The final questions I have decided to researched into are...
1) What are the main atomical features of type?
2) What are the 7 colour contrasts?
3) Whats the difference between RGB and CMYK?
4) What are the origins of type?
5) Why is Helvetica so popular?
Whats going on each page:
1) Contents
2) How our eye see's colour
3)The severn colour contrasts
4) The severn colour contrasts
5) Whats the difference between RGB and CMYK
6) The origins of type (timeline?)
7) History of printing
8) The anatomy of type
9) Serif and Sans serif
10) Why is helvetica so popular?
The pages may change as I may find I have too much of one bit of information or not enough of another
I have decided to work with an A4 format double page spread so each page is A5
Here is my research so far, when doing my page spreads and making thumbnails I may need to add or remove pieces of information.
An
introduction to colour.
What
would the world be without colour? A dull, joyless mélange of shapes without
vital meaning. ‘colour is life, a world without colour seems dead. As a flame
produces light, light produces colour. As intonation lends colour to the spoken
word, colour lends spiritually realized sound to a form’ Jonathan Itten
How Our Eye See's colour
Color
originates in light. Sunlight, as we perceive it, is colorless. In reality, a
rainbow is testimony to the fact that all the colors of the spectrum are
present in white light. As illustrated in the diagram below, light goes from
the source (the sun) to the object (the apple), and finally to the detector
(the eye and brain).
Diagram
of how the eye sees color
1.
All the "invisible" colors of sunlight shine on the apple.
2.
The surface of a red apple absorbs all the colored light rays, except for those
corresponding to red, and reflects this color to the human eye.
3.
The eye receives the reflected red light and sends a message to the brain.
The
most technically accurate definition of color is:
"Color
is the visual effect that is caused by the spectral composition of the light
emitted, transmitted, or reflected by objects."
What
are the seven colour contrasts
The
seven kinds of colour contrasts are:
Contrast
of hue
Light-dark
(tone) contrast
Cold-warm
(temperature) contrast
Complementary
contrast
Simultaneous
contrast
Contrast
of saturation
Contrast
of extension
Johannes
Itten was
one of the first people to define and identify strategies for successful color
combinations. Through his research he devised seven methodologies for
coordinating colors utilizing the hue's contrasting properties. These contrasts
add other variations with respect to the intensity of the respective hues; i.e.
contrasts may be obtained due to light, moderate, or dark value.
THE
CONTRAST OF SATURATION
Contrast
of saturation The contrast is formed by the juxtaposition of light and dark
values and their relative saturation.
THE
CONTRAST OF LIGHT AND DARK
Contrast
of light and dark The contrast is formed by the juxtaposition of light and dark
values. This could be a monochromatic composition.
THE
CONTRAST OF EXTENSION
Contrast
of Extension Also known as the Contrast of Proportion. The contrast is formed
by assigning proportional field sizes in relation to the visual weight of a
color.
THE
CONTRAST OF COMPLEMENTS
Contrast
of complements The contrast is formed by the juxtaposition of color wheel or
perceptual opposites.
SIMULTANEOUS
CONTRAST
Simultaneous
contrast The contrast is formed when the boundaries between colors perceptually
vibrate. Some interesting illusions are accomplished with this contrast.
THE
CONTRAST OF HUE
Contrast
of hue The contrast is formed by the juxtaposition of different hues. The
greater the distance between hues on a color wheel, the greater the contrast.
THE
CONTRAST OF HUE - PRIMARIES
itten's
contrast of hue - primaries The contrast is formed by the juxtaposition of
primary hues.
THE
CONTRAST OF WARM AND COOL
Contrast
of warm and cool The contrast is formed by the juxtaposition of hues considered
'warm' or 'cool.'
RGB and CMYK
RGB
and CMYK are the two most prominent and typical color spaces / formats / models
used in the world of design. In print,
web, or digital media, a basic understanding of what the differences are, means
a fledgling designer can vastly improve the quality of a project.
Why
Colours Look Different
RGB
System – Screen Viewing Only!
