Graphic Design_Reading #2

A good point I came across in this reading was the generalization they made about how visual communication is everywhere in our world. Its used through billboards, signs, television commercials, magazine advertisements, and messages are even incorporated into the packaging. Logos play a crucial role in all of these forms of visual communication. When creating a logo it is very challenging to stay away from the trend because you don't want to take the chance of it going out of style. A logo is a foundation base for all the other messages. While designing a logo a designer should always keep a strong understanding of their own role, the client's role to maintain a clear and successful vision.

Book Cover Research

Series: a number of things. Events or people of a similar kind of related nature coming one after another

Sequence: a particular order in which related events, movements, or things follow each other

Sign: a stimulus pattern that has meaning, the difference is how the meaning happens to be attached to or associated with the pattern.

Example: signs can be gestures, facial expressions, speech disorders, slogans,

graffiti, commercials, music, drawing, poetry, etc. (very diverse)

*Similar to an Icon: a picture of your face is an icon of you.

This sign means no 

smoking.

               

Index: some sensory feature, A, (directly visible, audible, smellable, etc) that correlates with and thus implies or `points to' B, something of interest to an animal.

Example: dark clouds in the west are an indication for rain

Or a red stop light indicates that you should stop or wreck your car

Indicates a sad feeling, mood, or emotion.

                                            

              

Symbol: (content words like nouns, verbs and adjectives) are (sound) patterns) that get meaning:

1: from its mental association with other symbols and

2: from its correlation with environmental patterns

example: a child says “choo choo” because he sees train, smoke, charcoal, caboose, train tracks, loud horn, etc.

      

Book Choices:

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

Genre: fantasy

The author of The Chronicles of Narnia is Clive Staples (C. S.) Lewis, who was called Jack instead of Clive. Born on November 29, 1898, in Belfast, Ireland, he attended English boarding schools, which he hated. During World War I he served in the British army and was wounded in battle. Lewis attended Oxford University in England, where he later became friends with J. R. R. Tolkien, who went on to write the Lord of the Rings series. While at Oxford, Lewis published his first work, a collection of poems called Spirits in Bondage (1919).

The Chronicles of Narnia were published one at a time during the 1950s. The books were very popular, and Lewis received many letters from children fascinated with the world of Narnia. During his lifetime, Lewis wrote more than 30 books, including science fiction stories. He was also a Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English at Cambridge University. C. S. Lewis died on November 22, 1963, in Oxford, England.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

While hiding in an old, enchanted wardrobe, or closet, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie stumble into the world of Narnia.With the help of the Great Lion Aslan, they defeat the White Witch, who has made it always winter in Narnia, but never Christmas! For many years the children rule as kings and queens of Narnia until they return to their own world, where no time has passed.

Prince Caspian: the Return to Narnia

Prince Caspian’s evil uncle Miraz has murdered Caspian’s father—the true king of Narnia—and taken the throne for himself. Most of the enchanted beasts and creatures of Old Narnia have been killed or are in hiding. Fearing that his uncle will murder him next, Prince Caspian uses the help of the Pevensies to regain his throne. This is Peter’s and Susan’s last trip to Narnia.

The Voyage of Dawn Treader

Edmund, Lucy, and their cousin Eustace are pulled into Narnia through a painting.They find themselves aboard the Dawn Treader, the ship of their friend, King Caspian X. In a fantastic adventure to the End of the World (also called the World’s End), Caspian leads a successful search for the seven lords who were friends of his father, but who had been exiled (forced to leave), by the tyrant Miraz. Caspian returns home, but Eustace, Edmund, Lucy, and the noble Mouse Reepicheep continue their journey and encounter the Great Aslan, in the form of a lamb, who tells Lucy and Edmund that they are too old to return to Narnia after this trip.

Tone/Model

east _ > + _ _ west (eastern/western or east coast west coast)

organic > _ + _ _ high–tech
minimal _ _ + <_>+ _ _ futuristic / 

nostagic _ _ + _ _ contemporary
unrefined/rough _ >+ _ _ clean/sophisticated
machine made _ _ + <_handmade> + _ _non-traditional
complex _ >+ _ _easy

To Suggest

To suggest a fantasy and enchanted world

To suggest an antique taste

To suggest a mystical dream

To suggest an adventurous imagination

To suggest good conquering evil

To suggest the power of faith and determination

To suggest children committing great heroic deeds

To suggest a sense of royalty

To suggest the beauty of nature

 

Word list

Fantasy Magical Mystical Old-fashioned Antique Vintage Fancy Kingly Royalty Christianity Bold Misty Earthy Hazy Dreamy Rustic Symbolic Classy English Historical Wondrous Happy Family Honesty Delightful Aggressive Competitive Beauty Nature

