Typographic Ornaments

Adobe Caslon Pro’s type ornaments were designed by Carol Twombly and based on William Caslon’s own specimen pages printed between 1734 and 1770 (Friedlander). The mostly floral ornaments have a uniform color and line weight and can make any paper seem elegant. These are some examples of the different shapes. What defines the glyphs is that they are mostly floral, have curved lines and some have a very pretty scalloped shape. I think that many of these glyphs would look great when placed in the corners of formal letters or resumés, to provide stylish, vintage inspiration

https://www.thebookdesigner.com/2012/04/5-favorite-fonts-with-hidden-type-ornaments/ 

Typewolf: Adobe Fonts

On the typewolf site there were plenty of very useful sites I checked out that can all be used to make one accustomed to all aspects of type. I particularly enjoyed checking out Adobe Fonts, which was previously known as Typekit. I had used Typekit before since it is part of my Adobe Cloud subscription, but I never took the time to check out all the features as I should. When I took the time to check out Adobe fonts tonight, I was pleasantly surprised by all of the feature sit had to offer. Not only does the site have thousands of fonts through an easy search-and-filter menu, but Adobe fonts also offers “Font Packs” that help the user find just the right set of fonts for certain projects and/or occasions.

Adobe Fonts also allows you to search and find information about type families, foundries and designers as well. Overall, I would definitwly recommend this site and I do love this as a resource for when I’m looking for new fonts for a project!

Adobe Fonts Website

 

Expressive Type

For an example of something that expresses type in motion in a very thoughtful and interesting way, I chose the book cover for The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. The designer used a major subject in the book (a train) in creating the cover to express a feeling of movement and almost a fast rush. The plot in the book also makes for a heart-racing experience. The author did well in creating motion by using this sans serif Avenir font along with a “pull” in the letters, and fading out in the ends of the words.

The background reinforces the motion created by the type, as it moves in a horizontal (slightly diagonal) motion that appears fast because the blurred scene created by the image. The white color of the type contrasts well against the backround because of both the colors and the blurriness of the image. Overall, I think this book cover conveys an image that goes hand-in-hand with the story in the book and creates a simple movement that allows the reader’s eyes to move as if they were looking out from a train.

Vinila Typeface

This Kinetic Type video was a really cool motion graphic that I found almost mesmerizing. Not only was the high contrast in the colors succesful in creating the illusion of a bold compostition, but the movement used creates a dynamic and integrative collaboration. There is energy and a consistency throughout. Although there is only one typeface used throughout the video, Vinila, the creativity used to make the type stand out and follow a constant flow through changing weights, colors, and angles is why I chose this particular piece.

>>>Vinila Typeface Motion<<<<

Fortress Festival Poster

This is the event poster for the Fortress Festival– a two day music event that happened this past April. There is a clear hierarchy throughout the poster, beginning at the top. The title of the event is angled toward the the central distance, giving it a sense of depth.  It is the largest and boldest text in white, so it contrasts against all other text in the poster. Seperating the title line from the lineup is a horizon line of the African Great Plains, with color contrast to differentiate the background (which includes meandering rivers) to the foreground. I like the color choice, especially the violet. It connects the entire lower part of the poster, and the background takes up the rest of it. Leon Bridges is a big name in the music scene, so his name is clearly larger than all of the others and is in a contrasting yellow. Chvrches and Rae Sremmurd, two other large music acts, are second largest to Bridges and are in red. This provides a distinction and a next level in the hierarchy. The musical acts below get smaller and smaller, some in red and some in yellow, and it doesn’t seem to be in any particular order other than popularity. At the bottom, the date and location are in white, contrasting to its surrounding background, and the year is in large text in the center, with the two days of the events on opposite sides. I think this was a way for them to emphasize that this was a “weekend” or “two-day” event. I think the color unity really holds this piece together overall, but a part I would have reworked is the event title. I, instead, would have perhaps beveled it or made it 3D, instead of receeding into the distance. Although it creates depth, it is a bit difficult to read.

House Industries

House Industires is one of the few type foundries I explored that offered a great deal of variety so far as font styles, type styles, and writing styles. I visited Vanshneider.com’s article to find this article, where the author discussed his favorite type houses and foundries. That is where I found House Industries. I particularly like that the design studio takes an approach that is rooted in drawing, painting, and lettering, which is more traditional and allows for more creative styling. As they put it, their techniques “give their work a warmth and soul”, which I see is prevalent in the works they’ve done, as I’ll attach below.

I would not say that there is one particular style that is consistent in their work. Every type is unique and has something of it’s own to offer. Out of the other type foundries I’ve looked at, House Industries, in my opinion, offers the greatest variation as well as beautful logos.

https://houseind.com/fonts/ 

Avenir Type Specimen Book

I found this to be a great example of a modern type specimen book. This one was created to illustrate the Avenir typeface. I think the contemporary design is very neat, and utilizes only three colors to give more contrast and a focus on the font. Avenir is one of my favorite fonts, and I think this type specimen book’s design is an accurate representation the more modern and contemporary design of the typeface as well. This specific type specimen book is very interesting to me because the simplicity of the only using letters in the entire book, yet the letters are used to create patterns and eye catching features of the text.

Identifying Fonts

This week, I decided to try to identify the font on a book I recently finished reading, “You Are a Badass…” . I would recommend it if any of you want a nice, easy read! I knew I could easily Identify the typefaces on the book cover because the are labeled inside the front cover, but I wanted to check out font identifier sites such as indentifont.com, myfont.com, whatthefont, and others to see if they were reliable and what other fonts were similar. None would match exactly to the particular sans serif font that was on the book cover, but I did discover many fonts that were similar to the font used on the cover! The font on the cover is called Fabada, and a distinctive feature of this particular font is the curve in the letters (and in the apex of the A) and the letters such as W, S, and M.