Why Subtle Typographic Choices Make All The Difference Advertisement A strong understanding of how designers control meaning is essential for anyone interested in graphic design or typography. In a previous article, we discussed how sophisticated and complex visual and verbal language can get, examining instances that show how type can be used to effectively take control of meaning. In this article, we’ll look at the reasons why subtle typographic changes can create considerable effect. Let’s consider a couple of simple sentences: “The boy walks a dog” and “The boy walks the dog.” Two visualizations of the same word but with typographic treatments that have entirely different emphases and meaning. The last couple of examples stem from the ideas of one of the fathers of 20th-century linguistics, Ferdinand de Saussure, who felt that each word (or “sign”) had one specific meaning (signification). However, meaning comes not simply from comparing one visual interpretation to another. The name style of an iconic fashion brand. (al) (il) It's done.
The Secret to Writing Incredible Blog Posts — Career Pathing People always ask me what they should blog about. Should they write about this fancy topic? This complicated process? This trendy thing that they don’t really know much about but everyone is talking about it? No. No. At this point in the conversation I have to stop whoever I am talking to and tell them that they are making a huge mistake. “Well, Matt, what am I supposed to write about then!? I’m going to tell you the secret to writing great blog posts right now. Write about what you know. That’s it. Why do I want you to start writing incredible blog posts? Do you need someone to look over your blog post draft, tell you if your blog post idea is good, or give you more tips? Need a quote from me for the post you’re working on?
Get to Know a Typeface! Minion | The IBD Blog Normally, on this site, we write about expressive typefaces that evoke strong responses. And since Shea and I are bitter, unhappy people, we write about typefaces that are easy to hate like Comic Sans and Papyrus. Minion, designed by Robert Slimbach in 1990, is one of those typefaces that only a typographer could love (not that other people dislike it; they just don’t notice it). The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst is one of the most influential books on typography. Minion is a serifed typeface designed in the “classical tradition,” which is designer code for “It was designed to look like pretty much every other serifed typeface out there.” There is nothing to dislike about Minion. In short, the advantage of Minion, specifically Minion Pro, is that it contains more characters (called glyphs) than most other fonts. Minion Pro has multiple weights (bold, semi-bold, medium, roman) plus old-style letterforms and small caps.
Web Typography: Educational Resources, Tools and Techniques The Dash Use a dash [ — ] (or two hyphens [ -- ] on old-fashioned typewriters) or dashes as a super-comma or set of super-commas to set off parenthetical elements, especially when those elements contain internal forms of punctuation: All four of them—Bob, Jeffrey, Jason, and Brett—did well in college. In most word-processors, the dash is created by holding down the option key and hitting the key that has the underline mark above the hyphen. This can vary, though, from program to program. Do not use dashes to set apart material when commas would do the work for you. In writing dialogue, the dash is used to show breaks in thought and shifts in tone: "How many times have I asked you not to —" Jasion suddenly stopped talking and looked out the window. "Not to do what?" "Not to — Oh heck, I forget!" A dash is sometimes used to set off concluding lists and explanations in a more informal and abrupt manner than the colon.
How to design your own typeface | Typography After many years as a graphic designer and type enthusiast, I decided to channel some of my passion into my own lettering and typography design projects. After researching how to make your own font, it seemed a natural evolution to try my hand at designing a typeface. Much has been written about type design; on the history, drawing and technical complexities of creating typefaces (I've linked to some excellent resources at the bottom of this article) and many typography tutorials. But where exactly do you begin if you want to make your own font? If you're a designer or illustrator new to this discipline, what are the first practical steps, the common software and early considerations to get you going? I had found some useful pieces of information but they were scattered across many sources and many were dated by technology. Sharing insights 01. Designing a typeface can be a long journey so it's prudent to have a clear vision of its purpose. The options are vast. 02. 03. 04. 05. 06. 07.
Une police de caractères dédiée aux dyslexiques Saviez-vous qu’en moyenne la dyslexie touche 10% de la population ? Si ce handicap ne touche que 5% de la population en France (7% pour les enfants scolarisés), il est responsable de problèmes d’assimilation des textes et de retard dans l’apprentissage. Sans trop rentrer dans les détails, les personnes atteintes de dyslexie ont tendance à inverser les lettres (comme illustré plus bas) et donc à changer la signification des mots. Souffrant moi-même de légère dyslexie depuis mon enfance (je ne crois pas que ça se soigne d’ailleurs), je suis particulièrement sensible à ce sujet. Pour pallier à ce problème d’inversion, un graphiste néerlandais souffrant de dyslexie, Christian Boer, a conçu une police de caractères permettant de mieux identifier les lettres : Une police d’écriture pour les dyslexiques. Le principe est donc d’augmenter l’épaisseur des lettres à leur base pour leur donner plus de “poids” et éviter que le cerveau ne les retourne.
