Design Context: 2011

Thursday 22 December 2011

Blog, Marry, Avoid!

Blog marry avoid

These are my 3 favourite designers that I found out about during the speed dating session!

LA BOCA

Not overdone or overworked, just good ideas that are executed well. La Boca seem to have developed a niche of making retro styled artwork which looks very fresh in comparison to the amount of typically digital work about today.

BEN NEWMAN

Ben Newman is an illustrator who is part of the NoBrow Collective. He just makes things that look really good and clean. I like his 'style' although it is quite common at the moment, he creates interesting and complex graphics.

TIM ENTHOVEN

Another illustrator that does a lot of work for the New York Times, I am most impressed with this cover he has done, which he explains here: 

"In exchange for the return of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to release 1.027 Palestinian captives.

All 1.028 figures, including Gilad, are unique and drawn by hand.

This labor-intensive approach conveys an important point: that each prisoner is an individual with his or her own identity."

Tuesday 20 December 2011

8. History of Type

Different styles of typeface communicate different messages
The typeface is the character/ tone of voice of the content being communicated. This is called meta-communication.
Paralinguistics= The study of vocal signals beyond the basic message, this could include pitch, loudness, speed etc. all of which can be communicated through different typefaces.
Kinesics= the study o body movements and gestures as a form of communication.

Types of Type

Humanist

based on human proportions
sloping cross bar on 'e'
small 'x' height

Old Style

Wedge shaped serifs
upright stress
horizontal cross bar

Transitional

Vertical stres on letters
more contrast on thick and thin strokes

Modern

Even more contrast between stroke thickness
Vertical axis
horizontal stress
small aperture

Slab Serif

Big, blocky serifs
typewriter types

Sans Serif

no serifs
helvetica

Other classifications of type:

Stone

Type carved into stone, usually has serifs as this is where the chisel enters.

Sable-brush scripts

Sable allows for a more fluid and delicate typeface

Bone

Bone can be used to craft nibs of pens which results in type similar to that of sabre but with not as much fluidity.

Wood

Using wood as a way of printing dates back to 220 AD, Using wood creates very solid and level blocks of type of varying point sizes.

Lead

Gutenberg invented movable type in 1450, using lead to create glyphs.

Silicon

The applications of digital technology allows for type to be made out of silicon and cut using machines, which enables larger font families to be created with ease.

Timeline of Modern Typography

garamond