Type makes Words; As Well as Art

Typographic design is a unique – and sometimes paradoxical blend of language and form. The following designers demonstrate two very different styles and conceptual definitions of how typography is used. There are as many similarities as differences however. While their visual styles are nearly polar opposites, the conceptual approach and their results are the same: They both interpret the message and communicate the written word visually, but also add a visceral experience and emotional tone to heighten the meaning of the message.

Style & Inspiration for Typographic Design

Josef Müller-Brockmann, (May 9, 1914 – August 30, 1996), was a Swiss graphic designer and teacher. The most noteworthy of his work pertaining to this class is his poster designs, demonstrating his devotion to type, grid systems, and stark, fundamental, and minimal compositions.

Work by Josef Muller-Brockmann

More Work of Josef Muller-Brockmann

David Carson, (1956 – ) is an American graphic designer. He is best known for his innovative magazine design, and use of experimental typography. He was the art director for the magazine Ray Gun. Carson is almost universally acknowledged as the greatest and will likely prove to be the most influential graphic designer of the nineties. In 1995, Carson founded his own studio, David Carson Design in New York City, and started to attract major clients from all over the United States. During the next three years (1995-1998), Carson was doing work for Pepsi Cola, Ray Ban (orbs project), Nike, Microsoft, Budweiser, Giorgio Armani, NBC, American Airlines and Levi Strauss Jeans. His unorthodox and self taught style is widely-imitated and the results of his work have realigned typography’s fundamental methods of communication.

Hillman Curtis Artists Series – David Carson

David Carson Studios

Using Type as Expression

Paula Scher

Scher began her career in the 1970’s and early 80’s. Scher is highly known for her Public Theater posters, done in the mid-1990’s, which used typography in a more illustrative and expressive kind of way. The Public Theater posters were posted all over New York City and soon became its own style. Scher is also known for creating the identities for Citibank, Tiffany & Co., The New York Times Magazine, Perry Ellis, Bloomberg, Target, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, The New 42nd Street, the New York Botanical Garden, and The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.

Scher is also a good example of handwritten type. She has painted maps that use type in a very illustrative way.

A brief look at Paula Scher.

Hatch Show Print

Located in Nashville, Hatch Show Print has been around since the 19th century. Hatch is known for using a letterpress and setting type by hand. They are considered to be the defining style of country music. Stars like Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, Elvis Presley, and B.B. King are just a few of the artists known for using Hatch Show Print to make posters. Hatch’s clients first consisted of vaudeville, circus, and minstrel shows.

Although Hatch Show Print’s posters are remarkably beautiful to look at, some can be difficult to read and use no system of type hierarchy within them. Hatch Show Print posters are great examples of vernacular design, meaning that there is no educational experience or degrees needed in order to do Hatch posters. The designer simply designs as he or she wishes.

Process
Hatch Show Print uses a Vandercook press. The process consists of attaching the paper to a cylinder that is then rolled across the surface of the printing plate.

Article on Hatch Show Print
Gallery of some Hatch Show Print Posters

Using Color

Colors have strong connotations and can reinforce the meaning (or challenge the meaning) depending on the color used. There are many strategies and methods for choosing color, and many techniques for creating and applying color in Illustrator.

Resources for Researching Type

Type is like any other form of artwork. Good type is usually expensive and comes with legalities and licensing agreements. It is illegal to steal or download type that has not been properly attained.

When a font is purchased the user never really owns the font. Instead he or she usually receives a license to use that font on only one computer. These specifications are referred to as End User License Agreements (EULA’s) and differ amongst companies. Such licenses can be purchased in a number of ways: directly from the vendor, as part of a larger software package, or by downloading the font from a specific web site. In all cases the EULA is the authoritative source for licensing details.

The Adobe Type Library

Linotype Typefoundry

Articles at Typotheque

Essays at Emigre

Typophile

TrueType vs. OpenType

TrueType is an outline font standard that was created by Apple in the late 1980’s to compete with Adobe’s PostScript fonts. Originally, TrueType was created to give “hints” as to what the font would actually look like when printed. Now, Almost all TrueType hints are ignored by Apple’s rendering approach on Mac OS X.

Most free or inexpensive third-party fonts use plain TrueType font.

OpenType, created by Microsoft and Adobe in 1994, is a successor to TrueType. OpenType uses the general structure of a TrueType font, but has several smartfont options which enhance the font’s typographic and language support capabilities. OpenType is usually in two types of formats: TrueType format outlines or Compact Font Format (CFF) outlines.

In many situations, the outline data format does not matter unless rasterization is being used.

Features of OpenType include:
Font character encoding is based on Unicode and can support any script.
OpenType Fonts can have up to 65,536 glyphs.

PostScript and Screen Font

PostScript fonts are used for printing high-resolution text and graphics. PostScript fonts are multi-platform outline font standards. This means that PostScript fonts are capable of being used on multiple computer systems and are defined by a series of points that determine lines and curves. Because points define the characters, PostScript fonts can be scaled to various sizes without distortion.

Screen Fonts are designed specifically for a display screen. These fonts are usually bitmapped and must be specially designed to compensate for the low resolution of display screens.

Type Foundries are Great Places to Shop for Type

Hoefler and Frere-Jones

Linotype

t26

House Industries

FontExplorerX

The FontExplorerX can be found on the dock of the Lab computers next to Dreamweaver. FontExplorerX is a free piece of software that can be downloaded onto any computer.

FontExplorerX works just like iTunes. One can preview text by selecting a certain font and typing in the preview box. Like iTunes, playlists can be made and sent to Illustrator, Photoshop, or InDesign where they can then be used.

Assignment: GRPH210-assignment4.pdf