Discussion Point 2-Typographic Content

Zuzana Licko born 1961 is a typeface designer. After she purchased a Macintosh in 1984, she discovered a new path for typography and typeface design.

‘the early computers were so limited in what they could do you really had to design something special.’

Thanks to digital advancements, rather then inventing a new typeface altogether, designers were able to update/reinvent the original typeface. Licko, in the 1990’s worked to revive two types-Mrs Eaves-which is based on Baskerville and Filosofia-based on Bodoni. Both are Licko's personal interpretations of their historical models and each features extensive ligatures.

A unique typeface has become a must-have accessory among contemporary brands. It is partly due to the expansion of client-initiated design that the flow of new typefaces prompted by the technological changes of the late 1980s has continued unabated into the new century.

                          

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Max Miedinger, born 1910, was a type designer, initially working as a typesetter, later becoming the in-house designer at the Haas Foundry in Switzerland. 

In 1956 he was commissioned to design a new san-serif typeface which was to be a modern version of the typeface Akzidenz-Grotesk. Miedinger thus creates the Haas Grotesk, which in 1960 changes from Nues Haas Grotesk to what we now know as Helvetica.  

Helvetica was designed to be neutral as it was based on the principle that “type itself should give no meaning.”  Companies were looking for change after the European war and to deviate away from the decorative and loud that had been used in advertisements.

           

http://www.josephdigioia.com/index.php?/thesis/the-new-new-typography/

http://www.emigre.com/Bios.php?d=10

http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/digital-type-decade-full-text

http://upscaletypography.com/?p=365 

http://www.behance.net/francescodelrosso/frame/1072193

http://www.linotype.com/522/maxmiedinger.html 

http://www.sgallery.net/artnews/data/upimages/2007/04/Kaspar.png

Discussion Point 1-Heirarchy and Grids

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Discussion Point 2- Hierarchy and Grids

Felicity Riley

“To categorize typography as traditional, liberal conservatism or avant-gardism is to ignore the overall question of how typographical design can best serve as an acutely sensitive instrument for communication between divergent ideas and divergent peoples.”
- Lester Beall

There is a percentage of people who believe that with the advancements in digital technologies came the laziness of the typographer, but then there are those who believe it only opened up limitless possibilities, it broadened our horizons.

The use of visual hierarchy and grids have evolved with the changing technology, moving away from traditional letterpress techniques and applying alignment, format, line length and colour to express new meaning or statements.

‘the early computers were so limited in what they could do you really had to design something special.’

We can see clearly that Adobe software has had a huge impact on how we design. It has had a significant effect on typography, giving the user more power in manipulation and control. Although traditional forms of type should not be lost due to their history and purpose, it is an immediacy that we gain from using products such as inDesign, PhotoShop and Illustrator. We are able to manipulate the subjects with pinpoint precision and quickly review a grid or heirarchy system with a click of a mouse.

There are much less constraints on how we design a layout or place text, more and more users are trying to show impact through new techniques and grids, which is much more efficiently executed through digital software.

Leading that is involved in letterpress usually consists of placing objects between each letter, which does limit the designer in terms of sizes and spacing, whereas in inDesign or other programs, it is up to the user to input their exact measurements that they fill delivers the message most appropriately.

Discussion Point 4 – Sandra Stepien

Live Preflight 

Traditionally, designers would manually check their layouts for errors to prevent potential printing problems from occurring, however, this process has changed with the introduction of Live Preflight to InDesign. Preflighting enables you to monitor the document as you create it, for example, displaying errors that can prevent a document from printing or outputting as desired. This allows for problems to be fixed throughout the design process rather than during the process of packaging the document. 

The preflight feature allows you to configure its settings to create a preflight profile which defines which conditions are detected. If a problem is detected, a red circle icon appears in the status bar. When clicked, the preflight panel opens, explains the issue and presents assistance to fix the problem. It ensures that a document contains all its fonts and graphic files, the correct colour space, if there is any overset text and many other conditions. Nonetheless, there are still some details that the designer needs to check manually such as the bleed of the document and the resolution of images used.

Alison Leach - File Prep (Discussion Point 4)

Discussion Point: The digital desktop shifts the responsibility of preparing artwork for reproduction to the designer. Identify an area of file preparation you need to learn more about and provide an overview (200 word max) of the process and its significance. Post your response to the Studio Blog.

