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:

Univers VS Helvetica

During my research on the typeface Univers for Project#2 I stumbled upon this project made by a graphic design student named Sonraya Kramer from New York. In a very Illustrative and easy to understand way, the artist demonstrates the many differences between the two similarly designed typefaces. Here are a few screenshots from the project.



The first screen shot explains the differences in the heights of the capitals as well as the stroke weight differences. The second screen shot describes the roundness and perfect circles the numbers in from Univers attempt to include in their making.

Univers/Akzidenz/Helvetica

Again, while doing research on the typeface Univers for project #2, I found a chart that depicted the differences between Univers and two typefaces similar to it. Anyone that's familiar with the typeface Univers, should be familiar with the typefaces Helvetica and Akzidenz Grotesk.

Univers was created by a French foundry in 1954. Helvetica was created by a Swiss foundry in 1957 and Akzidenz Grotesk predates both typefaces because it was created in the 19th century long before lineale typefaces became popularly used(During the 1950's and 1960's).

In fact, the creater of Helvetica based his typeface on correcting the problems that he found in the typeface Akzidenz Grotesk. Akzidenz Grotesk is known as one of the oldest known sans serifs in typographic history.

Although to the untrained eye, the differences if noticeable at all seem miniscule- the chart illustrates where the most distinguishing elements exist between each typeface.

Fontopoly

This poster was made by London based graphic designer, Timba Smits for an exhibition called, "Go Font Yourself." I wanted to do a bit of research on this poster because the way that it was created made it look like an aged boardgame from the 1950's, which is what the artist intended. I think it would be great if a board game like this really existed-I for one would purchase it instantly. The poster was designed for the fictional board game, fontopoly, which is a parody of the popular children's board game that we're all familiar with, Monopoly. With squares like Meta Street, Eurostile Station, and the Palatino Circus, this board game seems like a good representation of the varieties of typefaces that exist and the most popularly used ones like Frutiger.

Fontstaches

I fell in love with this immediately when I found it while I was doing my daily lurking on typography blogs. I feel like this poster captures the distinctive personalities each typeface would have if it were an actual person-with a mustache!! I just think this poster was creatively made because we're all used to typestudies that show off the popular characters of the alphabet but what about the parentheses and brackets!?! This is a fun way of showing the varying stroke weights ands contrasts in each typeface. My favorite mustaches of the group include:Mr. Goudy Old Style, Mr. Didot, and Mr. Big Caslon. They seem like they would be the lives of the dinner party if there was one!

Elements of International Typographic Style

One movement I learned about through my research for Project#2, A Survey of Typographic History, was the International Typographic Style or also known as the Swiss Style. It's also known as the Swiss Style because it originated and became most popular in Basel, Switzerland. Designers most associated with this movement are Armin Hofmann and Emil Ruder.

The design pieces from this movement were minimalist, objective, and ordered in a way that made the copy compliment the accompanying image.

Elements that were emblematic of this movement at the peak of it’s popularity, mainly the 1950’s until the early 1970’s were:

Asymmetrical layouts
Strict use of a grid
Geometric abstraction in layouts
Fondness for negative space
Flush left and ragged right copy
Use of sans-serifs typefaces

Here are some examples:



Both of these posters were crafted by Armin Hofmann.

Gerald Holtom

Another discovery I made during my research on my history of typography project was about the invention of the peace symbol.

I never really thought about how the peace symbol came to be in American history, but it has a really interesting background. The peace symbol was originally designed by Gerald Holtom, a british graphic designer in 1958 for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). The inside of the circle is a combination made up of the semaphore letters N and D (for Nuclear Disarmament), meaning the flag signaling system.

It's interesting to see how a logo for an organization in Britain can be reinterpreted as a symbol of peace in America.

The typeface formerly known as...

While I was doing research for my project on the history of typography I discovered a lot of interesting facts about the time period I picked. Originally, I picked the 1960s-1990's because I've always had an affinity for the 1960's (minus the racial segregation and assassinations). Since I was paired up with a partner, I decided to take the first fifteen years of our time period and my partner took the later half of the period. Hopefully most of us are familiar with the typeface, Helvetica, but who really knows about the history of how this typeface came to be so universally used.

^that's helvetica.

^that's helvetica being used for all the advertisements for American Apparel stores.