Imaginative Adventurous Risky Heroic Wealth Rich Tough Chance Charming Wicked Unusual Eccentric Enchanted Forest Imaginary Greed Gluttony Friendly Seasonal Malicious Evil Danger Defeat Brave Timestopping Courageous Fearless Fascinating Entranced Kind Beautiful Sweet Gentle Valiant Magnificent Brilliant Glorious Vivid Pastel Subtle Cool Hazy

Enchanted: (enchantment) a feeling or great liking for something wonderful and unusual: a magic spell

Courageous: able to face or deal with danger or fear without flinching; face danger or pain without showing fear

Fantasy: the activity of imagining things that are impossible or improbably; a fanciful mental image; magic and adventure in a setting other than a real world

Magical: beautiful or delightful in such a way as to seem removed from everyday life

Antique:  in tradition, fashion or style of the past; old-fashioned; paper having rough surface; to emboss on paper or surface

Pastel: color having soft subdued shade; delicate or pale in color; light colors

Subtle: delicate, faint or mysterious; skill, crafty and clever; fine, thin, finely woven

Mystical: mystic; spiritually symbolic; of or having spiritual reality or import not apparent to the senses

Fancy:  the artistic ability of creating unreal or whimsical imagery, decorative detail; the breeding of animals to the point to develop beauty and excellence; ornamental, not plain

Dreamy: soothing, restful, serene

Adventurous:  inclined or willing to take part in adventures: full of risk, requiring courage, hazardous

Glorious: full of glory, entitled to great renown; brilliant, beautiful and magnificent (splendor) 

TONE 

Nonfiction, relaxed, colloquial 

Quotes, Phrases, etc.

"It is more magic." They looked round. There, shining in the sunrise, larger than they had seen him before, shaking his mane stood Aslan himself.

"Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight

At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,

When he bears his teeth, winter meets its death

And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again." 

Perhaps is has sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone said something which you don’t understand, but in the dream it feels as if it has some enormous meaning - either a terrifying one which turns the whole dream into a nightmare or else a lovely meaning too lovely to put into words, which makes the dream so beautiful that you remember it all your life and are always wishing you could get into that dream again.
~ p141 (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)

She strove and she pleaded with cries all unheeded 

To go back and reign as a Narnian queen.

….But sparkling rivers, congenial beavers 

And ancient trees thickened with glistening snow 

Call to her softly, though her sister scoffs 

And claims 'twas a game that they played long ago. 

Yet she too was there, and she clung to His hair 

On the glorious morn when He conquered the grave. 

She too heard His roar and, as never before, 

Felt strong and compassionate, faithful and brave.

….With hope growing fainter, she's touched every painting 

And opened each wardrobe that she's come across. 

She's searched every station in deep desperation; 

Her spirit sags with a profound sense of loss. 

He told her to stay here and make her own way here, 

But it's not the haven it was way back when. 

Her true home lies hidden till a Storm - or a Kitten - 

Summons her back to her kingdom again.

- Lucy’s Lament (poem by Erin McCarty

“You have listened to fears, Child,” said Aslan. “Come, let me breathe on you. Forget them. Are you brave again?”
~ Aslan, p386 (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

“Offering a fresh perspective that allows readers to subtly discover God's love through the wide-open eyes of a child” – Erin McCarty

"It isn't Narnia, you know," sobbed Lucy. "It's you. We shant meet you there. And how can we live, never meeting you?" 

"But you shall meet me, dear one," said Aslan. 

"Are -- are you there too, Sir?" said Edmund. 

"I am," said Aslan. "But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there."

( The Voyage of Dawn Treader)

Book Covers

 

*White horse against the black  Background creates a very Strong contrast allowing the  Horse and arm to stand out. Eye drawing gold line leading 

To the tasteful type box. Good use of negative space.

*Type has very strong hierarchy and the lack of quotes and blurbs creates a great layout. The photo in the pupil is a little too much.

*The title is shuffled all over the Cover but is still very readable And interesting. Vibrant use of color.

*The flow of type and image may Contrast a bit too much. Very Good conceptual image design to the book. 

*Great use of mood through Photo. The type is a simple Touch and makes the over-all effect very pretty. Has A very successful color Palette. Questionable frilly Ornament.

Journal Entry #1

Book Cover Designers

                                                                  
Chip Kidd.....

Is a well known book cover designer who has designed who has designed over 1,500 book covers for very popular authors, from Michael Chrichton to John Updike.  He graduated from Penn State and went to work in the art department of Knopf and has been there ever since. After reading the book he begins to "visually solve the problem," which can take up to 10 minutes or 6 months.