There were two areas I always got confused about with file preparation and they were the difference between CMYK and RGB printing, as well as page Bleed. Although most circumstances when printing the company has provided me a template which incorporates the bleed, crop marks and the correct colour space I found it difficult to correctly prepare a file from the beginning (Setup) to the end (Print).

I always use to rely on CYMK for majority of my print works but have slowly came to realise that digital outputs and digital printers require RGB colour spaces. In particular for my major work for Visual Arts I did two propaganda posters which were created through sketches, diaries, etching and photographs. I had no knowledge or understanding of different colour spaces and really should of spoke to my printer first, but finally when it came to printing the colours used in my digital works were slightly different to the way they were printed. However in the parts which were darkened, they were completely darker and affected how you could read through the layered imagery. A long lesson learnt i created my work in RGB and when it was printed it was printed in CMYK. Was not happy but was a big learning experience for me :)

Alison Leach - Typographic Content (Discussion Point 3)

Discussion Point: Select two innovative typographic designers - one pre-digital (1984), the other contemporary. Provide a brief comparative analysis of their contributions to typographic practice supported by relevant examples of their work.

Typographic Designer #1 ( DIGITAL) -Roberto Blake:

I choose for my digital designer Roberto Blake. Roberto Blake is a graphic design and Digital Artist from new York who has been working in both Photoshop and Flash commercially for over seven years. After recently being published in Advanced Photoshop Magazine, Roberto Blake has extensive experience in Print Design, Photography, Logo Design, Branding, Layout Design and Websites.

He utilises digital technologies to combine his understanding and passion for graphics and illustrations with typography, especially in advertisements and magazines. This utilisation of digital technologies allows him to effectively manipulate and recreate innovative designs from his imagination to suit a particular brief.

Below are illustrations of his works where he utilises graphics and illustrations to create forms of typography for digital works.

i. Starchild 7 Title:

Within this design Roberto Blake has utilised both photoshop and indesign to recreate a star like type to create a film like representation of typography.

i. Ki-Bambiino Logo:

Within this design Roberto Blake has utilised both photoshop and indesign to recreate a star like type to create a film like representation of typography. Roberto has incorporated graphics into and amongst the type for this logo and although the typeface itself is bold and simple these graphics make up the logo itself.

Discussion point 4 - Micaela Alcaino

BLEEDS AND CROP MARKS

Bleeds used to be one area that I used to not understand very well, but with constant design for print I have come to know and understand the importance of bleeds and setting up crop marks. 

Bleed is a term for the edges that go beyond the image or design for printing. It is important to set these so that when things like brochures, business cards or catalogs are printed there is a buffer area "printer bounce" for the printer to be able to cut the design to size without those accidental unnecessary white borders. 

Any area that touches the border of the document requires a bleed, in the image that I provided of our groups title page, the image extends past the document borders into the bleed area (as seen on the left). 

Usual bleed size goes between 3mm - 5mm (from my experience) but it usually varies depending on who you print with. Bleeds accounts for each of the 4 sides of the page, so when expanding the canvas in Photoshoot a 6mm width and height should be inserted. 

With InDesign when setting up a document bleed options are available. But if forgotten they can be made by going to file > document setup.

Setting up crop marks are also important when exporting the document so that two little lines indicate to the print where to begin cutting the document, also showing where the document ends and where the bleeds begin. The normal size for a crop mark is 0.25pt in thickness, just thick enough to see for the printer, but not bold enough to over take the corners of the document. This can be set up when exporting the document as a PDF, when the PDF window shows up , on the left hand side under "Marks and Bleeds" > tick "Crop Marks" and "Use Document Bleeds" so that the file is exported with the marks (as seen in the comparison in my picture). I must admit that from time to time i have forgotten these when sending things to print, but I have now learnt the habit of always setting them up when starting a new print design. 

Discussion point 4: Christian Andree

'Packaging' InDesign files for print:

 

When sending your final designs off to the printer it is important that all your files, images, fonts, colours and collated together, so that changes at the printers end can be made accordingly so that time and costs are not wasted going back and forth. This is achieved through the ‘packaging’ feature in InDesign.

How this is achieved is by click File > Package... In the dialogue box that opens make sure there are no missing fonts or images and click the "Package..." button. A window will open that asks for contact information; within this screen you will be able to set out instructions that the printer will be able to read eg. how much page trimming is required etc.

After clicking ‘continue’ you are given a folder that contains all links, typfaces etc alongside your actual InDesign file itself. Easy as that! The ‘packaging’ tool also allows you to be able to use your InDesign file on any other computer witout missing links, this is useful in a large scale design firm.