Points in Typography

_ What are the advantages of a multiple column grid.?
Allows you to easily organize large amounts of text, room to experiment with the typography, clean

_ How many characters is optimal for a line length? words per line?
40 to 50 characters (including letters, punctuation, spaces)

_ Why is the baseline grid used in design?
Establishes as ordered system that is uniform through out the layout unifying multiple sizes of type.

_ What is a typographic river?
The sting of gaps created with justification

_ From the readings what does clothesline or flow line mean?
The horizontal line created to carry the eye through the page...where the text hangs

_ How can you incorporate white space into your designs?
Ragging the text instead of justification, little things that are called out (used with justification), adjusting type size and leading/tracking

_ What is type color/texture mean?
Bold, weight, size, leading and tracking, column width

_ What is x-height, how does it effect type color?
The hight of lowercase character sans any ascenders or descenders

_ In justification or H&J terms what do the numbers: minimum, optimum, maximum mean?
Restrictions on the spacing between the letters

_ What are some ways to indicate a new paragraph. Are there any rules?
Do not indent the first line, when indenting – no use .5 indent but less, (equal to leading) do not indent if there is a space between paragraphs

_ What are some things to look out for when hyphenating text?
No have two letters left behind (de-sign), words that are four letters two syllables, no hyphenate names. Lonely words on line above (the, of, in)

_ What is a literature?
two letters that will become physically combined into one letter (fi, tt, ffi)

_ What does CMYK and RGB mean?
additive v. subtractive (internet is RGB, just stay consistent)

_ What does hanging punctuation mean?
text aligns and punctuation hangs out

_ What is the difference between a foot mark and an apostrophe?
Foot mark is straight

_ What is the difference between an inch mark and a quote mark (smart quote)?
Inch mark is straight, quote mark is curved/angled

_ What is a hyphen, en dash and em dashes, what are the differences and when are they used?
shouldn't have three hyphens in a row – something is wrong, avoid completely in call outs, en dash is used in dates and breaks of thoughts with a space on either side, em dash is the longest – option shift dash with no spaces

Cold : Bold

Jonathan Harris is an artist/designer and expert of computer science and code. He used his technological savvy as a gateway for creating art on the web. In this video, Harris gives a presentation that discusses in part the his recent work and the his thoughts on the current evolution of technology and how he believes it affects the human race. He explains his overwhelming concern that the advancements in computers is diminishing humans' connectedness with their emotions and essentially their humanity. Harris also goes on to discuss what he refers to as physical vs. digital and professional vs. personal schizophrenia and the difficulty that comes with divulging himself in computer code (something that for him can become so dehumanizing in that he thinks in code rather than emotion or instinct) while also becoming a working artist.

I really enjoyed this video and I definitely responded to the points made by Jonathan Harris. I think the underlying messages of his presentation relate strongly to graphic design and the different battles that I face between the digital and physical media. More and more we here about the posed threats of technology and our increasing dependency on it – how it begins to use and have control over us instead of us having control over it, a point that I believe to be true. In the graphic design field, so much of our work relies solely on computers. It's unfortunate I think that the art of craft by hand is dying and becoming obsolete. Coming from someone who has spent years as a fine artist, I think art created without the help of computers is so much more expressive and personal. It captures the essence of emotion and humanity that lacks from that created by technology. Like Harris, I believe that there is possibility for a marriage between physical and digital media to exist but has yet to be achieved. This is actually a goal of mine personally as an aspiring graphic designer. I hope for my experience and increasing expertise as a fine artist can be integrated successfully in the world of computers thus creating a medium between illustrator and graphic designer.

My Mantra

Keep moving.
The market and its operations have a tendency to reinforce success. Resist it. Allow failure and migration to be part of your practice.

I chose this mantra because I felt it is very reflective of my processes in design and my tendency to get overly discouraged by from error. However, I realize that strong success is spawned from failure, as long as you can allow it to help you up rather than bring this down.
This point was made by Bruce Mau, the Chief Creative director of Bruce Mau designs. Mau has used design and optimism to originate, innovate, and renovate businesses, brands, products, and experiences. Some of his well known clients include Coca– Cola, McDonald's, MoMA, and MTv. He is a recognized award winning author and publisher and was the focus of the recently released book GLIMMER: How Design Can Transform Your Life and Maybe Even the World. Mau's design's are fresh and innovative and are definitely a source of inspiration for a young aspiring designer like myself.

