Blog (from 2-28)

-What are the advantages of a multiple column grid.?

A multiple column grid helps in fitting lots of text within one spread while still keeping the text organized in an aesthetically pleasing fashion.

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

About 6-8 words.

-Why is the baseline grid used in design?

The baseline grid is used mainly for to organize spreads.

-What is a typographic river?

A typographic river are the white spaces running through the paragraphs of text.

-From the readings what does clothesline or flow line mean?

They separate columns horizontally to create a better alignment.

-How can you incorporate white space into your designs?

White space can be used to group certain bodies of text

-What is type color/texture mean?

Size, tracking, leading, weight of text, etc.

-What is x-height, how does it effect type color?

X-height refers to the height of the baseline in relationship to a lowercase x

-In justification or H&J terms what do the numbers: minimum, optimum, maximum mean?

Minimum - lowest space allowed

maximum - most space allowed

optimum - preferred space allowed

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

The most common example is the indenting of a new paragraph. However, you can use different line spacing, change of typographic color, etc.

-What are some things to look out for when hyphenating text.

Using the right dashes to convey the right message.

-What is a literature?

-What does CMYK and RGB mean?

C- Cyan M- Magenta Y - Yellow K - Black. R - Red G - Gree B - Blue

-What does hanging punctuation mean?

Punctuation that does not interrupt the alignment of the text, so they are usually set outside of the box of text.

-What is the difference between a foot mark and an apostrophe?

A foot mark is straight up and down, while an apostrophe curves

-What is the difference between an inch mark and a quote mark (smart quote)?

An inch make has both marks going straight up and down, while quote marks usually curve and alternate directions.

-What is a hyphen, en dash and em dashes, what are the differences and when are they used.

Hyphen - short dash; usually to conjoin something. En dash - longer dash; indicates "through" i.e Monday through Friday. Em dash - longest dash; indicates a long pause.

-What are ligatures, why are they used, when are they not used, what are common ligatures

A ligature occurs where two or more graphemes are joined as a single glyph.

Journal6

Daniel Pink

The single example of design thing that inspired him most was the eraser, “in all of its carnations.” Because it allows you to make a mistake and when you can make a mistake you can create.

He wants design to solve systems. He talks about education, health care, housing, and system of transportations. Saying that if we had design thinking applied to those systems it would make it better.

Jessica Hische

The thing that influences her the most is the new students in design. Because she grew a lot as a designer while she was in college and graduated in 2006 and she is excited/frightened/motivated to see what the new batch of design students have.

What inspired her most is the Smashing Pumpkins Album. What inspired her most about it is the style, the cohesiveness, and the typography.

She thinks we need to solve the death of print. How she thinks to solve it is the pricing of print and how they pay designers to design for this medium.

Jake Mccabe

The thing that most inspires him is an 8.5 x 11 sheet of uncoated paper. To him it represents the opportunity. . It’s more of a luxury now because we’re looking at our resources and thinking of different things to use. He loves when his pencil hits the paper.

The thing to solve as designer is the issue of sustainability. Create something that we haven’t been told to create.

Khoi Vinh

What inspires him most is the Internet. It’s organic, unpredictable and at the same time it’s man made. It’s going to change everything.

Design should solve the crisis of identity. Designers need to stop selling things and transform themselves into the makers of things. Don’t think about selling to the consumer but making better products for the people.

Ze Frank

The design that inspired him most is the game Werewolf. It is Social design that is most fascinating to him.

He thinks the thing that could be solved is everything. He would like to see many to one design, which is when many people come together to solve one problem.

These designers gave examples that applied to me as inspirations of design, the eraser, paper, and Internet. I think that they all had good problems to solve but the most important one to me was what Khoi Vinh said and that is to design for the people rather than just designing to sell.

If I had to answer these questions I would say that the single example of design that inspires me most is, I have to say it, the PENCIL. Without it I wouldn’t be the designer I am today. At a young age I picked it up put it on a sheet of paper and drew. The issue I think we should solve is, I agree completely with Winh, to design for the people rather than just trying to sell to the people.

Journal5

Jonathan Harris

Cold & Bold

An important statement that he makes at the beginning of his speech is that he got robbed at gunpoint and had his sketchbook, which he had been working on for 8 months, stolen from him. This made him decide to go digital.

He was working on a project for a couple months, a dating site. He then saw his idea executed much better which made him scrap two months of work and start over. I want you to want me is the name of the dating service he created. Using balloons to represent the individuals.

What he feels as a digital artist

Empathy - He talks about feeling inhuman. He gets caught up in being a good programmer, which in turn makes him a “bad” person or unfeeling person.

Rational Beings – You can become very detach from other people when you code too much.

The Act of Expression – It’s very hard to express yourself through code.

Resistance of the Medium

Housing Crisis – We should go to making our houses on the Internet more distinct rather than the same with different stuff inside.

Outcomes over Ideas – is this thing I’m building making the people better?

Sociopaths – Do we want just a few dozen people “controlling” our digital world?