                                                 

John Gall.....

Is the vice president and art director for Vintage and Anchor Books, the pictures above are his book cover designs. He studied art and design at the Rutgers University. His company designs about 200 book covers a year and he oversees all of it and 10%-20%  of the designing he does on his own. He likes to play with shallow three dimensional space and also a small set of classical typefaces.

Various Book Covers

  

   

All of these book covers have great interaction between the type and the image. They compliment each other very nicely. They are all very interesting to look at and grab your attention, which is always key with book covers.

Graphic Design - Reading Number One

This reading made me realize how important the role of signs were in the human world. This theory is called "semiotics" which comes from a Greek word and translates as "interpreter of signs." Semiotics is extremely diverse and cover almost everything that has to do with human  communication. Signs have also shaped different societies in different ways because they are so many different meanings and understandings. Logos are very similar to signs because they are meant to be identified and communicate messages. A good logo has great identification and ownership, so the audience can automatically read it in their mind as a symbol for a certain company. 

Typographic Rules and Terms

-- Parts of the grid: what are the following: margin, column, alley, module, gutter, folio.

COLUMNS that divide the page vertically into many sections and groups so each section is very individualized. The space between two columns of printed text is called a GUTTER.  Also the layout of the text creates a unique frame because of the strict order, which create blocks of text. These grids create frames for fields of text, which are known as MARGINS. The MARGIN creates a pristine barrier around a solid block of text. There are many layouts known as GRID MODULES, they are flexible structures, which serve as a skeleton to any mass of information, usually consist of many columns and rows. FLOW LINES are lines that help connect the flow of the text.

-- Why is there only one space after a period?

Fonts on a MAC have proportional character spacing and take up a proportional amount of space. A single space is enough visually to separate them and two spaces creates a big gap.

-- Why is the baseline grid used in design?

where all the letters sit. The is the most stable axis along a line of text, and it is a crucial edge for aligning text with images or with other text

-- What is x-height, how does it effect type color?

the main body part of a letter of the lowercase letter , excluding its ascenders and descenders

-- Define Tracking.

adjusts and affects the amount of spacing between characters

-- Define Kerning. Why do characters need to be kerned? What are the most common characters that need to be kerned (kerning pairs)?

The removal of space between characters to create visually-consistent letter-spacing.  Awkward spacing looks unprofessional and disrupts the communication of the words. 

HL - verticals next to each other need the most amount of space

HO - vertical/curve needs less space

OC - curve on curve needs very little space

OT - curve can overlap into white spaces under or above the bar or stem of a character

AT - closest kerning is done when both letters have a lot of white space around them

-- What is the difference between a foot mark and an apostrophe? What is the difference between an inch mark and a quote mark (smart quote)?

inch mark (")  quote mark (“ or ”)

footmark (')  apostrophe (’)

-- What is a hyphen, en dash and em dashes, what are the differences and when are they used.

Both the em and en are used in punctuation to provide a measurement for dashes.  

The hyphen (-) is smaller then an "en" and 1/3 of an "em" and it also serves as a compound modifier where two words become one (hyphenating words or line breaks).

 The en (–) dash is used to separate words ending induration (hourly time, months, or years),  pages numbers, dates, and to replace the word "to" in constructions implying movement. 

The em dash is twice as long as the en dash (—). Used in a manner similar to a colon or parentheses, or it indicates an abrupt change in thought, or its used in a spot where a period is too strong and comma is too weak. No space on either side of it.

-- What is a widow and an orphan?

Widow when a paragraph ends and leaves fewer than seven characters on the last line creates lone word called a widow. It is worse to leave part of a word.

Orphan is the final one or two lines of a paragraph separates from the main paragraph to form a new column at the top of the page.

Helvetica Movie

Before I watched Helvetica I never realized how frequent the font was used. After watching the movie, I realized that the Font Helvetica was used in so many advertisements and businesses. For example they flashed through New York City and almost every or every other sign or type, was done in Helvetica. It is such a simple and sophisticated font that works well with the style of designing today. In the movie, one speaker made a very interesting comment on graphic designers, he said that graphic designers are basically in charge of illustrating and interpreting the way people picture concepts or images in their mind, because they are in charge of designing what people visualize. Those are not his exact words, but I just liked the way he explained a graphic designer's job and importance. Overall, Helvetica was a very interesting movie on design that had a lot of speakers with excellent points and thoughts for the design world.  

