NOTES
FROM LAST TIME`Rococo design has a lot of detail and is very fancy.
`Copper plate engravers started to do own typeface and had thick and thin typeface
`France has german derby typeface
`Around the same time England is in political turmoil. "upon ascending the thrown Charles the 2nd wanted to reduce the printing press by 20 and kill the rest"
BODONI
`Bodoni shows influences from Rococo design- same basic aesthetic
`Prior to the revolution there was a fancy style
`Bodoni is inspired by Funier(sp?)
`Bodoni helps bring in modern typeface
`Around 1790 Bodoni redesigns Roman letters with a much more geometric system
`Also very mechanical- got rid of calligraphic properties
`Bodoni also reinvented the Serif- took brackets off of Serif
`Transitional face is more angular and brackets are smaller
`Bodoni chops off those brackets all together
`The letter form should be built with limited number of interchangeable units
`Bodoni is a modern typeface
`Very messy, clumsy, egotistical, said he "didn't" work for the common man
1800s
`1800s something happened called 'fat face' which made typefaces really fat
`This typeface is really good for getting people's attention- advertising
`Industrialization is all about selling
`It was not a good time for the workers in the factory- like kids working in factory
`Industrialization leads to consumerism
`People need to buy stuff- people are making money in factory and also spending it
`The rise of the middle class! People are getting money.
`Also breeds envy and contempt
`Very long days very hard work, tenements
`The plus side is that there's growing literacy and public education
`There's a greater demand for printers
`There's a need to sale so there's a need for large faces
`Wood type came about
`The invented router along with power and machinery
`Because of routers there are lots of possibility of different type
`Egyptian face was called that because it was just really cool at the time
`Two lined egyptians meant the serifs were taken off- so san serif
`Display faces are meant to be BIG typefaces but normally can't be read if it's small
`Tuscan face - crazy decorations used for cowboy times :D
Words for the day:
Compositor: is something you don't want to read. It's the guy who takes the letter forms and puts them into a line and repeats this process; that is his job.
Ephemera: is printed material that is NOT meant to be saved or collected (like concert tickets)
`Poster graphs are springing up. They're not designed They're assembled
`Old style, Transitional, Modern, Egyptian, Sans Serif is the FIVE HISTORIC TYPEFACES
`The quality of the strokes is how you can identify it
`DISPLAY: Black Letter, Script, handwritten fonts, dingbats
`
BASIC INFORMATION
{Point Size
`Cap height
`ascender line
`x-height
`base line
`descender line
`Leading is the space between lines
`Text is generally 20% (point size of face +20%) DO NOT USE AUTO LEADING :D
`12 points - 1pica
`6pica = 1 inch
`72 points = 1 inch
PERSONAL THOUGHTS
I just recently downloaded the whole Bodoni family on my computer so it was pretty interesting to know the history behind the typeface. The evolution from smooth, flow, sometimes really organic typeface to very mechanical, geometric and angular really caught my attention. I found it interesting to see the serifs slowly disappearing until it completely went away and created the san serif. I learned new terms today like fat faces! Which is really easy to remember because it sounds just like how it looks. It reminds me of a typeface who ate too much french fries.
When industrialization hit, money became the source that powered and pushed the evolution of typeface to advertisement. I really liked looking at old poster designs. I love looking at poster designs so it was really interesting to see really old posters. It's just so sad that they didn't really put much design in it and just wanted to assemble a poster then really make it into an art. Another new term I learned was tuscan face. I always wanted to know the official name of those really overly decorative, fancy, frilly, almost illegible font. I'm not a big fan of any tuscan face but was kind of nice to see people experimenting and doing crazy stuff with font.
I loved the basic information about typeface! It helped me a lot with normal things I do in my work. And I'll use your advice to not use auto leading. Leading seems to be tricky sometimes. I see a lot of poster designs manipulating leading but sometimes they over do it. So it's nice to know a good medium to balance leading. Oh yes, I also really liked looking at the letter lead punches at beginning of class. You really got a feel of how tiny and small they were!
QUESTION TIME
Sometimes I get really confused between the terms typeface and font. What is the difference of each term?
Bodoni is an important figure for the development of typeface. Did he have any other typefaces that influenced him?
If we shouldn't use auto leading then why is it available to us on our computers?
typeface and font. What is the difference of each term?
ReplyDeletea typeface is the design a font is the thing.
Typefaces versus fonts
Many people use these words interchangeably, to the chagrin of many designers and type enthusiasts. It’s easy to forget what the words mean because they are so intricately related. Mark Simsonson on Typophile has a great, somewhat clear definition: “the physical embodiment of a collection of letters, numbers, symbols, etc. (whether it’s a case of metal pieces or a computer file) is a font. When referring to the design of the collection (the way it looks) you call it a typeface.”
Nick Sherman offers this insight from a comment on Typographica’s Our Favorite Typefaces of 2007: “The way I relate the difference between typeface and font to my students is by comparing them to songs and MP3s, respectively (or songs and CDs, if you prefer a physical metaphor).” In other words, the MP3 is the way the song is delivered (the font); the song is the actual creative (the typeface).
http://designandprint.wordpress.com/2008/12/17/typography-basics-the-difference-between-a-font-and-a-typeface/
Norbert Florendo finally made it really, really simple with a comment on The FontFeed: “…font is what you use, and typeface is what you see.”
—— http://designandprint.wordpress.com/2008/12/17/typography-basics-the-difference-between-a-font-and-a-typeface/
Bodoni is an important figure for the development of typeface. Did he have any other typefaces that influenced him?
Influenced him or that he designed?
Both Philippe Grandjean and Pierre Simon Fournier.
If we shouldn't use auto leading then why is it available to us on our computers?
The default has to be something and the common denominator is to set text.
-d