Type 04/24/12

This next selection comes from another Sappi produced book on "75 Selections from the AIGA Design Archives". This book offers examples "that embody the best in communication design and strategy from AIGA's annual juried competitions".

This square book offers a challenging design problem for the designer, but i think it was held with extreme success. This book cover as a whole can be taken as a metaphor for design. The minimal design and color (only white) reminds me of design by it's nature of being able to be applied in any environment.

A minimalistic design doesn't force itself upon its surrounds but rather accepts it. I believe that this is a strong aspect of design in itself. To be a good design it must exist within a social environment and play with the understandings and values of it.

The typeface is Helvetica, in my opinion, for good or worse it has to be considered the "typeface of design".

  

Type 042412

This next type specimen was found it in the Opus paper sample book from Sappi papers. In their Opus book they display six works by different designers of areas of the nation. I choice the poster design by Paul Sahre on the Northeast. Paul used history as inspiration for his poster design. The NE has played a vital role in historical events in this country, Share played this up by projecting the future based on given realities of society, like "global warming, terrorism, the increasing popularity of football and bowling, war and socioeconomics."

Sahre's design is a humorous rendition of our culture and our (sometimes construed) values. The map is a brightly colored linear interpretation of the NE. The font that he used in the label and is Bodoni (http://www.fonts.com/findfonts/detail.htm?productid=716335).

Bodoni is a modern typeface created by Giambattista Bodoni in 1798 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodoni) . Bodoni pushed the font-weight of baskerville to arrive at one the first versions of the modern typeface. Because of it's tendency to "dazzle" at small point sizes (the thicks and thins tend to vibrate makes reading this font difficult), it is predominately used as a display font.

Bodoni is used largely in fashion magazines and hotels because f it's "posh" feel. The sharp clean looking serifs, give this typeface structure and elegance without the flowery scripting marks. The map uses Bodoni as a label lends itself to Sahre intention's with the map, this map demonstrates societies tendencies to idolize the fashionable stars that usually covers the magazines and ads. You could say the use of this typeface is a metaphor for our "star" obsession.

Type 04/24/12

@issue: is a journal of business and design designed by Pentagram. The magazine is "specifically published for business leaders, corporate communicators, the design and printing community, and business school students to communicate how design contributes to business success."

Their logo consists of the "@", "issue" and ":", set (in this case) in white. The logo itself is quite large on the overall page space. Its orientation also is important, the semi-colon is set right up against the right border creating a subliminal "issue." The semi-colon hints at further text in this text line but the page breaks it from the first part os the sentence, the  "@issue:" The "@" sign is reminds the viewer on the social, referencing the internet generations representation of the "current". This abbreviated at is a clear distinction to the audience, younger businesses that have something to do with the design field.

@ issue:'s logo typeface is called "Letter Gothic" (http://www.fonts.com/findfonts/detail.htm?productid=171579). Letter Gothic was created by Roger Roberson in 1956 and 1962. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_Gothic). "This typeface was initially to be used in 'Selectic' typewriters" for IBM's Lexington plant. Because it was intentionally to be used on a typewriter in a technical way the typeface has larger kerning and and large x-height to make it easier to read in large quantities.

The most discernible trait for this typeface is the lowercase "i", "j", and "l" and the elongated finial right below the dot.  Another feature of this typeface is the subtle and reserve use of line-weight shifts, the"u" has a slight shift in weight at the bottom of it's counter.

The typeface is a large feeling type that takes up space. An interesting juxtaposition exists between it's contained "large-ness" and the lowercased text. Lowercase text lends type a more approachable feel, a more inviting or human aspect. The use of the lowercase and the "large-ness" represents the magazine's philosophy, to make big issues accesible.

Type 03-21-12

I found this next type selection a Rachael Ray Magazine (April 2012, p76). The headline of the page is "Pretty Peas" and highlights this months "hero" food, and gives some facts and a recipe including peas as a main ingredient. This caught my eye because of the visual play that the typeface has with the peas that are thrown across the page. The "r" and the "y" have almost detached circles that echo the pea shape.

Bodoni Typeface

This typeface is a modern one in the same vain as Didot or Bodoni. But this typeface is more playful than either of them (of course being heavily based on the modern type theory). The extremes thicks and thins of this typeface add a finished high-end flair that works well as a display font (this probably would have a lot of trouble as body type).

I looked into variations of both Didot and Bodoni and found one that I believe is almost identical in many ways. The typeface "Moliere" ( http://www.myfonts.com /fonts/eurotypo/moliere/ ) is the has many of the key attributes to the type used in Rachael Ray's magazine. The terminal of the "r" ends in that distinctive curl with the circle attached, also the top of the downstroke of the "t" is curved.

Moliere typeface

Moliere typeface is named after a 17th century French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moli%C3%A8re). This playful, colorful and almost comedic typeface I fell lends itself well to Moliere. Rachael Ray's magazine always has a quirky and playful approach to the design and the typefaces used and I think that the use of "Moliere" bridges the gaap between page content and aesthetic vision.

Type 031912

I decided to do a study on the Publix logo. Founded in 1930, Publix Super Markets is the largest and fastest-growing employee-owned supermarket chain that is located in the southeast USA.Like Stop and Shop they have a pharmacy, deli, seafood.

There logo consists of a dark green "Bauhus"-ish typeface (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100407194153AAKdINW) in a white and lime green rectangle. The largest shape in the logo is a white "P" that plays off the lime green with a figure ground relationship. The typeface used is clean and inviting, two attributes that would be sort after for a grocery chain.

