My Video

First Flash Video

The Mac is Not a Typewriter

_ What are the advantages of a multiple column grid.? The multiple column grid helps set up a system for arranging elements in the composition, while avoiding symmetrical patterns.

_ How many characters is optimal for a line length? words per line? It is important to maintain a similar word count between all lines of the paragraph, but usually around 6-8 words per line or 65 characters.

_ Why is the baseline grid used in design? The baseline grid is an imaginary grid upon which type sits that allows for continuity within a design

_ What is a typographic river? A river is a connected space between the text in a paragraph that flows down the page and often creates awkward shapes and breaks up the interior of the paragraph.

_ From the readings what does clothesline or flow line mean? The flow line or clothesline is an imaginary line that aligns horizontally to text and allows for easy readability and flow.

_ How can you incorporate white space into your designs? White space can be creating a design by leaving the margins of the paper open and also by breaking up text and paragraphs into small sections and grouping them. This maintains an interesting asymmetrical design allowing for adequate white space and flow through the composition.

_ What is type color/texture mean? This includes the typeface, size, spacing, line measurement, etc. These elements alter the density, contrast, and value of the text therefore creating texture and color.

_ What is x-height, how does it effect type color? The x-height is the measured height of fonts considering all fonts vary in size. This measurement is used to compare fonts in relation to each other's relative x-height. This effects type color because it either makes the font lighter and longer or shorter and more compact creating various shades of value.

_ In justification or H&J terms what do the numbers: minimum, optimum, maximum mean? Maximum is when the space between the letters is adjusted to make the margins on the left and right straight. Optimum numbers refers to the need to fit the most amount of words on a page considering the page attributes. Minimum numbers refers to refers to the least amount of words before a hyphen and after a hyphen.

_ What are some ways to indicate a new paragraph. Are there any rules? There are many ways to indicate a new paragraph including drop caps, color, bold, italic, new font, highlight, rules, symbols, indentation, explication, weight, space, etc.

_ What are some things to look out for when hyphenating text. Avoid more than two hyphenations in a row, too many hyphenations in any paragraph, stupid hyphenations, never hyphenate a heading, break lines sensibly.

_ What is a literature?

_ What does CMYK and RGB mean? cyan, magenta, yellow, black, the four color model of printing and its process. The RGB is an additive color model. Represents red, green, blue light is added together to reproduce a broad array of colors. Purpose is for sensing, representing, and display of color on electronic devices such as televisions and computers and photography.

_ What does hanging punctuation mean? Hanging punctuation is when the quotation mark hangs outside the line of the text.

_ What is the difference between a foot mark and an apostrophe? An apostrophe is a single closing quotation mark, while a foot mark is a straight line used to indicate measurement.

_ What is the difference between an inch mark and a quote mark (smart quote)? A quote mark is used to denote that someone is speaking, a statement or phrase. Inch marks are used to represent measurement.

_ What is a hyphen, en dash and em dashes, what are the differences and when are they used. A hyphen is used for hyphenating words or lines breaks. An en dash is used in between words indicating duration, such as hourly time or months or years. An em dash is used in similar manner to a colon or parentheses or it indicates a sudden change in though.

_ What are ligatures, why are they used, when are they not used, what are common ligatures. are a single form incorporating two or more letters, parts that touch or overlap for instance fi and fl. This refinement is found in the earliest printed books and continues in more professional quality typefaces. Some typefaces have been able to minimize the letter form problem that makes a ligature necessary. A set of standard ligatures would be- fi fl ff ffl or ffi with the addition of a less common fj. Archaic ligatures exist when consonants are joined such as ct and st. these were common in the 18th century and now are rarely used but to reference something of a historical period. There are also special ligatures in which an extended set of many letters are combined for visual effect. These typefaces are usually based on handwriting or calligraphy and the designer may chose what ligatures to use for a particular reason.

Article

The article that "speaks to me" is entitled "The Art of Psychographics" by Kerry William Purcell, a prominant design writer and historian who has had several books and many articles published. When I read the title I immediately though of Sigmund Freud and dream psychology. This inspired me to create an orderly, scientific, structured spread that is very analytical and informative.

