Question 1

Written assignment (observation and analysis) (4 hrs)

Define the term “typography” in your own words
Write a few sentences explaining what typography is not

Find a case study on typeface development on the Internet (similar to the ones in Addendum A). Explain which medium (small format printing, large format printing, mobile devices, etc.) the font developed is best suited for and why. Keep legibility, size and style in mind.

Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable, and appealing when displayed. Typography is everywhere, it surrounds us, you can see it in newspapers, magazines, commercials, books, on your cereal box, flyers, in the media like television and on the internet.

Typography is not lettering, not graffiti, it is not your handwriting. Typography does not have one set way of doing things. Typography does not have or use basic typing functions in its pieces. Typography does not use images or art in its design. (You will not find actual art used in the technology, although there is a lot of creativity and design that encapsulated in the use of the tool).

Question 2

Research and written assignment (observation and analysis) (1,5 days)

Document one day of your life acting as an observer of typographic design. Produce a comprehensive diary of the typographic experience of your day from ﬁrst thing in the morning to last thing at night.
Keep this diary within a research folder or sketchbook. You should be prepared to use photography, photocopying and other means where necessary to evidence what you ﬁnd, as well as collecting ﬁrst-hand examples of typographic design.
Make notes or comments to reﬂect on what you have collected and documented. Your notes should help you to consider what kind of design it is that you are recording. For example, a cereal packet may have some large obvious lettering / typographic device on the front of the box, but there will also be typography in the form of information design within a “nutritional information” table on the packaging. So are you looking at promotional design/branding or information design? Or are you looking at typography? Is it lettering?

Choose two examples of design that you have collected that you consider to have either good or bad qualities. Try to analyse these further in terms of their typography. Can you identify the typefaces being used? Does the typography communicate successfully? If so, why? If not, why not?

Here I have collected some pictures of my typical routines with typography that I encounter through a day.

Vitamins – Looks like they have used sans serif font which is easy readable. They have used Bold and normal thickness.

Wheatgrass powder – Combination of two different fonts. Looks like a sans serif font. It is easy readable.

Pancake mix – Easy readable font. Different colours used.

Red Quinua – Combination of several different fonts. The biggest and boldest is «red quinua» as it is the most important info on the packaging. The rest is designed in other fonts with a smaller font size.

Kvikk lunsj – Easy readable fonts. The top uses italic wile the worrld kvikk lunsj is designed in with a bold font.

Sun dried tomatoes – Uses different fonts. Designed in a way so the reader would see » Organic sun dried tomatoes » first.

In lot of the images above you can see information design, and branding of the different products. Some have more “handmade” feel to the design, it is not as clean and strict in the expression, as it is to make you feel good, make you feel cozy. This is to appeal to your appetite and personalize it. The headlines is often bold and black, they do this to get attention to their cases.

The most interesting one I think is the Red Quinua, they have done this in a creative way, even though I think it looks a little bit messy, it is nice to look at. The typography is a serif font. I believe that they have managed to design an attractive and nice packaging that screams «organic».

The one with the poorest design, I think is the pancake mix. It is really boring to look at, even though the readability is very good. There is no originality.

Question 3

Practical assignment (2 days)

Complete the exercise files that came with the Lynda video Indesign Typography. Upload them to WordPress.
Use your design software to design a newspaper front page. Pay special attention to typography (size, leading, column width, etc.).
Use your design software to design a double-page spread (DPS) for your favourite magazine (look at an example of a DPS here