Social Poster

Object as Mark

Great Minds: Paula Scher

Modularity Font

Pattern Making

Layers

Video Summary: Foundations of Typography | Color, Contrast & Scale

This video offered lots of useful information to think about when working with typography. 

Fundamental considerations when making decisions regarding type: 
- length
- format
- audience
- surface

Things to remember when working with text type:

- Aim for even color/tonality

- No rivers/gaps in text

- No widows/orphans

- Keep tracking to a minimum

- Lengthy passages should appear in regular or book weight

- Font size and leadding affects the color of the text

- Content should play a role in the choice of typography

COLOR

- can create contrast or unity

- can elicit an emotional response

- can create hierarchy: enhance, amplify or separate text

- Consider the color of background against the color of type

CONTRAST: the degree of difference between two things

- Create contrast by using a typeface with a broad range of weights

- Use combination of serif and sans serif fonts

SCALE

- Bigger is better!

- Consider the size of surrounding elements

When working with text and image:

- Make use of the negative space in an image

- Try darkening the image behind text

- Use outlines and shadows to make text pop against a busy image

"Everything exists in relationship to everything else."

Hierarchy: Typeface Poster

Calligraphy Demo with Heber Miranda

Considering I previously knew nothing about calligraphy, I found the class demonstration quite interesting.  Heber Miranda is a graphic designer and calligrapher with design education from both City College and SDSU.  He currently works for MaeLin's design firm, Visual Asylum.  

Heber introduced us to many different calligraphy tools and techniques, including cola pens, pilot parallel pens, ruling pens and various calligraphy style brushes.  He actually makes his own calligraphy pens, which are beautiful ergonomic pieces handcrafted from wood and other materials.  The fact that he has (self-proclaimed) "terrible handwriting" is fascinating, because his calligraphy strokes are rather elegant and refined.  Heber describes calligraphy as his "obsession," and after hearing about the endless hours he spends practicing, I have a better understanding of the level of commitment and discipline necessary to master this particular craft.

Heber referred us to a website to use as a resource for learning more about calligraphy: www.iampeth.com

Border Play

Amor + Keisuke

What a treat to meet Amor and Keisuke!  Being a first-year student in the Graphic Design department, it was really inspiring to hear a personal success story that has its roots at City College.  I enjoyed learning all about Amor and Keisuke's collective journey - Starting at City with their internships at Visual Asylum and Bennett Peji; their full scholarships to ArtCenter that lead to opportunities in Berlin and adventures at the Bauhaus; their passions for collaborative thinking and positive social impact, and their contributions in the Designmatters program; and finally their return to City College to pursue Future Studies.

Amor and Keisuke's presentation was full of information and inspiration, but what struck me the most was their teamwork, their tenacity and their refusal to take NO for an answer.  Amor gave a fantastic piece of professional advice (that's applicable to any industry) when she said you have to create your own opportunities.  To succeed in any competitive field you have to think ahead and take the initiative.  And this creative team is living proof of that motto.

A few other tidbits that I found notable:

- Continue to build your virtual toolbox

- Always bring it back to the needs of the client

- Your OBSESSIONS are important

- Celebrate collaborative thinking

- Steps of design/creation process:

1. Discovery
2. Ideation
3. Prototyping
4. Implementation

Positive/Negative

Grouping Modes

Seeing Color

Video Summary: Color for Design and Art

I learned a great deal from Jim Krause's interesting and informative video, Color for Design and Art.  Below is an outline of some of the main points:

Color is a pulsation of electromagnetic energy.  

The color wheel is a designer's friend.  Get to know it! 

Primary Colors (red/yellow/blue)

Secondary Colors (orange/purple/green)

Tertiary Colors (one primary + one secondary color)

The properties of color can be described with three characteristics:

Hue (color)

Saturation (brightness or intensity)

Value (lightness/darkness)  

Without value there can be no hue or saturation.

Color Systems

RGB (red, green, blue) is used for digital images on screen.

CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) is used for process color printing, with images printed as densities of tiny dots. 

Spot Colors (aka Pantone/PMS) are pre-mixed single colors used for ink printing.

Programs such as Photoshop can convert colors from one system to another.  

Color Wheel Based Palettes:

Monochromatic

Analogous

Triadic

Complimentary

Split Complimentary

When choosing the "right color" for a client:
- Make sure it connects with the target audience
- Look for a color that's not currently being used by the client's competitors
- Choose a color that effectively represents the client's product

Methods of working with color when designing an illustration:
- Begin illustration by focusing on the value (all grays), and then substitute the colors.
- Choose a color you like, then create a palette based on that color
- Borrow color inspiration for famous painters: Vermeer, Klee, Klimt, Miro, etc.

Interaction of Color

Color Wheel

Typographic Texture

Texture

Video Summary: Marian Bantjes

Marian Bantjes is a Canadian designer, typographer and illustrator.  Everything about her is fascinating, from her work to her individual style to her personal story.  Marian was an art school dropout and found a job as a typesetter at a publishing company.  She worked for many years as a graphic designer at the design firm Digitopolis, but eventually became disenchanted with the client-based model of design strategy.  After leaving the company Marian moved to a remote location on Bowen Island, where she focused on personal projects, wrote furiously on the design blog Speak Up, and eventually found her own creative voice around age 40.

Following the personal mantra "Everything I do, I do for love," Valentine's Day became Marian's "thing," and she continues to create incredible custom valentines every year.  She has since become a wildly successful and sought-after designer who always follows her own personal ideas and instincts, rather than catering to the client.  Marian has published a book entitled I Wonder, constructed in the style of illuminated manuscript.  She is described by her colleagues as having an "obvious obsession," as copious amounts of time, love and attention are apparent in all her work.  Marian advocates for the fusion and inclusion of fine art in the commercial world, and for working against what's expected.

Video Summary: Jessica Hische

Jessica Hische is a San Francisco-based designer and illustrator specializing in lettering.  Her many notable projects include designing the book cover lettering and ornamentation for the Barnes and Noble classics series and the typeface for Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom.  She gained recognition in the design world for her project Daily Drop Cap, in which she created a new hand-drawn illustrative letter every day and shared them as free downloads on the web.  Not only was this a smart marketing strategy, but it kept her on her creative toes! 

I would describe Jessica's work as bright, whimsical, stylish and super fun.  Her work has an aesthetic that definitely appeals to my personal sense of style, and she has an attention to detail and subtlety that makes her a standout among lettering artists.

Jessica is the co-founder of Title Case Typographic Artisans and shares this functional office space with her partner, Erik Marinovich.  Together they hold lettering workshops for aspiring designers around their communal work table.  Jessica and Erik start their work days with the ritual of changing into their studio moccasins and are self proclaimed "type nerds."

Some of the best advice I gained from Jessica's interview was to choose a career doing day-to-day work that you love, and to draw creative inspiration from EVERYWHERE.

Scale

Scale | Depth | Motion