The main point of this article is that through design, images can be used to trigger past experiences and emotions. Rather than tell the story in black and white designers should use related images to provoke deeper understanding. I understood it as a pathway. There are millions of different roads to get to the final destination, so by giving the audience a more general image they can come to the final meaning any a variety of ways. The article dives into the world of memories as a means of communication.

Article

Flash is a vector animation software, originally designed to create animations for display on web pages. Vector graphics are ideal for the web because they are so lightweight.

Flash is used by designers to have ultimate control of timing, spacing, hierarchy, and rhythm of a visual concept or message.

Many layers

This flash project was very complex and had quite a few pathways. It was very detailed as well and just about everything on the page was interactive. It took you on a journey and invited you to interact and click on everything. I was impressed by the clock and how this person made the shadows.

Hidden Costs

This flash project was very effective because of its use of space and dimension. i felt like i was traveling through this typographic and graphic world as I learned about the costs of the war. It used simple tools like repetition to create more intricate and complicated scenes like when the hot air balloons were flying to the top. This was all tied together with the use of three basic colors and repeating them throughout the project. I really liked the use of typography in the beginning because it told the story in a simple way that was straightforward and straight forward.

This was so cool!

This was great because i love story tales and the modern spin was something i have never seen before. The way the creator took apart each scene and analyzed each part of the story in depth. i liked how everything was broken down and then put back together in depth. This animation style related back to the story and how the creator broke the fairy tale into facts, numbers, and symbols. It kept the audience interested because it was constantly moving from one room to the next and from one idea to the next.

Good Ideas

Visual concepts Survey

THIS IS MY NEW SURVEY! TAKE ME MORE PLEASE

TAKE ME PLEASE

Final Three: Officina Posters

My New Font: DISTURBANCE

Throughout the 20th Century various experiments have been carried out to simplify the structure of the alphabet, Herbert Bayer in 1925, Jan Tschichold in 1929, Sjoerd de Roos in 1938 and Wim Crouwel in 1966. Bradbury Thompson experimented with his Alphabet 26 structure throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Thompson used Baskerville Roman and Small Capitals to create his alphabet. This mix of traditional letterforms had a more acceptable rhythm allowing for better legibility and readability.

With Disturbance™ the primary concern was rhythm and how to extend the possibilities within the accepted current structure of the alphabet. Tschichold pointed out that poor rhythm in type destroys legibility and readability. The failure of some of the early attempts in single alphabet design is with a lack of rhythm and harmony; the concepts were too often clouded in the modernist ideas of the time.

26 letters that comprise the Disturbance alphabet were chosen for maximum legibility. These letters were then harmonised and ascenders and descenders added. This increases the vertical movement within the type and together with the many ligatures, creates new word shapes and a new rhythm.

Jeremy: I began to focus on type generally during my time at the RCA. I spent a lot of time in the letterpress room. For my thesis I designed the Disturbance type (later released as FF Disturbance in 1993). It was called Disturbance as my lecturers said “I couldn’t do this to the alphabet it is too disturbing”. During my second/final year at the RCA I looked more closely at letters and created a couple more fonts. The very early stages of Bliss were created then.
After graduation I got a job in corporate design at Addison Design Consultants. My first project was Sabena Belgian Airlines (now gone). Addison went bankrupt in 1994 (ish) and I went and worked at Wolff Olins, where I stayed for about 4 years (though I did take 6 months off to travel Australia). During the 6 (ish) years of employment I developed Bliss and a few other fonts (Blue Island, The Shire Types, Alchemy) in my spare time. When I came back from Australia I basically knew I wanted to leave and do my own thing. So a few months after my return I resigned and set up Jeremy Tankard Typography to focus on my type designs.
Type today wouldn’t exist without the technology - it is an absolute part of it. Understanding how digital type works, the specifications are as important as understanding the forms of the letters and how they work in various languages. I approach type design as product design (not so much as art). As time goes on it ’can’ be seen more as software design - some designers already see it as this (think of Letterror in The Netherlands).

I don’t see the technology as a constraint - more a challenge. I enjoy making OpenType fonts which involve a great deal of program code in order to make the fonts function.