This clean and inviting feel comes from the high x-height and the rigid, modular, geometric forms. "Inheriting the simple geometric shapes and monotone stroke weights of Herbert Bayer's universal, it includes separate upper and lower case characters" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus_%28typeface%29).

To keep with the clean and inviting nature of the logo has a Swiss style design with emphasis on negative space and clean lines. This is because of the use of the typeface within the

Type 02-27-12

My post tonight involves a different approach from my previous ones. I am looking into a 1896 Providence newspaper that I found being used as a shim underneath some floor-boards. As you can tell they look like they have been used as a shim, complete with hand-cut nail hole (you can tell because the hole is square).


At first I can't quite tell what the title of it is because it is ripped in two. "The Evenin..." The only paper that this could be is the "Providence Evening Post". The Evening Post ran from 1859-1972 which certainly puts this particular example in the right time (http://www.genealogybank.com/gbnk/newspapers/explore/USA/Rhode_Island/Providence/Providence_Evening_Press/) because I fell in love with this thing the first time I looked at it. On the front page is an account of "Nansen's Triumph" in his discovery of the North Pole, complete with a nah-sayer who objects based on a dearth of evidence. Some evidence of the "monster type" phenomenon is present in the ads and headlines.

I looked into trying to figure out what typefaces are used on this but I am running into some trouble. This is probably because of the "almost science" that typefaces were in this day. The current belief of this time was that "egyptian" slabs were optimal to use in body copy. But the body type is certainly not a slab serif. I started by looking at looked at four pretty obvious candidates for the font; Caslon, Times, Garamond, and Baskerville. But this led to a different place.

Caslon has the correct looking "g" with it's two-stories and closed bottom counter. The "g" also has a right feeling ear, it comes of at the correct angle and also terminates in the correct way. But here is where the similarities stop. One definitive trait of Caslon type is the "nib" quality that is evident in the sllightly slanted top serifs. This is a humanist typeface after all. The "A" also doesn't have the distinctive Caslon top. Caslon ultimately feels to humanist to be it.

I looked and Garamond and it proved to be a quick and easy. Garamond is way to humanist, compared to this typeface it looks closer to a renaissance script. So Garamond is out.

Times had the appropriate weight shifts but it had some big flaws to it though. The ear of the "g" is wrong, it comes off flat not angles. Also Times "e" has a distinctive offset counter within, and a large bottom lower counter with very thin finial.

I found Baskerville to be the most likely but it still doesn't feel right. The transitional typeface feels right but there are certain elements that don't quite fit. The "e" has a low crossbar compared to modern Baskerville, also the "R"'s leg is totally different, while Baskerville's is straight the font used in the newspaper is similar to "Bodoni." Aslo the "Q" doesn't have that beautiful swoosh of a Baskerville but again the "Q" resembles a Bodoni.

So this led me to Bodoni. Overall the type doesn't feel like a modern typeface like this, the contrast on thicks and thins are not as extreme, they are pretty comfortable. Maybe this is a hybrid typeface of sorts? The "W" doesn't have the double "v" to it like Bodoni. I was thinking of Didot but I decided that the typeface used isn't "fancy" enough.

I end this post with no definitive solution. The typeface used seems to be a hybrid between baskerville and Bodoni, a transistioning transition font. It is like find a missing link, a evolutionary hybrid between two different forms. This does seem correct to me. The world that this font existed in was in fact a transitional one. The victorian age was in between agricultural life and big business, man power or horse power and machine power, women's rights was staring to germinate, the ruminants of slavery was still being struggled with in the nation. This time period was in flux in many ways, technological, political, and psychologically.

Type 02-20-12

This was bought at Barnes and Noble bookstores. It is  a remake of the famous WWII poster of  "keep clam and carry on." The poster was created to encourage the citizens of London to ignore the Nazi bombing of their city. The poster was a rallying cry for the English in their fight.

Today this slogan is reused in many different forms, like in this example, "Keep calm and eat cupcakes." The authoritative voice of the original poster translates well to these other versions by sprinkling it with humor. The sheer number of reproductions that are made now echo the difference in cultures.

Our culture is much more fractured than wartime England. England at that time had serious political problems and needed society to come together for the war effort. These modern versions poke fun at the original's serious tone by changing the subject matter by making everyday "luxuries" into serious matters.

This poster was originally produced byt he Ministry of Information. This ministry main objective was to produce propaganda material. "keep calm" posters aimed at reducing the fear the German bombing had on the civilian population by giving the people the impression that the government was calm and collected and that they will win the war.

Unfortunately, the original posters doesn't use a standard font because they were hand-designed and by a anonymous civil servant.This again reflects the state of the culture in war time England (http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/guide_to_keep_calm/). According to discussions at typophile.com the closest modern typeface is Avenir.


Avenir was created by Adrain Frutiger un 1988 and was intended "to be a more organic, humanist interpretation of these highly geometric types" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avenir_(typeface)). Avenir was modeled from the early geometric sans-serif typefaces of Erbar and Futura. The "keep calm" poster typeface was certainly inspired by the same typefaces.


You can now generate these posters with a computer program now, http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/. Here one can enter the desired content and generate it in this style. This is another way the "keep calm" posters have changed since their orignal conception. The government originally designed and published these as an important part of the war effort, now these are customized by anybody.