Week 2

Last week we had to find visual design resources, and in class we fed back and I though it was important to note down all the resources that people said because I will learn from them myself and develop as a visual designer.

• http://www.garysimon.net
• http://www.eyemagazine.com
• http://www.deviantart.com
• Trade Magazines in Computer art
• http://www.creativereviews.co.uk
• The best newspaper design
• http://www.graphicsoft.about.com
• Raygun Magazine
• http://www.hiser.com

Type and Typography:

This week we learnt all about all about type and typography within design. To start the lesson we brain stormed what typography actually is:

And we then went on to learn key terms

• Use of type: form of illustration and not just to give information
• A complete set of characters – selected for legibility, impact and tone
• Serif fonts – fonts with feet and tails (usually used in print)
• Sans Serif fonts – “without serif” or without feet and tails. Used in printed headlines or display or screen text: contrast and screen legibility
• Geometric Sans-serif – scientific feel, based of shapes
• Script
• Blackletter
• Dingbat
• Kerning – where two letters overlap each other and/or controlling the white space between two letters.
• Tracking – letter spacing, affects a complete block of text
• Leading – line spacing – vertical space between two lines.

Example of a sans serif font:

Other ways to control text

• Colour: fill and line
• Style: bold, italic, underline
• Distortion: warping
• Size: variety, drop caps
• Rotate
• Building up in layers

Workshop task: Create a business card in InDesign

How to get business card template only using typography:

1. Create new document
2. No facing pages, landscape
3. 90mm by 55mm
4. Margins: 5mm
5. Toolbar: selection tool (highlight, move, delete) – general, direct selection tool – specific and type tool [T]

My template:

Directed study:

1) Find an interesting type case study

• an advert, newspaper, magazine spread, poster etc
• prepare a brief two minute presentation
• include critical analysis12

2) Free practice: type and typography experiments.