Jonathan Hoefler was born August 22, 1970 in New York, where he still remains today. His parents are Doreen Benjamin and Charles Hoefler.  His mother Doreen was from Yorkshire and bought imported groceries with English labels with type unlike anything Jonathan was familiar with seeing in the United States. This sparked his fascination with letterforms, which played a huge role in his future. Hoefler became a self-taught typeface designer and an armchair type historian who specializes in the design of original typefaces. His main inspiration was from his collection of antique type specimen books, because historical revival played a huge role in his early typography designs.

Hoefler did not go to college, but instead at the age of 18 founded The Hoefler Type Foundry in 1989, in New York City. Before opening up his own business, he spent one year working with the magazine and newspaper art director Roger Black. Black taught and introduces Hoefler to type specimes, which hes been collecting and using ever since. He designed and redesigned magazines, and his first typefaces were very suitable for magazine headlines. Hoefler educated himself very well on the history of typography that he took it upon himself to write a letter to Spy Magazine criticizing the magazines critique of postmodern typography. After opening up the Type Foundry, he received a commission and designed fonts for Sports Illustrated, The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, Harper’s Bazaar, and Esquire. One of his early accomplishments was his typeface design Hoefler Text family of twenty-seven, which was a contemporary Antiqua font inspired by the seventeenth century baroque types of Jean Jannon and Nicholas Kis. It was designed for Apple Computer in 1991 in order to demonstrate advanced type technologies of the Mac, and is now appearing everywhere as part of the Macintosh operating system.

           

Hoefler takes so many factors into consideration when designing a typeface. These factors have changed since he has gained much more experience with type over the years. His first years were spent focusing on historical revival but his taste has somewhat evolved so he can create new styles. After ten years on his own, he teamed up with Tobias Frere-Jones in 1999. In 2004, the business was renamed as Hoefler and Frere-Jones Type foundry. They had been rivals and competitors for certain jobs and their alliance together was a very good solution for their careers. Since collaborating with a partner both of their thoughts and style are incorporated into the process of designing a typeface. "Working together has diminished by half the number of opportunities that are available to us individually," Mr. Hoefler said, "but it's doubled our ability."   Hoefler and Tobias have developed a routine to work together successfully, one way is to take turns over who has the micro and macro perspective on a project. They both find interest in late 19^th century and 20^th century, the Bahaus, and Morris Fuller Benton. Their collaboration has made history with the world’s leading publications, corporations, and institutions. Hoefler and Frere-Jones Type Foundry has grown into such a successful type design business, Time Magazine stated,“Hoefler and Frere-Jones create fonts that stand out with the clarity, elegance, and durability, of a well-cut diamond…. An H&FJ typeface is always exquisitely legible without sacrificing high style.”    

Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones have created over 1,000 fonts, but have only released 500 for Tiffany & Co., Nike, New York Jets, and the rock band They Might Be Giants. The ultimate duo works extremely hard in their development process. They vigorously research and carry around small notebooks everywhere they go. Hoefler and Frere-Jones are capable to reconstruct fonts from a few elements, which means they are not exactly creating a new font. For instance, one of their clients Bierut needed them to help reconstruct a font based on a few clues to create a new sign after the renovation of the Lever House in 2000. Bierut stated, “Here, they’re like anthropologists who can reconstruct a whole lifelike representation of an extinct beast from just a few random fossils.” Both of them were also needed in a similar situation, when they redesigned the fonts for the Wall Street Journal. Their job was to create the typeface Retina, which was supposed to be 5pt and used on the stock pages. Hoefler and Tobias analyzed 129 foreign and international papers. After coming up with the typeface they spent an extensive amount of time double checking and testing the font, so it could stand up to the effect of spread and ink squeeze that can happen in newspaper printing.  They always double-check and test their font solution so no one comes to them with a complaint or reason why they can’t use a particular font. They did everything they could to satisfy their clients and by doing this they have created a well-respected typography business.

In an interview with The Typographic Times Hoefler talks about what he specializes in and what influences his work.

 You’re known as a specialist of revival typefaces ? Why this specialization ?

It’s funny; I do think of myself as someone closely involved in historical revivals, but most of the work I’ve done in the past ten years has been outside the historical continuum. This has been especially so in the last five years, during which Tobias Frere-Jones and I have worked together. We always keep an eye on history, but we’re ever more interested in designing new typefaces rather than interpreting old ones.

The typeface history, before the 20th century (and even) is very European. Do you find historical materials to design typeface in the American printing heritage?

