Annotated Bibliography - History of Typography Project

Annotated Bibliography

Cramsie, Patrick. The Story of Graphic Design: From the Invention of Writing to the Birth of Digital Design. New York: Abrams, 2010. Print.

            This book is an extensive look into the history of writing. For my purpose I only needed it for an in-depth look into PostScript. PostScript changed the way that typography and other graphic elements are created today. This book does a good job going into the information that I needed to for an over view on the subject.

Edwards, Benj. “Four Reasons the LaserWriter Mattered.” Macworld.com. N.p., 27 Apr. 2010. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.

            Although this article was created to say why the Laser Printer mattered, it was very helpful on why PostScript mattered as well. The two go hand and hand, without PostScript the printer could not exist. This article also made me realize that through the birth of the PostScript computer language it made this printer and continues to shape the field of graphic design.

Kulba, Bryan. “Aisle.One.” Celebrating Karl Gerstner. Antonio Carusone, 7 July 2010. Web. 29 Nov. 2013.

            This was a very helpful article when dealing with Karl Gerstner. For multiple reasons, but mainly because it is really one of the few articles that I could find that had an in depth look into the man’s work. Because this article was written in honor of Gerstner and all of his achievements it shows him in a great light. It talks about his style, and what he has accomplished in his 50 years in the field. It also is clear in the short overview it gives of the techniques that he has created. The article talks about his work that he has done, the techniques he has created, the success of his agency, and all the great things this man has accomplished.

Lacayo, Richard. “A Piece of Our Time.” Time 7 Mar. 2008: n. pag. Print.

            Gerald Holtom was a man that knew what he had to do and did it. This article conveys that. This article gives a brief history behind the symbol by telling where the inspiration came from. Today people use this symbol for any protest or march that they want peace or people to know that they are peaceful. When Holtom created it, it was made so people would stop making nuclear weapons, trying to achieve the greatest peace of all. The article tells how Holtom came to make the symbol for the CND. They also say how the symbol took on its own life and how it still lives today.

Rand, Paul, and Max Huber. “Wim Crouwel.” Www.iconofgraphics.com/Wim-Crouwel/. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2013.

            This article gives an in-depth look into who Wim Crouwel is. It talks about his early life being an Expressionist painter, to how he knew that wasn’t the life for him and decided to purse a life in the graphic arts. The article talks about his style and what has influenced him as well as what drives him and keeps him going. It talks about all aspects of his work. His work making posters for the Abbe Museum as well as how he came to create the typeface New Alphabet. It also says how he never wanted that typeface to actually be used, but meant it to be purely as a study.

Image Sources

http://rulesbased.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/karl-gerstner/

http://ninonbooks.tumblr.com/post/69399408/graphic-design-and-typography-swiss-legacy

http://blog.ideatransplant.com/2012/01/diagonal-lines.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Alphabet_(typeface)

http://www.1000manifestos.com/gerald-holtom-peace-symbol/

http://www.iconofgraphics.com/Wim-Crouwel/

http://artsagainstcuts.wordpress.com/2011/08/12/riotcleanup-or-riotwhitewash-postscript-response/

http://www.macworld.com/article/1150845/laserwriter.html

History of typography - typography from the 1960's - 90's

The history of typography was our first group project in the class. Group projects can go smoothly, but most of the time they are kind of a pain because you have to work around 4 peoples schedules so you can actually meet up and get some work done. For us we may have put things off a little longer than we should have, but once we got together we got stuff done real quick. The way we went about this project is that we all sat down discussed a layout for it. Then we created that layout, that part was easy. As was the next step, we then went on to dividing up the information evenly. After that we simply sent the layout to each member of the group and as long as they followed that layout the project should all form nicely together. We then took that layout filled it with our information on the people and memorable times that happened in our period and compiled it all together. 

The only tricky part after we figured all that out was what information should I put on my section of the presentation. Even that part was not very hard, the people that I had to look up I honestly never heard of before, but each one of them furthered typography and graphic design in great ways. After figuring that out I knew just what to put on there and it was not a problem whatsoever. 

