You will be creating a postcard that will serve as a promotional piece for a designer which you will research. The postcard should measure 4.25" x 6" and you should address both the front and the back of the card.
The front should contain an image by the designer and you can either choose to show an entire image or you can crop into the image and show only a portion of it. Whichever you choose you need to use a hi-res image which will mean that you may have to scan a large image from a book, or if you use artwork which you find online please make sure it will maintain its quality at the final size.
The back of the postcard should include the following: the designer's name, birth and death date (optional), a short bio of the designer (approximately seven sentences), and a url to find out more information about the designer. For this project I ask that you use Helvetica, however if you used Helvetica for Assignment 3 then you can use Adobe Garamond. If you want to use an additional image you can do so but your overall goal is to create an interesting typographical solution for the back of the card. Consider playing with the size of your type, the way it is oriented, etc.
For class next week please bring a minimum of 7 sketches of the postcard design for feedback and review. This class will be your only chance for feedback before the project is due the following week at our final class.
The designers you have been assigned are as follows:
Saul Bass / Scott
Max Bill / Matt
Josef Mueller-Brockman / Renata
Seymour Chwast / Rebecca
Kyle Cooper / Gillian
Pablo Ferro / Felipe
Milton Glaser / Sarah
April Greiman / Amy
Tobias Frere-Jones / David
Zuzana Licko / Rachel
Max Kisman / Jessica
Vaughan Oliver / Jennifer
Paul Rand / Sohana
Stefan Sagmeister / Helen
Paula Scher / Belinda
Carlos Segura / P. Scott Makela / Andres
Eric Spiekermann / Yen-Ting
Wolfgang Weingart / A-Young
05 April 2007
29 March 2007
23 March 2007
Assignment 3 Visual Research
Regarding Assignment 3, here are some things that interest me. These are intended as things to perhaps inspire you, but not necessarily solutions that I am directly looking for.
and I have to mention this since Rachel pointed it out.
Also on the link below with David Colley's lecture on the grid you can view some of the student animation pieces that fuse music and typography.
and I have to mention this since Rachel pointed it out.
Also on the link below with David Colley's lecture on the grid you can view some of the student animation pieces that fuse music and typography.
Assignment 3
This project will utilize grids and typography to explore the narrative potential of typography related to music. This project will be three weeks so you will need to show work as required and concentrate on creating your solution by the due date (see timeline).
You will be provided with a number of mp3 tracks. Choose one track that you would like to work with. The tracks are all of a similar nature, and most contain little to no lyrics. After you select the track that you would like to work with you will need to listen carefully to the track making notes of emotional reactions which you gather from the music, points in the composition where the intensity of sound varies, introduction of instruments, etc. Create a visual timeline of the music or a representation of what you hear.
Using the provided grid as a starting point, begin building a visual interpretation of the track using typography. Since lyrics are limited you are going to need to choose how to incorporate words or letters. Again, think about the emotional content of what you are hearing, what does it remind you of and how would you show it?
Typeface selections for this project are the same as the last project. I would advise you to work with one typeface in the beginning. If you feel that at some point in your composition that your type should change then this is an option, but I challenge you to work with one. Think about how you can use the variations of the typeface… are there parts of the song that are bolder, or where italic would be appropriate? Can you convey the entire meaning of the music using only kerning or scale to illustrate the sound? Also consider how you can show the movement of the track on a static sheet of paper.
The overall objective of this project is to convey your song to a viewer
in a visual solution. The viewer should gather an interpretation of the song without ever hearing a note.
Timeline 03.28.07: Preliminary sketches/crit. | 04.04.07: Refined sketches/individual meetings. | 04.11.07: Project complete/final crit.
Grid Info
If you are using InDesign CS or did not receive a copy of the grid file in class the measurements are as follows: document size, 10"w x 5"h, margins: top, inside, outside are .25 in, bottom is .325 in. 10 columns with a gutter of .075 in. Vertical guides are placed at 1-1/8", 2", 2-7/8", and 3-5/8".
Track Info
number/title/artist
1
Best Ballroom/Spearmint
2
Alone in Kyoto/Air
3
Amphibian/Björk
4
Aux Cyclades Electronique/Bertrand Burgalat
5
Bathroom Girl/Air
6
Candlelight/The Urchin
7
Charly/The Prodigy
8
Cosmic Interlude/LTJ Bukem
9
Dreamin'/Wax Poetic
10
Eple/Röyskopp
11
The Future Sound of Acid Jazz/Nightmares on Wax
12
Give it Away/Zero 7
13
The Glass Bead Game/Thievery Corporation
14
Hazy/Kate
15
Leave No Trace/Witchman
16
Les Nuits (Fila Brazilia Mix)/Nightmares on Wax
17
Meera//Tek 9//Four Hero Remix/DJ Cam
18
Mind Eye/Nightmares on Wax
19
My Love (Steve Angello & Sebastian Ingrosso Remix)/Justin Timberlake
20
Nights Interlude/Nightmares on Wax
21
Problem Child/Squarepusher
22
Samba Tranquille/Thievery Corporation
23
Sure Thing/St Germain
24
Sweat/Shizuo
25
Traktor/Matthew Herbert
26
Triumph of the Heart (Soft Pink Truth Remix)/Björk
27
Ultrasonic Sound/Hive
Here is an ai template that you can use for your cd slipcover. If the file changes names just make sure the ending is .ai so it will place in InDesign.
[ cd slipcover die-cut ]
You will be provided with a number of mp3 tracks. Choose one track that you would like to work with. The tracks are all of a similar nature, and most contain little to no lyrics. After you select the track that you would like to work with you will need to listen carefully to the track making notes of emotional reactions which you gather from the music, points in the composition where the intensity of sound varies, introduction of instruments, etc. Create a visual timeline of the music or a representation of what you hear.
Using the provided grid as a starting point, begin building a visual interpretation of the track using typography. Since lyrics are limited you are going to need to choose how to incorporate words or letters. Again, think about the emotional content of what you are hearing, what does it remind you of and how would you show it?