The design of type hasn’t changed much over the years. The same problems exist today as they did 100 years ago and longer. As technology changes/advances there are just more issues, sometimes different issues, to juggle. The optical effects still remain - overshoots, spacing, balance, rhythm… but now we also have Windows OS, Mac OS, PostScript, TrueType, low resolution output, ClearType rendering, Quartz rendering, Unicode, OpenType features and expanded EU language support etc. etc.
I generally design for my own foundry. Sometimes people contact me to ask if I undertake commissions (from logos to full fonts). Depending on what the job is and how busy I am, I will accept the project. I generally only work on new designs and ones that could eventually enter my retail collection.

Sometimes commissions are restrictive (I may not accept these jobs). Sometimes they are open - as they want me to design it, not re-work their attempt. Christchurch Art Gallery was a perfect job - the release version is Aspect. They initially wanted a basic font - I decided to turn it into a huge ligature-based beast - they got a lot more than they asked for. As a result the visual design of the art gallery is intrinsically linked to the design of the font.

The recent Arjowiggins Inuit font was a bit restricted. I wanted to make it support Central European languages and a few weights, but the person who could make the decision was on holiday at the time!! A real pain, as the final font could’ve been so much more.

10) "Understanding how digital type works, the specifications are as important as understanding the forms of the letters & how they work in various languages."- Jeremy Tankard

Characteristics
(g) open bowl
(k) single junction at stem
(p) bowl is not connected
(q) tail points directly downward
(c) has barbs on top and bottom
6 and 9 are same characters only inversions of one another
both lowercase and capital letters mixed together.
only a few ascending letters
even less descending letters
numbers are not all on the same baseline
it's really just a disturbing font.

Disturbance is Disturbingly Disturbing

1) See below






2) Jeremy Tankard (born in South Africa, on a date apparently unknown by all of the world).
3) Designed in 1993
4) Classification: Serif
5) The classification Serif is characterized by little extra strokes found at the end of main vertical and horizontal strokes of some letterforms. Serifs fall into various groups and can be generally described as hairline, slab, or wedge and are either bracketed or unbracketed. Hairline serifs are much thinner than the main strokes. Square or slab serifs are thicker than hairline serifs all the way up heavier weight than the main strokes. Wedge serifs are triangular in shape. Unbracketed serifs attach directly to the strokes of the letterform, sometimes abrubtly or at right angles. Bracketed serifs provide a curved transition between the serif and the main strokes. Within these divisions serifs can be blunt, rounded, tapered, pointed, or some hybrid shape.
6) Other fonts of the same classification: Perpetua, and Goudy.
7) Louis Rosserto and John Plunkett launch one of my favorite magazines, WIRED; the essay "Cult of the Ugly" by Steven Heller is published in Eye; and the great Justin Lodoly celebrated his 4th birthday in May of that same year.
8) Other fonts by the disturbed Jeremy Tankard: Bliss Pro, Enigma, and Wayfarer.
9) Throughout the 20th Century various experiments have been carried out to simplify the structure of the alphabet, Herbert Bayer in 1925, Jan Tschichold in 1929, Sjoerd de Roos in 1938 and Wim Crouwel in 1966. Bradbury Thompson experimented with his Alphabet 26 structure throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Thompson used Baskerville Roman and Small Capitals to create his alphabet. This mix of traditional letterforms had a more acceptable rhythm allowing for better legibility and readability.

With Disturbance™ the primary concern was rhythm and how to extend the possibilities within the accepted current structure of the alphabet. Tschichold pointed out that poor rhythm in type destroys legibility and readability. The failure of some of the early attempts in single alphabet design is with a lack of rhythm and harmony; the concepts were too often clouded in the modernist ideas of the time.

The 26 letters that comprise the Disturbance alphabet were chosen for maximum legibility. These letters were then harmonised and ascenders and descenders added. This increases the vertical movement within the type and together with the many ligatures, creates new word shapes and a new rhythm.

