanline X-height Baseline

Understanding Anatomy

There is a large range that exists between historic families of serif and san serif type and the only two anatomical attributes that they share is the base line and stroke. This is why the designer should never mix type families because the spacing and height will not coincide. The only exception to this rule is when the designer needs to achieve contrast.

Typography Typography T ypogra-

Understanding Anatomy

With few exceptions, the upper half of letters will be more legible than the bottom half. Our eye follows the active exception of the mean-line. In the hands of a designer, the careful fragment that considers the anatomy of the letterforms can be more useful than a complete form while working expressively with type.

Typography Typography Typography

Typographic Kinetics

Every letter has a personality you can identify. Fragmentation is not the goal in and of itself. Every thing is adjustable and its a case-by case decision of how far to go.

The form you seek is one that to be able to read the word. So this determines the degree of fracture. Its thepart(letterform) towhole (word). Both must be juggled to value. You cant use the same element over and over just because it worked in one place. Every example should change somewhat. Because range is a persistent goal of design, you want to invent in each example. Expect some noble necessary part of any assignment.

Counterpart Counterpoint

Fundamental to all typographic design is the interplay between letter form and counter form. Form and counter form are reciprocal values and completely interdependent and integral to a letters completeness as a design. The counter form is not just whats left over in the background. The counter form shapes the void and helps dene rhythmic intervals to ease reading.

Typically these counter forms are either geometric or organic in quality depending on the structure or style of the letter. An awareness of this interrelationship of form and counter form is essential in typographic design.

Qy

SJ

UN

R3

BO

Z6

YK

XY

A9

The Structure of Letters

While upper and lower case letters are distinct in structure, they all are built by combining 4 strokes; vertical, horizontal, slanted, and curvilinear. These elementary strokes form the foundation, a visual code that is recognizable through our long experience with reading and writing regardless of style.

Therefore, letter forms derive their visual character from combinations of these basic strokes and not from being light or bold, wide or narrow, Roman or italic, sans serif or serif. An entire alphabet can be categorized using only six basic underlying visual combinations of strokes as the example illustrates.

EFHILT KMNY VWX AZ BDGJPRU CSOQ

jlt k z yvwx abdghmnpqru ecos

Gerald Summers

Chair information

Designer name : Gerald Summers Background : Dispipline/ Profession : British Modernist Furniture designer Design Philosophy : This was alien to Summers beliefs, In pure design we expect each part and member to pull its full weight in making the design suitable for its purpose. That is to say (Taking a hypothetical case) if we use a brace only to strengthen two menbers the design bed Designer,

Chair name: Plywood Armchair Designed: 1933 Size: 30.75 x 24 x 34.25 in Provenance: English Private Collection Manufacture: 1970

Plywood Armchair

1935

Gerald Summers

Structuring a Typographic Page 1

Using the initials of your designer, impose the letterforms in a typographic study that interprets a relationship to the form of the chair they designed.

size + weight

weight + case

S
width+ weight

Structuring a Typographic Page 2

Using the designers name, the name of the chair, and the date of its manufacture, impose the words in a typographic study that demonstrates relationships to the chair. You can crop and place the chair or the type in any position within the rectangle as long as it never occupies more that 50% of the overall space.
new combinations Size+Weighr+Width+Slant+Value+case+color

Gerald Summ 1 935 ers PLYWO OD ARMCH AIR

PLYWOOD ARMCHAI R 1935

GERALD SUMMERS

Ge

me

P ly

wo

od A

rmc

hair

19

rs

35

ral

dS

um

Hand Letter Workshop

Create a hand lettered composition to go on a postcard. Good typography is always meant to be legible and clear. Hand lettering offers possibilities for some personal expression. Combining words into abstract and improvised illustrations forces you to work letters into strange spaces and enclosures. Experimentation is the key to developing our own style The more you draw the more ways you discover how to render words and letterforms.

Hand Letter Workshop Process

1) Select a quote. Overlay tracing paper on font specimen pages to practice tracing the words with various typefaces. Practice writing the words in different lettering styles: serif, san serif, slab, decorative. Get used to the proper stroke widths, thicks and thins this will help you for when you make the letters more expressive.

2) Create a framework for the quote that ts the 4 x 6 proportions. Map out the words into a composition to use as a loose guideline for your illu stration. Its difcult to judge how much room you have to t a word or phrase, and this process will help take out the guesswork. Theres nothing worse than running out of space after drawing your perfectly imperfect letterforms. This process is also helpful when working on a lettering project that needs to t comfortably within a dened space.

3) trace your best composition onto tracing paper with a black marker and scan it into the computer. In illustrator, use the live trace option to create a vector drawing of your image from there you can scale, adjust and add color. 4) print the postcard on coverstock : 4 x 6 . print enough that everyone in the class can share.

Designed by: Sunyoung Park Course Title: Typography and Design Date: November 12 2013 Fonts: Univers 55Roman

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