On Creativity by Andy Rutledge

In this article, Rutledge goes on to explain his concept of creativity and its distinction from design. Creativity is not at all self-expression, but rather, it is a filter through which perception and output pass and it is technical and analytical. According to Rutledge, the only contradictory to what you may be taught in elementary school, believes that this design based definition is the only one worth focussing attention on. Creativity is an inborn capacity for thinking differently than most, seeing differently, and making connections and perceiving relationships others miss. But most importantly, it is the ability to then extrapolate contextually useful ways of employing that data. He believes there are four main disciplines that few posses which advance ones creativity even further:
- ongoing curiosity,
- the desire and habit of looking more deeply into things than others care to,
- the habit of comparing stimulus with result, and
- a habit for qualitative discrimination.
Furthermore, constraints and limitations posed by external forces are in fact the basic groundwork for design because it is from those constraints that we as designers are posed with a problem for which to develop a solution. Without them, creativity is irrelevant. Lastly, our intuitive, subjective design senses are relevant to our work. Competence demands that we understand the difference between what we prefer and what we know what will work best. We must filter purely subjective data from sympathetic, fundamentals-based creative work in order to be successful.

Andy Rutledge is currently the principal and chief design strategist for Unit Interactive LLC, a successful design firm that works with web design, branding etc. Additionally Rutledge manages his own website for which he writes articles critiquing, exploring, and discussing different aspects of design. His experience in the field has definitely lent him high credibility and status as a designer and critic.

Journal

Theo Jansen Creates New Creatures

In his presentation Theo Jansen reveals a series of man made creatures that are created through electrical tubing. They remain on the beach and are powered by the wind. These kinetic sculptures demonstrate the evolution of the wheel and are designed to move and "survive" on they're own, withstanding the threatening hazards of the water. These so called "Strandbeests" beautifully display the evolution of the wheel and the potential that lies in kinetic art.

David Kelley and Human-Centered Design

Human centered design is a field that has grown largely in the last eighteen years. It is becoming increasingly important to capture the behavior and "personality" of the product being designed. David and his team of coworkers are part of one of the company's that is redirecting the focus of their designs more toward the human experience. One of the videos in his presentation demonstrates the application of this new direction in the technological designs of the Prada retail store. For example the renovations to the dressing rooms that allow the customer to gain more information about their items quicker and easier.

I think this is a very interesting point because the idea of human experience can be applied to graphic design as well and how the audience/ customer associates with and responds to the design.

Journal

What is Good Design

Good design is innovative and useful. It must speak to the consumer, better yet be self-explanitory. It must be aesthetic yet unobtrusive. The product of a design is not generally to look pretty but to have a purpose. Good design is honest and does not mislead the consumer as to the use or value of the product and it must be long-lasting. As opposed to fashion design, it must remain appealing and smart throughout several years. It takes into consideration all details of the product yet is environmentally friendly.

Don Norman Video

In his presentation, Don Norman discuss the relationships between design and emotion. He first makes the point that when we are anxious, scared, or frustrated, our thinking processes change causing us to have an unyielding focus on the task at hand. Contrary, when we experience positive emotion, the heightened dopamine sent to our brain allows us to be receptive of things in our environment and thus allowing us to think "more outside the box."
–visceral
-behavioral
-reflective
Don explained that a good design conveys positive emotions in three ways. First, it must make you feel good through the look of color, type, etc. It should make you act on the positive emotions and the functionality of the product and lastly, a good design will elicit positive reflections regarding the design.
Don's presentation definitely echoed the points made in the article by Dieter Rams. Each of the ten criteria listed all work together in a good design successfully to generate positive emotions.

Audience Personas

1. Jen is a 22 year old college undergrad. She is an eccentric concert goer that knows how to have a good time but when necessary, is a more conservative, greatly dedicated student. She enjoys shopping at small boutiques with one of a kind clothing and eating out at hole in the wall restaurants. Her style is considered eclectic and versatile. Her hobbies reflect her multifaceted personality from reading to music to volleyball. She is often intrigued by things that aren’t what they seem

2. Bryan is a 16 year old high school with a bold attitude. He’s not fond of rules or limitations on his behavior or “self-expression. He has never been much of a fan of reading typically because it is required of him, but finds himself occasionally interested in stories that seem to have an edge. At this age his largest priorities consist of playing guitar and hanging out with friends. However, his rebellious attitude hides the fact that he is quite passionate about the music he plays and looks to it as a career

3. Lisa is a mom of two in her mid thirties. She finds herself crazed with work and seldom has time to sit, relax and take time for herself. Since she was a young girl she’s loved to travel. She makes It a goal for herself to make it to all the continents. In college she thoroughly enjoyed studying foreign language. Her hobbies include reading novels of romance and scrapbooking.