Just My Type

I found the book; Just My Type by Simon Garfield in the Milne Library and was immediately drawn in by the title which served as a fun play on words while also clearly being a book about typography. This book is interesting because it covers many different types of fonts, but the author does this in such a way that would make the book interesting for just about anyone. Garfield tells the stories of fonts. He discusses real-life events that either inspired, or popularized all of our favorite fonts today such as Helvetica, Gotham and the Neuland Inline font which is the font used for both The Lion King, and Jurassic Park. This book is great for newcomers to the typography field as well as seasoned vets and even someone who’s not interested in typography as all.

Graphic Design: A New History (Stephen J. Eskilson)

I picked up this book and thought it was pretty cool, even though I’ve never looked at a book about graphic design before. The way it was organized was very interesting, containing information from the 19th century and what roles designers took leading up to today. It outlines lots of different eras in the field, and I looked at the section they had on the postmodern movement and thought that was pretty interesting too. I’m including a picture of the cover of the book because I honestly didn’t think it looked too good despite being a book on graphic design, but it also reminded me of when people had to manually place type with their hands. So glad I wasn’t born during that era.

Herb Lubalin: Art Director, Graphic Designer and Typographer

Looking through, all of the graphic design books, in the library one in particular that Caught my eye, was a book about Herb Lubalin, called Herb Lubalin: Art Director, Graphic Designer and Typographer by Gertrude Snyder and Alan Peckolick. This book appropriated my interest, as I was aware of, his accomplishments, in the typographic industry, and I sought to learn more, about his works, and strategies. Herbert lubalin, was born, and raised in New York City, and was very well known, for his breakthrough, in the typography world. He designed many magazine, book covers and logos, including the movie, The Sound of Music logo. Herb is also well known for his family of fonts, created from the magazine logo, he designed for Avant Garde. Almost all of his works were designed using one or two colors, as he was color blind. His handicap prevented him from concentrating on hues of color, compelling him to focus on form and layout. One of the last logos, Herb was working on, before he died, was for the up, and coming TV station, MTV. His love, for interlocking letters, and shape angles, changed logos for generations to come.

Drawing/ for Graphic Design

The book titled Drawing for Graphic Design by Timothy Samara, is about understanding conceptual principles and practical techniques to create unique, effective design solutions. He begins the book by discussing how drawing was avoided by many graphic professionals when he was first starting off. Samara also talks about how given the denigration of drawing in general practice, it comes as no surprise that its role in education has also diminshed. Most graphic design programs in the U.S. do not include drawing in their curriculums. I found this pretty shocking considering most courses I have taken throughout my collegiate years have been drawing classes. Samara goes on to say how imperative drawing from observation is for designers because it attunes their facility for analyzing form and structure in the real world. He believes drawing strengthens a designers eye. I completely agree with this statement and think every designer should do their best to improve their drawing skills and habits. 

Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design

The book I chose that caught my attention in the library was Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design by Chip Kidd. Although this is a book intended to teach younger ages about graphic design, the content and information was actually very knowledgeable. It starts with giving a run through history about graphic design all the way from art in 15,000 B.C. The chapters are broken down into 4 categories: form, typography, content and concept. The chapter that interested me the most was typography. I’ve always loved the idea of using text to create a design and making it the focal point. It ties in with the idea of ‘less is more’ being that there are no pictures to distract you from the message in the text itself. I love the quote Chip Kidd says on the page above saying, ” Even though it is in black and white, the beautifully nuanced balance of tones, proportions, and textures makes it a monochromatic rainbow of type”. I think this describes typography in general perfectly. Many people underestimate the power of text by itself, but text alone can become a piece of art that consists of many different design aspects that need to be taken into consideration when placing words. Kidd tries to emphasize that text can be more than just words in a straight line, you just have to think in a more abstract way.

50’s Advertisements

After looking through many books in the Graphic Design section of the Milne Library, this book edited by Jim Heimann really caught my attention. I have always been fascinated with the time period of the 1950’s, so when I saw this book I thought it was perfect. There are so many different kinds of advertisements and graphic arts in this book, it was hard to choose which one to post a picture of on this blog post. I chose the page above because I liked how the artist was able to make it look like the drawing continued into the writing. The liquid dripping from the test tube into the bottom half of the page leads your eye from one portion of the page to the next. Making it easy for you to study the drawing and then easily go into reading the article.

New Typographic Design

The book I chose when browsing through the library is “New Typographic Design” written by Roger Fawcett-Tang with an introduction and essays by David Jury. I chose this book because I am a big fan of typography in graphic design and It is one of my favorite elements that can be used for a design.

The part of the book that I believed to be the most eye catching to me was the part of the book with examples and a short paragraph about the Synopsis Project. Synopsis was an example of whats known as the “DaMa font.” The DaMa font is a font created by the DaMa logo by Dalton Maag. The logo was turned into a complete set of a font for every letter and number that can be used. The Synopsis Project used the DaMa font and softened the hard edges of the font using “graduated color tints.” This work was done in 2005.

American Modernism: Graphic Design, 1920 to 1960

In this book the evolution of graphic design is discussed. I found it to be quite interesting that as times and technology changed so did styles and techniques used in design. Where heavily embellished lettering was later traded for clean simplistic styles when new methods of printing came out and how black and white led to color contrast when chromolithography allowed for the use of multiple colors. Not only did technology change print but so did current events. The more serious the event the more bold the designs became. Such as during war and internal political struggles. A good example being World War 2, anti nazi posters.

 

Chip Kidd’s Book on Graphic Design

Chip Kidd is the artist I was assigned for the magazine project. Upon doing research on his works for the assignment, I came across his children’s book graphic design. In his book called  Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design, Kidd explains elements of design including form, line, cropping, color, scale, and typography. One page that particularly caught my eye regarded everything that is not nature had to have been designed by someone. These designed physical objects included food containers, sports equipment, shampoo bottles, tv remotes and more highlighted on this page. Reading this page instilled me with the feeling that those disposable objects that are overlooked should now be viewed as their own individual works of art. A milk carton, so casually tossed away is actually a piece specifically created by an artist with aspects drawn from nature in its simplistic yet thoughtful design. Kidd so cleverly details that every element of something manmade is designed down to its font size, text, shape, etc. This page of the book augmented my view of world in the sense that the “little” things in life should not be unrightfully dismissed, but rather gazed upon for their own intrinsic and purposefully beauty.

Purchase his book at: https://www.amazon.com/Go-Chip-Kidd/dp/076117219X

 

 

International Logos & Trademarks

This book ‘International Logos & Trademarks’ by Supon Design Group, shows what is enough is enough. That using simple symbol to show and to give people a deep impression. People will be more focusing on image than word, so sending an logo can draw attention from consumer and let them remember what things they are presenting.

This book also used the opposite color to show the logo, let them stand out and some pages used light blue which make a new concept of a book that usually they were shown  in white color.