More definitions...

-- Parts of the grid: what are the following: margin, column, alley, module, gutter, folio.
Margin: the area around the layout where the text generally doesn't pass. To keep the text
from bleeding off the page.
Column: the vertical blocks on a page, used to organize the text
Alley: blank space between two columns
Module:
Gutter: the middle of two pages, like in a book.
Folio: a printed page number

-- What are the advantages of a multiple column grid.?
It allows for the text to be organized more freely around the page rather than in just one place. It also keeps the text from being too text heavy.

-- Why is there only one space after a period?
The characters are proportional. They take up the different amounts of space proportional to their size.

-- What is a character (in typography)?
Anything from letters to punctuation to numbers.

-- How many characters is optimal for a line length? words per line?
40

-- Why is the baseline grid used in design?
It is used to help organize the text and images. Not only does the stuff on the page align to the specific columns and rules but also to the baseline grid. Also the leading can be organized better as well.

-- What is a typographic river?
Gaps that appear to run down the text paragraph.

-- What does clotheslining or flow line or hangline mean?
The horizontal line that appears on a layout within the text. Made for your eye to go through the page.

-- How can you incorporate white space into your designs?
By not filling up the entire page with text/images. White space helps keep the layout interesting and not text heavy.

-- What is type color/texture mean?
Type color is the non white space in the layout.

-- What is x-height, how does it effect type color?
X-height is the height of the lowercase x in any type. The bigger the type the less the negative space surrounding it.

-- Define Tracking.
Reduces space in a line.

-- Define Kerning. Why doe characters need to be kerned? What are the most common characters that need to be kerned (kerning pairs)?
The process of removing small units of space between letters in order to create visually-consistent letterspacing. Characters need to be kerned in order to remove the awkward letterspacing that looks unprofessional and disrupts the communication of the words. The most common characters that need to be kerned are: HL, HO, OC, OT, and AT

-- In justification or H&J terms what do the numbers: minimum, optimum, maximum mean?
The specific amount of space between words. The minimum being the least possible, optimum that perfect amount and maximum the most possible.

-- What is the optimum space between words?
Enough to make the text easily read and appear correct, not too spaced out or too clumped together.

-- What are some ways to indicate a new paragraph. Are there any rules?
Indents, Spaces, Returns

-- What are the rules associated with hyphenation?
Used in justified paragraphs only. Avoid having too many in a row. Never in the heading/ important text.

-- What is a ligurature?
The blending of two characters. In some fonts, the F mixes in with other letters or the "et."

-- What does CMYK and RGB mean?
They are different types of color management. CYMK is subtractive color space and RGB is additive color space. Most things are in RGB but for large size printing, CMYK is preferred.

-- What does hanging punctuation mean?
The punctuation marks start off on the line before the other lines of the paragraph.

-- What is the difference between a foot mark and an apostrophe? What is the difference between an inch mark and a quote mark (smart quote)?
Footmarks and inch marks are straight and differ completely from the apostrophe and quote marks which have an angled look.

-- What is a hyphen, en dash and em dashes, what are the differences and when are they used.
A hyphen is (-) and is only used for hyphenating words, hence the name.
An en dash is approximately the wideth of the capital letter N. It is used between
words to indicate a duration of time. (In place of the letter “to”)
An em dash is 2x as long as the en dash and is about the size of a capital M. It is
normally used in a change of though or where a period is too strong and
comma is too weak. Similar to a colon or parantheses.

--What is a widow and an orphan?
A widow is the last sentence of a paragraph left at the top of the next page instead
of with it’s own paragraph. An orphan is just that only the last word.

A Universal Font: Helvetica

After watching the movie Helvetica, I'm amazed at how frequent it's used around the world. I never really noticed it before. The movie was interesting although I think it was a bit too long. =P But throughout the film, I grabbed some interesting quotes and statements that I enjoyed. Here are a few I remember/jotted down:
"Life of a designer is a fight" ~ Designers are constantly fighting to find a cure to problems
"A tool for creating order is a grid. Creating order is typography." ~ Hmm...sounds familiar, project one anyone?
"You can't make better design with a computer, but you can speed it up." ~ So true, sometimes I find myself wanting to make things by hand instead of on the computer. I feel like I have more control.

