Kristin Becker's DTC Classes at WSU

Helvetica is a Neo-Grotesque typed designed in 1957 by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffman at the Haas Type Foundry in Switzerland. Helvetica has become a very popular type and is used on everything from logos to signage.

For my typography, I chose a poster that talks about the helvetica font style. The eye is first drawn to the word “Helvetica”, because it is the largest and most clear of all of the words in the image. From there the l in helvetica forms another line branching off of the line formed by the word “Helvetica”. The line formed by the l brings to a plane that describes in detail what kind of font helvetica is. The line brings our eye up further to a point which is the name of the author of the font. after viewing that, our eyes are brought to another line branching off of the word “Helvetica” that forms from the i. This line brings our eyes downward this time to bring our attention to a point that tells us what year the font was designed in. Having a solid red background for this poster makes it easy for the author to achieve balance. He continues to do by putting the heaviest line closer to the bottom of the image but not all the way. The lines that he makes from the l and i greatly affect the way that balance is achieved as well. They help fill up some of the negative space while drawing our eyes to some of the lighter elements of the of the image. The plane that describes the type of font that helvetica is is placed above the heavy line in order to draw it a little closer towards the center, while having the authors name at the top gives something for us to look at near the top rather than just empty space. Balance is fully achieved by filling up the leftover negative space at the bottom of the image with the year that the font was designed. Although this poster is balanced, I do not believe that it is symmetrical, because everything on the bottom of the image is aligned to the right, while everything on the top of the image is aligned to the left.

A cover for the Washington Post’s Weekend edition by Jessica Hische, highlighting “40 dishes to try” in Washington D.C.. (http://www.jessicahische.is/agoodeater)

This is a composition created by Jessica Hische was created as a cover for the Weekend Edition of the Washington Post. When looking at the composition, the first thing that my eye is drawn to is the “40,” printed in the largest font with the boldest typeface and color. From there, my eye is drawn to the blue lines surrounding the “40”, flowing to the points at the end of each line. My eye is then lead to the word “eats” that is created by different lines. These two typographic elements are brought together by white lines in each of the letters, also bringing in the color of the “Weekend” at the very top of the page. Finally, my eye is drawn to the little details in the composition, such as the small graphics of food and “Dishes Every Washingtonian Must Try” written in the very bottom right of the composition. The composition is divided into two different planes, the large title text and the smaller subtext, divided clearly both by a hard, straight line and by style of typography. The main subject is clearly shown, with the “40” being the focal point of the composition, followed by “eats” and the title of the magazine itself. I believe that this composition is effective in achieving its intended purpose of acting as a cover for a magazine: The text is the main focus while not being overwhelming, and the subject of the content of the magazine is portrayed clearly and simply. This asymmetrical composition utilizes both a bold typeface and flowing lines to create a visually interesting, dynamic cover for the magazine. The typographic elements of this composition are clearly the focus, with small images of the subject of the composition added for decoration. By utilizing the text in this way, this piece of media is effective in representing the subject of the content to follow in the magazine without creating a busy composition.

I chose to analyze this Criterion greeting card that I found through a link on the Resources section of the class blog. This image of a holiday card utilizes typography to create words hidden in a bunch of similar elements. There are 108 circles close together that I consider to be several different points evenly spaced, yet scrunched together to create a symmetrical rectangle. My eyes are drawn to the points with letters inside of them, and then I look across the image to the right because that is how I would naturally want to read a sentence. When I look at the picture more, sometimes my eyes are drawn to the darker colored points, specifically the green shapes. Looking at it through this perspective it takes away from the balance of the image because the green points are placed randomly with no order to them.

I found this image on Marian Bantjes website where she has a portfolio of her recent and best creations. I found this website through a typography link on the provided resources for this course.

There are lines that are created from the small gaps in-between the repetition of points, they go vertical and horizontally. Lines are also created on each side of the image because the points make a rectangle, therefore straight edges. Each element in this image is the same scale but different colors and designs for each point of the image. This gives the image static balance, but I find it disorienting because there are too many different designs and I have to concentrate on the points with letters inside them to make out what words they are creating. I personally would have preferred the artist use scale in a more dramatic way, possibly making some of the points different sizes.

This is a poster for a music festival called Sasquatch. I used this example because it has the same basic typographic elements of text that is necessary for a concert poster to have and this will be important to consider during our poster remix assignment. The first piece of text that stands out to me on this poster is the largest scaled title of “SASQUATCH” in the top right corner. It also contrasts it’s white background more than any other text included which could make it a point and seems to give it greater importance and notability. It also functions as a line of text as well as a small plane when including the other smaller shaped text boxes with other information underneath it which draws my attention next. The concert name, place, and dates are gathered together and close enough in proximity to create their own smaller plane of text. Then my eyes move down to the large image in the middle of the page which separates the title from the set list. The set list is in a much smaller font and creates a plane of text covering about a third of the page. The poster in general is split up into multiple planes by large boxes of background color or the large image. This poster does not feel balanced due to the heaviness and the darkness of the set list and image although because it is split up into three major planes it makes it easy to follow. It also feels static and asymmetrical due to the blockiness and unevenness of the planes.

A compilation of party favors to create an ad for a New Year’s Eve party. Artist/Owner: Plenty. Photo taken from: Typographyserved

When it comes to scrolling through this particular poster, it has a very minimal approach on showing off what is trying to advertise. With the singular photo in the center of the poster that shows “Plenty” written by blown up balloons, you can definitely argue that with singular photo could be a point. Why? My main argument when it comes to saying that the photo itself that is displaying text is that the photo is ends up being a focal point for the whole poster that once you take a look at the poster, your attention goes to the text that inside of the photo. Also there is another point along the poster that is in the bottom-right of the poster, that is the artist watermark to distinguish who created the poster. Then when it comes to the text on the bottom-end of the poster, that contains the information for the party – the small details all can be complied as a line. Since the text on the bottom seem to separate the rest of the poster from all the negative-space that is constant within the poster (that I’ll come back to later), this line of text just shows you all the information you need to know for this New Year’s Eve party. So let me go back to what I said about all the negative-space that is contained in this poster. The negative-space within the poster seems to give the poster a positive effect in makes your eyes go center and contain all the elements of the poster in an organized fashion. Besides that, the composition of the poster does not really show much contrast between the light and dark colors – besides from the photo and all text on the bottom of the photo. Does that make it accomplish asymmetrical balance though? In my own opinion, it does seem quite balance from all the difference between the two sides of the poster though that is my opinion – it may not fully be asymmetrical balance but I believe it is a tiny bit.

This piece is an alternative self portrait by Michael Driver. Michael is a freelance illustrator from London who has had work featured in magazines such as Wired Magazine and the Washington Post as well as various exhibitions around the United Kingdom. The portrait he created here was the first prize winner of D&AD Wetransfer’s “Draw Yourself in Ten Years” competition. This competition was part of D&AD’s New Blood Awards 2015 aiming to show off work of new artists under the age of 24. Driver’s piece depicts him packed into an uncomfortably small apartment. The stress on his face represents all of the struggles of a young aspiring artist to make ends meet. Michael explains that despite the uncomfortable size of his living space, he is happy to have his own home in London that he earned through the success of his art. Michael really drives home the representation of the struggles of a new artist with clever use of scale. The space the man in the picture is working in is obviously far to small for him to do his best work. He must press on despite his discomfort, as do many young artists like Driver.

This is a piece by Michael Driver that was the winner of the D&AD Wetransfer “Draw Yourself in Ten Years” competition.
http://grainedit.com/2015/06/22/michael-driver/#more-10731

The cover of J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy, the first novel after her hit series Harry Potter.

Thinking of a book cover dominated trough typography brought many examples to mind. However, the most applicable one was that of J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy. 

Simplicity is what describes the cover best as the theme of the story is thought to be projected well through the cover. By using rugged and curved lines in the title and author’s name as well as the title’s text itself, it brings back a kind of nostalgic feeling due to the nature of the typeface being connected with times past. This effect is drawn out more with the continuation of a line drawn from the last letter of the word the and into the large curving “C” that makes up the word “Casual.” With the closeness of the text as well as the position of the text on the piece they could be said to be acting as planes as well as they take up a block of space but read left to right as a line. With the control of text taking up the positive space and the negative space being occupied by the flat rectangular background, it continues to project a simple theme. With the differing white texts on opposite ends and a black check-box in the middle, it creates a sense of visual balance through symmetrical placement. Another thing to note is how the color palette consists of few colors and is used to further project the idea of an old-timey themed idea with the use of these light and vibrant, yet flat values.

Image taken from April 2015 Nylon Magazine edition. This was a publication created for the fashion and this specifica page in the magazine is displaying the table of contents for the information in the magazine.

When I first saw this online page of the magazine, my eye was immediately drawn to the bold text “APRIL.” The negative space and seclusion the bold text has due to lack of other letters,  along with its size, makes it a large focal point for the page. The isolation gives the text the power of a point. However, because of the text’s length, “APRIL” also has the power to posses the same characteristics of a line. The straight text takes my eye from the left of the text to the right leading me to the left aligned clusters of text that follow the right edge of the page. Visually, these clusters of words form both points and lines. This is beneficial for the reader to be able to categorize the information that the text is providing. Because the clusters are aligned at the same position on the plane the pages is creating, the text creates a line. The negative space also assists in creating the since of a line. The lines lead the eye from the top of the page to the bottom giving all necessary information to the viewer. Due to a since of imbalances, my eye then flows over to the left side of the page to the small bundle of text that sits on the upper part of the page. This text acts as a point when it is viewed on a small scale (due to isolation) however, if the reader is looking at the entire page, the small text balances the layout giving the eye the ability to evenly circle the page without the struggle of finding symmetry. The bold text at the bottom of the page is so demanding that if there was not some text at the top it would be awkward with the eye due to imbalance. The words do not need to be as big as the”APRIL” text because the image of the girl is assisting in the asymmetrical balance that the text is creating. The asymmetry is making the image active by encouraging the eyes to move to the top from the heavy text at the bottom and the lines on the sides.