Typography and Font Personalities Exhaustive Study Guide

Typography and Font Personalities in Graphic Design

• Graphic designers use type to make specific decision points regarding the mood and intention of a message conveyed to an audience.
• The "Friend" Metaphor: Choosing a font is similar to choosing a friend's personality.
      - Reliability vs. Energy: A font with a stable, punctual, and organized appearance (the top example in the lecture) represents a reliable friend. A font with a more "frenetic" or energetic appearance (the bottom example) represents a fun, interesting friend who might show up late but works faster once there.
• Neutrality in Branding: Many digital devices and global brands (e.g., Helvetica, Arial) utilize neutral sans serif fonts to avoid alienating any portion of their audience.

Visual Tells and Letterform Differentiation

• Determiners of Mood: The x-height (the height of lowercase forms) is the single biggest determiner of the mood or feeling of a font.
• Visual Tells: Specific letterforms provide clues to identify a font's mood.
      - The Letter 'r': Both uppercase and lowercase 'r' are key visual tells.
      - Terminal: The end of a stroke on an 'r'. For instance, a terminal at a straight angle differentiates one font from another.
      - Leg: The diagonal part of the uppercase 'R' that comes off the rounded part.
• Weight: Refers to the visual thickness of the strokes in a font.

Technical Measurements and Definitions

• Point Size: It is a common misconception that point size is determined by the height of vertical strokes (like the 'f' or 'd'). Technically, point size is determined by the entire physical size of the metal sort or the piece of physical type.
• Glyph: A single version of a specific letterform (e.g., a double-height lowercase 'a' versus a ball-and-stick lowercase 'a').
• Sort: A single piece of physical metal or wood type.
• "Out of Sorts": A phrase originating from letterpress printing where a typesetter becomes frustrated because they have run out of specific physical pieces of type (sorts) needed to finish a body of text.
• The Tittle: The technically correct term for the dot on the lowercase 'i'.
• Case Terminology:
      - Majuscule: The technical term for uppercase letters.
      - Miniscule: The technical term for lowercase letters.
      - Origin: The terms "uppercase" and "lowercase" come from the physical location of the cases in a letterpress print shop where the metal type was stored.

Line Systems and Optical Adjustment

• Primary Horizontal Lines:
      1. Baseline: The bottom horizontal line letters sit upon.
      2. Mean Line (or x-height): The middle line determining the height of lowercase letters.
      3. Cap Line: The top line for uppercase letters.
• Optical Adjustment: Fonts are often adjusted visually rather than mathematically to appear correct to the human eye.
      - Round forms (like the lowercase 'e' and 'd') often drop slightly below the baseline or extend above the mean line to appear proportionally accurate.
      - FedEx Example: The proprietary version of Futura used by FedEx uses optical adjustments and specific counterforms (negative space) to create the hidden arrow between the 'E' and 'x'.

Font Styles and Histories

• Trade Gothic: Available in different versions such as Condensed (squeezed horizontally) and Extended (stretched width).
• Slab Serif (or Egyptian Serif): Characterized by thick, block-like serifs.
      - Wide Latin: A specific font with huge, thick serifs.
      - Penn State Health Campaign: Uses slab serifs to convey strength and confidence, though it may lack the visual characteristics of empathy or compassion.
• Ball and Stick Style: A sans serif style with clear geometry (rounds and straights).
      - Futura: Designed by Paul Renner at the Bauhaus School in Germany in the 1920s. Volkswagen used Futura for years before moving to a different font in recent times.
• Bodoni: Known for hairline serifs (very thin serifs in relation to primary strokes).
      - Vogue Magazine: Uses Bodoni to convey a refined, sophisticated, and considered personality.
      - Nirvana: Uses a version of Bodoni but with a "grunge" or "mosh pit" aesthetic, showing the font's versatility.

Global Standards and Case Studies

• Helvetica: The most widely used font globally, often called "the perfume of the city" because it is found on almost every urban block.
      - Created by Max Miedinger and Edward Hoffman in 1957.
      - Used by numerous corporate logos (Jeep, GM, etc.). GM recently updated its logo to use lowercase 'g' and 'm'.
• New York City (NYC) Logo: Designed by Wolff Olins (headquartered in London).
      - Features dense, thick, gridded letters with collapsed tracking (spacing) where letters connect. This reflects the "dense, in-your-face" nature of NYC.
• Saks Fifth Avenue: Uses a refined script font. The logo was chopped into a grid of 64 squares (eight wide by eight high) and rearranged to create a fresh visual system/texture for bags, awnings, and store signage.
• Joker (Film): Used wood type that was letterpress printed, resulting in worn and raw inconsistencies, which were then scanned to match the character and set design of the film.

Spacing and Typography Terminology

• Kerning: The horizontal spacing between two individual glyphs.
• Tracking: The horizontal spacing across a range of more than two glyphs (opening up or collapsing space across a line).
• Leading: Vertical spacing from one baseline to the next. The term comes from the physical strips of lead inserted between lines of type.
      - Examples of leading ratios: $40/48$, $40/36$, $40/18$ (Point size over leading value).
• Italic vs. Oblique:
      - Italic: Specifically designed to incorporate a slant and more curves.
      - Oblique: A simple mathematical slanting of the upright letterform.

Materiality and Modern Foundries

• Historical Specimens: In the 18th Century, Caslon type foundry in England sent out printed specimen sheets so printers could see available sizes and versions of font families.
• Modern Type Foundries:
      - Emigre: An early digital foundry started in California in the 1980s alongside the Macintosh computer.
      - House Industries: A "diehard" foundry in Yorkland, Delaware, active for over 30 years.
      - A2-TYPE: Located in the UK.
      - Klim Type Foundry: Located in New Zealand.
      - Village: A defunct foundry.
• Material Evolution:
      - Doves Type: Metal type recovered from the bottom of the River Thames in London.
      - Zięta: Industrial design firm in Wrocław, Poland that created "FiDU" inflated letterforms from laser-welded metal.

Anatomy of Letterforms

• Ascenders: Primary strokes that extend above the mean line (e.g., the top of a 'd').
• Descenders: Strokes that extend below the baseline (e.g., the tail of a 'y').
• Terminal Types: The end of a stroke. Examples include straight terminals and ball terminals (a round point at the end of a stroke).
• Design Foundations: Professionals typically use a core set of no more than five fonts throughout a career. The instructor mentioned that for a period, $90\%$ of their studio's work used Gill Sans.

Questions & Discussion

• Canvas Grade Discrepancies: Students noted that on the Canvas platform, design project grades were appearing as "0 out of 0" or "$0\%$."
• Instructor Response: The instructor clarified that no one should be concerned; everyone did well on the project. The grade display issue is likely a technical glitch with Canvas, and an email will be sent to confirm that nobody received a zero.
• Next Week: There will be a test ("tap") next week covering this material.
• Advanced Class Project: The instructor offered to show the results of the advanced graphic design class project, which involved a year of work but faced delays due to "slacking off," potentially missing out on national attention.