Other things I grabbed from the video:
Use no more than 3 typefaces, having too many becomes confusing.
Helvetica is modern, clear, and can be used in every way.
Helvetica emerged in 1957 by Eduoard Hofffman, when there was a need for rational typefaces.
There is a specific sequence (usually) when designing type:
Start with the letter h and see if you want to make it serif or sans serif, the thickness, ascender
& x-height.
Continue by designing the "o" which is different from the "h"
Then a "p"
(This way you have a variety of forms that will help you design all the other letters because once you have an "h" you have an "n" and with a "p" you have
a "d" and a "q"

Sources

Forgot to add this...

"Biography." Nevile Brody. Research Studios. 12 Oct. 2008 .

David. "Neville Brody Revisited." Design Observer. 12 Feb. 2004. 12 Oct. 2008 .

Eskilson, Stephen. Graphic Design: a new history. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007.

"Font Designer- Neville Brody." Linotype. 12 Oct. 2008 .

"Neville Brody: Inventing a Graphic Language." Apple. 2008. 12 Oct. 2008 .

"Neville Brody." My Fonts. Bitstream Inc. 12 Oct. 2008 .

"Neville Brody." Wikipedia. 12 Oct. 2008 .

The 411 on Neville Brody

Part A.

On April 23, 1957 the design world welcomed a highly influential addition to its group of designers; a man that would eventually become a great asset to the modern day designs: Neville Brody. Neville Brody was born in London, England, Southgate to be specific, and began his designing career when he enrolled at the London College of Printing in 1976 to pursue a B.A. in graphic design. He continued his education at the Hammersmith College of Art and studied under various artists including a highly renowned painter: Ruskin Spear.
With the beginning of punk rock and with the punk style taking off, Neville Brody was able to grab ideas from this era. This style had a great influence in Neville Brody’s work; however, it did not impact his professors all that well during his education. One famous incident that happened during Neville Brody’s college career was when he was almost expelled from college for a postage stamp he had designed for one of his projects. Following the rebellious and radical views of punk, Neville Brody had edited a picture of the Queen’s head sideways, which was a definitely “no no” when it came to England. In addition to the punk style, Neville Brody was also highly influenced by Dadaism and Pop Art. Most of Neville Brody’s work matched the abstract, contemporary, and political views of Dadaism and Pop Art. Neville Brody is a well-rounded graphic designer that has not just focused on one area in the design world but has touched every nick and cranny of design and has tackled issues that consequently branded him as a world famous anti-traditional graphic designer. He eventually became one of the most sought after graphic artists in the 1980's.
Neville Brody began his career, first by, designing posters for student concerts at college but then moved on to design for record labels in the United Kingdom. He designed numerous sleeve designs for Rocking, Russian, Stiff Records, and Fetish Records, all of which were independent record companies in the British music industry. To name a few, two of the many artists for whom he designed sleeves for were: Cabaret Voltaire and Depeche Mode. Typically, the budgets at Fetish and the other record companies were low so his work was only printed with a four-color process a few number of times. Looking at his sleeve designs, Neville Brody used irregular shaped images and strong geometric grids formed by type, as well a numerous layers. Most of his designs impressively were hand made, it wasn't until 1985 when Macintosh technology came into play that Neville Brody adopted its use and began to work mostly digitally.
After Neville Brody left his mark on this record industry, he began to work for a newly published fashion magazine called, “The Face” in 1981 and eventually became the art director for “The Face” magazine until 1986. He continued to land various other magazine jobs because of his different approach to things. He removed himself from the contemporary editorial conventions and placed himself in an innovative position. His work on “The Face” was visually exciting and appealing. The layouts and typography he put together were highly influenced by the artistic ideas surrounding the 1920's and the 1930's. To be more specific, those ideas revolving around the De Stijl movement as well as the Russian Constructivism. Neville Brody put much time and effort into his layouts and devoted much thought into every part of the layout. He often composed distinctive layouts with blocks of text placed horizontally or vertically on the page and contrasting hand drawn images and photography. His layouts were often borderline legible due to the fact that he was notorious for exploring the limits of legibility going to the extremes. Neville Brody also experimented with new typographic styles and redefined the relationship between photography and text. His ideas broke through the standards and made an international impact on the magazine appearance, advertising, and retailing design. He emphasized on the idea of making the viewer an active one, making the viewer interpret the article not only through the content but also the design. He also made all of his photographs and drawings visually active. For example, on the July 1983 cover, Neville Brody went against normal magazine layout conventions by only showing a fraction of the face of an artist rather than showing his entire face centered on the page. Although he managed to design innovative and rule breaking layouts, he did not lose focus on what was important. He made sure that his design remained functional. According to him, a great design managed to impress the reader with a dynamic layout while at the same time not hinder the reader's experience, instead enhance it. Due to his influence to this area of design, his work on “The Face” helped to land him other related jobs throughout the following years. From 1983 to 1987 he designed the covers for another stylish magazine at the time, “City Limits.” Right after his time at “City Limits,” Neville Brody became the art director of another well-known magazine from 1987 to 1990: a men's magazine called “Arena.” Around the same time as his time as the art director for “Arena,” Neville Brody also became the art director for various other magazines including, “Per Lui” and “Lei” in Milan and then “Actuel” in France. In addition to radically changing the look for two of Britain's leading newspapers, “The Guardian” and “The Observer.”
