We got our new lessons this week and I have to say I am a bit overwhelmed with all the lessons we need to cover and all the books we need to read, but in the in end it's for a good cause. I have experimented with different facetypes and fonts before, but never had to dive so deep into understanding all the small details and differences and having to remember all of their names. I started with watching "Typography Part 1, by Nigel French" which took quite a long time after having to rewind and test some stuff on my own together with the course. I then read "The fundamentals of Typography - Graphic Design School" which talked a lot about the history and evolution of the alphabet and the different uses letter have. From illustrations and hieroglyphs on stone to all the different languages to the modern digital media and how typography effects our everyday lives. Last but not least we had to read "Chapter 3Graphic Design School: A Foundation Course for Graphic Designers Working in Print, Moving Image and Digital Media" which I have to admit at this point was all a repetition of what I have learned so far, so I didn't spend too much time on it. I did however use it to guide me up with one of the learning tasks we had to do this week, and that is: "For this assignment, you will need to explain the anatomy of type in a visual way. You may use a single unique typeface, or utilize up to three different typefaces for this execution. We would like you to experiment with the design; enlarge or reduce the font size, cut out sections of the various letters or overlap parts – as long as the visual message is clearly expressed to the viewer. Choose three different colours for the execution. Out of these three, choose one main colour. The remaining two colours can be used sparingly or as accent colours. For example, description text could be in one colour, and the parts of the letterforms in the two remaining colours. Show at least three terms on each of the sheets, for example x-height, cap height, body size, counter, serif, ascender, bowl, baseline, stress/axis, stroke weight and bracketed serif. The explanatory copy can be taken from the textbook (pp. 66-68). The format should be a 210 x 210 mm square." I started up with creating a custom canvas on Adobe Illustrator that is 210 x 210 mm. After that I decided to use a texture background instead of solid color to make it more interesting. I settled with a beige background with paper effect on it. I also had to use up to 3 colors and typefaces for this project. I decided to use the classic black as main color and red and blue for the accents. The fonts I used were, Areal, Georgia and Blackadder ITC which I used for only 1 word in the little. I then typed the English alphabet with "Georgia" which I think is a really nice looking serif font, that represents everything I needed. I made red lines to indicate the different letter heights and then marked all of the elements. I then wrote their names using the classic "Areal" font which I thought is easy on the eye and therefore easy to read. I then wanted to make a more creative title for the sheet, so I used both of the fonts in different scale and added a small accent in Blackadder ITC font. Last I wanted to fill up the empty space next to the title, so I decided to make a small anagram representing the difference between Sans and Serif fonts and added a little bit of info for both of them.
End result:
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