ALL ABOUT

TYPOGRAPHY BY EMILY COURDELLE

WHAT IS TYPOGRAPHY?

Wikipedia says:

“Typography (from the Greek words "form" and "to write") is the art and technique of arranging type to make

written language most appealing to learning and recognition. The arrangement of type involves selecting

typefaces, point size, line length, line-spacing (leading), letter-spacing (tracking), and adjusting the space

within letters pairs (kerning). Type design is a closely related craft, sometimes considered part of typography;

most typographers do not design typefaces, and some type designers do not consider themselves

typographers. In modern times, typography has been put in film, television and online broadcasts to add

emotion to communication.

Typography is performed by typesetters, compositors, typographers, graphic designers, art directors, manga

artists, comic book artists, graffiti artists, clerical workers, and everyone else who arranges type for a product.

Until the Digital Age, typography was a specialized occupation.

Digitization opened up typography to new generations of visual designers and lay users, and David Jury, Head

of Graphic Design at Colchester Institute in England, states that:

"typography is now something everybody does."

WHERE DID IT ALL BEGIN?

Times “New” Roman

The font that was always used in school essays and

to “go to” font for a word document is one of the

earliest forms of typography design.

William Caslon (1692/1693 – 23 January 1766), also

known as William Caslon the elder, was an English

gunsmith and designer of typefaces. The distinction and

legibility of his type secured him the patronage of the

leading printers of the day in England and on the

continent. His typefaces transformed English type design

and first established an English national typographic style.

From there people have used and created thousands

of different forms of typography typefaces. It then grew

Into using type to create an emotion or to draw attention,

etc. For example, when something is BOLD and it capital

Letters, you are instantly more drawn to it.

Where as if something is written small and light in colour,

it is harder to read and less noticeable on the page.

This is only the beginning, typography is used in very

Thought through and tactical ways, which helps in advertising,

Design, articles, branding, and much more.

SERIF VS. SANS SERIF

What does that actually mean?

A “serif” is the small expansion that comes from a letter, as you

can see in the example to the right. The words “sans” is French

for “without” – so basically “sans serif” means “without a serif”.

“Serifs originated in the Latin alphabet with inscriptional

lettering - words carved into stone in Roman antiquity. The

explanation proposed by Father Edward Catich in his 1968

book The Origin of the Serif is now broadly but not universally

accepted: the Roman letter outlines were first painted onto

stone, and the stone carvers followed the brush marks which

flared at stroke ends and corners, creating serifs. Another

theory is that serifs were devised to neaten the ends of lines as

they were chiselled into stone”.

Contemporary examples…

To the right are some examples of how different

companies have used Serif or Sans Serif in their

company names and logo’s. Most have actually

used sans serif, apart from Vogue, Gucci, CBS,

Hilton, Sony, and Abercrombie & Fitch.

These are all very upmarket companies, and

perhaps suggest that they don’t want to use a

“gothic” font, and keep to the classy serif fonts.

SYMMETRICAL VS.

ASYMMETRICAL

“There is a feeling of movement in asymmetry, that is why it seems more interesting in

art and architecture. There is freedom in asymmetry, it is not contained or inhibited,

unlike symmetry. On the downside, symmetry can be tiresome to the eye. If not done

correctly, it can look messy or confusing.” – Rachel Arandilla

The word “Asymmetrical” is the absence of symmetry. Its been proven

that asymmetry creates energy and tension, while symmetry is static and

orderly. To the right are some examples of symmetrical and asymmetrical

design…

This design to the right

is clearly very

symmetrical, and is

pleasing and “in order”

to the audience.

Everything seems

straight forward and

simple, which was done

intentionally by the

designer.

UNDERSTANDING THE

BASICS

•The Type Size, also called the Cap Height, is the overall height of capital letters in the formation of words.

•The Ascender is the upward tail on letters like h, l, t, b, d, and k.

•The Descender is the downward tail for letters like g, q, and y.

•The Counter is the white space located inside letters like o and p.

•The X Height is the height of the letter, and does not include ascenders or descenders.

•Baselines are the boundary that the lowest part of the letter rests on. Take a look at the y, p, g, p and y letters in the

illustration above. The solid line they are resting on is the baseline.

