type compendium final

8/14/2019 Type Compendium Final

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Individual letters have unique parts

which have changed in visual form over

the centuries. A nomenclature helps

identify the major components of their

construction. The evolution of letterform

styles over time is a result of optical

adjustments to these basic components by

type designers over the ages.

Anatomy of Type

Sacreligious L i n k

Capline

Meanline

Baseline

x - h e i g h t

L o o p C

o u

n t e r

A s c e n d e r

E y e

S t e m

S p i n e S

t r o k e

S e r i f

F i l l e t

J o t

D e s c e n d e r

C r

o s s b a r

B

o w l

S e r i f

H a i r l i n e

E a r

B o w l



SacreligiousSacreligiousSacreligiousSacreligious

Overlap to discover the remarkable range

that exists between historic families of

type even though they have the same point

size. What does this mean for the designer?

When it comes to mixing families of type

what can be done and what cannot be

done? What are the only 2 anatomical

attributes that all families share?

Overlap



This is a study in legibility of a word. The

exercise teaches us that when the bottom

half of the word is covered it is more

legible that when the top is covered. More

of the distinctive attributes of letters are

in the top half since we write from top to

bottom.

Legibility Word

SacreligiousSacreligious

This is a study of how much of the

letterform can be removed and still read

the word. The exercise teaches us to

recognize what is distinctive about eachletter.

Legibility Letter

Sacreligious



Anatomy and Cropping

I discovered that I only needed part

of the main curve of the S for it to be

recognizable. It was interesting to see how

little of some letters were needed and topush the boundaries of what constituted

the letter forms.



Form and Counterform

When creating a visual hierarchy in

typographic space, a designer balances the

need for harmony, which unifies a design,

with the need for contrast, which lendsvitality and emphasis.

As in music, elements can have a

counterpart or a counterpoint relationship.

Typographic counterparts are elements

with similar qualities that bring harmony

to their spatial relationship. Elements

have a counterpoint relationship when

they have contrasting characteristics,

such as size, weight, color, tone, or

texture. Counterpoint relationships bring

opposition and dissonance to the design.



Single Letter

Double Letter



Typographic Kinetics

Every letter has a personality you can

identify. Fragmentation is not the goal in

and of itself. Everything is adjustable and

it’s a case-by case decision of how far togo.

The form you seek is one where you

are still able to read the word. So this

determines the degree of fracture. It’s the

“part”(letterform) to”whole” (word). Both

must be juggled to value. You can’t use the

same element over and over just because

it worked in one place. Every example

should change somewhat. Because range

is a persistent goal of design, you want

to invent in each example. Discovery,

experimentation, success and failure are

part of any assignment.



The Structure of Letters

While upper and lower case letters are

distinct in structure, they all are built by

combining 4 strokes; vertical, horizontal,

slanted, and curvilinear. These elementarystrokes form the foundation, a visual

“code” that is recognizable through our

long experience with reading and writing

regardless of style. Therefore, letter

forms derive their visual character from

combinations of these basic strokes and

not from being light or bold, wide or

narrow, Roman or italic, sans serif or serif.

An entire alphabet can be categorized

using only six basic underlying visual

combinations of strokes as the example

illustrates.

stroke categories UC LC

E,F,H,T,I,L i,t,j,l,f,

K,M,N,Y,

X,V,W

A,Z

B,J,P,R,U,O

C,G,Q,S

v,w,x,y,z

z

a,b,c,d,f,h,

j,k,m,n,p,q,r,s,u

e



Typographic Page

Using the initials of your designer, impose

the letterforms in a typographic study

that “interprets” a relationship to the

form of the chair they designed. The goalis to discover relationships via form and

division of space. Then using the designers

name, the name of the chair and the date

of its manufacture or materials used to

create the chair, impose the words in a

typographic study that demonstrates

relationships to the chair.



Multi-Page Typographic Layout & the Grid

Type generally falls into two primary

categories; informational and or

expressive. It’s not uncommon to have

a strategy for both present in layouts.Informational text is more common and

the form responds to long traditions

and conventions of size, spacing and

established habits of organization

on the page. The ratio is determined

by the designer and the needs of the

communication. An emphasis or hierarchy

must be clear and decisive so the roles

each plays in the communication are clear.

In design things are not equal.



Wordplay

Wordplay refers to creating typographic

equivalents for words. In this exercise, we

used contrasting words and one typeface.

Using simple changes in spacing, sizingand placement of letters on a page, the

work not only conveys the word’s meaning

but expresses it as well.



f l o a

t



Poster Project : Type and Image

Using personal artwork and pre-

determined text, students were asked to

create a poster for a gallery show of their

work. By using their own work, studentsbegan to see how they might develop

their own typographic style. Combining

simple principles of hierachy and dynamic

composition with color and type choices,

sophisticated results were achieved.

type compendium final

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