(202) - TYPE (pt deux)

Define:

-weight: the "heaviness" of a chosen typeface. The bolder or heavier the font, the higher the weight.
-width: the distance horizontally across a letter or element
-style: bold, italic, etc.
-font: a specific style within a typeface or font family
-typeface: a family of fonts, ie: helvetica, rockwell
-x-height: the height of the lowercase letter 'x' of a font, chosen because it is easiest to measure
-cap height: the height of a capital letter in of a font.  Usually measured in millimeters
-leading: the distance between one line of text and another.  Measured in points.
-letterspacing: the amount of space between letters

-type can be measured in inches, millimeters, points, or picas.  Designers should use whatever they feel most comfortable with or whatever is being used by who they are directly working with.  Newspapers often use picas to measure their columns and for formatting purposes.

-point- aka didot point, measuring 67.564 points per inch
-pica - a point system known as the "anglo saxon" version of the didot point.  72 picas per inch
-67.564 didot points in one inch. 72 pica points in one inch
-36pt = about half an inch
-72 picas in an inch
-1.07 didot points in a pica point

(202) - TYPE

John and I created our "type" out of cords.  I think the plug in at the end of some letters really adds a nice detail to the letterforms.

As for my homework:

Define:

- Grid: a set of vertical and horizontal lines for the alignment of type, images, and other elements used in a piece of work.  Designers use grids so that we can implement the elements we'd like to use in our presentation in an orderly and structural way.  Grids are essential for the design of books, manuals, pamphlets, and other multi-page works.  A specific grid will help the designer make choices about things such as letter spacing, type face choice, type face weight, and more.

- Modular Grid: A modular grid is a strucure that implements the use of columns to organize the page, similar to a newspaper.  This is what we'll be doing in the first few exercises of project one.

- Margins: The space between the edge of the content of a page and the edge of the page itself.  Margins can be flexible but are often restrained by specific printing needs.

- Columns: Modules that are vertically oriented.  The use of columns helps the designer maintain consistency in line-length throughout the page.

- Grid Modules: "fields" of text or other elements that are separate from other content from the page.  These can be columns, rows, or other shapes made from other modules in the page.

- Flowlines:  Alignments of text or other elements that break the space of a page into horizontal strips.

- Gutter: Inner margins of a page, created by the space between one field and another.

- Hierarchy: The emphasizing of certain elements of a page.  Hierarchy can be established by font size, font weight, element size, element weight, or the implementation of other visual prompts.  Proper hierarchy makes designs more legible and information more memorable.

- Typographic Color: The overall tone of blocks of text on a page.  This is created by font weight, leading, and other character settings.  It does not refer to the color (red, blue, yellow) of text.  In order to maximize legibility, it is important to efficiently contrast letterforms from the page that they're on.

- White Space: the negative space used in an image.  Negative space refers to the space that isn't taken up by text, images, or other elements in a design.  White space helps create emphasis towards the important part of a design and the hierarchy of specific pieces of the design.

- Contrast: The difference between one object and another.  Black vs. White

(204)- I HEART DESIGN

I am asked the question,

"What piece of design moves you??"

My answer is more of a story including a couple pieces of art, but I will begin with this one:

This was a piece called "SUBESSENCE" by a guy known as "ekud" made back in 2002.  I stumbled across his work on deviantART.com back then and followed him ever since.

Now, rewind back to 2000, when my older brother taught me how to make "tags" in Photoshop 7.  Tags are just little images used as a "signature" on an internet forum.  I frequented a couple of these forums referred to as "gfx" communities and spent hours making crap in photoshop and having it critiqued, and making more stuff, and battling other members of the forum over who could make the best tag.  I would look up tutorials to make cool "gfx" stuff like I saw ekud do.  I made tons and tons of art in photoshop which was kinda cool, but really, it was awful.  For example:

You can tell I was a complete "noob" simply by what I named the piece, "Incorporeal Life".  I wanted to be just like ekud, from the miniature text, to the "technical linework" set on overlay mode and randomly scattered everywhere.

A few years later, I was still learning new tricks, but never tried my own thing.  I was still trying to be just like ekud.

I made this one in 2005 and called it "SYNAPSE".  This has ekud written all over it.

Looking back at those days makes me realize plenty of mistakes that I had made.  I did way too much copying, and didn't explore my creativity as much as I should have.  Granted I was only 12, I just wasn't smart enough to use programs like Cinema4D, Maya, and other 3D programs that top dogs like ekud were using.  However, I still should have tried to be more original and looked further than "cool gfx" on deviantART.com.

Now, ekud (Justin Maller) has blown up.  He's making stuff for Nike, DC shoes, Coke, Young & Reckless, Verizon, ESPN... the list keeps going.  His style is still pretty much the same.  He just makes shit look cool.

check out
www.justinmaller.com

Back in '02, I had talent, just like ekud had talent.  But ekud was in college, and I was in 6th grade.  I didn't know anything about anything.  But now I'm in college, and I'm ready to put forth the work that needs to be done in order to improve my work just like Justin Maller improved his work.

This is what moves me, as a designer.