Typeface selections for this project are the same as the last project. I would advise you to work with one typeface in the beginning. If you feel that at some point in your composition that your type should change then this is an option, but I challenge you to work with one. Think about how you can use the variations of the typeface… are there parts of the song that are bolder, or where italic would be appropriate? Can you convey the entire meaning of the music using only kerning or scale to illustrate the sound? Also consider how you can show the movement of the track on a static sheet of paper.
The overall objective of this project is to convey your song to a viewer
in a visual solution. The viewer should gather an interpretation of the song without ever hearing a note.
Timeline 03.28.07: Preliminary sketches/crit. | 04.04.07: Refined sketches/individual meetings. | 04.11.07: Project complete/final crit.
Grid Info
If you are using InDesign CS or did not receive a copy of the grid file in class the measurements are as follows: document size, 10"w x 5"h, margins: top, inside, outside are .25 in, bottom is .325 in. 10 columns with a gutter of .075 in. Vertical guides are placed at 1-1/8", 2", 2-7/8", and 3-5/8".
Track Info
number/title/artist
1
Best Ballroom/Spearmint
2
Alone in Kyoto/Air
3
Amphibian/Björk
4
Aux Cyclades Electronique/Bertrand Burgalat
5
Bathroom Girl/Air
6
Candlelight/The Urchin
7
Charly/The Prodigy
8
Cosmic Interlude/LTJ Bukem
9
Dreamin'/Wax Poetic
10
Eple/Röyskopp
11
The Future Sound of Acid Jazz/Nightmares on Wax
12
Give it Away/Zero 7
13
The Glass Bead Game/Thievery Corporation
14
Hazy/Kate
15
Leave No Trace/Witchman
16
Les Nuits (Fila Brazilia Mix)/Nightmares on Wax
17
Meera//Tek 9//Four Hero Remix/DJ Cam
18
Mind Eye/Nightmares on Wax
19
My Love (Steve Angello & Sebastian Ingrosso Remix)/Justin Timberlake
20
Nights Interlude/Nightmares on Wax
21
Problem Child/Squarepusher
22
Samba Tranquille/Thievery Corporation
23
Sure Thing/St Germain
24
Sweat/Shizuo
25
Traktor/Matthew Herbert
26
Triumph of the Heart (Soft Pink Truth Remix)/Björk
27
Ultrasonic Sound/Hive
Here is an ai template that you can use for your cd slipcover. If the file changes names just make sure the ending is .ai so it will place in InDesign.
[ cd slipcover die-cut ]
12 March 2007
Grid System Introduction
Please watch this series of four short films on the grid system. The site linked below is the online companion to Rob Carter's Typography book. Take a few minutes to look at some of the pages and you might be interested in seeing some of the student work on the site.
Your next project will relate to grid systems and typography, and we will go over this in our next class after break.
[ David Colley, Grid Systems Lecture ]
Your next project will relate to grid systems and typography, and we will go over this in our next class after break.
[ David Colley, Grid Systems Lecture ]
20 February 2007
Assignment 2
Gestalt theory is a concept that is relative to visual arts, but also many other fields. Gestalt, in terms of visual arts, basically provides the psychological component that allows our minds to rationalize and interpret what we see.
In this project you will potentially explore two aspects of gestalt theory: figure/ground and closure [ Gestalt Theory Handout ].
Assignment Description
Using Illustrator, create a sign, or mark, by combining two letterforms using the typefaces that are supplied on the blog:
[ Typefaces ]
(If you have problems downloading this file right click on your mouse, or try holding control and clicking on the link to get them to automatically download)
or through this link on yousendit: http://senduit.com/cb8f02
The letterforms can be from different typefaces or they can be from the same typeface. Your selection of letterforms and their combination should be completely arbitrary. Select the letters based on their form and their ability to work together. Consider the way that one letter can be made by creating a positive form and the other can use negative space. Try to avoid physically altering the letters in any way. If necessary, you can add or subtract from the forms to create a stronger solution, but you shouldn’t rely upon that as a means to create a solution. Also consider using various fonts from the typeface (ie: the bold, or italic variations of the typeface). You can also use numbers as well as letterforms, avoid using symbols though. Work only in black and white at this time.
Create 5 potential solutions to the assignment and print them together on one 11x17 piece of paper with space around them. You can print at this size in the lab, or if you are working from home you can use two 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of paper. Bring your printed results to class next week for a crit and then we will refine your explorations to one solution.
Section 2B
Continue refining your explorations and create or find 10 images that abstractly illustrate your mark. Consider things like the relationship between your two letterforms, the contrast between the letters, and the overall visual solution, and think about textures and patterns. You can either take your own images or you can find elements from magazines or other sources. If you are still refining more than one mark try to choose images that are versatile or abstract enough to work for each mark, or split your image requirements between the marks.
Section 2C
Begin combining your letterform solution and your abstract images. Working with an image size of 4"x4" create a series of studies that incorporate your letterform with your images. You can crop into the letterform or show certain aspects of it, don't feel rigid or compressed in what you can and can not do. For class on March 21 I expect for you to bring all of your studies trimmed flush please. I am not giving you an exact number of studies that I am looking for but your exploration should be expansive. I will work with you individually to select the final image studies that will be presented when the project is due on March 28.
Project 3 will be assigned on March 21 and will overlap Project 2.
In this project you will potentially explore two aspects of gestalt theory: figure/ground and closure [ Gestalt Theory Handout ].
Assignment Description
Using Illustrator, create a sign, or mark, by combining two letterforms using the typefaces that are supplied on the blog:
[ Typefaces ]
(If you have problems downloading this file right click on your mouse, or try holding control and clicking on the link to get them to automatically download)
or through this link on yousendit: http://senduit.com/cb8f02
The letterforms can be from different typefaces or they can be from the same typeface. Your selection of letterforms and their combination should be completely arbitrary. Select the letters based on their form and their ability to work together. Consider the way that one letter can be made by creating a positive form and the other can use negative space. Try to avoid physically altering the letters in any way. If necessary, you can add or subtract from the forms to create a stronger solution, but you shouldn’t rely upon that as a means to create a solution. Also consider using various fonts from the typeface (ie: the bold, or italic variations of the typeface). You can also use numbers as well as letterforms, avoid using symbols though. Work only in black and white at this time.
