Annotated Bibliography

Annotated Bibliography

Websites

1. Kulba, Bryan. “Karl Gerstner and Design Programmes,”
I am including this article written about the Karl Gerstner’s grid theory and design programs because I quoted it in project one on my slide for Karl Gerstner. It was very insightful and helped me better understand why he overlayed more than one grid in a layout.

2. “Biography of Wes Wilson”
This brief piece of writing on Wes Wilson’s website gave me more insight in to his life and early development. It also talked about his influences. I used this information in my presentation for project one when I talked about him and his designs.

3. “About Milton Glaser”
Milton Glaser was a very popular graphic designer for corporate companies. I used this short biography to talk about him in one of my slides for project one. It talked mostly about his education and his achievements.

4. “About Herb Lubalin”
I also visited his website to get more background information on his life. I included the information I learned about him in a few slides I designed for project one as well.

5. Hoff, Brian. “10 Common Typography Mistakes
This article helped me better understand typographic rules that we were learning about in class. It gives the top ten common typographic mistakes and ways to fix them. I also used it in project number two to help me with formatting.

6. Bowley, Mark. “A 20 Minute Intro to Typography Basics,”
This article helped me with project number two with just giving me more rules and tips to help me format my poster better. The article was called “A 20 Minute Intro to Typography Basics” which it actually introduced me to more elements to be aware of in my layouts.

7. “Typesetting and paste-up, 1970” Daily Titan
I found this article while doing research on printing methods for my presentation on a certain decade for project one. This article includes photos of the Cal State Fullerton’s newspaper organization putting together a publication and showing their printing methods during the 1970’s.

8. Chamberlain, Iris. “Communicating with Typography”
The article, “Communicating with Typography” helped me with designing and planning out my layout for project number three. It was a more in depth version of the article about a twenty minute introduction to typography.

Books


9. Text on Type: Critical Writings on Typography-“Univers: A New Sans Serif Type By Adrian Frutiger by Emil Ruder (1959)
I used information from this chapter or essay from the book Text on Type for my slides on Emil Ruder and Univers for project number one. I also used this text in helping me compile what copy I would include in my advertisement for the typeface Univers-for project number two.

10. Drucker, Johanna, and Emily McVarish. Graphic Design History: a Critical Guide. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009.
I used this book primarily for project one. I used it to get basic information about all movements and important people during the decade.

11. Eskilson, Stephen F. Graphic Design: a New History. New Haven: Yale UP, 2007.
I used this mostly for project number one as well. I used it for more information on movements and important people. I also used it for its images that I included in my presentation.

12. Heller, Steven, and Mirko Ili. Icons of Graphic Design. London: Thames & Hudson, 2008. Print.


This book had the nicest illustrations. I used it for images that I needed to demonstrate the work of the graphic designers I was discussing in my presentation for project one.

13. Hollis, Richard. Graphic Design a Concise History. London: Thames & Hudson, 1994. Print.
I used this small book just for clarifying ideas I got from other books. I used it primarily for project number one when looking up information on Saul Bass.

14. Wallis, Lawrence W. Modern Encyclopedia of Typefaces, 1960-90. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1990. Print.
This book I also used for project number one. It had no writing in it at all. It only included type specimens of popular typefaces from the 1960’s-1990’s. I used this book to include type specimens of the typefaces I was talking about in my presentation for project one.

15. Ellen Lupton. Thinking with Type. Princeton Architectural Press. 2004. Print.
I am citing this book because this book is what our whole course was centered around. Whenever I had any questions about something or needed inspiration I used this book to help me. I used it in projects one, two, and three.

An interesting approach to social networking

This series of advertisements took contemporary elements (social networking websites) and created advertisements that reflect how advertising agencies in the 1950's and 1960's would interpret the idea of communicating through technology. I think it's interesting how contemporary print ads are more concerned with communicating a concept in a minimalist manner.

Back before the creative revolution, the advertiser assumed the viewer would stay on a page an observe a print ad for more than a minute at a time-this idea reflects itself in how large the bodies of copy were that were featured on the print ad.

