Project Four :: Spread Compositions, by hand.

Please take all of your research, text and collected materials and design 5 different 2-page spreads about your element. The page format is 7" x 8" making the "spread" 14" x 8". Print out all of your elements in various sizes to use for cutting and pasting. Start out by making thumbnail sketches of different layouts, then recreate your best sketches, full-size, by-hand.

The required content is as follows:

• monogram
• photo/illustration
• title
• element name and number
• 2 text paragraphs
  
• properties list

Here's a nice image of the format:










Laying out a grid will help you organize your elements and find convenient places to align things. It can be as fine or as coarse as you want (meaning the size of the basic grid unit). The one below is 1/2". Draw out your grid in fine pencil or build it in Illustrator and print it out. If you use Illustrator, make all of your lines .25 pt and make them 50% gray so they don't get in the way of the layouts. Mine are also dashed, which you can find in the "Stroke" menu in Illustrator.










Additional Considerations
Set your titles, text, list and element name and number in the same typeface AND weight. Only alter size, tracking and leading for this round. Try a number of different sizes for your title text. Set the title in upper and lowercase, do not set it all caps.


Make copies of your 5 layouts and bring both paste-up and copies to class Wed/Fri.

Project Four :: Printouts for Parents Day

By the end of class (Wed/Fri) please print out your best monogram as-is on a vertical letter-sized page. Put your name and the element name in Monotype Grotesque Regular, 9pt/11pt, in the lower right corner. Please make sure your monogram doesn't go beyond the prescribed area below. Wednesday's class: I moved the smaller monogram down 1", they were all too close to the large monogram. Please adjust and print out again and place them on the teacher's table in your studio.

See example below and follow it.

Flickr Find

Suburban Delusion
Originally uploaded by Hrant

Project Four :: Deliverables for Monday 10/26

Please do, and bring, the following to class on Monday10/26:

1. Final(?) monogram refinements

2. Read pages 62-85 (before the paragraph exercises below) and review 34-47 in the Lupton type book

3. 57(!) paragraph explorations in InDesign. This is not as much as it sounds if you are careful and thorough. Keep your page setup the same as the previous exercises, using one document for all permutations. Choose one type size and leading from the first series to start, from 9-11pt, and create the following using just 1 of your 2 paragraphs. Label each one with the typeface size and leading and the treatment you have given it.

Set your paragraph 3 times to start (mouse over the alignment icons in the "Character" window, it'll  tell you what's what):

• left-aligned
• centered
• justified with last line left-aligned
  

With each of the above as a starting point set the paragraph in following ways:

leading/linespacing (found in the "Character" window)

• increase leading incrementally by 1pt, 3 times
• decrease leading incrementally by 1pt, 3 times

tracking (found in the "Character" window)

• increase tracking incrementally by 30, 3 times
• decrease tracking incrementally by 30, 3 times

word-spacing (find under the "Paragraph" window, in the extra menu, under "Justification")

• increase word-spacing incrementally by 50%, 3 times
• decrease word-spacing incrementally by 20%, 3 times

Label each as you make it. An example of a correct label would look something like this: 
Trade Gothic Regular, Justified
10pt/12pt
150% Word-spacing

or


Trade Gothic Regular, Centered
10pt/9pt

or

Trade Gothic Regular, Justified

10pt/12pt
-90 Tracking

Project Four :: Monogram Refinements

Based on Monday's crit, refine and iterate your monograms for Wed 10/21 & Fri 10/23. The amount is up to you but remember my example, the more you attempt, the better the end result will be. My initial astronaut helmet had around 40 attempts. The chosen direction then resulted in 55 iterations. And it's not yet finalized.

Finding the right formal configuration is always a process of trial, error, and discovery. Good luck.

Project Four :: Paragraph Layouts

Setting text in InDesign
For our next class set the text for your self-authored element content in InDesign. Set up a 7"w x 8"h document with no facing pages. Give the page a 3/4" border. Make a small text box at the bottom of the page (in the bottom margin, left-aligned with the paragraphs) to mark what typeface, weight/style, size and leading you are using. Set your content in 4 different typefaces, 2 sans-serif, 2 serif. Only use the "Regular" or "Roman" styles, no bold, light or italic. Pick from the Font Folio package only and avoid display faces like Rosewood and Bickham Pro. Set each typeface in the following sizes and leadings (the first increment is point size, the second is leading):

• 8pt/10pt
• 9pt/11pt
• 10pt/12pt
• 11pt/13pt
• 12pt/14pt

This will give you 20 pages total. Print them out and bring them to our next class.

Materials for the upcoming task...
THESE ARE NOT FOR THE ABOVE EXERCISES!
Make sure you have 2 well written paragraphs of text to work with as well as the list of properties. Additionally, come up with a concise statement to serve as a title, like: "Don't Mess Around with Fermium". Also find a good quality image to incorporate into your content. It can be a photo of the element (gold for example), an illustration of it's compound make-up, or another image that illustrates something profound or at least interesting about the element.

requirements for the next stage:

• monogram
• photo/illustration
• title
• element name and number
• 2 text paragraphs
  
• properties list

Project Four :: More Sketches! Digitization!