By this time, Neville Brody managed to make a name for himself and slowly became one of the leading graphic artists of the time. During the late 1980's, Neville Brody continued to work for various companies. In 1987 Neville Brody launched his own studio naming it simply, “The Studio.” Here is where Neville Brody captivated the world by working with clients around the world. Some of his clientèle include: Nike, Premiere TV, ORF, the House of World Culture in Berlin, the Deutsches Theater in Hamburg, Parco in Tokyo, and Greenpeace. Really interested in typography and designing his own typefaces, he established FontWorks in 1990 in London, England and became the director of FontShop International in Berlin. Here is where he designed many of his numerous typefaces. A few of which include: Arcadia, Industria, Iinsignia, and FF Dirty. Most of his typographic language has become a great example and resource for the new computer-oriented design. Neville Brody also launched the typographic magazine, “FUSE,” which is still in circulation and has become an award-winning interactive magazine that focuses on digital typography. In 1988 Neville Brody also published one of his two monographs, The Graphic Language of Neville Brody, which to this day have been the world's best selling graphic design books. It has sold over 120,000 copies. He continues to be known worldwide. Before touring in Europe and Japan, Neville Brody exhibited his work at the Victoria and Albert Museum and brought over 40,000 visitors to his instillation. After the success of his first monograph and his exhibition show, Neville Brody became an example of a “celebrity designer,” and artist whose work has granted him/her large followings and high status among peers, as well as media attention.
In 1994 Neville Brody teamed up with his business partner, Fwa Richards and established “Research Studios.” The Studio he continues to work at and manage to this day. This company he co-founded is known for its ability to create new visual communication techniques for clients ranging from publications to film. Neville Brody has worked to create innovative package and website design for various clients such as Kenzo, corporate identities for other like Homechoice, and Motion Graphics for clients like Paramount Studios with his “Research Studios.” Due to the success of his company, “Research Studios,” Neville Brody has been able to open up more studios at various locations. Since 1994, there additional “Research Studios” in San Francisco, Paris, Berlin, and New York. Currently, Neville Brody has had some major projects. In November of 2006, Neville Brody redesigned, The Times, with the addition of a new font: Times Modern. This typeface is similar to and earlier font called Mercury. Also in 2006, Neville Brody’s “Research Studios,” worked on completing a visual identity project for the world-renowned contemporary art exhibition in Paris called, “Nuit Blanche.” In 2004, the champagne brand, Dom Perignon, contacted Research Studios for help in redesigning it’s strategy and repositioning it on the market. It was not until February of 2007, that Neville Brody and his team of designers finally launched the new look for the champagne’s brand. In line with Research Studios, Neville Brody also launched a sister company named, “Research Publishing,” that focuses on creating and publishing experimental works by young artists. Neville Brody has also continued to work with his typographic magazine, “FUSE.” Over 20 issues of FUSE have been published and Neville Brody continues to put together conferences and forums that talk about and focus on experimental typography and communications. Neville Brody tries to bring together speakers from all the different aspects of design and art at the conferences, ranging from design, architecture, sound, film, interactive design, and web. In correlation with the current computer based design, Neville Brody is a huge supporter of Mac and has become an international model for the digital graphic arts. Neville Brody continues to design contemporary works that keep grabbing the audience’s attention.
Neville Brody has pushed the boundaries of visual communication and has challenged not only himself but also the world around him. He has always been a bold and secure designer who risks things and pushes things to the limits by taking them to their extremes. He first appeared in the 1980’s by making an impact in the British graphic design world by stepping out of the norm and creating new unthought-of of or unheard of designing concepts and views, keeping with his original rebellious influences from the Punk era. He continues to test the waters by creating controversial or new unique works. He once stated, “I see my role partly as a catalyst for thought and for questioning. A lot of our work is an open-ended statement which often is not completed until the person who looks at it has reached his or her own conclusion,” which sums up all of what he accomplished and continues to accomplish.