Create 5 potential solutions to the assignment and print them together on one 11x17 piece of paper with space around them. You can print at this size in the lab, or if you are working from home you can use two 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of paper. Bring your printed results to class next week for a crit and then we will refine your explorations to one solution.
Section 2B
Continue refining your explorations and create or find 10 images that abstractly illustrate your mark. Consider things like the relationship between your two letterforms, the contrast between the letters, and the overall visual solution, and think about textures and patterns. You can either take your own images or you can find elements from magazines or other sources. If you are still refining more than one mark try to choose images that are versatile or abstract enough to work for each mark, or split your image requirements between the marks.
Section 2C
Begin combining your letterform solution and your abstract images. Working with an image size of 4"x4" create a series of studies that incorporate your letterform with your images. You can crop into the letterform or show certain aspects of it, don't feel rigid or compressed in what you can and can not do. For class on March 21 I expect for you to bring all of your studies trimmed flush please. I am not giving you an exact number of studies that I am looking for but your exploration should be expansive. I will work with you individually to select the final image studies that will be presented when the project is due on March 28.
Project 3 will be assigned on March 21 and will overlap Project 2.
12 February 2007
Field Trip Details, Feb 21
We will be attending the AIGA 365 Design Exhibition on Wednesday, February 21. We will not meet at Pratt, we will meet at the AIGA National Design Center at 164 Fifth Avenue (between 21st & 22nd Streets). The exhibit opens at 11am, however I would like for everyone to be there before 11am, around 1045am would be good. Robyn Jordan will be giving us an introduction to the exhibit and will provide some information on AIGA membership. As far as I know there is no entry fee, however bring a little cash in case this is not the issue.
10 February 2007
Slacking on the Blog...
Sorry I haven't been updating the site as much as I would like. Here are some interesting things to check out.
[ Paula Scher ]
Hillman Curtis interview of Paula Scher
Paula is an icon of the New York design scene. Best known for her work on the Jazz Center at the Lincoln, the Citi logo, and her theater posters, it is a great interview.
[ Hillman Curtis Interviews ]
Also via Hillman Curtis are a lot of great interviews with Stefan Sagmeister and Milton Glaser (both mentioned in class), Pentagram, and David Carson.
[ Daily Type ]
Daily Type is an ongoing series of type explorations by a collective of Russian designers.
[ Typography Resources ]
A link from one of my professors, this site has a lot to offer on the history of typography. Check out the silent film on Goudy's creation of a typeface.
[ Bembo's Zoo ]
In the history of type lecture I referenced Bembo's Zoo which is a flash piece that creates animals from the typeface Bembo.
[ Paula Scher ]
Hillman Curtis interview of Paula Scher
Paula is an icon of the New York design scene. Best known for her work on the Jazz Center at the Lincoln, the Citi logo, and her theater posters, it is a great interview.
[ Hillman Curtis Interviews ]
Also via Hillman Curtis are a lot of great interviews with Stefan Sagmeister and Milton Glaser (both mentioned in class), Pentagram, and David Carson.
[ Daily Type ]
Daily Type is an ongoing series of type explorations by a collective of Russian designers.
[ Typography Resources ]
A link from one of my professors, this site has a lot to offer on the history of typography. Check out the silent film on Goudy's creation of a typeface.
[ Bembo's Zoo ]
In the history of type lecture I referenced Bembo's Zoo which is a flash piece that creates animals from the typeface Bembo.
30 January 2007
24 January 2007
Philip Meggs, A History of Graphic Design
I referenced Meggs' book today in class, here is the information on it. It is available in the library if you would like to check out a copy.
Meggs' History of Graphic Design
Philip Meggs
ISBN-10: 0471699020
Meggs' History of Graphic Design
Philip Meggs
ISBN-10: 0471699020
Carter, The Anatomy of Typography
Here is a pdf of the chapter from Carter's book which you are to read for next class. If you haven't picked up the book yet you can get a copy at the Pratt Store. This text is from the second edition, but if you have the new edition please read that.
The assignment I will give in class next week will come directly from the book. Also look at Jan Tschichold's work for next class. His bio can be found under the syllabus post.
[ The Anatomy of Typography ]
The assignment I will give in class next week will come directly from the book. Also look at Jan Tschichold's work for next class. His bio can be found under the syllabus post.
[ The Anatomy of Typography ]
History of Typography lecture
Here is the pdf of the lecture today:
[ History of Typography ]
and the timeline I showed in class:
[ Design Timeline ]
[ History of Typography ]
and the timeline I showed in class:
[ Design Timeline ]
17 January 2007
Class Schedule
This will evolve and change…
Introduction and syllabus
Assignment: gather materials, skim Story of Typography
1/24
Overview and history of typography lecture
Assignment: read Carter, The Anatomy of Typography
1/31
Typeface anatomy lecture
Assignment: Project 1
2/7
Review Project 1
Assignment: Project 1b, read Carter, Syntax and Communication.
2/14
Project 1 Due
Assignment: Project 2, read Carter, Legibility.
2/21
Project 2 Review
Assignment: Project 2 Revisions
2/28
Project 2 Due
Assignment: Project 3, read Carter Typographic Technology
Introduction and syllabus
Assignment: gather materials, skim Story of Typography
1/24
Overview and history of typography lecture
Assignment: read Carter, The Anatomy of Typography
1/31
Typeface anatomy lecture
Assignment: Project 1
2/7
Review Project 1
Assignment: Project 1b, read Carter, Syntax and Communication.
2/14
Project 1 Due
Assignment: Project 2, read Carter, Legibility.
2/21
Project 2 Review
Assignment: Project 2 Revisions
2/28
Project 2 Due
Assignment: Project 3, read Carter Typographic Technology
Magazine Resources
These are not required for class, but are good resources. There is a discounted rate offer for Communication Arts and there are envelopes available in the office and in the computer lab next to 401. You can order Print through their site at a discounted rate of $39, but I think they might have a lower student rate. If you are interested you might want to do a little research and see if there is a better rate for any of these.
