ch 3 & 4

In chapter three the book really takes you deeper into type. The chapter goes into details of the forms and counter forms of letters and words and how they can communicate in different ways, not just to the viewers, but between themselves. Even the way the different letter styles and thicknesses are arranged so perfectly that they can express totally different feelings and emotions. They do so all simply by the thickness of the type. There could be a bold universe font, versus a light universe font. They both are from the same type family; however they have totally different feelings and meanings behind them. That is one of cool things about being a designer. You get to pick what type you are using and what message you want to send using the type you have chosen. This also makes it very hard as a designer though. I often find it difficult finding the type that I want to use to express the feeling that I want viewers to receive from my piece. Simply changing the font from a light to a bold can be as much as changing the statement from declarative to assertive. When choosing the elements such as line in a piece it is very important to be thinking of balance. The chapter describes the use of line thickness to express different feelings. Ultimately you want the piece to be all balanced including the relation between the line and other elements involved in the piece.

Chapter four is basically all about the idea of legibility in text. The chapter starts off by stating, “As signs representing sounds in spoken language, letters are basic to legible typography. The primary purpose of a letterform is to convey a recognizable meaning to the mind.” This basically means that the clearer the message and letterforms are the better it will be taken in by the viewer and easier it will be to understand. There needs to be clarity in the form and concept to get your point and message across. There are so many different variables involved in making a font legible versus illegible. Bold fonts may lose their form and thin fonts can get mixed in with the background and become illegible. This chapter was really just packed to the brim with valuable information. Since I am a graphic design major it is totally necessary to learn and know about all of these concepts involved in this chapter. Type is just a form of art and you have to know what works and what doesn’t and be able to understand why it does. This chapter helps point out what is necessary to achieve what you want and the best ways to do so.