To continue on with our team project we were to meet up and discuss post consumerism, all doing research and bringing what we had to the table, what we produced is a mind map that we will put into the form of a poster, the poster will be added to the blog pretty soon.
Activist: Strong
Reflector: Strong
Theorist: Low
Pragmatist: Very Low
When analyzing these results with the information provided I agree with the results of my learning styles. I feel that I learn best under all of the listed categories. With being involved in new experiences I always find them a bit daunting a first but once I get into them I find I learn a great deal from them and improve my understanding with each new experience. When working within a team, I feel that I can both listen to other team member’s opinions as well as express my own. I tend to dislike being thrown into the deep end but this is where I tend to work at my best as I just work endlessly until I get the job done.
I find it quite difficult to learn much when I am reading or writing, I have always found it difficult to concentrate if I am reading anything outside of fiction, I don’t know what it is but I struggle to understand or gain anything from reading and analyzing books and articles, I have to have someone there to help explain things to me.
For my results in the Reflector area I agree with the fact that I will observe other people’s view before expressing my own, this is because it helps me understand my own opinion and further improve upon it. When working on a project or an idea I collect as much research as I can to help with my final outcome, this is because I feel that I must research as much I can to understand what I am doing and to come up with the best outcome I can come up with.
The skills that I find weaker are my leadership skills and this is because I find it difficult to instruct others to do something, the responsibility of leading people makes me nervous.
With the other two areas that are my weakest are the Theorist and Pragmatist. For working on this team project I will try to take on board and pick up on some of the skills that other members may be stronger at so that I can work better within the team and as an individual.
Working Title
How has the use of digital technology changed the way in which designers use type and how this may progress further?
Summary
Typography from the days of the very first print by Guttenberg has, and is still continuing to change in the present day. How we have displayed and applied words in our culture define who we are. Typographers such as Eric Gill, Edward Johnston (Who designed the type and map for the London Underground network), have all played their part in changing the way we look and use type, the font Helvetica was a revolution within the design world and is still today such a powerful font.
“If we were to consider the normal, everyday activities that consume our lives, it would quickly become apparent that typography is ubiquitous and inescapable”. (Jury, D).
The way in which designers work with text has changed dramatically. From the old technique of using the letterpress to the computer, the way in which we use type today. There is so much to learn about typography, from the font size, leading, serifs and sans serifs even the typeface we use, each and every process in type has to be carefully thought of and planned, basically what is type and should it do. In the mid 1980’s the age of digital typography grew and grew. Digital fonts are easier to work with and easily adjusted and manipulated in any way we want. Even today type is changing, the way in which we apply it may already be dying. Books may one day be replaced by the invention of the eBook, no longer may it be printed but simply downloaded, and this could be taken further and applied to downloading magazines. Even with the growth in 3d technology, could this be taken further and we see 3d type used for advertising? Typography is a learnt expertise, even though it is easily accessible for anyone to go online and create their very own fonts, it is still today a specialized subject.
Aims: Why are you doing this?
My aim for this is to gain a greater knowledge and understanding of what typography is. I want to know more about the history of type, were their ways of using it before Guttenberg? How old do we really think it is? I believe that knowing more about it will help me in my future career. I enjoy typography and hope to leave university to make this my main area of expertise. To do a dissertation on a subject I feel I can produce a strong piece of work and would enjoy researching.
Objectives: What will you produce?
What I hope to finally produce for my dissertation is a brief history of typography, a review of how designers adapted to the use of digital technology, a discussion on where students and professional designers think typography will develop further. An analysis of past and current typographers work, and their opinions of the use of typography. A study of how we apply type to everyday life. A review of the technology now available for purchase and how these can further develop type beyond what we already know. I aim to contact printing company and ask a series of questions on how they used to print compared to how they print today. To carry out an experiment comparing both techniques. How easy is it to make a font in the letterpress compared to creating a font online?
Keywords
Fonts, technology, software, advertising, printing, typographer.
Bibliography
Barnbrook, J., 2007. Barnbrook Bible: The Graphic Design of Jonathan Barnbrook, United Kingdom, Room for Living Publishing.
Brody, N., 1988. The Graphic Language of Neville Brody, London, Thames and Hudson.
Carson, P., 1999. Back to the Old School, Creative Review, 19(5), pp. 41-4.
Fawcett-Tang, R, and Jury, D., 2007. New Typography Design, London, Laurence King Publishing Ltd.
Gill, B., 2009. Words into Pictures, Images Publishing Group.
Helvetica., 2007. [DVD] United States: Gary Hustwit.
Jury, D., 2006. What is Typography?, Switzerland, RotoVision SA.
Kinross, R., 1992. The Digital Wave, Eye, 2(7), pp. 26-39.
McLean, R., 1980. The Thames and Hudson Manual of Typography, London. Thames and Hudson Ltd.
Sagmeister, S. 2008. Things I have Learnt in my Life so Far, Abrams Books.
Sassoon, R., 2002. Computers and Typography 2, Bristol, Intellect Books.