The Writer as Meme Machine: How Has the Internet Altered Poetry? What if the poetic has left the poem in the same way that Elvis has left the building? Long after the limo pulled away, the audience was still in the arena screaming for more, but poetry escaped out the backdoor and onto the Internet, where it is taking on new forms that look nothing like poetry. Poetry as we know it—sonnets or free verse on a printed page—feels akin to throwing pottery or weaving quilts, activities that continue in spite of their cultural marginality. But the Internet, with its swift proliferation of memes, is producing more extreme forms of modernism than modernism ever dreamed of. Wershler calls these activities “conceptualism in the wild,” referring to the aspect of nineteen-sixties conceptual art that concerned reframing, and thereby redefining, the idea of artistic genius (think of Duchamp’s urinal). And he’s right. And it keeps coming. In the past decade, the poet Tan Lin has been treating his poetry like dance music: free for the retooling.
Steps to creating a font... This tutorial is also available as a pdf version. If you wish to follow along with the tutorial, this bundle should provide you with the basic files you need. I shall not presume to teach aesthetics, I concentrate solely on the mechanics here. NOBLEMAN: Now this is what I call workmanship. There is nothing on earth more exquisite than a bonny book, with well-placed columns of rich black writing in beautiful borders, and illuminated pictures cunningly inset. Font creation First create a new font with the New command in the File menu (or by using the -new argument at startup). Give the font a name with the Font Info command from the Element menu. You may also wish to use Encoding->Reencode to change what characters are available in your font. Creating a glyph Once you have done that you are ready to start editing glyphs. The outline glyph window contains two palettes snuggled up on the left side of the window. Cubic layers (C) use third-order Bezier splines, like PS fonts.
Xomba Okay Type · Alright Sans Alright Sans is a contemporary sans-serif with a clean, prudent voice that avoids looking stiff or bland. Actually, it has just the right amount of warmth to convey a serious-yet-friendly tone. It has an open structure with shorter-than-normal capitals and a large x-height, giving it a roundabout economy that works exceptionally well across all media, in both large and small sizes. Its extensive character set, rich OpenType features, and wide range of weights makes it a reliable and versatile workhorse. Alright Sans Black Italic & Regular Alright Sans Extra Thin Italic & Bold Alright Sans Light Italic Alright Sans Regular Italic Alright Sans Medium Italic Alright Sans Extra Medium & Thin Italic Alright Sans Regular & Regular Italic Alright Sans Thin & Ultra Alright Sans Medium Alright Sans Bold Alright Sans Black Alright Sans Ultra Alright Sans Extra Thin OpenType features are awesome. Small Caps All Caps Ligatures Discretionary Ligatures Old-Style Figures Lining Figures Tabular Old-Style Figures
The Long Odds | A Survivor's Guide To Life's Kicks In The Teeth And How To Kick Back Simplifica Typography | Creative Alys SIMPLIFICA typography is an exceptional typeface created by KAIWA. It is a little condensed sans-serif typeface presenting a consistent and narrow line width. It’s excessive positioned capsheight and ascender favors legibility. A fine, simple and creative font that you simply can’t neglect. Related Posts Fenix Typography Fenix is a serif typeface designed for display and long texts, its foundations are based in calligraphy, with strong serifs and rough strokes. When do you call yourself a writer? | onewildword Some days, it seems as if everybody thinks they’re a writer. A few years back I was visiting my mother-in-law in Cherry Valley, California, where I spent the mornings writing at a local Starbucks. As I sat outside sipping my latte and working on my laptop, at least five people a day approached me to ask what I was doing. When I said I was a writer, most of the people proceeded to sit down and tell me their own writing dreams. One woman, a teacher, hoped to retire and write full time. Another woman, a self-proclaimed writer, asked what I was working on. “You never rewrite?” “Oh, no,” she said. Another woman confessed that she wanted to give writing a try because her friends were always telling her that she wrote the best emails. The definition of a writer is vast and varied depending on who you ask. I’d been a writer and published poet for years but never called myself a writer in any professional capacity until I was faced with the decision of what occupation to put on my passport.