typography

No Rest for Me…

The semester break is only four weeks long and I got a whole lot of homework assigned!

First of all, four typography projects have to be tackled (a big one and three smaller ones). This is going to take me at least one week. I’ll give you more details on every project after finishing each one of them.

Secondly, I have to create a profound documentation on the Media and Communication presentation I took part in. Luckily I managed to arrange the publication on Loyal2Art so you’ll see the results (including images and possibly videos) soon enough 😉 Oh, right, the topic is “Communication in Videogames” 🙂

Thirdly, I have only the first two semester to advance in drawing (traditional and digital) so I can get pleasant results for the Illustrator’s Drawing Classes I dared to participate in 😀 This means I have to vigorously train my skills!

Fourthly, I’ll be working on an internet site for a talented co-student. This means more HTML and CSS studying for me (leave alone WordPress’ php which is another league right now).

Additionally I’m trying to improve this blog as much as possible (today I updated the About Me page) and translate some posts into German, since so many people already asked me to do so.  If you want you can visit the Loyal2Art Facebook page for a more frequent update on progress.

Right now I’m waiting for some nice pictures of the diploma celebration from the photographer’s team members. This means I should be able to give you a vivid report one of these days 😉

Phew, I hope I can complete most of the tasks in time!

in Personal  by Savina 0 comments

Typography Homework Results

Last week everyone in typography class had to present their homework. We were supposed to search for 25 different versions of any desired letter or number and take frontal pictures documenting our findings. Additionally the cropped pictures shouldn’t be much smaller than 4×4 cm (about 1.5 inch) and a black and white version should be included. We didn’t get any grades but the professor commented on the results.

So here’s my contribution to typography 🙂

1.Typo Homework WS2010

Category 1: "G" with a spur and lowercase "G"

1.Typo Homework WS2010

Category 2: "G" without a spur

I really looked for as many different versions as possible and picked a rather simple categorization. It seemed the professor liked it 🙂

This homework was also a test to see how we are going to present everything on paper! Most students printed their results on A4 sheets without any headlines etc. I went for A3 so I used only 2 sheets. It seemed quite logical for me since I had two categories. It would have looked stupid on more than two pieces of paper! Additionally this way I had enough space for headings. Oh and I went against the professors advice to keep every picture the same size but since it wasn’t too distracting I went through with it quite well 😉

in Typograhy  by Savina 0 comments

More on Typography Basics

This week we’ve discussed what typography/font does and what it’s needed for.

First of all the most basic statement on typography: “Typography gives you access to information.”

But what exactly is typography? It’s not simply addressing to the letters in writing. It’s more like a letter-system including not only the different fonts  but also the structure defined by things like various heading-sizes (known in web-editors as H1,H2,H3 etc.) or the italic/bold adjustments. This is a very basic definition but for now it’ll do.

Furthermore typography does the following:

  • documents ideas and this way enables cultural development
  • passes culture down
  • gives orientation not only in a text (structure) but through pictograms (simple signs are also a part of typography, there are certain pictographically fonts in Word for example)
  • creates atmosphere and interprets the content (see “Venice”)

venice

looks like a picture in an educational book or a newspaper

venice

looks more dreamy, like a tourist postcard and only because I changed the font

And what is our relationship to typography? Well a good typographical work always pays out since the human eye prefers well structured, paragraphed text 😉 On the other hand, we are dependent on text. Have you ever been to y country where you cannot read any of the written signs? Did you feel the growing despair with time? See 🙂

Oh, and one more thing: If you are a designer you have to be able to convince your clients of why they should pick a certain font. And believe me you’re not going to achieve anything by reasoning your choice on whether the font looks good or bad! You’ll need some “invisible knowledge”. That’s what we are going to learn in our typography class 😉

in Typograhy  by Savina 0 comments

Typography 1

Today I had my first typography lesson.

Basically we were showen different exam works, which were alltogether different, ranging from children’s books to animation and games.

Then the professor gave us two helpful links “every design/art student should visit on a daly basis”. But see for yourself: Fontblog and Slanted. As far as I can see there are no English versions available.

And finally we got our first 2 homeworks.

  1. Pick a favorite letter or number, find at least 25 versions in your everyday life and take photos. Organize the images on your computer, sort them in different categories and print them out. (3 weeks time)
  2. Write your name with an exceptional font the professor can remember 🙂 (1 week time)

Well that’s that. More from typography next week!

in Typograhy  by Savina 0 comments