Jeremy: I began to focus on type generally during my time at the RCA. I spent a lot of time in the letterpress room. For my thesis I designed the Disturbance type (later released as FF Disturbance in 1993). It was calledDisturbance as my lecturers said “I couldn’t do this to the alphabet it is too disturbing”. During my second/final year at the RCA I looked more closely at letters and created a couple more fonts. The very early stages of Blisswere created then.
After graduation I got a job in corporate design at Addison Design Consultants. My first project was Sabena Belgian Airlines (now gone). Addison went bankrupt in 1994 (ish) and I went and worked at Wolff Olins, where I stayed for about 4 years (though I did take 6 months off to travel Australia). During the 6 (ish) years of employment I developed Bliss and a few other fonts (Blue Island, The Shire Types, Alchemy) in my spare time. When I came back from Australia I basically knew I wanted to leave and do my own thing. So a few months after my return I resigned and set up Jeremy Tankard Typography to focus on my type designs.
Type today wouldn’t exist without the technology - it is an absolute part of it. Understanding how digital type works, the specifications are as important as understanding the forms of the letters and how they work in various languages. I approach type design as product design (not so much as art). As time goes on it ’can’ be seen more as software design - some designers already see it as this (think of Letterror in The Netherlands).

I don’t see the technology as a constraint - more a challenge. I enjoy making OpenType fonts which involve a great deal of program code in order to make the fonts function.

The design of type hasn’t changed much over the years. The same problems exist today as they did 100 years ago and longer. As technology changes/advances there are just more issues, sometimes different issues, to juggle. The optical effects still remain - overshoots, spacing, balance, rhythm… but now we also have Windows OS, Mac OS, PostScript, TrueType, low resolution output, ClearType rendering, Quartz rendering, Unicode, OpenType features and expanded EU language support etc. etc.
I generally design for my own foundry. Sometimes people contact me to ask if I undertake commissions (from logos to full fonts). Depending on what the job is and how busy I am, I will accept the project. I generally only work on new designs and ones that could eventually enter my retail collection.

Sometimes commissions are restrictive (I may not accept these jobs). Sometimes they are open - as they want me to design it, not re-work their attempt. Christchurch Art Gallery was a perfect job - the release version is Aspect. They initially wanted a basic font - I decided to turn it into a huge ligature-based beast - they got a lot more than they asked for. As a result the visual design of the art gallery is intrinsically linked to the design of the font.

The recent Arjowiggins Inuit font was a bit restricted. I wanted to make it support Central European languages and a few weights, but the person who could make the decision was on holiday at the time!! A real pain, as the final font could’ve been so much more.

10) "Understanding how digital type works, the specifications are as important as understanding the forms of the letters & how they work in various languages."- Jeremy Tankard Jeremy More Jeremy Even More Jeremy
Graphic Design Referenced

Revised Officina Posters

{1}

{2}

{3}

{4}

{5}

{6}

15 New Letter Crops

Letter Crops

Officina Poster 1

Officina Poster 2

Officina Poster 3

Research: Officina Sans & Serif

01)

02) Erik Spiekermann (Ole Schafer, Just van Rossum)

03) Design released in 1990

04) Classification: Sans Serif, Humanistic Sans

05) Officina is a typeface designed for ultimate readability and legibility. It is simple and clean with even stroke width. It is a humanist typeface, which is closely related to calligraphy and the movement of the hand. The x-height is similar to the rest of the letters and does not fall below or above the baselines. The font in general does not hang past the baseline and is a generally simple, geometric, and condensed typeface.

The "k" of Officina is unique because the arm and leg meet evenly at the stem, making the crotch a perfect angle. The uppercase "Q" is geometric and oval shaped. The tail is a simple wedge that extends past the baseline a bit. The lowercase "g" is one story and has a curve along the right side that goes into the ear. The lowercase "p" resembles the lowercase "g" and the space created by the bowl and counter creates an oval shape with one straight side. Although the lowercase "g" is one story, the lowercase "a" is two stories. It has a thick, cut terminal that matches its final, all evenly weighted. The uppercase "G" is very simple and has a simple spur. The uppercase "C" is simple as well and the barb is cut off the ends to create a sleek curve. The lowercase "e" is has a sharp eye and an evenly weighted cross bar. The "x" is very all and creates a small arrow in the counter on the top and bottom and a wide arrow on the sides. The "w" is similar to baskerville in that it the two "v's" meet at the apex. They do not intersect and they are tall like the "x's." The apex of the uppercase "A" is flat at the top like baskerville and has an evenly weighted crossbar.

