(Glossary) Excerpts from the Elements of Typographic Style
My goal with this publication is to open your mind about the way that type is viewed and change the way you think about it. Enjoy and experiment with type
“The minimal requirement in visual design is … the organization of all the parts into a unified whole. All the parts, no matter how disparate, must be reconciled so they support each other.”
A page, like a building or a room, can be of any size and proportion, but some are distinctly more pleasing than others, and some have quite specific connotations. A brochure that unfolds and refolds in the hand is intrinsically different from a formal letter that lies motionless and flat, or a handwritten note that folds into quarters and comes in an envelope of a different shape and size. All of these are different again from a book, in which the pages flow sequentially in pairs.
Much typography is based, for the sake of convenience, on standard industrial paper sizes, from 35 x 45 inch press sheets to 31/2 x 2 inch conventional business cards. Some formats, such as the booklets that accompany compact discs, are condemned to especially rigid restrictions of size. But many typographic projects begin with the opportunity and necessity of selecting the dimensions of the page.
There is rarely a free choice. A page size of 12 x 19 inches, for example, is likely to be both inconvenient and expensive because it is just in excess of 11 x 17, which is a standard industrial unit. And a brochure that is 5 x 9 inches, no matter how handsome, might be unacceptable because it is too wide to fit into a standard business envelope (4x9Yi). But when the realm of practicality has been established, and it is known that the page must fall within certain limits, how is one to choose? By taking whatever is easiest, or biggest, or whatever is the most convenient standard size? By trusting to blind instinct?
Topography
1) On the printed page words are seen not heard.
2) Ideas are communicated through conventional words.
3) The concept is designed by means of letters.
4) Economy of expression is visual not phonetic.
5) The continuity of page sequence the bioscopic book.
6) The printed page transcends space and time.
Certain proportions keep
recurring in their work because they please the eye and the mind,
just as certain sizes keep recurring because they are comfortable
to the hand.
Many of these proportions are inherent in simple geometric figures - equilateral triangle, square, regular pentagon, hexagon and octagon. And these proportions not only seem to please human beings in many different centuries and countries, they are also prominent in nature far beyond the human realm. They occur in the structures of molecules, mineral crystals, soap bubbles, flowers, as well as books and temples, manuscripts and mosques.
2) Ideas are communicated through conventional words.
3) The concept is designed by means of letters.
4) Economy of expression is visual not phonetic.
5) The continuity of page sequence the bioscopic book.
6) The printed page transcends space and time.
Scribes and typographers, like architects, have been shaping visual spaces for thousands of years.
Many of these proportions are inherent in simple geometric figures - equilateral triangle, square, regular pentagon, hexagon and octagon. And these proportions not only seem to please human beings in many different centuries and countries, they are also prominent in nature far beyond the human realm. They occur in the structures of molecules, mineral crystals, soap bubbles, flowers, as well as books and temples, manuscripts and mosques.
The essense of the new typography is clarity.
This puts it into deliberate opposition to the old typography whose aim was “beauty” and whose clarity did not attain the high level we require today. This utmost clarity is necessary today because of the manifold claims for our attention made by the extraordinary amount of print which, demands the greatest economy of expression. The gentle swing of the pendulum between ornamental type, the (superficially understood) “beautiful” appearance. and “adornment” by extraneous additions (ornaments) can never produce the pure form we demand today.
This typeface above, would not be appropriate for most places but it is expressive and takes on a life of its own. It tells a story.
The Type below is also not appropriate for most places, and does not only look like type, but also organic natural forms that could appear in anywhere. But in certain contexts it would be recognized as a letter “P” and “L”.
The Type below is also not appropriate for most places, and does not only look like type, but also organic natural forms that could appear in anywhere. But in certain contexts it would be recognized as a letter “P” and “L”.
My goal with this publication is to open your mind about the way that type is viewed and change the way you think about it. Enjoy and experiment with type!
Dwiggins coined the term graphic designer, designed hundreds of books and eighteen typefaces, and wrote the first book on advertising design
To begin the exploration of typography you must first abandon the idea of it just being words and letters and then explore what those words and letters are saying to you.Each typographic form tells a unique story. Not all type is appropriate in every place. Which is why they must be carefully observed. Ask yourself what does this type say to me.
Also how important is legibility in certain situations? When I created the title type I was not thinking much about legibility, I was mostly thinking about the forms and what they meant and how they would be perceived. However, I would never set body type with those typographic forms.
Dwiggins coined the term graphic designer, designed hundreds of books and eighteen typefaces, and wrote the first book on advertising design
To begin the exploration of typography you must first abandon the idea of it just being words and letters and then explore what those words and letters are saying to you.Each typographic form tells a unique story. Not all type is appropriate in every place. Which is why they must be carefully observed. Ask yourself what does this type say to me.
Also how important is legibility in certain situations? When I created the title type I was not thinking much about legibility, I was mostly thinking about the forms and what they meant and how they would be perceived. However, I would never set body type with those typographic forms.
Modern man has to absorb every day a mass of printed matter which whether he has asked for it or not is delivered through his letter-box or confronts him everywhere out of doors. At first, today’s printing differed from that of previous times less in form than in quantity but as the quantity increased. the “form” also began to change: the speed with which the modern consumer of printing has to absorb it means that the form of printing also must adapt itself to the conditions of modern life.
As a rule we no longer read quietly line by line but glance quickly over the whole and only if our interest is awakened we study it in detail. The old typography both in feeling and in form was adapted to the needs of its readers who, had plenty of time to read line by line in a leisurely manner. For them function could not yet play any significant role.
As a rule we no longer read quietly line by line but glance quickly over the whole and only if our interest is awakened we study it in detail. The old typography both in feeling and in form was adapted to the needs of its readers who, had plenty of time to read line by line in a leisurely manner. For them function could not yet play any significant role.
I was not thinking much about legibility, I was mostly thinking about the forms and what they meant and how they would be perceived. However, I would never set body type with those typographic forms.
In order to use color effectively it is necessary to recognize that color deceives continually. To this end, the beginning is not a study of color systems.”
Josef Albers“In visual perception a color is almost never seen as it really is — as it physically is. This fact makes color the most relative medium in art.
What feelings does the colors on this page evoke, compared to the other colors throughout this publication?
What feelings does the colors on this page evoke, compared to the other colors throughout this publication?