RGB
colour system is only suitable for screen reproduction such as LCD and CRT
computer monitors and TV screens. This is not suitable color matching for
printing or to colour match from, as each screen may represent colours
differently. What may look fine on one screen, may be look completely different
on another. This can be due to a number of reasons, whether it be due to
individual screen settings such as brightness and contrast or even may be due
to different monitor manufactures; i.e. Sony or LG.
The
red, green, and blue components are the amounts of red, green, and blue light
that an RGB color contains and are measured in values ranging from 0 to 255. To
see these values, open a drawing program on your computer and delve deep into
the color settings. Also you can view some values on new models of CRT and
Digital Monitors.
The
RGB color model is an additive color model. Additive color models use
transmitted light to display color. Monitors use the RGB color model. When you
add red light, blue light, and green light together, so that the value of each
component is 255, the color white displays. When the value of each component is
0, the result is pure black.
CMYK/Process
– Digital printing
The
CMYK, also known as Process colours are generally used in digital printing for
signage. CMYK refers to the four colours used; Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black
to generate a colour. It is these four colours which are mixed together to make
up other colours, much the same principal to how paint is colour matched.
One
thing to note is that CMYK colours may not look identical to physical colours
due to the restriction to the number of colours CMYK can reproduce and that
Inks perform differently. For example, orange is very hard to reproduce, and
can look very muddy in when printed digitally. We take care to register all
images with our four color bars applied to all printing we do. In this manner,
the production crew can quickly and visually check the print at different
stages. If a final color is not accurately made, there is little we can do. It
is a technology thing.
The
CMYK colour model defines colour using the following components:
C
Cyan Ink (this is a blue ink colour)
M
Magenta Ink (this is a pink ink colour)
Y
Yellow (yellow ink)
K
Black (Black ink, the character ‘k’ is used so as not to get confused with the
‘b’ in RGB. RGB was invented first we believe.)
The
cyan, magenta, yellow, and black components are the amounts of cyan, magenta,
yellow, and black ink that a CMYK colour contains and are measured in percent
from 0 to 100.
The
CMYK colour model is a subtractive colour model. Subtractive colour models use
reflected light to display colour. Printed materials are produced using the
CMYK colour model. When you combine cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, so that
the value of each component is 100, the result is black. When the value of each
component is 0, the result is pure white.
The Origins of type
The
Origin of the Typographic Form
We
are well accustomed to the written word as a primary method of communication in
our culture. Its primary elements, the characters of the modern alphabet, were
once quite literal symbols of everyday objects which were gradually abstracted
to the letters of the alphabet.
Pictograms,
ideograms, and phonograms
While
cave paintings, dating as far back as 20,000 B.C. are the first evidence of
recorded pictures, true written communication is thought to have been developed
some 17,000 years later by the Summerians, around 3500 B.C.
They
are known to have recorded stories and preserved records using simple drawings
of everyday objects, called pictograms.
Sumarian
pictogram for "mountains"
As
civilizations become more advanced, they experienced a need to communicate more
complex concepts. By 3100 B.C., Egyptian hieroglyphics incorporated symbols
representing thoughts or ideas, called ideograms, allowing for the expression
of more abstract concepts than the more literal pictograms. A symbol for an ox
could mean food, for example, or the symbol of a setting sun combined with the
symbol for a man could communicate old age or death.
Egyptian
ideogram for "weeping"
The
Roman numerals we use today are considered to contain ideograms:
I,
II, and III representing fingers of the hand, V the open hand, and IV the open
hand minus one finger.
By
1600 B.C., the Phoenicians had developed symbols for spoken sounds, called
phonograms. For example, their symbol for ox, which they called aleph, was used
to represent the spoken sound “A” and beth, their symbol for house, represented the
sound “B”. In addition to sounds, phonograms could also represent words.
Phoenician
"aleph"
Today,
our own alphabet contains many such phonograms:
%
for percent, ? for question, and $ for dollars.
The
alphabet
It
is the Phoenicians who are generally credited with developing the first true
alphabet— a set of symbols representing spoken sounds, that could be combined
to represent spoken language.