Spencer, H., 1969. Pioneers of Modern Typography, London, Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd.
Staples, L., 2000. Typography and the Screen: A Technical Chronology of Digital Typography, 1984-1997, Design Issues, 16(3), pp. 19-34.
Warde, B., 1956. The Crystal Goblet or Printing Should be Invisible. [Online]. Available at
The Crystal Goblet or Printing Should Be Invisible
By Beatrice Warde
The main purpose of this article is explaining what type is in the eyes of the author, that “it should be invisible”. The article itself is comparing typography to goblets of wine, and that those who appreciate and understand wine will prefer to drink from a clear, crystal goblet rather than from a gold one. The author states that through a crystal goblet the various elements of the wine can be observes such as the colour and the smell, while those who drink from a gold goblet are more interested in what the actual goblet looks like rather than the content held within it. By comparing typography to wine Beatrice Warde is saying that the true purpose of typography is not what it looks like, but the fundamentals of it, how it works, it is there to enlighten the thoughts and ideas that are contained within the words.
The key question that the author is addressing is just how much designers rely on how attractive a word looks, rather than how it works and gets across its message, she describes this is by saying that a stained glass window will look pretty to look at, but if you are trying to see through it to see outside then you are best to, and should instead look through a plain glass window. The way she compares this with type is that you can look at it to the thoughts and message that have been laid out on the page to see.
The most important information in this article is that “Type well used is invisible as type, just as the perfect talking voice is the unnoticed vehicle for the transmission of words, ideas.” From this I feel the author means that type should not be obvious, it should not be, “oh look at me, see me look how great and brilliant I am”, but should be more sophisticated, intelligent and properly thought and laid out.
The key primary sources used are that the author has at some point carried out an experiment between those who are connoisseurs and those not so interested in it, choose and react to the shouting out loud look at me object to the subtle more basic one (the gold and clear crystal goblets).
The main conclusions in this article are that type should be structured, planned throughout every step, carefully laid out, not just made to immediately stand out and become less appreciated. Time should be spent to enjoy it, from making it to looking at it.
The key concept we need to understand in this article is it is up to us as designers, typographers to use typography responsibly for others to understand with us. By this concept the author means that we should take full control of the words we create and see around us, we need to understand the words first before we understand and appreciate the look.
The main assumption underlying the author’s thinking is that all type should be like this, it shouldn’t be cheap or tacky, it should be well thought of.
If we take this line of reasoning seriously the implications are that typography would look and feel the same, it would not appeal and be appreciated by everyone, even though it may look good it may not get the point across or disguise the meaning entirely.
The main point of view presented in this article is that words are important, they guide us, explain to us, entertain us, she is seeing it from a designers point of view, of how we should use and understand type.
What is Typography?
By David Jury
The main purpose of this book is to inform the facts of the true depths within typography in all its forms. The book goes into great detail of understanding what exactly typography really is, how should it be used. It states that to understand the grammar of typography, one must gain a knowledge and understanding of language and how it is adapted to function in various social contexts.
The key question that the author is addressing is how we have all come to look and use words throughout our lives. We are taught to read and write from a young age, this is through reading individual words to understand them, and taught to write each individual letter step by step. In the first chapter of the book the author even writes of the steps we take to learn to write, firstly from learning to draw and then write letterforms clearly, how to present words, sentences and paragraphs, how to arrange text on a sheet of paper and how to provide emphasis where required. The most important question looked at here is how much digital technology has changed the nature of typography by making it something everyone does almost every day.
The most important information in the book is all the facts known of typography, throughout the book the author writes of all the key facts designers should know about layouts and how words should be applied within design. This ranges from the more obvious readability, through grids and structures, it even looks at the way in which typography is used and has changed from the days of the likes of the typographer Eric Gill to the modern day in which type is applied.
The key secondary resources used are older books and articles before the dawn of design on the computer, looking at famous typographers that changed the way we look and use type in our lives. Portfolios of designers are used here. “The ‘work of others’ has always been an important resource for the designer.
The main conclusion in this book is typography should be analysed throughout the whole design process, how we use this and how we apply it to our everyday lives should be taken under consideration.
The key concepts we need to understand in this book are that typography has changed so much in our history and is continuing to change even today, I believe at the heart of this book the question is where is typography going? How will we continue to use it in days to come?
The main assumption underlying the author’s thinking is how typography is applied, he is exploring the overlaps, the formal and informal, between typography produced by typographers and typography produced without typographers.
If we fail to take the author’s line of reasoning seriously, the implications are that if we do not apply type in the correct manner it will basically not last and simply fade away.
The main points of view presented in this article are how typography was, is and will be. It looks at how type is used within everyday situation such as business, rural and urban. What I gather from this is the point the author is trying to explain is we need words and we need to use them properly, without them we would not understand anything, we would not understand who we are.
Yet again I am currently working on another team project, one that yet again is a video based project. I don't mind as I have enjoyed working with the channel project with Ross. Now I am working with Conner and am enjoying this too and believe we are on our way to making a strong final outcome.