We began the class by looking at the idea that although an A is simply 3 lines, we know to interpret it as the letter and sound. This is the case with all the letters, but it's interesting that there is such a variety of typefaces that bend our existing knowledge of the letterforms, but we can still interpret it. We as human beings have been taught from a young age that the letters have their meanings, whereas in reality it is just a group agreement that they have those meanings. All that is necessary for any language to exist is an agreement between a group of people.
For our Design Principles lesson we were told to bring "abcxyz" in uppercase and lowercase of 3 very diferent fonts. Below are previews of the 3 fonts I chose.
Haettenschweiler
I chose Haettenschweiler Because its a very condensed font and isn't likely to be used as a body copy as it has such a huge impact when large.
Times New Roman
I chose Time New Roman because of how diferent it is to Haettenschweiler; The serifs, the line stroke, geometry etc.
Futura
I chose Futura as it looks as though it is the mixture of the 2 above fonts. The line stroke is consistent throughout, the geometry of the letterforms are quite similar to Times New Roman and Futura has the same impact that Haettenschweiler does.
We were set the task of organising our fonts into categories of how they originated. Stone, Sable, Bone, Wood, Lead and Silicone.
We could tell which fonts originated where because of their characteristics. The sable and bone fonts have a quick handwriting look to them. The silicone originated fonts are the sort that are likely to be created on a computer, such as a font with looks of detail or pixel fonts. Bone originated fonts have the same handwriting style as sable, but because of the nibs used have a flat terminals. Wood fonts were geometric styled and produced on a large scale because of the wood density and grain which would interfere with the print. Metal type allowed for a smaller point size because it did not have the same issues as wood type.
We could tell which fonts originated where because of their characteristics. The sable and bone fonts have a quick handwriting look to them. The silicone originated fonts are the sort that are likely to be created on a computer, such as a font with looks of detail or pixel fonts. Bone originated fonts have the same handwriting style as sable, but because of the nibs used have a flat terminals. Wood fonts were geometric styled and produced on a large scale because of the wood density and grain which would interfere with the print. Metal type allowed for a smaller point size because it did not have the same issues as wood type.
Then we organised it into diferent categories which were defined by the letterform characteristics which can be seen below.
Below is serifs and san serifs.
For next weeks lesson, we were asked to bring "abc,xyz" uppercase and lowercase in a font that was created in Stone, Sable, Bone, Wood, Lead and Silicone. Below are the 4 I have chosen so far.
Silicone
The pixel style is a style that was only created when computers were first made. The style originates from the pixels on the screen used to make up a letter.
Lead
The typewriter is one of the main uses of lead type. I chose this compared to a letterpress styled font as I wanted it to be easy to tell which is which.
Sable
The handwritten style and curved ends suggest that this font originated with sable.
Bone
The flat ends of the letterform suggests that this font was original hand rendered with a fountain pen of some sort.