Wednesday10/14 and Friday 10/16 are work days. Look over your 30 sketches and pick the 10 best ideas. Revise and refine those ideas to present the last hour of class.

Homework

• Take your 3 best ideas and create digital versions in Illustrator.
• Design 5 variations of each direction for a total of 15 monograms. (variations can include typeface choice, stroke weight alterations, relative scale of the letters)
  
• Arrange them on a horizontal 11 x 17 sheet for presentation on Monday.
• Post to your blog.
  

Project 1 :: The Lost Exercise

Please find those copies of your painted letterforms and hang them up on the north wall of studio in their proper place. We will letterspace them together in class Monday 10/19. Each is a letter in one of the following words:

Project Four :: Periodically Speaking

Objectives

• explore the potential of letterform combinations to create symbols
• learn approaches for combining typefaces
• learn to manipulate letterform shape
• choose type based on thoughtful contextual justification
• explore typographic composition on paper and screen 
• explore stylesheets begin applying them to both print and screen layouts
  

Project
Create a symbol, or monogram, for an element from the periodic table of elements. The symbol will combine the two element letters into one symbol. It should visually communicate something about the physical qualities of the element. Use your symbol, images and text to create a two-page spread about your element as well as a web-page of the same content.

Research due next class

Create an 8.5 x 11-inch sheet with your name in the top right hand corner, your element name and symbol in the top left corner, and 2 well-written, 3–5 sentence paragraphs describing your element's uses and history as well as its scientific qualities (lighter than air, melts when connected to water, shiny, heavy, expensive, etc.). Also compile a list of properties on the sheet, for example its atomic number and weight, its state (gas, liquid, solid), its color. The more thorough the better! This research will fuel your creative visual search and become the content for the two-page spread and web page.

Considering your research, pick 6 typefaces from your Font Folio that could be used to represent your element, for example, would a heavy element be best represented by Futura Light or Universe 95? Pick 3 sans serif and 3 serif faces. Add a second page to your research containing examples of your element name and symbol set in your 6 typeface choices.

Sketches due next class
Create 30 sketches of possible letterform combinations using your element symbol. Sketch by hand in whatever you are comfortable in, loose sheets of paper, a moleskin, lined yellow pad, etc. Make sure you have the above research done and visible to help the sketching process.

FIND + SHARE

Please post any links to interesting web content about typography in the comments to this post, we will view and discuss periodically in class.

My Rockin Video

Type 1 Flash Basics Demo File from Michael Eppelheimer on Vimeo.

Project Three :: Final Crit

You will not need any boards for final crit on Monday (see below). Have your animations exported as SWF files and placed in my Drop Box on the CAS server before the start of class.

Name your SWF files like this: lastname_t1p3_09.swf


You have 4 minutes to present your work and 4 minutes for feedback.
Consider the following in preparing for crit:

• how cropping, rotation and scale have been used in your comps, sequences and animations
• what image integration has brought to your compositions, what challenges this poses
  
• what types of narrative you have created (abstract/formal vs. concrete/contextual, is it about something?, is it just formal?)
• how your animations infer motion and present a narrative

Blog Posting and Binders
Make blog posts of the exercises leading up to the final animation including original black and white letter cropping, comps with images (only the best) and the three sequences. Make sure to get all process into your binders as well.

Cropping Compositions









Cropping Compositions with Image Integration








Sequences

Flashy Flash Help

Outstanding senior and all-around good guy Ian Tirone is working as a tech help specialist for the department this semester. As we are deep into learning the basics of Flash, he will make himself available to help you with any issues you may come across.

He will be available on Sunday (10/4) or Tuesday (10/6) in the morning next week, from 9-12. Send him a message and he will set up a time. If you don't send him a message he cannot guarantee availability.

This means you should get a jump on developing both the demo exercises and the final animations as Ian will be out of town at the AIGA Make/Think conference later in the week.

contact ian at: iantirone@gmail.com

Project Three :: Narrative in Motion

Create a final Flash animation that sequences your letterform from one typeface into another, integrating images and text to tell us a story. When starting, concentrate on the letter animation in black and white first, when the black and white sequence is working well, move onto image and text integration.

We will have a progress crit on these Wed/Fri.


Parameters and Considerations

• size: 600x600
• images: 2-6 images representing your 2 ideas, color allowed
• text: integrate the 2 words into your animation
• length: 10-30 seconds
• format: export as .swf and .mov file (I will demo this Wed/Fri)

image import
For image import be sure to use the File>Import>Import to Stage (or Library). Using that sequence will allow you to reimport images into your various animations without having to rebuild them.

looping considerations
An option for your animation would be to create a seamless loop, in which the end of the animation looks like the beginning. This can be a nice effect when showing the animation. If you do not want a seamless loop, for example when your animation has a clear, distinct beginning and end, you may want to end on a black or white screen that remains for a couple of seconds. This will show the viewer that the end has been reached and give a short pause before the animation starts again in the loop. Fade-in and fade-out to black will give you a nice effect for the latter loop.


Progress crit will be Wed 10.7/Fri 10.9.
Final crit will be Monday Oct 12.