Currently, advertisers know through research that they need to be quick, clear, and concise with the copy that they feature. It has to capture the viewer's attention-and do it quickly.

From an aesthetic point of view, print advertisements from the 1950's often featured more than two types of typefaces. One usually being decorative or script like and the other being a serif. There was also no apparent use of a grid which manifested itself in the stacking arrangement of the copy. This can be seen in the ad above.

I also noticed the depiction of how technology like videochatting. These advertisements were really well done and well researched because they reflect the interpretations of typographic style and technology from that decade in which it attempts to mimic.

"I'm Comic Sans, Asshole"

While I was doing research on Helvetica for a speech I was going to make about it for another class, I discovered this really funny monologue written from the point of view of Comic Sans. Apparently in the graphic design world, Comic Sans is the most hated typeface ever created, aside from Papyrus. The monologue is witty, hilarious, and makes fun of all the snobby and elitist graphic designers. Everyone knows at least one graphic designer like that and this monologue pokes fun at them.




I'M COMIC SANS, ASSHOLE.

BY MIKE LACHER

Volkswagen-Sell Your Car Campaign

This post isn't really related to typography, but I think the most recent Volkswagen print advertisements for their new vehicle-the Polo is pure advertising genius. The strategy in the campaign was to target people looking to sell their car.

Volkswagen then published a double sided print advertisement where you could cut out the side that said for sale and it has a space for your price and contact information and on the back there's an image of the Polo-the car that the viewer has already decided they want to get because they exerted the energy of cutting the ad out and pasting it on the inside of their car.

Volkswagen in turn, transformed every car-non Volkswagen cars included, in to a piece of ad space.

In terms of typography, the for sale portion of the advertisement featured a sans serif typeface for easy readability from long distances and to catch the attention of the viewer. The simple and minimalistic spread for the for sale portion also aided in getting the idea across.

I think it was a good idea to not include any other information about Volkswagen on the for sale portion because it would take away from the validity of the sign and in turn do the opposite of the purpose of the sign-not sell the car.

Yarra Valley Pinot Noir

This wine bottle label effectively uses the typographic element hierarchy. At a brief glance, one can tell that it's a 2009 Red Wine. Then with closer analysis, one can observe the many different pieces of information that forms the humorous idea of the brand. That it's Australian, totally rad, enjoy it.

The stacking method, as well as the variation in typeface and typeface that the designer of the label used for the copy in a way creates layers of interest for the reader. Although we're discouraged against using two or more typefaces in a layout this label successfully uses the three different typefaces in a way that they compliment each other without competing for the attention of the viewer.

Retail Alphabet Game

While I lurking on the internet, how I normally spend my free time, I discovered this game on the many blogs that I follow and check daily. The game, called the Retail Alphabet Game, tests the player's knowledge of logos for popular companies and brands-Lucky Charms for example.

Although it seems easy at first, there are no hints-just photos of an isolated letter of the company's logo or brand.

You must type in the correct name of the company or brand. Beware this game is very addictive and the answers are not given until a new version of the game is published. This game is on it's 5th version right now.

Here is the link- Retail Alphabet Game

Fail Harder

This post is somewhat related to typography but in a sense, not really. While watching a documentary called- Art&Copy, a documentary about advertising and the creative revolution of the 1960's there was a part in the movie where the crew visited Wieden + Kennedy's Portland, Oregon Offices.

Wieden + Kennedy is a very well known advertising company that's long list of clients includes: Nike and Oldspice.

While Dan Wieden, one of the founders of the company, gave a tour of the office in the documentary he talked about a wall that was decorated completely with pushpins. The pushpins in the wall spelled out "Fail Harder"-according to Wieden, "You're only good to me after you've made three tremendous mistakes." "Fail Harder," implies that Wieden wants to stress the importance of making mistakes during the creative process so his employees can learn from them and better improve their work.

The wall took 361 hours to complete and over 100,000 pushpins. I have included a video of the process.



Here are some photos of the wall: