» Typography

The Independent

Leah Batchelor — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 12:19:08 +0000

The Independent has just launched ‘i’, its new daily newspaper “designed for people with busy, modern lives”. But what exactly is it for?

Editor-in-chief Simon Kelner claims that the 20p title is “the first quality daily paper to be launched in Britain for 25 years”

I have to say that the results are however a little confusing, from these photographs the layout has a lot happening and there doesn’t seem to be too much white space. There are splashes of colour sections, making the days of black and white long gone. There are many boxes of text and tabs everywhere and looks more suited to the web. Every though the internet is at its peak do we want that in our newspapers?

The point of the newspaper is that it can be consumed in a small amount of time. The News Matrix (above) provides 15 stories over a spread, each with only a mere 40-wordparagaph.

This new design isn’t surprising given that the owner of The Independent Alexander Lebedev, famously turned The Evening Standard into a giveaway.

The most successful sections are the ones devoid of advertising. A Health spread gives the impression that there’s a more in-depth feature to be read.

Creative Review believes that this new reading experience is to fit in with the pace of contemporary life and the moment just adds confusion. I have to disagree with this; to me it doesn’t seem easy to follow. I want to look at a spread and know what the main headlines are immediately and not have to take time to read each section to find what I’m looking for.

I know that it is difficult to get everything perfect straight away but I feel to create a user friendly newspaper it still needs a lot of work. This is just my opinion and I’d be interested to know what you think?

A Nice Publication

Leah Batchelor — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:36:43 +0000

This is the catalogue that accompanies artist Kamil Kuskowski’s exhibition, The Truth of Painting, which ran earlier in the year at the Piekary Gallery in Poznan, Poland. Seven different stocks, coated and coloured, were utilised to accentuate several techniques used by the artist within his work. There are four chapters in the catalogue, each with its own distinct colour and paper stock. The aim was to allude to the techniques and bold colours used by the artist but at the same time keep it simple and uncluttered, which is in keeping with the artists work.

This is a lovely piece, I particularly like the layouts that have been employed and designed with the arrangement of the typography. All aspects brought together have produced a very successful final piece.

Pentagram – What type are you?

admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:54:07 +0000

Ever wondered what font symbolizes you? If so, you should have a go with Pentagram’s novel application to identify what typeface best suits your character.

Having answered the four simple questions I was more than a little surprised to be identified as Cooper Black Italic! It is growing on me but very slowly!

Try it out for yourself and share your thoughts: ‘What Type Are You’ test.
The password is: character

MK12 Motion Graphics

Jonathan Fleck — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:43:17 +0000

As part of the “Issues” class project, for which I’m putting together a kinetic typography piece, I’ve been looking for inspiration on the superb Vimeo.com. Whereas there are hundreds of good examples on both Vimeo and Youtube, I came across one studio in particular whose work just blew my mind. Motion Graphics studio MK12 have produced the graphics/credits for the Will Ferrell film, “Stranger than Fiction”, and more recently, the famous opening animation/graphics and gun barrel scene for Bond movie, Quantum of Solace.

See some of the

You can see much of MK12’s astounding work here on Vimeo, their main website is here, or here’s a few links to some of the videos that stood out for me:

Stranger than Fiction Opening Scene
Stranger than Fiction Closing Credits
007: Quantum of Solace Barrel Shot
007: Quantum of Solace Main Title Reel
Untitled 01: Infinity

Learn Too Fucking Spell

Jonathan Fleck — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:48:34 +0000

Amusing and informative article by web designer, Paddy Donnelly that really hits the nail on the head. The article is a semi-rant at those designers who don’t bother to learn the differences between “too” and “to”, “it’s” and “its”, and “affect” and “effect” (These last two in particular I see people mixing up all the time). He points out that a designer who can’t spell or use correct grammer, is like a surgeon who can’t use a pencil. Of course, as designers, we’re not expected to write eloquent multi-thousand word essays all the time, but we do need to create and use copy, and basic spelling/grammar can really detract from what would otherwise be an excellent piece of design. Paddy helpfully includes a small guide at the bottom of his article, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. If you want to read further and improve your copy writing skills, I’d recommend getting William Zinsser’s excellent “On Writing Well”, and William Strunk Jr.’s classic “The Elements of Style”.

Merry Forrester

Winnie Shek — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:14:01 +0000

Blog post: http://winnieshek.wordpress.com/2009/12/10/merry-forrester/

Painless and quick are rarely associated with successful

Jonathan Fleck — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:07:22 +0000

This is my contribution to the Viscom Chalkboard. The quote comes from marketing guru Seth Godin, but I thought it was just so applicable given how hard we’re all working currently. And with 18 hours of work overnight, from printing and cutting out all the letter stencils with a hobby knife, measuring my leading, blutacking the letters on the wall in exactly the right position and drawing around with chalk, I think I think the meaning became all the more real for me with sore fingers, hands, wrists, and chapped lips (from all the chalk dust)…

I live for what i do

Winnie Shek — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:53:51 +0000

Quote on blackboard!! A lovely little day project between a few of us second years! Turned out really well if i do say so myself. The next question is will some jerk come along and ruin it? Only time will tell. Anyway below is a link to my site which contains a few more photos! (Apologies still haven’t gotten the links thing to work in this blasted thing, you’ll just have to copy and paste!

http://winnieshek.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/i-live-for-what-i-do/

Hand Job: A Catalog of Type

Susie — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 23:11:29 +0000

Hand Job: A Catalogue of Type by Mike Perry is one of those books that I can open to any page and instantly think, “I wish I was this awesome.” I love hand drawn type and this book, it has become my favorite source of inspiration and can’t wait for the opportunity to draw some type to arise. Mike has included a great collection of artists and designers with a variety of styles. It is available to loan from the library at uni too

SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE: TYPE AND FORM

Janine Hamilton — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:15:53 +0000

I just love Alida Sayer’s work; which is inspired by the world of illustrative and experimental typography and gives a different dimension to illustration and visual design.