Primarily
a seafaring merchant society, they traded with many cultures, spreading their
alphabet throughout the Western world. Around 1,000 B.C., the Phoenician
alphabet was adapted by the Greeks, who developed the art of handwriting in
several styles. The word “alphabet” comes from the first two Greek letters
alpha and beta.
Pictograms
evolved into the letters of the alphabet
Early
symbol for "ox" Phoenician
"aleph" Greek "A" Roman "A"
Several
hundred years later, the Romans used the Greek alphabet as the basis for the
uppercase alphabet that we know today. They refined the art of handwriting,
fashioning several distinctive styles of lettering which they used for
different purposes. They scribed a rigid, formal script for important
manuscripts and official documents and a quicker, more informal style for
letters and routine types of writing. By A.D. 100, the Romans had developed a
flourishing book industry and, as Roman handwriting continued to evolve, lower
case letters and rough forms of punctuation were gradually added.
Over
the next 1,000 years, manuscript preparation developed into a specialized,
highly regarded craft and came to be practiced chiefly in monasteries. Books
were objects of immense value, and contained elaborate ornamentation.
Illuminated, or illustrated, initials were painstakingly designed and
incorporated into exactingly rendered text. It was not uncommon for a monk to
devote an entire lifetime to the completion of a single manuscript.
The
history of printing
The
fifteenth century was a pivotal time for written communication. Manuscripts
were treasured possessions which rarely appeared outside monasteries or the
courts of royalty. The written word was reserved for the privileged few. In
fact, less than one-tenth of the European population could read.
In
1445, in Mainz, Germany, Johann Gutenberg changed the course of the written
word. While Gutenberg is often credited with inventing both the printing press
and metal type, he, in fact, did neither. Printing had been practiced for
several hundred years in China and for at least several decades in Europe. Type
had been cast successfully, albeit crudely, several years earlier in the
Netherlands. What Johann Gutenberg did do was make these technologies
practical.
He
perfected a workable system of moveable type, developing an ingenious process
employing a separate matrix, or mold, for each alphabet character, from which
metal types could be hand-cast in great quantities. These types could then be
assembled into a page of text, and imprinted to paper via special inks and a
printing press of his own design. For the first time, a technical system of
mass production was applied to publishing.
The
next 50 years witnessed an explosion of printing throughout Europe and, by the
year 1500, more than 10 million copies of nearly 3500 works were printed and
distributed. An unprecedented diffusion of technical and social knowledge
spread throughout the Western world and the education of the masses had begun.
The
anatomy of type
Character
components
Typographic
characters have basic component parts. The easiest way to differentiate
characteristics of type designs is by comparing the structure of these
components. The following terms identify some of the components:
Ascender
The
lowercase character stroke which extends above the x-height.
Bar
The
horizontal stroke on the characters ‘A’, ‘H’, ‘T’, ‘e’, ‘f’, ‘t’.
Baseline
The
imaginary horizontal line to which the body, or main component, of characters
are aligned.
Bowl
The
curved stroke which surrounds a counter.
Bracket
A
curved line connecting the serif to the stroke.
Contrast
The
amount of variation in between thick and thin strokes.
Counter
The
empty space inside the body stroke.
Descender.
The
lowercase character stroke which extends below the baseline.
Loop
The
bottom part of the lowercase roman ‘g’.
Sans
serif
From
the French, meaning “without serif”. A typeface which has no serifs .Sans serif
typefaces are typically uniform in stroke width.
Serif
Tapered
corners on the ends of the main stroke. Serifs originated with the chiseled
guides made by ancient stonecutters as they lettered monuments. Some serif
designs may also be traced back to characteristics of hand calligraphy. Note
that serif type is typically thick and thin in stroke weight.
Shoulder
The
part of a curved stroke coming from the stem.
Stem
A
stroke which is vertical or diagonal.
Stress
The
direction in which a curved stroke changes weight.
Terminal
The
end of a stroke which does not terminate in a serif.
X-height
The
height of the body, minus ascenders and descenders, which is equal to the height of the
lowercase ‘x’.
X-heights
vary among typefaces in the same point size and strongly effect readability and
gray vaule of
text blocks.