Part B.
Neville Brody Font's

1984: INDUSTRIA INLINE
INDUSTRIA SOLID
1986: INSIGNIA
1989: INSIGNIA
INDUSTRIA
1990: ARCADIA
1991: FF TYPEFACE 4 1
FF TYPEFACE 4 2
FF TYPEFACE 6
FF TYPEFACE 7
1992: FF BLUR
FF GOTHIC 1 1
FF GOTHIC 1 1 CONDENSED
FF GOTHIC 1 2
FF GOTHIC 1 2 CONDENSED
FF GOTHIC 2 1
FF GOTHIC 2 2
FF POP LED
FF POP POP
1993: FF DOME HEADLINE
FF DOME TEXT
FF HARLEM
FF HARLEM SLANG
FF TOKYO 1
FF TOKYO 1 SOLID
FF TOKYO 2
FF TOKYO 2 SOLID
FF TYSON
FF WORLD 1
FF WORLD 2
FF WORLD 3
1994: FF DIRTY 1
FF DIRTY 3
FF DIRTY 4
FF DIRTY 6 1
FF DIRTY 7 1
FF DIRTY 7 2
FF AUTOTRACE DOUBLE
FF AUTOTRACE FIVE
FF AUTOTRACE NINE
FF AUTOTRACE ONE
FF AUTOTRACE OUTLINE
1995: FF META SUBNORMAL


FEATURED FONT: TOKYO
http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/fontfont/ff-tokyo/one/charmap.html

Tokyo is a sans serif font that is similar to Helvetica in that the typeface consists of basic shapes and lines that form together to make a letter. The letters are also doubled meaning that it appears to have one letter inside it’s bigger duplicate. The letters do not have any beaks or serifs decorating the ends of the arms and legs. Instead the letters are straightforward and also non-oblique.


Part C.
The introduction of the mainstream Internet happened around the 1990’s. The surroundings were becoming more and more modern and less traditional than before. Neville Brody ‘s font “Tokyo” correlates with the new wave of technology that was beginning to take over because the style of this font is much different from those of earlier times. Much less traditional and classic.

Neville Brody Broad Notes

Is a current graphic designer that is still producing strong works, taking risks and proving the standard design rules wrong.