Individuality – can technology help with self-reflection rather than just self-promotion?

Journal4

Who’s BruceMAU? Bruce Mau is a designer and he is the Chief Creative Designer of Bruce Mau Design.

What’s He Done? Since founding his studio in 1985, Mau has used design and optimism to originate, innovate, and renovate businesses, brands, products, and experiences. Also Mau founded the Institute without Boundaries, a groundbreaking studio-based postgraduate program.

Why is he interesting to us? His Incomplete Manifesto for Growth guides thousands with his articulation of design strategies and motivations for unleashing creativity.

3. Process is more important than outcome.

When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we've already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we’re going, but we will know we want to be there.

Even though I’m coming close to the end of the logo project and just finish a project in type I seem to forget about process. I sometimes find myself trying to get to a conclusion rather than just “enjoying the ride.” I’m going to “enjoy the ride” on these next projects a lot more.

The Article that Stood out

Type Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry

Jessica Helfand

This article is important to the design community because it explains how design students need to learn about the history of typography. One should pick out a typeface based on aesthetic appeal because beauty is in the eye in the beholder but also one should look at the cultural, intellectual, critical, and history.

She discussed about how she was looking at several design students portfolios’ and noticed something that they all had in common; they used futura, a lot. She asked them why they used it with their projects and their responses were basically that they either “just liked it” and they didn’t exactly knew how it related to their project. She let the readers know that the designer needs to know that it’s not just the look of the type but how it identifies with the topic you’re designing for.

6 main points..

· “I was concerned that she was about to graduate and had no fundamental knowledge of design history — a failure of the curriculum, and by conjecture, of the faculty.”

· “Clearly, designers make choices about the appropriateness of type based on any number of criteria, and "liking it" is indeed one of them.”

· “typography should be invisible, while an equal argument can (and should) be made on behalf of expressive typography — type that extends and amplifies its message through more robust gestures in form, scale and composition.”

· “In general, we like to be able to read our typography.”

· “Branding and identity designers have to do it all — their task involves orchestrating visual language so that, say, the same word is recognizable whether reduced to a website icon, printed on a business card or emblazoned on the side of a truck.”

· “need to know — not just the formal and technical conventions but the cultural, intellectual, critical and yes, historical context in which hundreds of years of typographic practice preceded them.”

Journal3

Stefan Sagmeister

Being happy while experiencing design. Consumer standpoint.

Being happy designing. The designers’ standpoint.

Arcadia

Nirvana

Desire

Harmony

These all have to do with the visualization of happiness.

Have to be cynical to show happiness. The works show happiness but with a dark side.

The speech bubble design was interesting because it involved the individuals in New York.

Important parts of his presentation.

-Thinking about ideas and content freely – with the deadline far away

-working without interruption on a single project.

-Using a wide variety of tools and techniques. (DON’T BE STUCK IN FRONT OF THE COMPUTER)

-Travel to new places

-Working on projects that matter (content is important)

-Having things come back from the printer done well

Trying to look good limits my life. I thought this was a good quote because if you always try to “look good” and don’t allow yourself for exploration, Ugly exploration, you’re limiting yourself to what you can make.

Stefan is popular because he uses humor.

JJ Abrams

The mystery box.

How he can trace back all of his success to his grandfather and the deconstruction of things. Also the mystery box being a source of unseen inspiration to him. It’s inspiring to know this because it allows me to look back at my life and my interactions with others and understand how I become inspired.

Scott McCloud

Learn from everyone

Follow no one

Watch for patterns

Work like hell

Embrace your nature.

JournalEntry2

Good design...

1. Is Innovative - There are always opportunities for innovative design.

2. Makes a Product Useful - product is bought to be used. Its functional, but also psychological and aesthetic. It doesn't detract from purpose.

3. Is Aesthetic - Only well-executed objects can be beautiful.

4. Makes a Product Understandable - The product is self-explanatory.

5. Is Unobtrusive - Design should be neutral and restrained.

6. Is Honest - Doesn't make the product more valuable than it really is.

7. Is Long-Lasting - Avoids being fashionable. Will last years. Timeless.

8. Is Thorough, down to the last detail - Every detail makes sense on the design.

9. Is Environmentally Friendly - Contribution to preservation of the environment.

10. Is as little Design as possible - Be Simplistic.

Don Norman. Design and Emotion.

Beauty and function .Shape and balance. These are components that Don Norman believes what makes good design "happy." How it makes the consumer happy. An example he uses is of Googles' oooo's to represent the pages. Simple but smart and fun. He talks about fun being able to help the design.

The 3 emotions are sub-concious, you're unaware of it.

Visceral. Fear and anxiety changes the way a person thinks. Use it to help think outside the box and use the anxiety to keep you focused. If you're happy things work better because you're more creative.

Behavioral. It's all about feeling in control which includes usability and understanding but also the feel.

Reflective. The design/product is reflective of the consumer.

Thoughtful question: Functionality is part of design. Would a product that could function better than a better looking product make the consumer more happy? Does this conflict with your theory?