Serif
and sans serif
Use
serif for printed work
Serif
fonts are usually easier to read in printed works than sans-serif fonts.
This
is because the serif make the individual letters more distinctive and easier
for our brains to recognise
quickly. Without the serif, the brain has to spend longer identifying the
letter because the shape is less distinctive.
The
commonly used convention for printed work is to use a serif font for the body
of the work. A sans-serif font is often used for headings, table text and
captions.
Use
sans serif for online work
An
important exception must be made for the web. Printed works generally have a
resolution of at least 1,000 dots per inch; whereas, computer monitors are
typically around 100 dots per inch. Even Apple's much vaunted retina display is
only around 300 dots per inch — much lower than print.
This
lower resolution can make small serif characters harder to read than the
equivalent sans-serif characters because of their more complex shapes.
It
follows that small on-screen text is better in a sans-serif font like Verdana
or Arial.
Mixing typefaces
Combining
typefaces is like making a salad. Start with a small number of elements
representing different colours, tastes and textures. Strive for contrasts
rather than harmony, looking for emphatic differences rather than mushy
transitions. Give each ingredient a role to play: sweet tomatoes, crunchy
cucumbers and the pungent shock of an occasional anchovy. When mixing typefaces
on the same line, designers usually adjust the point size so that the x-heights
align. When placing typefaces on separate lines, it often makes sense to create
contrast in scale as well as style or weight. Try mixing big, light type with
small dark type for a crisscross of contrasting flavors.
Why is Helvetica so popular?
A
Brief History
The
original
Helvetica
was designed in Switzerland in 1957 by Max Miedinger and
Eduard Hoffmann at the Haas type foundry (Haas’sche Schriftgiesserei).
Haas was controlled by the type foundry Stempel, which was in turn controlled by
Linotype.
Helvetica
was originally called Die Neue Haas Grotesk, and was closely based on Schelter-Grotesk. It
was created specifically to be neutral, to not give any impression or have any
meaning in itself. This neutrality was paramount, and based on the idea that
type itself should give no meaning.
The
original Helvetica brochure.
The
marketing director at Stempel
decided to change the name to Helvetica in 1960 to make the font more
marketable internationally. Originally it was proposed that the typeface be
called Helvetia (Latin for Switzerland), but the designers didn’t want to name
it after a country, and so it was called Helvetica instead (which is Latin for
Swiss).
There
have been a number of Helvetica variations created, including a number of
language variants (Cyrillic, Korean, Hindi, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Greek
among them). Others variations include:
Helvetica
Light was designed at Stempel by
artistic director Erich Schultz-Anker and Arthur Ritzel.
Helvetica
Compressed was designed by Matthew Carter that’s similar to Helvetica Inserat, but
with a few differences.
Helvetica
Textbook is an alternate design with a few different characters.
Helvetica
Rounded was developed in 1978 and includes rounded stroke terminators. It’s
only available in bold and black versions (including condensed and obliques),
plus an outline version that wasn’t available digitally.
Neue
Helvetica was developed in 1983 and has more structurally unified heights and
widths among its characters. It also has improved legibility, increased spacing
in numbers, and heavier punctuation marks.
Why is it so popular?
Helvetica
was designed in post-war Europe, and many companies were looking for a change.
It was the opposite of all the kitschy, fancy, decorative typography that
covered corporate materials and advertisements.
Helvetica’s
sleek lines and modern sensibilities were just what companies were looking for
to remake their identities and set themselves apart from the past.
Corporations
stick by Helvetica because of what they have invested in it. Because of this,
it has become associated with corporate culture and business to some degree.
This is one reason why American Apparel chose to use the font for their own
brand identity to poke fun at corporate culture in America.
References
http://www.colormatters.com/color-and-vision/how-the-eye-sees-color
http://mgtek.com.au/archives/69
http://graphicdesign.spokanefalls.edu/tutorials/process/type_basics/history.htm
http://www.scribe.com.au/tip-w017.html
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/01/the-simplicity-of-helvetica/
These two books have helped me a lot while researching, I will reference these also
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