:- Born April 23, 1957 and still living.
:- In 1975 took fine art foundation courses at Horney College of Art; 976 started a B.A. course in graphics at the London College of Printing. Almost kicked out of school for putting the Queen's head on sideways on a postage stamp design; studied at Hammersmith College of Art; Alumni of London College of Communication.
:- Started designing record covers; revolutionary work as Art Director for "Face" Magazine; 1988 published first of his two monographs which have become the worlds best selling graphic design books; began studio 'Research Studios' in 1994 with business partner Fwa Richards; Has worked for Nike, Premiere TV, ORF, the House of World Culture in Berlin; instigated the FUSE project; founding member of FontWorks in London and designed a number of typefaces; Redesigned "The Times" in November 2006 by designing the new font Times Modern.
:- Currently live in London at Research Studios. February 2007 designed a new look for the champagne brand, Dom Perignon with his group.
:- His type style uses aesthetic elements from the Art Deco era but betrays non-European influence. His graphic language is an international model for computer orientated design.
:- image of your typographer

“I see my role,” he says, “partly as a catalyst for thought and for questioning. A lot of our work is an open-ended statement which often is not completed until the person who looks at it has reached his or her own conclusion.” - Neville Brody

Sources:
Research Studios
Linotype
My Fonts
Wikipedia
Apple
Design Observer

Phoenician Characters

Keypoints:
-Developed the basis of Latin alphabet.
-Developed around 1600 BC and formed 22 specific symbols that represented SOUNDS not objects.
-Symbols put together in various combinations to make thousands of words.
-Only contained consonants
-No vowels
-Written horizontally.
-Written RIGHT to LEFT
-WithOUT spaces between words (dots were used as word spaces sometimes)
-The building block for Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and modern European alphabet.
-Phoenicians are known for being responsible for the greates invention of humanity.
-Believed to be developed at Byblos.
-Some symbols are recognizable such as "o" "w" "k" and "x"
-Greeks got the names for their letters from the Phoenician's actual words (alpha, beta, gamma to aleph, beth, gimel)
-The names for the characters were chosen based on: Simplification of earlier pictograms and the sound for the original object the character was representing.
-Phoenician letter shapes are much more abstract and linear compared to other Proto-Sinaitic signs.
-Time Period: 1100 BCE to 300 CE in West Asia
-Genealogy: Proto-Sinaitic

For want of a plausible theory, Dr. Ignace J. Gelb, professor at the Oriental Institute and the Department of Linguistics of the University of Chicago, once suggested that the entire Phoenician system of signs was an arbitrary invention throughout. (Gelb, 1974) Even more recently, the discovery of the Proto-Sinaiti inscriptions in Egypt has been alleged as the sole source.

Taken from this website.
Other Sources: Fundamentals with Type and ancientscripts.com

Phoenicians lived present day Lebanon.
Phoenician Alphabet compared to others.
Phoenician Alphabet (22 symbols aka: 'magic signs')


QUESTION: Name at least three languages that are based on the Phoenician characters.

Some Helpful Definitions...

Absolute Measurement: Fixed values expressed in finite terms and cannot be altered.
Relative Measurement: Measurements linked to type size. Example: leading changes according to type size in order for letters not to mix in with each other.
Points/Picas: A point is a unit of measurement used to measure the type size of a font referring to the height of the type block. A pica is a unit of measurement equal to 12 pts. Is more commonly used for measuring lines of type.
x-height: the height of the typeface in reference to the height of the lowercase 'x'. It's measured by the baseline to the meanline of the typeface.
The em. The en: The em is the unit of measurement in typesetting that defines basic spacing functions and is linked to the size of type. Used for defining paragraph indents and spacing. It also equals the size of the type. (72 pt font = 72 type.) The en is the measurement that is half of em. (72pt type = 36pt type)

Dashes (hyphen, en, em): All distinct but similar functions. An en is half of an em. A hyphen is 1/3 of an em.

