Discussion on week-1

[Danielle Heard]

Hello Everyone! :)
Typography plays a great role in the methods of communication.
Whether it is in an ad or simply the print that it is presented before
us through books. Both articles go into depth about explaining the
role and history in Typography. After reading both articles I
gathered some points made by the authors that stood out to me the
most. In the Crystal goblet, Beatrice Ward explains how typography is
parallel to the perfect wine glass. Ward explains how typography
should be viewed as a modernist, meaning the focus should not be on
how beautiful the type is but rather on its purpose. Does it convey a
message that links you to the thought and the views of the writer? Or
is the focus so much on the appearance to where that is all that
others can focus on. I agree that typography should help to be the
link to consumers as far as the aspects of design goes. Type should
awaken others and link them to the subject matter, and this can be
done with the correct usage of typography. "Well used type is
invisible type." Did anyone else gather any other points from this
article?
Danielle

[Danielle Heard]

Hi again! :)
This in response to the article"Enlightenment Origin's" by Robin
Kinross. This was a very helpful article which helped to show the
beginning of the separation of "printing" and "typography". Kinross
explains how many rules of typography began to develop. Revealing how
printers began to focus on structure the type on the page and
different measurement startegies for invented typefaces. The
beginning of point systems, and more "modern" fonts. I was somewhat
familiar with some of the topics mentioned, but I would better
understand everything if there was a visual explaining how everything
is measures, or showing the typefaces that were presented.

[Emily Vukson]

Beatrice Ward, the author of The Crystal Goblet, makes a clear
statement (no pun intended) about what "good typography" should be.
Ward used the analogy of a crystal goblet to express how typography
should be more about the aesthetics of the page, readability, and
conveyance of information as opposed to how the letters themselves
look. At one point, she writes "that the most important thing about
printing is that it conveys though ideas, images, from one mind to
other minds." To me, she means that the message is more important
than the letters themselves. In fact, one should not even notice very
much how the letters look; it is like the crystal goblet: you can see
the message without getting caught up in gaudy letters (i.e. Helvetica
would be better to use for body text as opposed to Rosewood). I have
to agree with Ward, too. In my opinion, I think a well designed page
with a modest typeface can be quite aesthetically pleasing because of
the ease in reading it. I would rather pick up a page typed in
Garamond than one in Snell Roundhand. When I was thinking about this,
I wondered where some type such as that on psychedelic music posters
would fit in. Are those crazy, nearly illegible letters for the
content, or only for the artistic effect?

[Emily Vukson]

The Enlightenment Origins by Robin Kinross was interesting to me
because it stressed the modernity of typography and its purpose. Both
Moxon on Fournier helped pave the way to the typography we see today
by making typefaces, families, and proportions much more standard. If
you think about it, what would typography be like today if there were
not set proportions such as the point system and standard paper having
proportions of 1: square root of 2? It could even be said that
typography may have been given a higher purpose in Moxon's "Mexhanick
exercises," in 1683-4. Typography was then made separate from just
plain printing. Anyone could print, typography took skill. I agree
with this: It is very easy for someone to just type up a paper in MS
Word or any other word-processor, but it takes a much more keen eye to
make sure that things like the leading, type size, and rag are OK.
When I think about it, I'm also very glad that there is a set set of
proportions for paper and type sizes. How confusing would it be if
every typeface had completely different proportions that did not
relate to one another and paper sizes were just all over the place?

[Emily Vukson]

I agree with "well used type is invisible type" because "blatant type"
can be awfully distracting to look at. Even though crazy typefaces
are really fun to look at, they don't really do a good job in the
readability department. It's like a language that you don't know how
to read. For example, having a crazy typeface can be like reading
Sinhalese (if you don't know Sinhalese) - it looks very interesting,
but if you cannot read it, its purpose is useless.

[Kapono]

Hey Guys,

Sorry if I have been absent for this discussion, this week has been
busy for me. And Ali Im not sure if you are expecting a reply from me
but I thought I would do it anyways. I think the general consensus of
the discussion, from what I gather, is that "invisible" type is better
in terms of communicating the message. I think I can somewhat agree
with that in certain situations, but to an extent maybe Ms. Warde
compares "the thought" or "the message" to something too specific.
What I mean is that wine is something complex with taste and nuances,
but what about the experience that surrounds it? What can you pair the
wine with to make it more interesting or make the food more
interesting or the experience itself? In some cases yes if you are
reading a passage or book where the clear thought of the author needs
to be brought across with little influence the analogy of the Crystal
Goblet works. But there is still a sense that you could cause the
reader to understand on an even deeper level what the author is trying
to convey if there was typography that was a bit more expressive.
Maybe in an instructional form you would never want expressive type. I
look at type as packaging for a message. You can have a whole
experience with it. Its like buying a well packaged product, you could
receive the product bare without anything surrounding it and that
would be fine, but if there is thought in the packaging you take away
a whole different experience. A lot of people go crazy about unboxing
a new apple product. Im just trying provide a different point of view.

In terms of the Enlightenment origins, this really made me think about
the way that I design type. I think that from even when I was in
school I just automatically started with a face like Garamond and took
cues from it not knowing where they were coming from. I think reading
about the source it will cause me to be more detailed in the decisions
that I make when designing letter forms. I also think even though we
do have computers that we still need to stay on top of all the details
that go into creating a face. thats all for now.

Kapono

[Daisy Chong]

Hi all,

Sorry I didn't realize there was a deadline for the first week's
reading assignment until I checked my mail today.. I appreciate the
fact that we can actually read upon the history of how typography came
to be; our previous classes merely focused on memorizing typefaces and/
or vocabulary. Enlightenment's Origins ,as the name probably states,
goes into extreme detail on how typography came to be, and how the
'standard' has been changed/modified over time. I found the experiment
on legibility where Didot had people stand in front of a few pages and
let them read it over and over again was extremely interesting,
probably cause I asked my parents to do the same thing on a project
last year..

I loved the introductory paragraph to The Crystal Goblet, it brought
me into the conversation straight away. I agree with what he says,
though I'm not quite sure what he meant between readability and
legibility-if it's legible, it should be enjoyable to read as well,
shouldn't it? I've had books printed where my eyes got sore/tired
after a few hours, yes the story was still interesting, which was
probably why I was still stuck upon finishing the book, maybe that's
what it means?

[Kapono Chung]

Hey daisy,
There is also another 2 readings that you have to do and reply to
before this evening

- Kapono