06) Same Classification: Agostina, Abadi, Calibri, FUTURA, META

07) In the year 1990 Suzana Licko was becoming a famous typography designer and her typefaces became forever associated with the 90s. Also Jessica Marak was born in May. Also a basic system for classifying typefaces was devised in this century, when printers sought to identify a heritage for their own craft analogous to that of art history.

08) Other fonts designed by Spiekermann: FF Meta typeface, Berliner Grotesk BQ, FF Info Display, FF Info Office, FF Info Text, FF Meta Boiled, FF Meta Condensed, FF Meta Correspondence, FF Meta Subnormal, ITC Officina Display, ITC Officina Sans, ITC Officina Serif, FF Unit

09)

Erik Spiekermann calls himself an information architect. He is equally comfortable and prolific as a writer, graphic and typeface designer, but type is always at the epicenter of this communication dynamo. Even as a child, Spiekermann was drawn to the typographic arts. “I had a little printing press and taught myself to set type when I was twelve,” he recalls. “Years later, when I went to university to study art history, I made a living as a letterpress printer and hot metal typesetter.”

After college, Spiekermann spent several years as a freelance graphic designer in London. He returned to Berlin in 1979, where, together with two partners, he founded MetaDesign, Germany’s largest design firm, with offices in Berlin, London and San Francisco. The firm’s projects included work for Audi, Skoda, Volkswagen, Lexus, Heidelberg Printing, Berlin Transit, Düsseldorf Airport and many other clients. In 1988, Spiekermann started FontShop, a digital typeface foundry and distributor of fonts.

Spiekermann currently holds a professorship at the Academy of Arts in Bremen, is vice president of the German Design council, president of the International Institute of Information Design, president of the International Society of Typographic Designers and a board member of ATypI. His book, Stop Stealing Sheep, first published in 1993, has sold over 150,000 copies and is currently in its second edition. He withdrew from the management of MetaDesign in 2000 to work on a new project: The United Designers Network, a collaboration of many designers he has worked with over the years.

When it comes to the design of typefaces, Spiekermann sees himself as more of a problem solver than an artist. His process for beginning a new typeface is simple and straightforward.

Spiekermann has designed Officina and Officina Display for ITC.

When ITC Officina was first released in 1990, as a paired family of serif and sans serif faces in two weights with italics, it was intended as a workhorse typeface for business correspondence. But the typeface proved popular in many more areas than correspondence. Erik Spiekermann, Officina's designer and the founder of MetaDesign in Berlin, says, “Once Officina got picked up by the trendsetters to denote 'coolness', it had lost its innocence. No pretending anymore that it only needed two weights for office correspondence. As a face used in magazines and advertising, it needed proper headline weights and one more weight in between the original Book and Bold.” To add the new weights and small caps, Spiekermann collaborated with Ole Schaefer, director of typography and type design at MetaDesign. The extended ITC Officina family now includes Medium, Extra Bold, and Black weights with matching italics-all in both Sans and Serif-as well as new small caps fonts for the original Book and Bold weights.

Erik Spiekermann has been designing typefaces and information systems since the early 70s. He is a founder of the German mega-firm MetaDesign, and FontShop, the first online distributor of digital fonts. If you’ve ever used typefaces such as Officina or Meta, traveled on Berlin transit, or read the Economist, then you know Spiekermann’s work. And if you saw the 2007 documentary, Helvetica, then you surely remember the self-professed typomaniac: “They [letters] are my friends… Some people look at bottles of wine, or whatever – girls’ bottoms – I get kicks out of looking at type.”