Alignments: Justifcation, Flush Left, Flush Right: How the line of a text refers to the column. Justification is when all of the text are of equal length from the column. It makes for clean edges.
Flush Left is the the entire text is shifted to the left causing for equal length from the left side of the text to the column and unequal from the right side to the column. Flush Right is the exact opposite of that. Left provides an organic flow of the language while right helps provide the designer with great use of captions, sidebars, notes, etc.
Example of a Flush Left Alignment -- >
Letterspacing: Increasing the amount of space between letters.
Kerning: Reducing the amount of space between letters.
Tracking: Adjusting the amount of space between characters.
Word Spacing: "a percentage value of an em" It is relative to the size of the type. It is the space between the letters and is fixed in the postscript information of a typeface. However, it can be altered by changing the hyphenation and justification values.
Widow: The final line of a paragraph that is left at the beginning of the next page or column by itself.


Orphan: A single word that is either left at the end of the paragraph on its own line or the first word of a text that is left at the bottom of a column while the rest of the text continues on the following page.

Leading Indent: The space between lines of text in a text block, one baseline to the next.
First Line Indent: Is when only the first text line of the entire text is indented. Usually to distinguish new paragraphs in writing.
Hanging Indent: This is when all of the text except the first text line is indented.

Sources: The Fundamentals of Typography; typeculture.com; Thinking with Type.

What makes Univers and Baskerville individually unique?

The Univers and Baskerville typefaces are both classic fonts that are still widely used but they are individually different from many other fonts and that is why they are 'unique.' Actually each typeface is unique in their own way because there is initially something that sets the font apart from the one before it; however, Univers and Baskerville 'unique' because...

-Each one is highly readable. The serifs and widths of the letters are not crunched together or excessive. Therefore the final product is readable to anyone.
-Univers is clean, it is sans serifs and sometimes typefaces which are sans serifs can also be difficult to work with because from far away the letters are not distinguished by little serif marks which can jumble the letters together. However, Univers has a specific width to the lettering that makes the typeface readable from a far. The Univers look is also a very slick and cheek look to me. And in addition to your regular bold and italic versions of the typeface, Univers also has 20 or so versions of the same typeface. Therefore it is easy to use and easy to variate within the same typeface. This helps keep the final product looking unified and exciting.
-Baskerville is the traditional serif style that may look like the standard default font: Times New Roman. Even though this font is a serif style font, I find it to stand out because the weight of the lettering seems a bit more heavy, making whatever is written in such font bolder and brighter. Also the serifs are much more defined in the Baskerville typeface than other serif styles like Times. This helps with the clarity a lot. Even though I find these classic fonts to sometimes be boring, Baskerville mixes the traditional with the modern into this specific look that isn't boring to the eye at all.


The Univers Grid --v
this simple grid unifies all of the different styles of the typeface Univers together. All of the 21 different styles are arranged by italics, bold, regular, condensed, etc. on the chart. Each color represents the different widths of the typeface: regular, condensed, wide. Each specific column divides the regular style from the italic style and the rows go along with the weight of the letters. The grid is a great way to keep everything organized.

John Baskerville & Adrian Frutiger

Who is John Baskerville??

John Baskerville was born in Wolverley, Worcestershire in 1706 and lived a productive life up until his death in Birmingham in 1775. He started of as a successful writing master and headstone engraver; developing many of his skills in calligraphy and monumental inscription cutting by himself. Later in his years he became an innovative letter designer, type founder, and printer, helping with the development of the printing press. In 1750 he set up his own printing business and worked with press construction, printing ink, letter design and papermaking. Working with his own printing business resulted in his original typeface: Baskerville.

His typefaces, which were modern at the time, included different level serifs, contrast of light and heavy lines, and were pseudo classical. His typeface began to appear in many different books from 1754-1775. Some of them include: a quarto edition of Vergil, Aesop’s Fables, the works of Horace, and his masterpiece, which was a printed folio Bible in 1763. Even though he had many triumphs, his career wasn’t always successful. He lost a lot of money at one point in time with his printing ventures. Nevertheless his work has always seemed to be a “perfection” of type, that he is known as one of the greatest designers of the 18th century, admired by many including Benjamin Franklin. He continued his work until the time of his death in 1775.
After his death in his wife managed the press business until 1777.



