Chapter 3 stuck out to me as a chapter that really dug into type more. Discussing the space and relation between type and individual letters and characters and how these small little decisions affect a type face. Whether or not a font is thick or thin can transmit a whole different meaning from the designer. In the end it is all up to the designer to decide the mood of a typeface and this has always intrigued me. Using certain texts and fonts to make the eye follow a certain form and path. As a designer you have infinite font possibilities to describe your message, and you need to pick one. I always found that exciting yet daunting in projects in the past. One typeface to speak for your art or design and you as the designer have to choose it. What does that say about you? What does that say about the designer in you? How is the form of the text working with or against your project? All of these questions trouble typography nuts and leave us constantly judging the world of type around us. Form and counter-form exist in letters and words, and using that form and counter-form can a be a very important decision by a designer. Hierarchy is another very important thing touched on in chapter 3. How letters and words are arranged in a system of power. Using things like lines, margins, columns etc. to create a hierarchy within the type. Giving the typeface a voice.
Chapter 4
Chapter 4 sticks mainly to idea of legibility within text. How thick and how thin a font is can greatly affect its legibility, along with the color of the font. Bold fonts have a tendency to lose their form and thin fonts can blend in with the background too much at times. While color can greatly affect the stress on the reader's eyes. Coming from a web design background and really loving color theory and stuff like that this part of the chapter really spoke to me. Knowing that some fonts are web safe and some are not and also that colors like yellow and lime-green can be very difficult to read on the eyes. I also enjoyed learning more about how our eyes perceive letter forms more than individual letters when we read. The shape the word makes actually speaks more to our brains. I remember touching briefly on this is a past class and found it fascinating. This explains why all capped words and sentences are harder to read because the brain processes the text as a block of text and it is hard for our brain to distinguish the letterforms as easily since the word is shaped like a BRICK (see). Learning these things are only going to help us as growing designers. Learning how legibility is affected by font weight, capitals, color, size etc and how our brains like to perceive text can be truly valuable in becoming a successful designer. Space, form, line, shape etc are all important in art and works of art just as it is in type, which could also explain why some type is more "famous" than others. Some may just be more artistic and thought out than others. Food for thought.
An example of bad color choices with type:
No comments:
Post a Comment