Typography

🌳 🌳 Prof. Ian Besler 🍂 🍂 🍂 🍂 DM+D+C RWU 🌳 🌳

Agenda

  1. Week 3: Critique & Design Research 🤔 💭 💬
    Book Cover Critique Activity 🤔 💭 💬
    “New Class, Who ‘Dis?” Presentations
  2. Week 2: Book Binding & Pagination 📑 🪡 📚
    Book Binding & Pagination 📑 🪡 📚
    • Book Binding & Pagination
    • As we look through the inspiration file above, I want to hear from each of you about your initial plan for Project 1 — what kind of binding methods, materials, sizes, or other considerations are you interested in pursuing for our first project?
    WARNING! GRADING! ⚠️ ⚠️ ⚠️
    • Grades and feedback will be posted on Bridges later today/tomorrow
    • Grades may be challenging ⚠️ ⚠️ ⚠️
    • I’m giving everyone the option to revise and resubmit Exercise 1.1 before next Thur. for a possible grade revision
    Digital Workflow
    • No PDFs larger than 10MB
    • Use department naming standard:
    • 24FA_DSGN110_01_Ex1_1_Lastname_Firstname.pdf
    Due Tuesday (9/10) Class Session ⚠️ ⚠️ ⚠️

  3. Exercise 1.3: “New Class, Who Dis’?”

    4. Tuesday, Week 2: Design Critique 📌 💭 🤩
    Group Critique 📌 💭 🤩
    1. Exercise 1.1: “See n’ Say”
    2. Design Critique is…
      • (Hopefully) Fun & casual
      • Never personal, never punative
      • Always respectful, always constructive
      • Tell us the story of your creative process
      • What’s working? What isn’t working?
    Design Research 🧐 🔬 🥼
    1. Type IRL (Arena Channel 🌀 🌀 🌀)
    2. Type IRL (Google Slides 🛝 🛝 🛝)
  4. Week 1: Introductions 👋 👋 👋
    Professor’s Greetings 👋 👋 👋
    Due Next Class Session ⚠️ ⚠️ ⚠️
    1. Exercise 1.1: “See n’ Say”
    Readings 📚 📚 📚
    1. “The Crystal Goblet, or Printing Should Be Invisible,” from The Crystal Goblet: Sixteen Essays on Typography by Beatrice Warde,
    2. “Why Typography Matters,” from Typography for Lawyers, 2nd Edition by Matthew Butterick,
    Professional Designer Case Study 🧐 🧐 🧐
    • The World Through My Lens Series by Heejae Kim, -

Exercises

  1. Activity 1: “New Class, Who ‘Dis?”

    Activity Brief

    Prepare a 5-10 min. casual presentation with a collection of images and responses to the prompts below in order to introduce yourself to everyone. Use any presentation software you like (Google Slides, Keynote, Powerpoint, etc.)

    1. How you’d like everyone to refer to you (i.e. name, pronouns)
    2. Any details about your background you’d like to share (activities, hobbies, sports, where you’re from, where have you lived/traveled, major, etc.)
    3. Some imagery and information about a recent project or creative work of yours (maybe something that you worked on over the summer break)
    4. A designer/artist/creator who inspires you (images of their work)
    5. Gather at least five (5) animated GIFs that you think capture a vibe/mood/feels (This could include your current mood, a mood that you are aspiring for, the mood that you imagine your fellow classmates are feeling, or how you’re going to be feeling when class is over today)
    6. We need some music for our class work sessions:
      • Share links to at least three (3) songs that you like to listen to when you work
      • Because work/life balance in important, share links to at least three (3) songs that are definitely not helpful to listen to while working (i.e. “play/party” songs)

    Assignment Submission

    Submit your presentation as a PDF (the animated GIFs probably won’t work in the PDF, but that’s OK).

    Use departmental naming standards for your work files and assignment submissions:

    24FA_DSGN110_01_Ac1_1_Lastname_Firstname.pdf

  2. Exercise 1.2: “Judging Books By Their Covers”

    Design Brief

    Spend at least one hour in the RWU Library and take photos of at least ten (10) book covers, specifically with attention to typography 👀 👀 👀.