Once you realize what helvetica looks like, it's really hard not to notice where it's being used.

While I was immersing myself in the history of typography I learned that Helvetica was invented in a type foundry in Switzerland by Max Meidinger in 1957. It was originally called Neue Haas Grotesk, it's maker changed it's name to Helvetica, latin for Switzerland, so that it could be more attractive to international typographic markets. Helvetica was designed as a renovation of a grotesque typeface from the 17th century called Akzidenz Grotesk. Helvetica was considered the typeface for the modern age because of the balance of counter space and positive space in each letter.


In my opinion, Helvetica is just pretty to look at :)

An interesting analogy

Typefaces are the clothes words wear.


The accompanying image challenges this analogy. This analogy creates an alternative perception of the function of a typeface. The poster however demonstrates how I feel about a typeface.

It's more of a body type than an optional item like clothing. Bodies come in all shapes and sizes but essentially we all have the same parts. This is how a typeface is as well, they come in all different types of variants, some are serifs some are sans serifs but essentially they all have the same basic elements.

Font Conference

CollegeHumor.com is a website known for it's witty and humorous articles that are relevant to college students and their college lifestyles. The website features hottest girls on college campus, craziest photos, and articles like roommate revenge.

College Humor is also known for its funny videos that are usually parodies of current issues, songs, or celebrities. This video, called "Font Conference" is about a conference that is supposed to be structured like United Nations forums but instead of countries being represented its various typefaces.

The different typefaces are personified as humans with personalities that either match the name of their typeface or match the connotative association that is in turn personified as a person. An example of this is Baskerville Old Style is depicted as an old man. This twist to this is that Comic Sans is the hero of the story!

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Retna

Retna is an Los Angeles based graffiti artist most popularly known for his humungous mural pieces that can be found all over the city and the world. He's traveled to places like Belgium and England to exhibit his unique pieces of art. He's been involved with graffiti since 1984 until he then turned towards fine arts and mural painting in 1997. In the photo above, he was responsible for the illustrative writing in the background of the mural. His work can be considered a piece of typographic art because of his use of black letter calligraphy to make a pattern that's very reminiscent of arabesque writing. Although his writing is in the background of the mural is compliments the subject of the mural very well because it becomes a sort of illustration in itself.

Here are more photos...

Exercise #2 reflection

Exercise #2: Type as Shape, involved experimenting with setting letters in ten different typefaces and then choosing which parts of the ten letters to cut in to 3 x 3 pieces to later piece together to form a new image. The goal of this exercise was to learn and appreciate the anatomy of each letterform while also realizing the distinguishing features and additions each typeface adds to the letters themselves. I had a lot of trouble with this exercise because none of the pieces I cut out complimented each other how I planned them to so I had to improvise. I’m not completely satisfied with my final product but it’s better than my first draft plus it looks like I intentionally spelled out “Yo”! The top left corner of this piece was cut from a lowercase k in Franklin Gothic while the top right corner was taken from a lowercase g in HS Serif Gothic (one of my “wildcard” typefaces”). The lower left corner was cut from a lowercase t in Eurostile (another one of my “wildcard” typefaces) and the lower right corner was cut from a lowercase g in Baskerville. Eurostile is a pretty contemporary typeface being that it was created in the 1960’s while Franklin Gothic, which is a bit older is also considered modern being that it was created in the 1900’s-both are part of the san serifs category. Baskerville is the oldest and only one with serifs of the group of typefaces that I chose-it was created in the 1750’s. The difference in typefaces in my piece are only noticed when the stroke weight is observed-meaning, that the lower right corner you can observe the contrasting weights in the Baskerville typeface while the other three corners there is no immediately observable difference in stroke weights.

Holaaaa

Weirdly enough, this isn’t the first blog I’ve written on- to be honest this is blog/site #4 or #5. Before my Visual Communication class, I had never really paid much attention to typefaces, sizing, kerning, or even knew what a serif was- I guess this Typography class is more or less a continuation of last semester’s class. I envy the people that are able to create visually appealing pieces that contain nothing but copy. Having the ability to create something like the image below is my goal that I plan to achieve by the end of the semester. I also want to learn the differences between Helvetica and Arial. ;p COMIC SANS 4 LYFE Y’ALL.

Just kidding…