The only problem that I had during this presentation was finding out more information on Gerald Holtom. The only thing I could find on this man was that he created the peace sign. He was a textile designer that created it and that is all I could find anywhere. I will say this was a great thing, but i'm not sure how important that he was to all of graphic design and typography for it. 

Another thing that I had a problem with was working between my computer and the computers in the graphics room. For this project I downloaded a trial run for indesign and I thought that it would go back and fourth between the trial run and the computers. But it didn't, I tried to get onto the computer to do some work on it there and it said that the two were not compatible so I had to re due the entire thing in indesign on the computer in the graphics room just so I could add a couple things to it. After I fixed that all was well and I think that our presentation will turn out pretty good. 

Project Three - Type as Art

Now, for our last individual project we had to make, I made a picture of Larry David out of type. The project was just that. Find a writer that you like a create Art out of Type while considering that person. I was really looking forward to making this poster. I knew it would take a lot of work, and it definitely did. It was the longest project by far out of all the ones that we did in this class. But that was fine, the reason I was looking forward to making this project is because when my mom went back to college when I was in elementary school she went back to school for graphic design. In one of her classes she had to make a poster just like this. What she did I will never forget because I still have a framed copy of her poster that she made. She made her poster of Bart Simpson. And she made it just for me. I loved the Simpsons when I was a little kid and my mom of course knew that. She designed him with the iconic Bart Simpson pose of him pulling his pants down and mooning people. She then filled him in completely using every single episode the Simpsons have ever done. At that time I think they just hit 300. Ever since she gave that to me I have always wanted to make a type art poster, I just never had the chance before. 

Then I was stoked to make this one. I did not start off making Larry David, I started off making Bill the Butcher, one of my favorite characters in all of cinema in the film Gangs of New York. Somewhere along the line I either forgot to save or saved to a place where I couldn't find it or maybe it just crashed. Whatever happened I lost all of my stuff so I thought it was a good time to switch and maybe try and do someone else. So, I thought what better person to create than Larry David, the creator and co- writer of Seinfeld. Only the greatest television show to ever be created.  

This project took a lot of time, and a lot of space to save. Every designer has that project that taught them they need to save and save often. For me, this was that project. I definitely learned the important of saving, backing up your stuff, and also just knowing where you saved something to if you don't want to loose it forever. 

Not only did I learn about fill management in this project but I also learned that the type on a path tool can be a real pain in the ass. I had type going backwards and upside down. I didn't realize until a ways into the project that the type follows how you initially created the line. I used the pen tool to make the lines, which I also got pretty good at using during this project. And if you start from left to right the type will follow that path. That was very helpful once I finally realized that. Another thing that I got some experience using was type in an area tool. It is hard to find out what is an appropriate amount of type to put in there as well as knowing where to put breaks so there isn't weird spaces. Most of the project was me trying to figure out how to use the two tools more effectively and I think by the end of it I greatened my skills a decent amount. 

Project Two - Type Specimen Poster / Advertisment

For these Type Specimen Posters I started to out by looking at ones that I found on the internet so I could get some idea of what a type specimen poster was and also how to go about making one. After looking at numerous examples online I then kind of went a different direction from all the ones that I saw. I wanted to create something that was effective but also something that was a lot different than any other type specimen poster I had seen. 

What was difficult for me at first was finding a way to incorporate body of text in the poster while not making it too much text and having it be overpowering at the same time. That is why in some of the designs there is no body of text at all. Another thing that I felt was difficult was creating an effective variation of type size and style within the typeface without if feeling disconnected. 

For this first gill sans Poster I tried to make it simple. I just put Gill sans on top. Large. Using the basic font for it. For some reason the idea of separating the G from ill was a good idea. I kept thinking it was a good idea, maybe because I thought it was almost a play on words will ill and sans. Even though the idea never really was that obvious in the design I kept with it. As far as displaying the various type sizes and styles in the typeface I just made that black on white. I thought this would be a clear indicator of what this type looked like at its core. Then I followed that by some information about the type underneath and lastly what some of the sybmols look like in the typeface in all the different styles. 

For my second Gill Sans poster I still went with the concept of putting the name of the typeface large on the top of the page. The reason I did it on this one was because Gill Sans was first created to display the name of bookstore. So, I thought that it would be a good idea to try and create a store front. I was later told that when making designs you don't typically want to make them be illustrations, but I still liked the idea. So I tried to tone it down so it doesn't scream store front while still holding some idea that it was where I was going with the idea. 

For Both of my Futura posters they have virtually the same design. The way the text is laid out in the front is identical. I liked the idea of just going through the alphabet, starting with the largest and boldest type on the top and slowly going to the thinnest and smallest point size on the bottom. The only difference between the two designs is that of the background. Futura was a typeface that its inspiration came from geometric shapes. For each of the background designs I created a different layout of various geometric shapes to express this idea. 

For my first Baskerville Poster I greatly toned down my original idea to create this poster. I have a hard time not thinking of illustrations in any instance and designing these posters was no exception. Since the typeface is called Baskerville I thought that it would be a great idea to make the poster look like a village called Baskerville. I made  a town square with houses made to look like baskets, roads and all. I then realized this was not advertising the type in a way that it was meant to be created, so I axed that idea. I couldn't get rid of the idea of making baskets though, so instead I made four baskets two of them expressing the letters of the typeface and the other two expressing the numbers.

For my second Baskerville poster and my final poster I only used one letter for all of the designs. A "Q". All of the "Q's" are different fonts and residing inside each of them are different elements of the typeface. In one I have a body of text telling the history of the type. In another I have various symbols of the typeface. In the last I have displayed the alphabet in different fonts on the type. Finally I took the tail of the Q to underline the title of the poster, which is Baskerville. Also making all of the Q's look like they are pilling up on one another. 

Project One - Bitmap Type Design

For the first project in beginning typography I was suppose to create my own typeface using a grid. The letters that we were suppose to create were D,G,S,W, and X also the numbers 1,4,5,6, and 7 these are suppose to be the most challenging numbers and letters when creating a typeface. In the beginning of my process all of my typefaces looked just as any other typeface that I have seen before. Either that or they all just looked exactly how I would think a type face would look when it was made on a 12x12 grid system. It wasn't until I made the typeface that I called morris that I felt good about one of them. I knew once I felt good about it I had to give it a shot in making some refinements to make it the final one. At first I made it so there were dots going vertically and dashes going horizontally. This showed me that the type had potential but it wasn't quite right. Once I reversed it to make the dashes vertically and the dots horizontally it all came together.

Yes, the bitmap typeface that I created is simple, but it is a design that I created and a design that I like. It is thin and in some parts broken, but it withholds its form for a clear sense of what the characters are saying.

As I was creating this type my main focus was making all the dimensions and X heights the same. While still making each letter look how the letter is suppose to look. And by making it a little different than others, yet simple all at the same time. With the Morris typeface I believe I achieved everything I set out to do while making this bitmap type design.

The reason I named this type morris is simple. I named it after Morse code, because that's what it looks like. It is created with dots and dashes. The reason that I ended up with the name Morris instead of Morse is because although it looks like it should be Morse code after what it was designed after I wanted the type to have its own name. A name of a man, a human name because for some reason when giving something the name of a person I think is really funny. And the name also still suggests its inspiration enough for people to understand it.

This was the first project in this class, it was also the first assignment that we created something from scratch. For this being my first typeface I ever created, well created some of the letters. I think it turned out pretty well. I am very happy with where my type ended up when completing the project. At my first couple attempts I was almost convinced that I was not going to be able to come up with a design that I liked. I'm glad I kept going with different ideas and did not just settle for one of the first typefaces I created.

Exercise Four - Typographic Space / Grid

For this fourth and final exercise of the class I thought it was extremely straight forward and shouldn't be difficult at all. To bad I was wrong. I am pretty sure I did the entire thing backwards. What I was suppose to do for this project was to create grey boxes that emulated the same shade of grey that the body of text has created. What I did was make dark grey boxes on things that I thought stood out more and lighter grey boxes as things got less and less important.

This exercise taught me how important it is to read design directions closely and do what is actually asked of me. Although, I was lucky this time and what I did was at least somewhat close to what I was actually suppose to do and it wasn't that big of a problem. In the future, it will be. When dealing with bigger projects and actual work I will need to not mess up for multiple reasons. The first is the bigger the project the more time it is going to take to create and if I mess up and put a couple hours into it I am going to have to put in another couple hours in order to fix it. The second reason is maybe I won't get any time to fix it, what if I don't catch that I messed up in time. In that case I am either getting a bad great or even worse out of some work all because I wasn't paying close enough attention.

Even though I did the project a little backwards this was a great exercise in teaching me how important a grid actually is. How prominent it is in any publication I will need to create. When setting up a grid like this, by just using grey boxes in order to show where certain text will go a person can get an idea of what they are going to do to further there work. Also they are able to effectively show a client what they are thinking for a layout without all the components in it yet, and that client can get a pretty good idea of what it is going to look like.

This exercise also furthered my understanding with photoshop. Up until this exercise all I had done in photoshop was make an image black and white and make a white box. In this assignment I learned how to use guides to line up my grid system. I learned how to make layers so I can work on multiple plans so I can effectively spread out the work. Lastly I learned how to make different gradients of color in order to separate each box from one another.

Going into this exercise I didn't think I would get anything out of it, and thought it would be cut and dry. Yes, it was straight forward (at least I thought so at first) it also taught me a lot more than I thought that it would.

Exercise Three - Type as Shape

For this exercise we started to change things up, this is the first exercise that we did not do all the work on the computer. Yes, for the other projects you can, and honestly, probably should do some sketches and other work besides on the computer. Yet, I typically don't do that, or at least I haven't for the first two projects, and that is mostly because I didn't find it necessary. For the first two exercises it was all work that you had to be done on the computer. Why would I sketch out different typefaces when I have them on a computer? Or what would I really need to do outside of the computer on the second exercise? It's not like I am going to draw the billboard in black and white instead of just creating that in photoshop. 

So, for me, this exercise seemed like the breakthrough into something that I actually enjoy to do. I really enjoy working with my hands, no matter what that might entail. In this instance it was cutting out various forms of type that we found inside of a single letter. The only problem with this portion of the exercise is somewhere along the way I either got carried away or didn't quite understand the directions. Because I decided to cut up about three times as many shapes out of the letters than I was suppose to. At first I was a little annoyed with myself, because I had just wasted so much time, but after I got over that I had way more material to work with, which made it possible for the ideas to start flowing. 

When you have a bunch of cut out pieces it makes it a lot easier to quickly put a bunch of ideas together in a short period of time. After the actual cutting process it was really easy to put things together to see what I liked and what I didn't like. I came up with my first two ideas in minutes. If I would have done that on the computer I feel as though it would have taken at least double, maybe even triple that amount of time. I did however run into one other problem during this project. If I would have known how many and what I was allowed to cut out in the beginning I would have done that part differently opening up different combinations of shape than I had. See, I only cut out single portions of letter forms making it difficult to get a final solution that felt like it really fit together. I could making dozens of solutions, but non that were really great. It wasn't until one of my last attempts in making a design that I felt that it really worked. Even though, non of the pieces really matched at all, for some reason to me it just seemed like it fit. I took a "F" and three different parts of three different "Q's" and somehow I feel like it just worked itself out. I think it is because non of them really match up and they are not entirely unified, but at the same time they have a sense of movement throughout. It also is good that one of the Q's has a very heavy line weight to kind of throw off and at the same time balance out the rest of the pieces. 

After making this project I can't wait to do more things like this, yes, it's fun to do stuff on the computer in illustrator and what not. But, I really enjoy actually working with my hands and creating something out of something completely different or even better out of nothing at all.