The in which individual letters are positioned and placed are just as important as the actual style of the text itself. The

placement needs to be visually pleasing to achieve a professional and effective design. This is why considering these

basics is important when designing typefaces or creating a logo, webpage, etc.

Below is the explanations to all these words featured in the picture. They must all be considered when creating a

typeface.

KERNING

What is Kerning?

Kerning (less commonly mortising) is the process of

adjusting the spacing between characters in a

proportional font, usually to achieve a visually

pleasing result. Kerning adjusts the space between

individual letter forms, while tracking (letter-spacing)

adjusts spacing uniformly over a range of characters. In

a well-kerned font, the two-dimensional blank spaces

between each pair of characters all have a visually

similar area.

Just the same as the ascender, decender, X height and

Type size, the Kerning of typography needs to be

considered. It is basically the amount of space there is

between each individual letter. As you can see below,

the version of type where kerning is applied looks much

more pleasing and orderly than without kerning. The

top version looks almost unfinished and wrong.

FAMOUS EXAMPLES

MILTON GLASER

JAMIE REID

Milton Glaser is the well known graphic

designer who created the “I heart NY”

design. He has created a few typefaces

as well, the image to the left being one

example. I’m not too keen on the font, I

think it feels quite child-like and video

game styled. Although it does work in a

lot of his designs.

Jamie Reid is an English artist and anarchist with connections

to the Situationists. His work, featuring letters cut from

newspaper headlines in the style of a ransom note, came close

to defining the image of punk rock, particularly in the UK. His

best known works include the Sex Pistols album Never Mind

the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols and the singles "Anarchy in

the UK", "God Save The Queen" (based on a Cecil Beaton

photograph of Queen Elizabeth II, with an added safety pin

through her nose and swastikas in her eyes, described by Sean

O'Hagan of The Observer as "the single most iconic image of

the punk era"), "Pretty Vacant" and "Holidays in the Sun".

NEVILLE BRODY

Neville Brody is one of my favourite designers and typographers, I really love

how he almost breaks the rules of typography and balance in designs, but it

works.

“Neville Brody is a London born designer who studied design in Britain during

the 1970s. He spent three years studying at the London College of Printing

where his work, which was quite experimental in nature, was met with quite

unfavourable criticism because the school generally taught traditional printing

methods. He gained a fair amount of attention as an art director for The Face

magazine, where he worked from 1980 to 1993. The magazine was very

popular in the 1980s, it was called a "fashion bible" and set many of the

trends of design which enjoyed success during the same time period.”

The image on the right is mainly

asymmetrical, yet it has some

symmetry in it, such as the divide

between the middle and the balance

between the letter “U”.

MODERN EXAMPLES

(SANS SERIF) Here are some examples of some really good

uses of modern typography I found on the internet. This shows

just how much typography has developed over the years and

how it is used within graphic design and publishing.

The design to the left is very asymmetrical, and the text is all

over the place in some areas. But there's something very

effective and pleasing about the design and the way the letters

are placed. The balance with the words and lettering are very

different, but in my opinion create a very modern and fresh

design.

(SERIF) To the right is

another very cleaver use

of typography, this has

been done mainly to

create emotion and

connection with the

advert, in this case you

are connecting to the

child who “copies” the

parent through the use of

their handwriting. This is

really clever, I think if an

advert can spark the

emotion they need to,

they have done their job.

MODERN EXAMPLES

I really like the example above. They have used the woman's

hair for the typography, and are basically saying “women don’t

want thin hair” but in a very cleaver and pleasing way. They

have used very curly, fancy type to reflect the ladies curly,

thick hair.

The design to the right is very symmetrical, it’s neat and in

order. This image is talking about war, peace and equality, and

have been very cleaver in the design as everything is even

and equal in dimensions, which is done to reflect how

everyone should be equal.

TO SUM UP…

To summarise, typography is an incredibly powerful and effective way of communicating an emotion and

feeling to an audience. It can create confusion, order, feeling of happiness, sadness, connection and

professionalism. Everything must be considered when using typography, from kerning to symmetry. When

done right, it is a very effective tool and will help in sales, branding and identity. But when done wrong, it

can be disastrous as it could convey the wrong feeling or emotion, or make a company look

unprofessional and scruffy!