Sunday 11 November 2012

OUGD404 Design Principles Studio session. Anatomy of type - Part 1.

Visual Literacy
- The ability to construct meaning from visual images of type.
- Interpreting images of the present, past and a range of cultures.
- Producing images that effectively communicate a message to an audience.

Visual Communication
- Is a process of sending and receiving messages through images and type.

- Is based on a level of shared understanding via signs, symbols, gestures and objects.

- Is affected by audience, context, media and method of distribution.


Rules are to be learnt from.
Principles can be questioned/ explored and applied to our own understanding.

All that is necessary for any language to exist is an agreement amongst a group of people that ine thing will stand for another. 

Anatomy of type - Part 1

Wood - Woodblock type, softer and still durable.
Stone- Chipping into stone, has to have serifs to end terminals to ensure cleanlines.
Bone- Quills.

Lead- Print, more intrictate, sharper lines.

Silicone- Digital age, wanting to replicate hand made fonts.


Typography definition - Dictionary.
The art and technique of printing with moveable type.


Bauhaus introduced a dialogue of form and function.

Function before form - Function is a priority.
Does function drive form or does form drive function?


Timeline of printable type.

1450- Johana Gutenberg invents moveable type.
1450-1690- Classical old style print based type.
1750- John Baskerville invents transitional typefaces.
1700-1850- Industrialisation craft - Mass production/ Industry.

1600- Enlightenment period - Wanted to communicate development of knowledge, science and religion. Newspapers made, people learnt to read on a mass scale.

1880-1950- Swiss/Modern movement - helvetica and arial.
1960- Contemporary period - psychedelic and tv type.
Current- Digital age - Type is driven by digital and virtual environment.


We were asked in groups referring to the 10 fonts we had each brought into glass what properties/ appearance made each font fit into the following categories;  



Classic Pre-inudustrial type before mass production.
Stone - Established, Sophisticated, Traditional, commercial
Sable - Rough, fast, fluid, gothic
Bone - Elegant, feminine, posh

Modern Post- Industrial type.
Wood - Simple, formal, curved, modern
Lead - Fragile, rounded, bold, minimal
Silicone - Geometric, dense, textured, simple

Anatomy of type.
Stem- Significantly vertical stem and oblique.
Stroke- Vertical, horizontal or oblique.

Serif- Rectangle or oblique stroke.

Sans serif- Without serif.

Bowl- The rounded form that describes the counter - The bowl may be open or closed.
Counter- Negative space that surrounds the bowl.

At the end of this session we all swapped the 5 fonts we had collected both uppercase and lowercase versions and swapped them for someone elses. We are to use the program identifont to dissect each typeface and ultimately solve what it is called and who designed it. we are to further investigate into one typeface finding out what it has been used for etc.

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