Graphic Design
Print (first choice)
http://www.printmag.com/
How
http://www.howdesign.com/
Step
http://www.stepinsidedesign.com/
Communication Arts
http://www.commarts.com/
Photography/Illustration
Communication Arts (has mixture of illustration and design and publishes interactive, illustration, and design annuals which I believe you receive with a subscription)
http://www.commarts.com/
Aperture
http://www.aperture.org/
Film/Motion
Res (excellent resource and it comes with a sampler dvd each month, but they are doing a reformat now and aren't accepting new subscriptions currently)
http://www.res.com/magazine/index-home.html
Technology/ID/Fashion/other
Metropolis
http://www.metropolismag.com
Wired
http://www.wired.com/
ID
http://www.idonline.com/
Wallpaper
http://www.wallpaper.com/
Colors
http://www.colorsmagazine.com
Graphic Design
Print (first choice)
http://www.printmag.com/
How
http://www.howdesign.com/
Step
http://www.stepinsidedesign.com/
Communication Arts
http://www.commarts.com/
Photography/Illustration
Communication Arts (has mixture of illustration and design and publishes interactive, illustration, and design annuals which I believe you receive with a subscription)
http://www.commarts.com/
Aperture
http://www.aperture.org/
Film/Motion
Res (excellent resource and it comes with a sampler dvd each month, but they are doing a reformat now and aren't accepting new subscriptions currently)
http://www.res.com/magazine/index-home.html
Technology/ID/Fashion/other
Metropolis
http://www.metropolismag.com
Wired
http://www.wired.com/
ID
http://www.idonline.com/
Wallpaper
http://www.wallpaper.com/
Colors
http://www.colorsmagazine.com
Materials Needed
In addition to Rob Carter's book, listed below, please purchase the following materials. You may already have some of these from a foundation course.
+ tablet of tracing paper, I suggest the 8 1/2 x 11 size or something around that range.
+ aluminum ruler, 12" size, cork back or other is fine
+ plastic eraser
+ kneadable eraser
+ drawing pencil, should be one of these:
Very hard - 4H to 6H
Hard - 3H to 4H
Medium hard - H to 2H
Medium - HB to F
For next weeks class bring Rob's book, read (skim, look at the pictures) the posted "Story of Typography" pdf below, and look up some of Adrian Frutiger's work.
The other materials you will not need to bring for next week, and you will also not need to bring your computers for a while. I will let you know before they are needed.
+ tablet of tracing paper, I suggest the 8 1/2 x 11 size or something around that range.
+ aluminum ruler, 12" size, cork back or other is fine
+ plastic eraser
+ kneadable eraser
+ drawing pencil, should be one of these:
Very hard - 4H to 6H
Hard - 3H to 4H
Medium hard - H to 2H
Medium - HB to F
For next weeks class bring Rob's book, read (skim, look at the pictures) the posted "Story of Typography" pdf below, and look up some of Adrian Frutiger's work.
The other materials you will not need to bring for next week, and you will also not need to bring your computers for a while. I will let you know before they are needed.
12 January 2007
Required Text
Typographic Design: Form and Communication
Fourth Edition
Rob Carter, Ben Day, Philip B. Meggs
ISBN 978-0471783909
[ amazon ]
[ abebooks ]
Please bring this text to the second class on January 24.
Course Syllabus
[ Course Syllabus ]
Typography I / COMD215
Wednesday, 9:30-1220pm, Steuben Hall 401
“Typography has one plain duty before it and that is to convey information in writing. No argument or consideration can absolve typography from this duty. A printed work which cannot be read becomes a product without purpose. More than graphic design, typography is an expression of technology, precision and good order.”
EMIL RUDER
Instructor
Michael Gray, 917 599 6763, michael@liquidfuxion.com
Programs Discussed
Handskills 101; Adobe Illustrator CS2; Adobe InDesign CS2
Attendance
Your attendance is expected at each class meeting. If you can not attend a class you are responsible for contacting myself or another student to discuss what is required for the next class. In the event that there was a critique or assignment due during that class you are still required to turn the work in.
Three unexcused absences may result in course failure at the discretion of the instructor.
Please do not come to class late. Multiple tardies will result in a drop of letter grade.
Full information on the attendance policy can be found in the student handbook
Grades
Demonstration of assignment subject comprehension, 20%
Handskills, 20%
Technical skills, 20%
Fulfillment of assignment specifications, 20%
Deadline adherence, 20%
A, Exceptional; B, Very good; C, Average; D, Below-average; F, Failing
Events
Mar 14, Spring Break
May 3, Sophomore Survey (10am)
Materials and Readings
Class Blog, http://comd215.blogspot.com
You will need to check this site periodically, I will post communication, readings, and links to this site as an easy reference point.
Each week we will discuss an individual important to design and typography. The following dates are tentative.
1/24
Adrian Frutiger
Adrian Frutiger is best known as a type-designer. He has produced some of the most well known and widely used typefaces. He was born in 1928 in Unterlaken, Switzerland, and by the age of 16 was working as a printer’s apprentice near his home town. Following this he moved to Zurich where he studied at the Zurich School of Arts and Crafts, under Professor Walter Kach.
After his education in Zurich, Frutiger moved to Paris where he started to work at the Deberny & Peignot typefoundry. Here he helped the foundry move classic typefaces used with traditional printing methods to newer phototypesetting technologies. At the same time Frutiger started to design his own typefaces, many which became very significant, and this earned him his status as a great type designer. Throughout his career he has produced a number of books, such as:
Type, Sign, Symbol (1980) Signs and Symbols: Their Design and Meaning (1989) The International Type Book (1990) Geometry of Feelings (1998) The Development of Western Type Carved in Wood Plates (1999) Forms and Counterforms (1999) Life Cycle (1999) The Univers (1999) Symbols and Signs: Explorations (1999)
Today his typefaces are readily available from a number of different foundries. He is still alive (2005) and has worked on revisions with Linotype of a number of his typefaces. Such recent collaborations have resulted in Frutiger Next and Avenir Next, which have included refined forms and true italics. Presently Frutiger lives in Bern, Germany and is working with woodcuts.
1/31
Jan Tschichold
Book designer, typographical theorist, type designer. Born 1902. Died 1974.