In 2006, Design Within Reach commissioned Spiekermann to design house numbers; a three-dimensional typographic challenge. The result was four carefully-considered choices of number sets, including Tech, which had no diagonal strokes. If letters are his friends, then numbers are difficult, beautiful women that flirt a lot but rarely behave. Spiekermann shared the challenges and history of number design, in person, on April 23, 2008:

"Anybody can design letters, but numbers are hard. Tech was an interesting challenge that I gave myself: to create a typeface that has no diagonals. When you design numbers, you have to do ABC at least. It’s interesting because I realized that what worked for the house numbers obviously doesn’t work for letters. This was going backwards. But numbers and letters are very different; they have different space, different shapes; they come from different places. Figures are actually my favorite part of type design.

It’s always a challenge to give numbers space, because you need to create a complete set where each figure takes up the same amount of room: The 1 has to be as wide as the 0 so that when you make tables they arrange. It’s just another design challenge. I don’t do a lot of designing or drawing myself anymore because there are people who are much quicker than I am, but the numbers I always do myself because I like them so much, even though I probably spend way more time than I should. They’re just too pretty.

With numbers there are more restrictions, and there’s more freedom at the same time. You look at some typefaces and you wonder where the numbers came from. The truth is, they were probably added later. There is a sort of generic set of numbers that can always be integrated into almost any typeface. If you look at the Century School font, for example, that’s the sort of generic – especially American – typeface of the 1800s. It has a specific set of numbers, but you could put those same numbers into almost any other typeface and they wouldn’t look out of place because numbers have their own shapes, different from characters; they’re standing alone anyway. So there’s actually quite a bit of leeway because they only have to conform to each other. The weight has to be kind of the same: the 1 has to look like a 1; the 4 like a 4, but not necessarily like the A or the B. That’s the weird thing.

You can certainly mix the numbers from different types of fonts, and most people won’t even know – because numbers are numbers are numbers. But like anything in design, restrictions are necessary. Otherwise I’d be an artist.

10) In response to the question "What helps fuel your best creativity?"

"Well, there's no reason to do it otherwise. If there's no pressure, why the fuck do it? You know, I'm not an artist, I don't get turned on by nothing. I get turned on by problems. For clients. The only reason that people go for walks, I find, or people do other stuff, is not for inspiration- it's to avoid the issue. I would love to go for a bike ride now because the weather's beautiful, but I know I'm only doing it to avoid the work. I don't find inspiration on a fucking bike ride. My butt hurt, my arms hurt, I'm out of breath. Or the famous long walks along the beach. You don't find inspiration. Give me a break. You avoid the real issues. That's my honest opinion."

Online Sources:

www.fonts.com

www.typedia.com

www.itcfonts.com

The Man

Print Source:

Inspirability by Pash

FONTS

Font Classification in general terms is the complete set of letters in a particular style. These styles include serif, sans serif, decorative, display, script, black letters, old slavonic, or pictures.

Old Style is defined by thick and thin strokes and a more refined, sharp appearance. Three examples of this classification are Monotype Bembo, Stempel Garamond, and Monotype Ehrhdardt.

Transitional is defined by its rational system of parts and geometric basis, rather than previous skeletal fonts with certain attributes and ornamentation. Three examples of this classification are New York, Caledonia, and Baskerville.

Modern typefaces are defined by rigid, condensed, possessed of horizontal stress, and of serifs no thicker than the letter's hairlines. Three examples of this classification are Bodoni, Century Gothic, and Nova Sans.

Slab Serif typefaces are different than serifs because of their thick thick, square-ended serifs. Three examples of this classification are Egyptian, Clarendon, and Ziggurat.

Sans Serif typefaces are "equivalent of circumcision," meaning they are stripped to the bare minimum by losing the serif appendages. Three examples of this classification are Futura, Gill Sans, and Franklin Gothic.

Script letters are characterized by their handwritten quality. This gives script an endless number of possibilities and categories. Three examples of this classification are French Script, Volgare, and School Script.

Blackletter is a style that is most commonly associated with newspaper nameplates, beer labels, religious scriptures, and tattoos. It is characterized by calligraphic strokes and embellishment. Three examples of this category are Fraktur, Textura, and Rotunda.

Grunge is a typeface that is rooted from postmodernism and deconstructive typography. It is a new breed of amalgamated, scratchy typefaces that are jarring in aesthetic and philosophy of the classic typography. Three examples of this classification are Turbo Ripped, Laundromat, and MC Auto.

