If studying about typography in my years as a design student taught me anything, it taught me that on the whole, over the years the basics still hold. The typefaces we use today are all based off of ones that were designed generations ago. Why reinvent the wheel? Why redesign letterforms that have worked so well for so long? We work best with what we find familiar.  The computer has taken over our desk's top, but what does it do? It replicates a desk! Our desktops are covered with files, folders, and pictures, just like they used to be.

It is for that reason that I love looking at how science fiction thinks the computers of the future will change so dramatically, including the typography used on those computers. Over the years, while taking notes in class, to write faster I developed a way to write that forms each letter with only one line that mimics these science fiction based typefaces, while still being understandable.

Using fontstruct, I was able to craft a version of this typeface that is very close to this typeface, but due to the limitations of the platform, ended up only close to the typeface as invisioned, so let's consider it a "beta release". I've named it MINIMAX, because it does the maximum it can with the minimum amount of lines.
download here
view fontstruct page here

This has been a enlightening and challenging class.  The books we read lead way into fascinating discussions that have caused me to re think many preconceived notions I have about; metaphors, images, comic books, categorizing, the list goes on and on.  Now that the semester is coming to an end we find ourselves looking back over all we have learned.  These questions are designed to try to help us get an overview of the semester.  Hopefully they will help in our discussion. 

1)      I am sure that we each learned a great deal for all of the books that we read for this class.  But if you had to chose, which do you think had; the biggest impact on you, caused you to make foreseen and unforeseen connections, helped you to grasp an unknown concept or see something in a new way, etc?

 

2)      What connections or ideas are present from author to author?  What concepts do you think that the authors would agree about?  What do you think that they would disagree about?

 

3)      When working on the final project for this course, were there any concepts from the reading that you focused on specifically?  (Of course we all tried to pay attention to the lessons of the books but was there anyone that influenced your project in particular?)

 

4)      After using Twitter and the IAOC blog for the past few months has your opinion changed about these forms of communication?

5)      During the first few weeks of class we attempted to identify possible information ecologies within Rowan.  Now that we have read the remaining books and completed the map project do you still agree with what we had originally said?  Are there any other ecologies that we missed?

 

6)      Do you think that the information on your poster presentation could be considered beautiful evidence? If not why? Is there anything that could have been done differently to make it more so?

 

 

When creating the initial sketches for my letters  I was hoping to create a very ornate font. Hopefully my font would have still been easy to read and usable but it was also quite flowery.  However after quite some time playing with fontStruct, creating this particular style of font did not seen possible.  I had been hoping to create a font somewhere in between  Blackadder ITC and Curlz MT .  In order to create the curls I had to make the font quite large.  Since it was my first time working with FontStruct I was uncomfortable working at such a large size and was overwhelmed by detail.  I decided to regroup and attempted a different style that was more suited to the strengths of the application and my inexperience as a typographer.   Afterward I experimented with FontStruct by working with the different bricks and seeing what kinds of patterns and shapes I could make.

While exploring the limitations of FontStruct I was interested and amused by the circular bricks.  Circles are something that I have always found aesthetically pleasing and I was reminded of the wall art that many people create with circles.  Traditionally circles have symbolized togetherness, eternity, love, family, etc.  These are concepts that most people enjoy and can relate to in some way.  The wall art that I mentioned tends to create the appearance of bubbles floating toward the sky or Champaign in a glass   I decided to attempt a similar style within the constraints of a font.  I attempted to create a font that was fun and elegant while still being usable. 

I wanted to base the general shape of the font off Times New Roman because of its popularity and because it is generally accepted.    I also took inspiration from Imprint MT Shadow because of the strip of white that is present in the side of each letter.  As Turchi might say  this blank space is important, perhaps even more so that the filled in area and should be evaluated accordingly.  To me Imprint MT Shadow seems more intricate than Times New Roman while still being easy to read. 

The circles or bubbles and more dense on the right side of the letter than the left.  This creates an A symmetrical appearance that I find to be more interesting than symmetrical ones.   For the shape of this letter I was influenced by popular drawings of suns with curvy rays.