Tschichold was born in Leipzig in 1902, the son of a signwriter. He trained in graphic arts and book crafts in Leipzig. Working in Munich in the 1920s, Tschichold was a pioneer of the so-called “New Typography”—a modernist, Bauhaus-inspired movement which had no truck with “artistic” typography, preferring plain sans-serif letters, rational assymetric layout, strict functionalism and industrial standardization. Tchichold’s book, Die neue Typographie is still a readable and instructive explanation of this approach.
The Nazi party came to power in Germany in 1933. Tschichold was arrested and lost his teaching job. In due course he emigrated to Switzerland, where (with brief interludes) he spent the rest of his life.
From the 1940s onwards, Tschichold’s style changed: he turned away from asymmetry and modernism towards “classical” typography in a style inspired by the renaissance printers: centred layouts, serif typefaces. Between 1947 and 1949 he established the “house style” for Penguin books in the UK: it was in the classical mold.
Tschichold himself tended to stress the gulf between his later classical typography and his earlier modernist style, which he came to condemn. In retrospect, however, the contrast is not perhaps as great as he made it. His later work is classical, but it is not fussy or artistic; it remains strongly marked by intense attention to detail, lack of fussiness and concentration on function.
Tshichold was primarily a user of type: a designer of books and printed matter. He did however design some typefaces, of which the best known is Sabon, which continues to be much-admired as a text face.
2/7
Eric Gill
Eric Gill, born Arthur Eric Rowton Gill, on February 22nd, 1882 in Brighton, England grew up to be a sculptor, engraver, stone-carver and type-designer. Gill’s first formal training in the art of letterforms was in 1902, at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London by type-designer and calligrapher Edward Johnston (designer of Johnston Sans for the London Underground).
Gill is very well known for his work as a type-designer, and throughout his career he produced a number of different types such as Perpetua, Gill Sans, and Joanna. After completion of a number of his types he wrote “An Essay on Typography” (which touches on an even wider spectrum of topics than just typography), which is still being reprinted today. In 1940, Gill died in Uxbridge, and his gravestone lists him as a “stone-carver”. Today many of Gill’s typefaces are available in digital form from a number of different foundries.
2/14
Saul Bass
Saul Bass (May 8, 1920 - April 25, 1996) was a graphic designer, but is best known for his design on motion picture title sequences, which is thought of as the best such work ever seen.
During his 40-year career he worked for some of Hollywood's greatest filmmakers, including most notably Alfred Hitchcock, plus Otto Preminger, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese. His most famous title sequence is probably the animated paper cut-out of a heroin addict's arm for Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm.
Saul Bass designed the 6th AT&T Bell System logo, that at one point achieved a 93 percent recognition rate in the United States. He also designed the AT&T "globe" logo for AT&T after the break up of the Bell System.
2/21
Max Miedinger
Born 1910 in Zürich. Died 1980, also in Zürich.
Max Miedinger is known a type designer, mainly for his design of the Helvetica type family (actually, Haas Grotesk).
In the late 1920’s Miedinger trained as a typesetter, and eventually went to work for Edouard Hoffmann who was the director of the Haas Typefoundry. At the foundry, Miedinger worked primarily as a salesman. But in his spare time, at Hoffmann’s behest, he designed a sans serif face, Haas Grotesk. Haas partners D. Stempel AG and Linotype expanded the design into the complete Helvetica family from 1957 onward.
Helvetica’s sucess was huge, and it put him on the map as a type designer. Linotype paid him a stipend for his contribution to their corporate success until his death in 1980—a very uncommon practice at the time.
2/28
Paul Rand
Paul Rand (born Peretz Rosenbaum, August 15, 1914 – November 26, 1996) was a well-known American graphic designer, best known for his corporate logo designs. Rand was educated at the Pratt Institute (1929–1932), the Parsons School of Design (1932–1933), and the Art Students League (1933–1934). He was one of the originators of the Swiss Style of graphic design. From 1956 to 1969, and beginning again in 1974, Rand taught design at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Rand was inducted into the New York Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 1972. He designed many posters and corporate identities, including the logos for IBM, UPS and ABC. Rand died of cancer in 1996.
3/7
Josef Müeller-Brockman
Josef Müller-Brockmann, (May 9, 1914 – August 30, 1996), was a Swiss graphic designer and teacher. He studied architecture, design and history of art at both the University and Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich. In 1936 he opened his Zurich studio specialising in graphic design, exhibition design and photography. From 1951 he produced concert posters for the Tonhalle in Zurich. In 1958 he became a founding editor of New Graphic Design along with R.P. Lohse, C. Vivarelli, and H. Neuburg. In 1966 he was appointed European design consultant to IBM. Author of the 1961 publications The Graphic Artist and his Design Problems and Grid Systems in Graphic Design, and the 1971 publications History of the Poster and A History of Visual Communication.
3/14
no class
3/21
Eric Spiekermann
Erik Spiekermann is information architect, type designer (FF Meta, ITC Officina, FF Info, FF Unit, LoType, Berliner Grotesk, Nokia Sans et al) and author of books and articles on type and typography. He was founder (1979) of MetaDesign, Germany's largest design firm with offices in Berlin, London and San Francisco. Projects included corporate design programmes for Audi, Skoda, Volkswagen, Lexus, Heidelberg Printing, Berlin Transit, Duesseldorf Airport and many others. In 1988 he started with FontShop, a company for production and distribution of electronic fonts. He holds a professorship at the Academy of Arts in Bremen, is vice president of the German Design council, president of the International Society of Typographic Designers in London and a board member of ATypI. In July 2000, Erik withdrew from the management of MetaDesign Berlin. Erik now lives and works in Berlin, London and San Francisco, designing publications, complex design systems and more typefaces. His new project is The United Designers Network and brings together a lot of the people he has worked with over the past 25 years. In 2001 he redesigned The Economist magazine in London. His book for Adobe Press, "Stop Stealing Sheep", which first came out in 1993 and has been sold over 150 000 times, has just appeared in a second edition and in a Geman version. He is currently designing corporate design programmes and exclusive typefaces for Deutsche Bahn, the German railway system, and Bosch. In 2003, Erik was awarded the Gerrit Noordzij Award for Typography by the Royal Academy in The Hague, and in 2004 he received the IIID Award for Leadership and Distinctive Achievement in Information Design.