Monospaced typefaces are based on the typewriter style, which means all the letters conform to a specific physical width, resulting in letterforms that must expand or condense to make the best use of the alloted space. This gives monospaced types a nonproportional appeal. Three examples of this typeface are Courier, Orator, and OCR B.

Undeclared is a typeface that combines the sans serif structure with flared serifs at the ends. It is a baffling font that includes Optima and Copperplate Gothic.

Representatives of Letterforms

ITC

EST. 1970 (New York, New York, USA)

The International Typeface Corporation (ITC) is important because after years of metal typesetting it pushed phototypesetting to become the prevailing method of developing, distributing, and reproducing typefaces in the 1970s. ITC was founded by a group of designers including Herb Lubalin, Aaron Burns, and Ed Rondathaler. This ground breaking group changed the way typefaces were distributed and how designers were remunerated. They provided the source material to reproduce their typefaces on any phototypesetting machine and paid designers a royalty based on the amount of orders of their designs. This increased the risk of piracy, but they were able to build a significantly large library of typefaces. As a means of selling and spreading their typeface business, ITC created a magazine entitled U&lc (Upper and Lowercase). This publication showcased the library while providing unique and engaging content to the growing list of subscribers. Later this magazine was replaced with an e-commerce site, which was more direct for the users. Two of their typefaces include ITC Goudy Sans, Luna, Seven Treasures Silvermoon, Skid Row, Scarborough, vineryard, Magnifico, Woodland, and Japanese Garden.. ITC closed in 1999 and sold their library and name to Agfa Monotype Imaging. The page from the U&lc magazine featured in the book caught my eye because of the "Jewels from Japan" tagline. The work of artist Akira Kobayshi is featured on this page and I particularly like ITC Luna because of its smooth, sophisticated curves. Also the names of the fonts on this page are very creative and exciting to discover. Skid Row is a great name as well as Seven Treasures.

Adobe Fonts

EST. 1984 (Mountain View, California, USA)

Adobe fonts are important because they are one of the strongest systems that handles and processes computer-based typography. They began with the revolutionary PostScript language, which allowed for more smooth, curvaceous printing. This was later enhanced by Adobe Type Manager (ATM) in 1989. Adobe also introduced OpenType in response to Microsoft allowing for endless possibilities and flexibility. With every Adobe application, Adobe typefaces are included putting hundreds of fonts in the hands of designers over the years. Adobe began created original typefaces in 1989 under the leadership of Robert Slimbach and Carol Twombly. A few typefaces associated with Adobe include Garamond, Caslon, Trajan, Lithos, Chaparral, Minion, Utopia, Poetica, and Myriad. Adobe fonts have gained popularity through the years through the entwining of programs such as Creative Suit and integration of many languages. They have become associated with the general design and application of typography. I was attracted to this page because of the well imprinted Adobe typeface that I associate with a clean, crisp, and simple image. The Adobe typfaces are very traditional, legible, and convenient. They seem to be easily accessible and widely used.

Poetica

Zuzana Licko

b. 1961 (Bratislava, Czechoslovakia)

Currently Berkeley, California, USA

Zuzana Licko began her career at the University of Californai Berkeley with a degree in graphic communications. She has no formal training in typeface design, but was able to break ground with her creation of fresh, uniquely designed coarse bitmap. She is a native of Czechoslovakian, which is where my family origins tie back to, making Zuzana Licko my new idol. Licko was able to come up with remarkable innovative design despite printing and screen resolution limitations. Some of her earlier typeface designs include Emigre, Emperor, Oakland, Universal. Later she developed smoother and more traditional designs due to technological advances, these include Citizen, Tiplex, Matrix, and Senator, which are all interpretations and descendants of her previous designs. Lick even ventured into revitalizing and modernizing such classic fonts as Baskerville and Bodnoi. Her most commerically successful typeface, though, was Filsofia. Licko is the mother of nearly 30 type families, which represent a daring and diverse output. I was attracted to these fonts because they were different, more bold, and more diverse. After reading about Zuzana and her Czech background I felt a connection to her and to her type designs. I found a site that included a few essays written by Lucko that I found interesting.