Today’s Plan:
- Quick Hit
- Introduction to Typography
- ReReMakes
- Homework
Quick Hit
Let’s have a quick laugh and cover some basics.
Fundamentals of Typography
As I think a number of those fails above indicate, typography isn’t just selecting a kind of font. It also involves the placement of type. We want to control and influence a reader’s attention, and to make our type as accessible and readable as possible. While fancy might seem fun, clarity should be the priority.
So, what are some basic principles for pairing fonts?
- Contrast of weight
- Similarity of x-height and proportion
- Similarity of stress
- Generally, avoid using two serif fonts (you can have more success mixing two san-serif fonts)
Ian Yates, A Beginner’s Guide to Pairing Fonts
Nick Kolenda on “Font Psychology”
Answer to Karl’s Question about layouts
Canva on Guide to Font Pairings
Okay, let’s play around a little bit.
Homework
Read WSINYE on Typography. Know:
- Basic parts of a font, especially: ascender, descender, x-height, and stress. These are the parts you want to pay attention to when you are pairing fonts
- Types of fonts and their uses
- Basic guidelines for selecting body copy (for print and screen) and headlines
- Whether to use faux bold or faux italic (and why/not)
- Whether to use ALL CAPS or Small Caps
- What is leading–its potentials and dangers
- What is kerning and tracking
- What is reversed type and when/how should you use it?
This chapter has a lot of information on layout and columns, especially for printing, to which we will return later. While their dominant focus is on web design, I still think it is an accessible introduction.
Compose your resume four times, using at least two fonts and three levels of hierarchy per version.
- First, style two resumes in Word designed for printing.
- Second, create two resumes in Word that are designed to be saved as a .pdf for screens
Your redesigns should take into account:
- Font selections
- Leading
- Kerning
- Typographic Scale
- White space / proximity
- Margins
Bring print copies of your resumes to class on Wednesday.
