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- Coda notes is pretty awesome. Check it out! http://bit.ly/c1s0we 2010/07/28
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- @codeviking just the PDF, still great though. I hear rumors of a reprint though. 2010/07/23

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8 Faces, First Impressions

July 22nd, 2010

8 Faces is a new project headed by Elliot Jay Stocks, which contains interviews with typographers who create or use type in compelling ways. The first run of 1000 copies sold out in a matter of hours but anyone can do what I did and buy a PDF version. The magazine is planned for bi-annual release and will be a regular addition to my bookshelf, digitally in this case.

The design of the 8 Faces is definitely great, clean layout with wonderful full color photographs. The content is where I had the greatest surprise. The interviews with these luminaries of the field are not that different from what you might find online but isolated in a magazine rather than in series of blog posts with ads and other distractions running along the side really make a difference. I can’t say much more than it really is a pleasure to sit down and read through the PDF on the iPad, and in a way that I have not achieved online. I highly recommend anyone interested in the design field or typography generally to do the same. 8 Faces does a much superior job than the regular industry publications, I’m looking at you Print and HOW, at tickling the inspiration center in my designer brainer.

Type/Image: Piedras Viejas

May 25th, 2010

Fidel Black

Type/Image: Dream State

May 17th, 2010

Calluna Black and Semibold Small Caps

Graphic Design Theory: Grid

December 3rd, 2009

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In Helen Armstrong’s Graphic Design Theory Karl Gerstner’s Design Programmes and Josef Müller-Brockmann’s Grid and Design Philosophy essays represent an effort to codify design practice. The designers discuss using considered systems in order to solve the problems in their projects.

Graphic Design Theory: The Crystal Goblet

November 13th, 2009

The next essay in Helen Armstrong’s Graphic Design Theory is The Crystal Goblet, or Why Printing Should be Invisible by Beatrice Warde. Ms Warde was an eminent mind in the printing industry in the 1920s and 1930s. The Crystal Goblet is often referred to in typographic circles for its thesis that encourages the humble use of typography to serve the text instead of vanity.

She compares typography to goblets and notes that those who know something about wine, or profess to, will prefer a clear crystal goblet. The various elements of the drink can be observed, color, fragrance, without undue concern for the vessel that carries it. Those who prefer a gold, guilded, ornate goblet put more importance in outward appearance than in the wine itself. The typographic form that a text takes can illuminate what it is meant to carry and portray, the printed word, or it can distract or detract from or even contradict it.

The alternate title for this essay is Why Printing Should be Invisible. Warde asserts that the purpose of written text is thought transference and the any type that does anything to distract from that goal is a failure in its purpose. Type is there to illuminate the thoughts and ideas contained in the written word. She compares typography, in addition to wine glasses, to window panes. She claims that while a stained glass window may be very pretty to look at if you’re trying to see the world outside it’s much better to look through a plane transparent glass. In the same way we can look through the type to the thoughts laid out on the page there for us.

I don’t think that Ms Warde would have us all use Baskerville, Minion, or any other type generally held to be readable for every single case. I read this essay as a cry to make sure that the type is appropriate to the content and not overstepping its bounds by calling attention to itself. For extended reading in a novel more traditional Roman type will usually serve but using that same type in a poster for a Rage Against the Machine concert could seem inappropriate, because it is not a reflection of the purpose of the ideas portrayed. For Morello and company a type that calls attention to itself would be perfectly appropriate, and will communicate an important element of the message contained in the copy. When we treat type appropriately we can spend endless years of happy experiment in devising that crystalline goblet that is worth to hold the vintage of the human mind.

The next essay in Helen Armstrong’s Graphic Design Theory is The Crystal Goblet, or Why Printing Should be Invisible by Beatrice Warde. Ms Warde was an eminent mind in the printing industry from the 1930s through 50s. The Crystal Goblet is often referred to in typographic circles for its thesis that encourages the humble use of typography to serve the text instead of vanity.

Graphic Design Theory: The New Typography

November 8th, 2009

The fifth essay in Helen Armstrong’s Graphic Design Theory is an excerpt from Jan Tschichold’s The New Typography.¹ Jan Tschichold was a German typographer who rose to prominence in the 1920s and would be instrumental in shaping the printed page that we say today.

Latina Health Fair 2010

July 16th, 2009

For my senior “capstone” project I wanted to create a project on a subject that I care about and spread it across a variety of media. Just at this time my wife volunteered at the Latina Health Fair, a free health fair that serves the uninsured Latino community. They currently don’t have a designer or promotional campaign so I decided to create promotional materials that could be used for next year’s fair.