  I have used this concept over and over in my own paintings and artwork. While I did not think that I could create the hard curves of the sunrays, I was able to create the varying degrees of thickness seen in the rays. Of course some of the letters came out better than others for example I preferred the outcome of the letter “B” much more than the letter “E”.

One problem that I came a crossed was when creating the lowercase letters was that Lupton talks about having the bottom of curvy letters such as “o” or “e” hang below the baseline.  The rationale behind this is that “if a typeface were not positioned this way, it would appear to teeter precariously, lacking a sense of physical grounding” (p.35).  However because the lower case letters themselves were only 12 grid blocks high this made a bigger impact on the look of the letter than I would have preferred. 

Here is a screen shot of my font; Have chosen to call it Void because the shape of the letters is made up of small round holes. 

After completing my font I attempted to find a color palate on Kuler that accentuates the mood and character of the font.  (Or at least the mood and character that I tried to project with the font.) To do this I continued to use an image of a sun with curvy rays.  I chose one of the mosaics that I made back in high school as my inspiration. 

 

While the colors of the mosaic itself are more diverse than I would want in a four sample color palate it did provide interesting inspiration for colors to chose from. I tried to chose ones that I believed would complement the style of the font.  Therefore I chose deep purples, yellow, and dark gray for my color palate.  The purples and yellows are complementary to one another on the color wheel and I thought that the combination of the three would make it possible to highlight and subdue different items when creating a presentation.  Also yellow is symbolic of happiness, rebirth, regenerations, hope, warmth, nature, etc. While purple is symbolic of royalty, wealth, opulence, etc.  Dark Gray is symbolic of Stability, Power, Trustworthiness, Conservatism, etc. Of course the symbolic meaning behind these colors are all culturally ground. Each person will see different meaning in these colors because of their background and personal perception.    

This is my font, and as you can see, it’s absolutely fontastic.  I’ve always liked fonts that are odd and off the wall, things like Bobcat or X Files, so when I began designing my own font in Fontstruct, I wanted to make letters that were a bit exaggerated and imperfect.  I’d say I’ve definitely succeeded in that. 

 

 

I started by making each of my capital letters eight boxes high and eight boxes wide.  I began with A, and once I finished the letter and had it the way I wanted it, I copied it, and would paste it into the grid of each new letter I was working on.  This was a way for me to ensure that each of my letters was going to be proportional to the previous one.  The same principal went for lowercase letters, which were four high and four wide.  My making the lowercase half the height of the capital letters is a principle that can be seen on page 36 of Lupton’s Thinking With Type.

 

When I started fooling around with Fontstruct, I had a few ideas for my letters, but found that trying to translate what was in my head into the actual program proved to be a more difficult task than I initially anticipated.  I goofed around until I created the A that I now have, which kind of looks like Pac Man, southbound, chasing after some delicious dots.  Honestly, that’s the first thought that came into my head when I finished work on A and it kind of made me laugh, so I decided to make all my letters kind of rounded, bubbly, and thick to go along with the theme.

 

 

 

My font is more in the style of the Roman fonts, as Lupton points out on page 45.  (Side note, I didn’t even think until after I’d already finished and downloaded my font that I would need numbers as well as the letters.  That’s why in my printed-out version of this post that uses my font, I have to spell out all the numbers I write.)  You can also see that my tracking is pretty even, but the space between letters is pretty wide, which would me more in the way of positive tracking, as Lupton points out on page eighty one.  I did this because of the style that I created.  The fat, rounded letters would have been too mushed together to read had I made the tracking any less.  To see my full alphabet in all its glory, just click here.

           

(The early stages of capital G)

 

 

I also used Kuler to create a color palate.  The picture I used is one that a friend of mine snapped on South Street in Philadelphia while we were there walking around in the fall. 

 

 

 

 

Like some of my classmates, Gage’s discussion on the colors of social division was one that interested me.  In my palate, you can see the red, gold, and blue colors, that were talked about in the book (red for freemen, gold for nobility, blue for slaves) but I liked that they weren’t too striking or bright, but rather more along the lines of a pastel.  This also gives the colors a calming effect, which I found interesting because to me, the picture is very vivid and alive with color and is very striking, while the color palate, though based off the picture, looks a bit more subdued and placid.

