OUGD505 Typography Session 1

"Principles of Typography has changed little since the 1450's"

- Phil Baines, 2002

1452- Guttenberg Press and Movable Type- Reproduction has a huge cultural position
                                                                    - Print of Bibles
1452- 1520's- Reformation of Europe- Power shifts and revolution
                                                            - Ideas could be written and transferred
These days, this is similar through the digital age- Huge cultural shift
                                                                               - Anyone can communicate with anyone else
                                                                               - 1% of the population have access to a computer

As an exercise, we had to write our names on an A4 Indesign document and we had to choose a typeface that represented us.

Typeface that Represents us

The font that I chose was Gill Sans in 72pt which I felt was appropriate to me as it is smart, well-rounded and quite friendly. The fact that I have used my full name gives more of an impression that there is more to me and has an aura of self-importance and identity.

From this, we had to present our names to everyone in the group and, as a class, went through a few peoples names, breaking down the font choices and, ultimately discussing how a font presents the word it is describing.

The character of a word is base don the size of a font, the weight, type and whether the font case is upper or lower. Visual representation of the word and how we judge people

Using Decorative fonts means that we can't take you seriously

Working with one font that has a range of weights and sizes means that you don't need to work with loads of different fonts- 1 serif and 1 sans serif

Something written in all small caps- not readable

Most books are printed in 8 1/2 to 9pt and magazines at 11pt. These font choices are used to condense the information down so that it keeps the costs down. Serif fonts are normally used as they are seen as readable in a small size.

Classifying Typefaces:

Linotype
- Old Face
- Transitional
- Modern Face
- Slab Serif
- Sans Serif
- Decorative and Display
- Script and Brush
- Black Letter and Broken

Catherine Dixon, Researcher at Oxford University made her own classifications based on the physical letterforms themselves rather than the historical era that it is from- Categorised into Source, Formal Attributes and Patterns

Source
- Decorative/ Pictorial
- Handwritten
- Roman
- Ninetieth century Vernacular
- Additional (Sans Serif)

Formal Attributes

Construction
- Continuous
- Broke or Interrupted
- Reference to Tool
- Character Set

Shape
- Variate to Traditional forms
- Aspects of Curves
- Details of Curves
- Upright Stems

Proportions
- Width
- Relative Proportion Captials

Modelling
- Contrast
- Axis of Contrast
- Transition

Weight
- Colour
- Within the Family

Terminal
- Bassline Terminals
- Ascender Terminals
- Specific Characters

From this, we then had an exercise where we had 10 minutes to produce a 85 x 54mm Business card in InDesign giving an appropriate tone of voice for a specific job description through type alone. I was given dietician.

Career Business Card

I kept my information justified to give more of a professional aesthetic. The fact that I have used my full name and the full career name suggests a position of power. I used a light green coloration to give the appearance of a clinical aesthetic when put against the stark white background. The font I have chosen is Avenir as it is friendly but very professional, coming across as thought it has a strong work aesthetic. I used Avenir Heavy in 16pt for the name and the rest of the information in Avenir Light to create a distinction between the information, which is emphasised further by a light underline at 0.25pt. Amongst the use of Avenir Light, the fonts get gradually smaller, with 12pt for the career name and 9pt for the contact information in order to give a steady stream of information.