3/28
Pablo Ferro
Pablo Ferro (born January 15, 1935) is a graphic designer and film titles designer.
Pablo Ferro is the least-known of the great title sequence designers. He was born in Antilla, Oriente Province, Cuba. He was raised there on a remote farm until emigrating to New York with his family as a teen.
He has been hailed as a genius by director Stanley Kubrick and has established himself in film for more than three decades as a director, editor, producer and title designer. He has been creating title sequences since the dawn of Saul Bass’s era and is still making title sequences today, his most recent being Iowa in 2005. He has designed titles for films ranging from The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Beetlejuice (1988), L.A. Confidential (1997) and Good Will Hunting (1997). Ferro started work professionally as a comic book artist in 1953.
Ferro is best known as an early master of quick-cutting and for using multiple images within one frame, a technique fondly continued by Kyle Cooper. Ferro has worked with high-tech and optical techniques. His trademark hand-drawn lettering is yet another technique that quite obviously had an influence on Kyle Cooper's work.
Recently he has received the Daimler Chrysler Design Award on October 28, 1999, and the Art Directors Hall of Fame Award in October 2000.
4/4
Carlos Segura
I was born in Santiago, Cuba and came to the United States in 1965 when I was nine. I grew up in Miami, and at a very early age (12) got into a band, originally as their roadie and eventually as their drummer. I remained there until I was nineteen. One of my responsibilities was promotions, and when I left, I threw all that stuff into a book and got my first job as a production artist at an envelope company (my job was to design the return-addresses for bank deposit envelopes). My first real break was at an advertising agency in New Orleans, and after a few more job changes, I moved to Chicago (always wanting to move here because I liked the way the name sounded) in 1980. I'm glad I did because that's where I met my wonderful wife. I worked for advertising agencies, such as Marsteller, Foote Cone & Belding, Young & Rubicam, Ketchum, DDB Needham, BBDO and more, both here and in Pittsburgh for eleven years until coming to the realization that I was not happy creatively, so I quit and started Segura Inc in 1991 to pursue design. My goal of trying to blend as much "fine art" into "commercial art" as possible, and that is what continues to drive us to this day. In 1994, the [T-26] digital type foundry was born to explore the typographical side of the business, and that too has been received with open arms. [T-26] Is now distributed throughout the world. In spring of 2000, we founded 5Inch.com, a new way to purchase custom designed blank CDR's and DVD's. I've been very fortunate to meet many very interesting people, which has allowed all of us here the opportunity to do something for a living that we really enjoy. I enjoy EVERYTHING about cars (and motorcycles), and you can see what I mean at CarType.com.
4/11
P. Scott Makela
P. Scott Makela (born in 1960), a groundbreaking graphic designer and multimedia artist, studied at Cranbrook, where he also served as designer-in-residence.
His work with wife and partner Laurie Haycock was a dynamic blending of his unique design vision and her deeply nuanced lyricism developed from her book typography. Many of the themes in Scott's work came from the synergy between them.
Scott's typefaces, including Dead History, were made for what he needed to say at the time. He took great delight in making for the moment, and type design allowed him to create a voice for expressing the now.
Design and life were an integrated continuum for Scott, each enriching the other. Scott passed away in 1999.
4/18
Zuzana Licko
Slovak, born 1961.
Type designer, co-founder of Emigre, and provocateur. Emigre and Licko were semi-unwitting members of the vanguard of postmodern typography, and through Emigre the foundry and Emigre Magazine found herself on the forefront of type design in the late 80s and early 90s.
Licko’s early typefaces betray a fascination with low-resolution output, being outline font versions of the fonts then in use on dot-matrix printers. Inspiration from those sources is also evident in the “Base” typefaces, more abstract explorations of simplified typeface design. Over the the last 15 years Licko’s designs have grown less extreme, although no less radical.
Licko’s most significant achievements to date are her two playful text families, Filosofia and Mrs Eaves. Filosofia is a didone / Bodoni revival with many alternate characters and a frequently-used unicase face. Mrs Eaves, named for John Baskerville’s lover, is a mildly stylized Baskerville revival known for its profusion of colorful ligatures and “petite caps”, a unique variation on the theme of small caps. Mrs Eaves is a technical tour de force, formerly being accompanied by a program from LettError intended to help designers manage its unwieldy set of ligatures, and recently being converted to an overwhelmingly full-featured OpenType family by John Butler. Both type families are beloved by graphic designers and regarded with mild suspicion by typographers.
4/25
final class
Typography I / COMD215
Wednesday, 9:30-1220pm, Steuben Hall 401
“Typography has one plain duty before it and that is to convey information in writing. No argument or consideration can absolve typography from this duty. A printed work which cannot be read becomes a product without purpose. More than graphic design, typography is an expression of technology, precision and good order.”
EMIL RUDER
Instructor
Michael Gray, 917 599 6763, michael@liquidfuxion.com
Programs Discussed
Handskills 101; Adobe Illustrator CS2; Adobe InDesign CS2
Attendance
Your attendance is expected at each class meeting. If you can not attend a class you are responsible for contacting myself or another student to discuss what is required for the next class. In the event that there was a critique or assignment due during that class you are still required to turn the work in.
Three unexcused absences may result in course failure at the discretion of the instructor.
Please do not come to class late. Multiple tardies will result in a drop of letter grade.
Full information on the attendance policy can be found in the student handbook
Grades
Demonstration of assignment subject comprehension, 20%
Handskills, 20%
Technical skills, 20%
Fulfillment of assignment specifications, 20%
Deadline adherence, 20%
A, Exceptional; B, Very good; C, Average; D, Below-average; F, Failing
Events
Mar 14, Spring Break
May 3, Sophomore Survey (10am)
Materials and Readings
Class Blog, http://comd215.blogspot.com
You will need to check this site periodically, I will post communication, readings, and links to this site as an easy reference point.
Each week we will discuss an individual important to design and typography. The following dates are tentative.