Who is Adrian Frutiger?

Adrian Frutiger was born on March 24, 1928 in Unterlaken, Switzerland. At the early age of 16, Frutiger began working as a printer’s apprentice. After working for a while, he decided to move to Zurich where he attended the Zurich School of Arts and Crafts. During his time here he studied under Professor Walter Kach. Later he moved to Paris and began working with Deberry and Peignot where he helped change their traditional printing method to a new phototypesetting technology. During his time at Deberry and Peignot he also began working on his own projects on the side; mainly working with designing authentic typefaces. His original typefaces were very significant and because of their specific details, Adrian Frutiger earned the status of a great designer. Some of his typefaces include: Presdient, Phoebus, Ondine, Meridien, Egyptienne, Univers, Apollo, Serifa, OCR-B, Iridium, Frutiger, Glypha, Icone, Breughel, Versailles, Avenir, and Vectora. In addition to designing typefaces, Frutiger has also developed a number of books including: Type, Sign, Symbol, Signs & Symbols: Their Design and Meaning, The International Type Book, and The Univers. Currently he is living in Switzerland working on revisions with Linotype in some of his typefaces. The results from his revisions are “Frutiger Next” and “Avenir Next” which are both italic versions of prior typefaces. Adrian Frutiger has become a well-known designer producing widely used typefaces.

Sources:

http://typophile.com/node/12118

http://www.myfonts.com/person/baskerville/john/
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0806405.html
http://www.answers.com/topic/john-baskerville

http://ilovetypography.com/2007/09/23/baskerville-john/
http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/BAR_BEC/BASKERVILLE_JOHN_1706_1775_.html

Grids

Grids...why are they important to us as designers??

"Grids are all about control"

-Thinking w/ Type pg. 113

As designers, grids help us control the images or text by arranging them in a clear and understandable position. They enable us to move the images around the entire page and at the same time keep the right measurements to make everything even and in line. Therefore we are able to mix in a lot of different elements together and still have an ordered final product.

We divide the grid into different parts: Columns, Rows, Gutters, Flowlines, Margins, etc. Each part has a specific use. For example, columns are vertical divisions of space on the grid that help us align the different elements. Most writing systems are organized into columns.
Everyday example...Newspapers!! -------------------------------->>

Sources:
Layout Workbook
Thinking w/ Type

Paul Rand

Paul Rand (1914-96)

"Originality is a product not an intention."

Paul Rand has served as a great influence to many current graphic designers and will continue to be that for years to come because of his many unique and inspiring works throughout his lifetime.

He began his career at the Pratt Institute of New York; however, because his father didn’t view art and design as a career, he mainly self-taught himself many different techniques, grabbing ideas from artists before him such as Cassandre as well as European magazines, and art philosophers Alfred, Whitehead, and Dewey.

His first works in the design realm were working with many different newspapers and magazines including, Apparel Arts Magazine. Due to his talent with combining text with images, Rand was able to land a job as the art director for Esquire-Coronet magazines when he was 23.

With further job opportunities came corporate identities. Rand is most known for producing many corporate logos, still used to this day, for big named corporations. A few examples are: IBM, ABC, Westinghouse, UPS, Cummins Engine, and NeXT. Much of his success with long-lasting logos is due to his constant idea of simplicity. He once stated, “logos cannot survive unless it is designed with the utmost simplicity and restraint” (paul-rand.com). After looking at some of his logos, it is true to say that simple was what Rand was striving to accomplish. In addition to making simple yet exciting designs, Rand was also known as an original designer. His works helped originate the “swiss style” in graphics. A style that is highly recognizable these days.

Because of his many contributions to the design empire, Paul Rand has become one of the most influential and renowned graphic designers of the 20th century.

"Ideas do not need to be esoteric to be original or exciting."

Examples of his work...























Rand's Gallery

Source 1

Source 2
Source 3
Source 4
Source 5