January 24, 2012

1. Notes

January 24, 2012

Words of the Day

·      Democratization

·      Bodoni

·      Transitional

·      Modern

·      Neo-classical

·      Interchangeable parts

·      Fat face

·      Compositor

·      Industrialization

·      Display type

·      Egyptian

·      Sans serif

·      Tuscan type

·      Wood type

·      Ephemera

·      Romain du Roi- spur in the lowercase L’s

·      England during the civil war was turmoil, and govn. Control of printing.

·      1660- Charles II demanded that the number of printers be reduced to 20 by or otherwise.

·      Giambattista Bodoni- (Bodoni type face) very Rococo influenced

·      The French revolution leads to a rejections for the lush decorations for Louis the 14^th

·      After the revolution, they looked at classicism, antiquity, neo-classisism.

Bodoni

·      Bodoni is inspired by Freneer step from old style to modern

·      Around 1790, bodoni redesigns old letter forms with geometrical and mechanical forms.

·      Mechanical- in designing elements, you look for interchangeable parts or elements that can be reused.

·      Old- organic, modern- precise.

·      Bodoni reinvents the serif. Took brackets off the serifs. Modern, historical

·      His idea is that letterforms should be built from a limited number of interchangeable units.

·      “I only want magnificence, and I don’t work for the common reader.”

1800

·      Bodoni becomes to be called “fat face” display version of bodoni. Extreme exaggeration of fat and thin lines.

·      Display faces are not intended for text. Extremely thick bodoni was really good for posters, signs, to get peoples attentions.

·      The entire world is effected by this, fundamentally change as an animal.

·      Within the industrial revolution society shifts agrarian to industrial base.

·      Industrialization leads to consumerism

·      As people are moving into cities, we have to put them somewhere, crammed into tenements.

·      Growing literacy, public education.

·      Things get cheaper as there are more printers.

·      Demand and supply, printers as drug dealers.

·      Theres a need to sell so there are a need for large type faces.

·      Carve letter forms into wood, then press it into sand, and pour metal in it.

·      Not limited to casting and metal so there are an abundances of letter forms.

·      Egyptian faces- b/c of the time it was cool. -_____-

·      Two line Egyptian- (san serif) sans serif of sans Egyptian faces.

·      Eygptian type can always be pinpointed by the big slab serifs.

·      Tuscan face- cowboys. Starting to get crazy decoration. People thought they could make awesome things with a router.

·      Shadowed letterforms, knocked out letter firms, letters with pictures inside.

·      Mass proliferation of ephemera. Passing, at the moment, nothing to save or collected.

·      Traditionally printing was a sideline job. Massive explosion of print shops.

·      Cutthroat.

·      Historical type faces- Old Style, Transitional, Modern, Egyptian, Sans Serif.

·      Display, black letter, handwritten, scripts, dingbats

·      A typeface is measured from its lowest points to highest.

·      X-height- height of lowercase

·      Leading- space between lines of type. Text it generally 20%.***** ex. 10pt type 12pt. leading.

·      Do not use auto-leading.

·      12points = 1 pica. 6pica= 1 inch. 72 points = 1in.

 


2. Personal Thoughts

I really liked this class lesson today. It was really interesting to learn about the history of serif and sans serif type faces. I am doing projects on putting together different types into a composition and this really gave me a lot to look at when I'm doing my designs. It also helps me figure out what type is what because I need to start memorize what font is what. I did not think that I would be that interested in learning about these types. I am looking forward to next weeks class.