    Find…

    • Five (5) book covers that you like 👍 👍 👍
    • Five (5) book covers that you dislike 👎 👎 👎
    • The name of the designer for each book cover (cover designer credit is typically placed on the inside of the jacket fold, or on the back cover)
    • Provide a link to the book cover designer’s portfolio online

    The primary goal of this assignment is to find book covers that exemplify unique, interesting, or surprising use of typography and typographic form in combination with photographs, illustrations, and other graphic expression. The secondary goal of this exercise is to find book covers that nobody in the class has ever seen before. Avoid obvious or familiar book covers. Be thorough! Try to find the most obscure and amazing book covers that you possibly can.

    This is fieldwork, so our documentation needs to reflect that fact. Take pictures of the actual book covers. Do not download images of book covers from the internet.

    You are also free to visit other libraries or book stores, but your photographic documentation must be of printed, physical books.

    Assignment Submission

    Layout your photographs, designer credits, and links using any software you choose and submit your work as a PDF.

    Ian’s Example 😎 😎 😎 Book Covers
    Cover design by Lori Lynch, Senior Designer, University of Alabama Press
    Cover design by Devin Grosz
    Cover design by [uncredited]
    Cover design by Tony Lyons, Estuary English
    Cover design by Karl Spurzem
    Cover design by…
    Cover design by…
    Cover design by…
    Cover design by…
    Cover design by…
  3. Exercise 1.1: “See n’ Say”

    Design Brief

    Using only photos that you’ve taken of “Type IRL” apply principles of visual communication to design ten (10) typographic mini-posters (5.5 inches wide × 8.5 inches tall) with memorable, unique, and visually interesting typographic expressions.

    Step 1: Photo Collection

    First, you will need to spend roughly 1-2 hours walking around Providence, Bristol, Newport, or other town centers (not just campus) looking for typography in situ. This could include signs, banners, flags, caution tape, billboards, retail storefront displays, graffiti, or any other examples of lettering in “the real world” that you can photograph.

    Take at least ten (10) different photos of typography in the real world. The photographs should not be boring. Visual research material must always be carefully composed, intentionally framed, and visually diverse.

    Ian’s Example 🌆 🌆 🌆 Providence Photos

    Step 2: Typographic Mini-Posters

    After you have collected your photots:

    1. Place the photos into an Adobe Illustrator artboard
    2. Use the Image Trace tool (in the Control Bar) to convert the photograph from raster (bitmap) to vector
    3. Click on the shape to select the vector components
    4. Under the Object menu, select “Expand” to expand the shape
    5. Under the Object menu, select “Ungroup” to ungroup the shapes

    Then reorganize the letters to create your memorable, unique, and visually interesting typographic expressions.

    ⚠️ ⚠️ ⚠️ HINT ⚠️ ⚠️ ⚠️ Use an online anagram generator to help generate phrases from your source lettering:

    Ian’s Example Work Files 😎 😎 😎
    Ian’s Example 😎 😎 😎 Typography Mini-Poster

Projects

  1. Project 1: “Type IRL” Research Booklet

    Design brief: Design a research booklet on the topic of “Type IRL”. This booklet will consist of photographs that you have taken from the local area, and additional research imagery, as well as typographic design studies derived from those photographs and images.

    Project Deliverable:

    • Printed and bound booklet
    • 32 pages (minimum)
    • b/w or color
    • Neatly and deliberately bound
  2. Project 2: “Type in Motion” Coding

    Design brief: Use entry-level creative coding techniques (i.e. HTML5, CSS3, jQuery, P5, etc…) to create a package of three (3) different location-specific typographic animations for screens.

    Project Deliverable: Three (3) looping animations, 60 secs. each

    Client/site selection could include:

  3. Project 3: “Type in Data Visualization” “Type and Information Visualization”
  4. Project 4: “Type in Experiences” Logos +Packaging

Readings

Resources

Syllabus

Basic Course Information
Instructor Information
Catalog Description

This course introduces students to the fundamentals of typography, including letterform anatomy and structure, type classification, and communication in various contexts. The intellectual and psychological impact of typographic composition when presented alone or in combination with image is explored. Historical forces that motivated advances in typography are discussed. All projects are developed to industry standard presentation level with an emphasis on basic fabrication craftsmanship skills.

Delivery: Studio