Cantara Ali : Week 6

This is a poster that was displayed around JCM last semester for the visiting artist Anahita Ghazvinizadeh. The typeface used looks to me like a geometric sans serif like Univers. Because this poster's purpose is to inform the student body of the lecture, I tend to cringe at the justified block of text in the lower right hand corner. The artist's name tracked out and justified looks a little strange as well. The upper left hand corner is more successful. The avant-garde spacing works with the title and the subject matter. The artists name looks better flush right and the date place and time are organized and readable. This poster reminds me that concept is important, but so is readability. As I move forward in typography I have to keep in mind that there needs to be a balance between breaking and following rules. 

Bria Crain: Week 6

This example of type is a headline for an article in the 2015 Communication Arts Interactive Annual, read by designers around the world. The sans serif fonts—condensed, italic, and bold—were hand lettered (although for the bottom two, it is hard to tell without seeing the edges up close/in person). They are left intentionally rough. The article is about Carson Ellis, an illustrator known mainly for her children's book illustrations. The rough brushed texture and style of the lettering is reminiscent of her illustration style, a sliver of which you can see to the right of the headline on the opposite page. She also uses a lot of hand lettering in her work, so this type treatment is appropriate for an article about it. I would like to work on my hand lettering, and this is a good example of the technical aspects done well—letters are kerned and all are sitting on the baseline, etc. Often, these things are ignored when hand lettering (although when it's done intentionally/for a purpose, it's okay—that's a different story).

Brooke Garner

I found this example of type on a product called Synergy that I have started to purchase regularly. Synergy is a brand of live-culture Kombucha, which provides numerous health benefits. Since this drink promotes digestive health and immunity, as well as supports healthy aging and overall vitality, the audience for this product includes anyone wanting to gain health benefits. The typeface for the word “Synergy” appears to be similar to the serif typeface, Baskerville, because of the high contrast, generous proportions and crisp edges. I believe this typeface is appropriate for the product because it is soft with rounded bracketed serifs and appears perfectly made, yet natural, like the product. I like how the description of the product is in all lower case, mixed with the important parts of the product, such as the title and edition in all caps. I was attracted to this product by the packaging design. The type is spread out and allows a lot of white space without any information being lost, which is appealing to the eye. I am very interested in product design packaging and I think I could potentially focus on it in the future. With this in mind, I will have to make sure that the type works well with the concept behind the packaging of a product and the feel it wants to give off to it’s potential buyers. Without proper typography, the packaging will simply fail. I need to be sure to give a particular hierarchy to each part of type in any packaging that I do.

Decorative flow

I usually don't gravitate towards whispy and obviously decorative typefaces, but the movement and possibility of this particular specimen drew me to share it. This artist creates free flowing linear forms that try to convey each letter form. She uses a serif type for her template and then with a pen carefully illustrates a smoke or fabric like essence to each letter. Especially heading into book design and production, I am very intrigued by this concept. This inspires my design abilities in two ways: it reminds me to take existing things and work/build upon them. It also concentrates my eye for very fine detail, the necessity of detail and the delicate balance between minimal and legible.

Swing, swing swing

 Sam's Burger joint, a swing dancing club down in the heart of San Antonio, has a great great neon sign that was first designed back in 1970, the name "Sam's" is in a hand written script, with the S at a slight angle as if swing dancing its self. I find it interesting how this much character could be put into glass and a neon sign. 

Ashley Tann

Photo found at jasonbooher.com 

This is a book cover for Lord of the Flies designed by Jason Booher, the art director of Blue Rider Press. The audience is anyone wanting, or obligated, to read this book. I'm not sure of the typeface used, but it is a sans-serif. I like that Booher chose a simple typeface because there is already a lot happening with the layout and the background image. The background image is a Rorschach test mark that, on its side, resembles a pig, and standing up feels like blood and violence. The layout of the type is frenzied-feeling and somehow ominous. Although the title and author's name have different styles, the mixture of the two on the page hurts legibility. I'm not too upset with this though because I think it ties in so well to the book--it's like the type is a visual demonstration of the psychological traumas the boys endure on the island. This is a good example of using type to deliver a message outside of readability. This reminds me that, in my own work, I can use type as a visual tool.

Deyton #6 (Play the game!)

Hey classmates :)
You all should take a minute to play this game to see how you do. It's pretty fun and super fast.
Kerning Game
I am embarrassed to say that I got a 24 on the word "Type" but I made a 100 on 3 words lol

This is actually slightly relevant to my blog this week because I am posting about a free calendar I got from Half Price Books last week (when I bought my example of an exhibition catalog). The game is relevant because I love the Half Price Books' logo if only they would fix the kerning on the word Books-- it has always bothered me. Anyway, here is a couple of the spreads from the calendar:

The header and subheads are the same condensed, geometric san-serif in all caps. The rest of the text is in a similar font that is even more condensed making it very hard to read at the tiny scale, though it might be necessary to fit all of the information into the boxes. They are very successful with the hierarchy of the information portrayed on the layout. The drop quotes and images captions in all caps, like the headers, making them much easier to read.  The layouts are so similar that the random and barely noticeable variations seem pointless to me. The outline is overkill for the "bent corner" decoration, and the tan corner works so much better because the black type is even harder to read on the red background. I like how the image caption overlaps the image and the background is slightly transparent so you can see the image barely behind the words, but it does not lose any legibility, I like that better in the caption that is outlined. I also personally like the line work, but it is unnecessary and the spread is already so busy. They should have taken the most successful of each spread and carried it through all the months, or made the differences seem more deliberate or with reason.