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Interior Layout Exercise
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4/4/23 Grid System Article Response
Throughout history, master artists and crafts makers understood that the architecture of visual design and arrangement is inexorably tied to the principals of alignment and proportion. Preparing a modular alignment grid for a design is a necessary first step in making informed decisions about how the work should be arranged. The grid’s importance is especially true as a foundation for design of publications, but can be applied almost universally to other forms of visual design, art and building.
The modular 12 column grid is an ideal format for publications. It allows the user to align and balance the images and text layout of their pages by dividing the columns by multiples of 2 (up to 12) depending on the size needed. The grid allows the designer to exert more control over the balance of the individual elements as well as the layout of the entire piece. This allows the graphic artist to present information to their audience in a more comfortable, clear design.
Bland, uniform layouts of the 12 column grid can be modified for more versatility, such as combining groups of columns. The user relies on modular assembly rather than instinct to create their layout. The grid guides the balanced placement of graphics, text, and images to compose a visual harmony to please and attract their audience.
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3/21/23 Poster exercise
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3/20/23
Oscars Typography Article
It’s amazing to think that a multimillion dollar production like the Oscars can be so careless as to overlook perhaps the most important detail of their entire event: to ensure the correct winners are announced. Graphic artist Benjamin Bannister recognized the issue immediately, the typography of the winner cards. This allowed actors Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway to overlook that they had been given the wrong envelope and announced the wrong film as winner.
According to Benjamin, the problem was that the “designer” of the cards did not respect typographical hierarchy and emphasized the wrong information. The Oscars name was the most prominent information on the card, and it is the most useless information included because everyone knows where they are. The winning actor and film title were presented in equal type size and weight, making it easy to mix up their relevance. Finally, the category was printed so small it could barely be read at all.
Redesigning the card to emphasize the proper information of course begins with making the most relevant information on the card the biggest, heaviest weight type. This information is, of course, the name of the winner. The category is next in line in the hierarchy of relevance; it goes above the winner’s name in a smaller font. Of relatively equal importance is the name of the film the actor won for. The Oscars name is replaced with a graphic, providing the same (useless) information in an easeir to understand way.
It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to realize that respecting the typographical rules of emphasis not only help keep you from making embarrassing mistakes, they are just simply properly befitting of what an important ceremonial announcement should be.
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Grids Exercise
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Magazine Cover Exercise
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Pattern Exercises
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Adjective Trace Exercise
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2/21/23 Letter Design Exercise
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Font Article Response
Choosing the fonts for your art project might seem arbitrary or unimportant, but there are a lot of considerations you have to make if you want to communicate your message to your audience most efficiently.
Legibility and readability are the most important considerations. Legibility concerns the font’s dimensions and design. Readability concerns the type’s size, position, and overall impression. X-heights and spacing should prevent confusing overlapping of type. If your work is not legible and readable you will not reach your audience.
Your second considerations in choosing a font is the impression you want to give your audience. Do you want to speak with authority or familiarity? The font can not only help establish a tone you wish to convey, it can do most of the work or it can undermine you.
You must be aware that fonts convey the objective and subjective differently to different members of the audience. Is the font you are using considered universally humorous or do you find it funny for a personal reason? Knowing the difference can prevent an embarrassing miscommunication to your audience.
Everyone wants their work to look good. Excessive ornamentation and decoration of fonts, however, can be disastrous to the ultimate goal of your project, which is to convey a message. The more complex and embellished your fonts are, the longer the reader must take to decipher them. If your goal is to communicate, you need to make it most understandable to the most people in the shortest amount of time.
You must always consider the intent of your design. Imagine what it will be like for the reader and look for things you find trite or uncomfortable as an audience. Do your best not to tire or confuse them with bad formatting or print rivers.
Avoid type anachronisms, such as using a late Roman font for a book about Ancient Greece. Do not make trite or overused choices, like historical information in the Papyrus font or informal text in Comic Sans. Obvious choices should be avoided.
Type families are designed to provide an all-in-one solution to choosing fonts for your projects. All the fonts in a type family are already related and assigned appropriate function in the architecture of the work.
Type theory has existed and evolved over thousands of years. Find out what the experts agree on. Study what works and why it works. Know what doesn’t work and why. Discern why the experts prefer what they do.
Once you’ve seen what the established rules can do for you, now you have the ability to be truly original. As Picasso said, “Know the rules like an expert so you can break them like an artist.”
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Jesse Quaintance 