On Thursday last week, we had a critique of our t-shirt designs. I haven't started on the design yet. I plan to do so, hopefully, sometime this weekend. After talking with Professor Mata about some ideas about two weeks ago, she came up with the idea of having the word Myriad Pro repeated several times in different weights and sizes while having Garamond somewhere in the fray. The reason for why it would be a successful design is because it could look visually appealing, but more importantly, has historical significance. Carol Twombly created Myriad Pro, which eventually replaced Garamond as Apple's official typeface. Moreover, the word myriad means a large abundance or large quantity.
On Tuesday this week, we had an exam. Afterwards, we started on our next project, which included 5 different layouts, each of which were 6"x6". Within given parameters, we were to create ads using only type and simple shapes.
Today, we had a critique of our projects, but I did not get around to printing mine. We now have to re-edit or redo all 5 of our ads applying the information we received from the critique. I got some good and helpful feedback from Professor Mata after the official critique ended on how to improve my designs, which I think I have done on all of them with the exception of the last one. After I complete the last one, I will post all of the before-and-after critique versions, along with descriptions of changes and improvements.
Below are examples of good and bad type to make up for the missed journal entries during the past week or two.
Good:
In any other design I'd probably say that this is bad type simply because it appears to be hand-done and therefore is most likely not going to appear repetitive enough. However, the style of the type matches the drawings and helps to enhance the entire composition. The characters also appear to be kerned, and there is movement, along with variety. The weight of the type helps to focus the eye into the center of the composition, and the size of the word "Dance" further emphasizes the focus of the advertisement.
This is clean and balanced. The choice of typefaces go well together and appears fairly modern. Its also legible and readable, both of which are important, especially in an informative ad such as this. There is good variety and balance. The color choice contrasts well against the background.
I suppose this is good type. It borders more on good design than type alone, but in this case, the two go hand-in-hand. The white type against the black silhouette creates a strong sense of contrast which attracts the eye. Although the characters appear to be closely bunched together, there is enough room and size variation to help the reader differentiate between each word. Interestingly, the type reminds me of the "Joker" from the Dark Knight, who was the violent antagonist of the trilogy. It appears violence and chaotic, which helps to reiterate the point of the ad.
Bad:
Whoever designed this used Comic Sans. That fact alone automatically makes this a bad use of typography. But seriously, there are some major grammatical errors. The word "Thursday" is spelled incorrectly, random words are capitalized, and there is an unnecessary hyphen that joins the words "hall" and "ceramics" together. Visually, it lacks a good sense of hierarchy. There should be a question mark after the first line in the description of the flyer. With all of that said, the only reasoning I can see behind the choice of typeface would be that it resembles clay coils.
I've chosen my own project, because I figured it'd be interesting to critique myself. The letters are very poorly cut and aligned terribly. The width of the stems and other parts of the letters do not match each other. The kerning is also not precise or accurate.
It's late and I can't find another example of bad typography in my room that really jumps out at me, so I decided to look up "bad typography" on Google. This is the first picture I found and it's quite humorous, so I figured I'd both post and analyze it. Obviously, the tracking and kerning isn't correct which is the most obvious problem with the type. It could be worse though. At least the size of the type is legible. I get a sense that even when the person designed this to look "bad," it still appears as though he refrained from making it look absolutely terrible. In a sense, he still kept it as a design that gets the message across while appearing visually interesting. Depending on how a person views this then, I suppose it could be either a good or bad use of typography. It's definitely good in the sense that it reiterates the message.
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