1/24
Adrian Frutiger
Adrian Frutiger is best known as a type-designer. He has produced some of the most well known and widely used typefaces. He was born in 1928 in Unterlaken, Switzerland, and by the age of 16 was working as a printer’s apprentice near his home town. Following this he moved to Zurich where he studied at the Zurich School of Arts and Crafts, under Professor Walter Kach.
After his education in Zurich, Frutiger moved to Paris where he started to work at the Deberny & Peignot typefoundry. Here he helped the foundry move classic typefaces used with traditional printing methods to newer phototypesetting technologies. At the same time Frutiger started to design his own typefaces, many which became very significant, and this earned him his status as a great type designer. Throughout his career he has produced a number of books, such as:
Type, Sign, Symbol (1980) Signs and Symbols: Their Design and Meaning (1989) The International Type Book (1990) Geometry of Feelings (1998) The Development of Western Type Carved in Wood Plates (1999) Forms and Counterforms (1999) Life Cycle (1999) The Univers (1999) Symbols and Signs: Explorations (1999)
Today his typefaces are readily available from a number of different foundries. He is still alive (2005) and has worked on revisions with Linotype of a number of his typefaces. Such recent collaborations have resulted in Frutiger Next and Avenir Next, which have included refined forms and true italics. Presently Frutiger lives in Bern, Germany and is working with woodcuts.
1/31
Jan Tschichold
Book designer, typographical theorist, type designer. Born 1902. Died 1974.
Tschichold was born in Leipzig in 1902, the son of a signwriter. He trained in graphic arts and book crafts in Leipzig. Working in Munich in the 1920s, Tschichold was a pioneer of the so-called “New Typography”—a modernist, Bauhaus-inspired movement which had no truck with “artistic” typography, preferring plain sans-serif letters, rational assymetric layout, strict functionalism and industrial standardization. Tchichold’s book, Die neue Typographie is still a readable and instructive explanation of this approach.
The Nazi party came to power in Germany in 1933. Tschichold was arrested and lost his teaching job. In due course he emigrated to Switzerland, where (with brief interludes) he spent the rest of his life.
From the 1940s onwards, Tschichold’s style changed: he turned away from asymmetry and modernism towards “classical” typography in a style inspired by the renaissance printers: centred layouts, serif typefaces. Between 1947 and 1949 he established the “house style” for Penguin books in the UK: it was in the classical mold.
Tschichold himself tended to stress the gulf between his later classical typography and his earlier modernist style, which he came to condemn. In retrospect, however, the contrast is not perhaps as great as he made it. His later work is classical, but it is not fussy or artistic; it remains strongly marked by intense attention to detail, lack of fussiness and concentration on function.
Tshichold was primarily a user of type: a designer of books and printed matter. He did however design some typefaces, of which the best known is Sabon, which continues to be much-admired as a text face.
2/7
Eric Gill
Eric Gill, born Arthur Eric Rowton Gill, on February 22nd, 1882 in Brighton, England grew up to be a sculptor, engraver, stone-carver and type-designer. Gill’s first formal training in the art of letterforms was in 1902, at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London by type-designer and calligrapher Edward Johnston (designer of Johnston Sans for the London Underground).
Gill is very well known for his work as a type-designer, and throughout his career he produced a number of different types such as Perpetua, Gill Sans, and Joanna. After completion of a number of his types he wrote “An Essay on Typography” (which touches on an even wider spectrum of topics than just typography), which is still being reprinted today. In 1940, Gill died in Uxbridge, and his gravestone lists him as a “stone-carver”. Today many of Gill’s typefaces are available in digital form from a number of different foundries.
2/14
Saul Bass
Saul Bass (May 8, 1920 - April 25, 1996) was a graphic designer, but is best known for his design on motion picture title sequences, which is thought of as the best such work ever seen.
During his 40-year career he worked for some of Hollywood's greatest filmmakers, including most notably Alfred Hitchcock, plus Otto Preminger, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese. His most famous title sequence is probably the animated paper cut-out of a heroin addict's arm for Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm.
Saul Bass designed the 6th AT&T Bell System logo, that at one point achieved a 93 percent recognition rate in the United States. He also designed the AT&T "globe" logo for AT&T after the break up of the Bell System.
2/21
Max Miedinger
Born 1910 in Zürich. Died 1980, also in Zürich.
Max Miedinger is known a type designer, mainly for his design of the Helvetica type family (actually, Haas Grotesk).
In the late 1920’s Miedinger trained as a typesetter, and eventually went to work for Edouard Hoffmann who was the director of the Haas Typefoundry. At the foundry, Miedinger worked primarily as a salesman. But in his spare time, at Hoffmann’s behest, he designed a sans serif face, Haas Grotesk. Haas partners D. Stempel AG and Linotype expanded the design into the complete Helvetica family from 1957 onward.
Helvetica’s sucess was huge, and it put him on the map as a type designer. Linotype paid him a stipend for his contribution to their corporate success until his death in 1980—a very uncommon practice at the time.
2/28
Paul Rand
Paul Rand (born Peretz Rosenbaum, August 15, 1914 – November 26, 1996) was a well-known American graphic designer, best known for his corporate logo designs. Rand was educated at the Pratt Institute (1929–1932), the Parsons School of Design (1932–1933), and the Art Students League (1933–1934). He was one of the originators of the Swiss Style of graphic design. From 1956 to 1969, and beginning again in 1974, Rand taught design at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Rand was inducted into the New York Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 1972. He designed many posters and corporate identities, including the logos for IBM, UPS and ABC. Rand died of cancer in 1996.
3/7
Josef Müeller-Brockman
Josef Müller-Brockmann, (May 9, 1914 – August 30, 1996), was a Swiss graphic designer and teacher. He studied architecture, design and history of art at both the University and Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich. In 1936 he opened his Zurich studio specialising in graphic design, exhibition design and photography. From 1951 he produced concert posters for the Tonhalle in Zurich. In 1958 he became a founding editor of New Graphic Design along with R.P. Lohse, C. Vivarelli, and H. Neuburg. In 1966 he was appointed European design consultant to IBM. Author of the 1961 publications The Graphic Artist and his Design Problems and Grid Systems in Graphic Design, and the 1971 publications History of the Poster and A History of Visual Communication.