 

IPhones blow my mind as it is.  One of my buddies has one, and sometimes we'll be out at a bar or bowling, and something will come up in conversation, like the name of a movie character or what a celebrity looks like, and he can break out his IPhone and in seconds find the answers to our questions and then start surfing around the web a bit.  And as my classmate Brandon pointed out in his Twitter review, there are plenty of cool apps that go along with the IPhone that make it even more amazing.  But all you IPhone junkies had better brace yourselves, because it looks like a new Hulu application may be upon us in only a matter of months!

I'm not very familiar with the IPhone and the applications that go along with it, but from what I've heard and read, there was some hype about a Hulu application last year, and that all fell through.  But it seems more believable this time around, especially since there is going to be a new version of the IPhone launched this summer (the IPhone OS 3.0 software update, as I just read.)

If you check out this article from CNN, they admit that nothing has been set in stone just yet, and there are a few factors that still leave the Hulu app rumor up in the air, (like the fact that a Hulu application that would allow IPhone users to watch videos, movies, and listen to music all without leaving the app.  This, of course, would damage ITunes.)  But come on, with all the possible apps that are floating around out there (like this one, which tracks hurricanes, and one for news and updates about gastroenterology......who is using this stuff?), I think a Hulu app has been a long time coming.

 

 

     I had the opportunity to create my own font using Fontstruct recently.  I had an interesting sort of inspiration for it.  I am a rap artist, and get inspired by lyrics from other rap artists.  I felt it would be interesting to create a font inspired by rap music.  Rap music has long had associations with graffiti.  I felt it would be fun to create a font inspired by graffiti.
     Choosing an image became my first step.  I enjoyed seeing this image.

      There are several unique characteristics to the letters painted here.  Most typefaces resemble in some fashion geometric shapes.  This graffiti is very curvy, and only at certain parts of the letter does it resemble a geometric shape.  As a matter a fact, most of the letters do not have straight lines and those that do have them only at certain parts.
    In addition, parts of the letter in graffiti also become part of the background of the image.  One can see parts of the terminal of the S in the above picture form the background that outlines the word.  Also, the thickness of the lines that create each letter varies as the letter is finally finished.
Further, because graffiti comes from a counter culture and anti hero perspective, it does not follow the rigid rules of geometric shapes and patterns. I attempted to replicate all of these characteristics in my font creation.
     I began a few letters with a dedication to creating them as curvy as possible.  I found out, however this would be extremely difficult.  My first attempt is below.



    FontStruct is a program that allows users to create fonts on a grid similar to graph paper.  The user then chooses a block from what felt to me like a limited selection based on what my goals for the font.  Most of the choices of bricks were geometric, which is typical of fonts throughout their history, and did not allow for the curviness I planned on creating.  I decided to mimic instead of replicate the characteristics of graffiti in my font creation.





    One can see in my second attempt I was able to vary the thickness of the letters.  I even added arrows in some of the letters.  By rule, most letters hit the baseline and stop, due to the social context of graffiti, hitting the baseline and stopping with my letters did not seem to fit that context.  To exaggerate this context, I drew an arrow to show visually how the font adopts these traits.

Here is a screen shot of all my letters:



Link to my font.



    I also had the opportunity to create my own color palette using Kuler.  I chose to stick to the same theme, using the same image shown above.   What I found interesting was while reading Gage on page thirty four, he discusses the three social divisions of color during the nineteenth century.  Nobles were gold, freemen were red, and slaves were blue.  One can see from the image above that it is done in many shades of blue.  The history of rap music has many themes of oppression due to it typically being a medium for urban minorities to voice the oppressive practices of the status quo.  To me, it makes sense for the street artist to use blue in this way for his work, even if he did not know of it consciously.  It also sets a melancholy mood as is typical for blue as a color.  Another interesting element is that the image is outlined with a shade of purple that I chose.  Purple is an interesting contrast to the different shades of blue the artist used.  It suggests to me that the artist may be suggesting a mood albeit melancholy, outlined by a potential for a happier situation

Link to my Color Palette.