Looking at letters

Task: We are not coming up with a whole alphabet, but a number of letters to create a text only tshirt design, using Illustrator

Notes:

• Set your preferences - (Edit > Preferences). May choose to use points rather than millimetres when talking about Typographyer
• 72 points to an inch

Tools discussed:

• Path
• Shapes
• Blending modes

We printed out our creations on the colour printer and stuck them into the typography visual diary.

White Box Gallery

What is the White Box Gallery

• The rise of the modern day gallery arose from 19th Century Europe drawing room.
• Some argue that the birth of the modern gallery arose in the early 1900s with the Russian Constructivists.
• The nature of exhibition changes and the content and context of art alters.
• Art became as much about the process of making as the artwork itself.
• "Art" and the White Box alters the context of objects that are placed within it. Think: Duchamp's Urinal and/or Bicycle Wheel.
• Impressionism - kept the view aware of the paint. Painting and making art became the means to the ends - the paint is the story of the work too.

Watched excerpts from the film - Helvetica.

Typography

Notes:

• Good design - leads people's eyes. We (the designer) tells them how we want them to read.
• There is a hierarchy of information. The designer can present the information so that the reader reads/accesses the information in the order you want - the most important information first.
• Nothing should be random
• By the end of the semester - each student will present their logo, their visual identity.
• Adobe programmes - Illustrator - produce illustrations, Photoshop - manipulate images, InDesign - Layout.

We explored 20 logos with Hidden Symbolism looking at how they were a mixture of icon and type.

Important - No more than three colours in a design and no more than three typefaces (two is probably too many) 

Remember when designing you should create two version, including the REVERSED image. 

Useful links:

• an example of a style guide, including reversed logo

In producing our logos (including applying it to a business card), students can follow this process:

1. Collect benchmarks - examples of what you like - add these to your visual diary
2. Analyse what works in the benchmark examples 
3. Based on your analysis, start doing rough thumbnails. You may find you do hundreds.
4. Choose three of the roughs that you like, and focus on them more fully. 

Important:

Read as many Computer + Arts magazines as possible. If you like something cut it out and add it to your visual diary. Visit the library for these resources.