3/14
no class
3/21
Eric Spiekermann
Erik Spiekermann is information architect, type designer (FF Meta, ITC Officina, FF Info, FF Unit, LoType, Berliner Grotesk, Nokia Sans et al) and author of books and articles on type and typography. He was founder (1979) of MetaDesign, Germany's largest design firm with offices in Berlin, London and San Francisco. Projects included corporate design programmes for Audi, Skoda, Volkswagen, Lexus, Heidelberg Printing, Berlin Transit, Duesseldorf Airport and many others. In 1988 he started with FontShop, a company for production and distribution of electronic fonts. He holds a professorship at the Academy of Arts in Bremen, is vice president of the German Design council, president of the International Society of Typographic Designers in London and a board member of ATypI. In July 2000, Erik withdrew from the management of MetaDesign Berlin. Erik now lives and works in Berlin, London and San Francisco, designing publications, complex design systems and more typefaces. His new project is The United Designers Network and brings together a lot of the people he has worked with over the past 25 years. In 2001 he redesigned The Economist magazine in London. His book for Adobe Press, "Stop Stealing Sheep", which first came out in 1993 and has been sold over 150 000 times, has just appeared in a second edition and in a Geman version. He is currently designing corporate design programmes and exclusive typefaces for Deutsche Bahn, the German railway system, and Bosch. In 2003, Erik was awarded the Gerrit Noordzij Award for Typography by the Royal Academy in The Hague, and in 2004 he received the IIID Award for Leadership and Distinctive Achievement in Information Design.
3/28
Pablo Ferro
Pablo Ferro (born January 15, 1935) is a graphic designer and film titles designer.
Pablo Ferro is the least-known of the great title sequence designers. He was born in Antilla, Oriente Province, Cuba. He was raised there on a remote farm until emigrating to New York with his family as a teen.
He has been hailed as a genius by director Stanley Kubrick and has established himself in film for more than three decades as a director, editor, producer and title designer. He has been creating title sequences since the dawn of Saul Bass’s era and is still making title sequences today, his most recent being Iowa in 2005. He has designed titles for films ranging from The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Beetlejuice (1988), L.A. Confidential (1997) and Good Will Hunting (1997). Ferro started work professionally as a comic book artist in 1953.
Ferro is best known as an early master of quick-cutting and for using multiple images within one frame, a technique fondly continued by Kyle Cooper. Ferro has worked with high-tech and optical techniques. His trademark hand-drawn lettering is yet another technique that quite obviously had an influence on Kyle Cooper's work.
Recently he has received the Daimler Chrysler Design Award on October 28, 1999, and the Art Directors Hall of Fame Award in October 2000.
4/4
Carlos Segura
I was born in Santiago, Cuba and came to the United States in 1965 when I was nine. I grew up in Miami, and at a very early age (12) got into a band, originally as their roadie and eventually as their drummer. I remained there until I was nineteen. One of my responsibilities was promotions, and when I left, I threw all that stuff into a book and got my first job as a production artist at an envelope company (my job was to design the return-addresses for bank deposit envelopes). My first real break was at an advertising agency in New Orleans, and after a few more job changes, I moved to Chicago (always wanting to move here because I liked the way the name sounded) in 1980. I'm glad I did because that's where I met my wonderful wife. I worked for advertising agencies, such as Marsteller, Foote Cone & Belding, Young & Rubicam, Ketchum, DDB Needham, BBDO and more, both here and in Pittsburgh for eleven years until coming to the realization that I was not happy creatively, so I quit and started Segura Inc in 1991 to pursue design. My goal of trying to blend as much "fine art" into "commercial art" as possible, and that is what continues to drive us to this day. In 1994, the [T-26] digital type foundry was born to explore the typographical side of the business, and that too has been received with open arms. [T-26] Is now distributed throughout the world. In spring of 2000, we founded 5Inch.com, a new way to purchase custom designed blank CDR's and DVD's. I've been very fortunate to meet many very interesting people, which has allowed all of us here the opportunity to do something for a living that we really enjoy. I enjoy EVERYTHING about cars (and motorcycles), and you can see what I mean at CarType.com.
4/11
P. Scott Makela
P. Scott Makela (born in 1960), a groundbreaking graphic designer and multimedia artist, studied at Cranbrook, where he also served as designer-in-residence.
His work with wife and partner Laurie Haycock was a dynamic blending of his unique design vision and her deeply nuanced lyricism developed from her book typography. Many of the themes in Scott's work came from the synergy between them.
Scott's typefaces, including Dead History, were made for what he needed to say at the time. He took great delight in making for the moment, and type design allowed him to create a voice for expressing the now.
Design and life were an integrated continuum for Scott, each enriching the other. Scott passed away in 1999.
4/18
Zuzana Licko
Slovak, born 1961.
Type designer, co-founder of Emigre, and provocateur. Emigre and Licko were semi-unwitting members of the vanguard of postmodern typography, and through Emigre the foundry and Emigre Magazine found herself on the forefront of type design in the late 80s and early 90s.
Licko’s early typefaces betray a fascination with low-resolution output, being outline font versions of the fonts then in use on dot-matrix printers. Inspiration from those sources is also evident in the “Base” typefaces, more abstract explorations of simplified typeface design. Over the the last 15 years Licko’s designs have grown less extreme, although no less radical.
Licko’s most significant achievements to date are her two playful text families, Filosofia and Mrs Eaves. Filosofia is a didone / Bodoni revival with many alternate characters and a frequently-used unicase face. Mrs Eaves, named for John Baskerville’s lover, is a mildly stylized Baskerville revival known for its profusion of colorful ligatures and “petite caps”, a unique variation on the theme of small caps. Mrs Eaves is a technical tour de force, formerly being accompanied by a program from LettError intended to help designers manage its unwieldy set of ligatures, and recently being converted to an overwhelmingly full-featured OpenType family by John Butler. Both type families are beloved by graphic designers and regarded with mild suspicion by typographers.
4/25
final class
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)