Absolutely! I suppose the most obvious example is my Knockout typeface, which is an interpretation of specifically American forms. Tobias and I are both really interested in late 19th and early 20th century American typefounding - the organization of the American Type Founders company (ATF) at the turn of the last century being an especially important event, as it pitted an old approach to typefounding against a new one. (Where 19th century typefounders anthologized as much as possible, 20th century ones tried to organize and rationalize what had been done.) The work of Morris Fuller Benton is especially interesting in this regard.

What are the other factors, except history, you take into consideration when you design a typeface?

History takes a back seat to the most important thing we consider, which is application. By this I’m talking not only about a typeface’s material considerations -- at what sizes it works best, in what sorts of media it will be rendered -- but what it’s for in the first place. We’d always 
rather begin a conversation about a new typeface by talking about application rather than history: the person who wants "a nice Bodoni" is probably going to be well-served by a typeface that already exists, though the one who wants a more legible stock listings page may actually need something new.

You have the reputation to design some very beautiful typeface specimens. Like the punchcutters of the past...

Thanks very much! It’s nice that you noticed -- I do labor over them quite a bit. One of the reasons I decided to start the business back in 1989 was that I was disappointed to see how typefaces were presented. I couldn’t think of anything more depressing than spending years of your life working on a new design, only to see it showcased as nothing more than an alphabet at twelve point. I really love using the typefaces that we produce here at H&FJ, and there’s nothing I look forward to more than getting to work with the fonts that we have in development. Mind you, as the library grows, it’s increasingly difficult to find novel ways of presenting new typefaces, but figuring out a solution is one of a designer’s great satisfactions.

(http://www.planet-typography.com/news/designer/hoefler.html)

Major businesses and corporations aren’t the only ones who rely on Hoefler and Frere-Jones, graphic designers are always stopping by in need for new fonts. This happens all the time since New York design community surrounds their type foundry, it is located on the intersection of Houston and Broadway.  They also have their information and fonts available on www.typography.com and this extends their business and allows them to be available to anyone. Hoefler has basically dedicated his life to his type foundry even his wife Carleen  takes part and works for the type foundry as it’s business and marketing manager. His hard work and dedication has paid off with all his awards and honorable mention. I.D. Magazine named the forensic typographer one of the forty most influential designers in America. He has award winning published original typeface designs for Rolling Stone, Harper’s Bazaar, The New York Times Magazine, Sports Illustrated, and Esquire. His work has also been exhibited internationally, and is included in the permanent collection of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum (Smithsonian Institution) in New York. In 2002, Hoefler received another remarkable mention, by received the most prestigious award from the Association Typographique Internationale (ATypI), known as the Prix Charles Peignot for outstanding contributions to type design. Hoefler’s accomplishments and dedication has also earned him profiles in The New York Times, Time, and Esquire. Today, he still remains President of Hoefler and Frere-Jones Type Foundry, where he still dedicates his time to type design by creating new typeface designs and striving to reach his goals as a designer.

Hoefler’s Fonts

HTF Acropolis 1993, HTF Champion Gothic 1990, HTF Didot 1992, English Textura, Fell Type, HTF Fetish, HTF Gestalt, Great Primer Uncials, HTF Hoefler Text 1991, HTF Leviathan 1991, HTF Requiem 1992, HTF Saracen 1992, St Augustin Civilité , HTF Ziggurat 1991, Ideal Sans 1991, Mazarin 1991, Knockout 1994, Quantico 1994, Troubadour 1994, Guggenheim 1996, Kapellmeister 1997, Mercury 1997, Chronicle 2002. Whitney, Numbers 2006, Verlag, Topaz, The Proteus Project, Shades, Knox, Hoefler Tilting, Historical Allsorts, Giant, Archer (his main fonts, hundreds more listed on his website)

Hoefler Text (1991)

            

Oldstyle typeface

Characteristics: automatic ligatures, the round and long “s”, real small capitals, old style figures, swashes, ornamental

When Hoefler created Hoefler Text during a time where he wanted to show typography on its highest level. He blended characteristics from Garamond and Janson fonts to create a very descriptive font.

• http://www.typography.com/home/index.php?affiliateID=
• http://www.myfonts.com/person/hoefler/jonathan/
• http://www.planet-typography.com/news/designer/hoefler.html
• http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature.php?id=119&fid=532
• http://www.creativepro.com/article/dot-font-a-rare-font-specimen
• http://www.portfolio.com/images/site/editorial/careers/2007/12/hoefler-frere-jones-large.jpg
• http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/19/nyregion/19profile.html_r=2&oref=login&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
• Book: Graphic Design: A New History, By Stephen Eskilson, Published by Yale University Press, 2007
• Book2: An A-Z of Type Designers, By Neil Macmillan, Published by Yale University Press, 2006