If you’re looking for a typographic ornament, Bodoni Oldstyle 72 is the way to go. This typeface is filled glyphs and decorated letters. An example of how to tell if the typeface is Bodoni is to look at the A. As you can see the A has a little ball at the serif’s beginning and the curvature of the tail at the end. That is a signature sign of Bodoni.
Bodoni was invented somewhere between 1740-1813. It has been revised many times and was created with the inspiration from Didot (another typeface fairly similar). Bidoni has many uses, especially in the poster and magazine industry.
Glyphs of Bodoni include:
Ornamental Composition from Bodoni Glyphs by Sung-Jin Kim | Minimo Graph
These glyphs have a old looking style hence the ‘oldstyle 72’. One person even made a decorative piece using the characters.
The website typewolf.com is site that has an enormous amount of typographic information. This site is extremely useful for people who have a sort of “graphers block”, similar to writers block. I can speak for myself when I say sometimes it can be challenging relying on typeface as your main source of design.
Upon browsing the site, I found that the ‘LookBooks’ tab visually helped me the most. If you are looking for specific information I would recommend ‘Guides & Resources’ however, I personally benefit from looking at inspiration. The ‘LookBooks’ tab gives font a personality and aesthetic. It is void of any personal graphic design, which is good so it can be up to interpretation. A designer needs to be invested in their typeface, and that can be hard to do with a just a black and white page on Adobe fonts.
They also have a frequently asked questions section at the bottom. This provides tips to help avoid redundancy and help you chose the perfect font.
I suggest this portion of the site because I am a visual learner, hence my goal to be a graphic designer. This is extremely good for people like me, who need inspiration and advice.
This book jacket uses expressive type to create a sense of emotion. The letters are in the midst of sheep, all having a shadow. The mix of the two almost makes the onlooker feel lost. This goes along with the stories theme.
Being someone who has read the book, I feel as though the designer did a good job at correlating the cover to the story, all whilst designing it with type. Even though it is slightly chaotic, it is relevant to how the story goes, and upon finishing the book the reader will understand.
In my search to find a video that did type a justice, I came across such a fun and creative video . The video is titled “Word as Image”. It shows creative typography designs that are all about the type, yet display the meaning as well.
I really enjoyed this type animation because it helps the viewer understand the word without a direct definition . This would be a good mechanism for teaching children or adults learning the English language.
Camp Flog Gnaw is a very popular music festival for young adults, presented by the rapper Tyler, the Creator. Seeing that the carnival is well known, it is ironic to see the hierarchy rhythm imperfections it has going on. The logo and color palette are nice however the height and weight of the text are sort of chaotic. The larger sized type is to show mainstream artists, most likely to grab potential festival goers attention. However, in my opinion, it just looks slapped in the middle of the body. The body is very disproportionate as well due to this.
Something I would do differently is order the artists name from mainstream to least known. This would create a large to small type setting which would make the lineup more cohesive. Another thing I would do differently, is have the same word count for each line. This would help the lineup to look more organized.
Overall, this poster is not bad but it could definitely use some improvement. It seems to me the only clear hierarchy element that was used was incorporating larger text for importance. There was some slacking on every other element, making it look un-unified. With some adjustments, Camp Flog Gnaw’s lineup can look more organized and thought out.
Upon my virtual journey in type houses and foundries, I came across Milieu Grotesque. I was immediately sold at first glance of the website. With such a modern font, Milieu Grotesque’s kept that same energy with their main website
There are a variety of styles in this house. There is Boutique, Brezel Grotesk, Chapeau, Generika, Lacrima, Maison, Maison Neue, and Patron. There website is much like a virtual Type Speicmen Book.
Designing anything in the graphic world can be difficult without an organized approach. Finding elements that all play together are extremely important. One thing that can make or break a persons work is fonts. If your font doesn’t match the overall aesthetic, it can throw everything else off. Choosing a type face can be much easier using a Type Specimen Book. A Type Specimen Book is an outlet that shows a type face used in multiple ways.
As I was scrolling through multiple examples, I found this Type Specimen Book.
I thought this was a great example on showing a type face. The creator showed multiple uses whilst giving it a personality. This sort of font is not regularly used but upon looking at the pages you can gather the kind of design it would be produced for. Another reason I like this layout is the creator did a good job at designing the page. With a good design, one might be more likely to use this font in future works. It is cohesive and easy to understand where this type falls.
All in all, this is a well done Type Specimen Book. It shows the font to its best degree and also shows little designs for examples on how it can be used. If you are having trouble picking a type face, I suggest looking at a Type Specimen Book to help you.
Identifying fonts can be some fun once you are familiar with different type faces. When you see that poster in the school hallway or that new album cover from your favorite band, you will start to recognize the fonts being used and feel some sort of comical accomplishment. “Ah yes, Ariana Grande used Bodoni for her perfume campaign, how interesting”. Well, maybe it isn’t that interesting, however it is super beneficial if you’re entering the graphic world.
I decided to test my skills out with one of the records on my wall. These records are vintage and came out somewhere around the 1970s. I thought it would be interesting to see what fonts they decided to go with. Below we can see the “Let It Be” album by the Beatles.
Let It Be- The Beatles (1970)
There are not many letters to work with, but from what we can see there are no extended curves or angled top. They decided for a more modernized font. Since the letters are extra bold it might be tricky to pick out the “nitty gritty” details, but it is ultimately extra bold Futura. It is very minimal, which is often used for brand names. A popular name that everyone might recognize that uses this font is Louis Vuitton.
Futura was born in 1928 in Germany. It is known for their modern/simplistic detail. It is extremely clean and although it is a modern font, there is something really classic about it.
I recommend when trying to recognize different fonts, start by looking for little details like curves or italicized accents. I personally started by researching modern fonts and ultimately narrowed this title down to Futura. It might be overwhelming considering there are many different fonts that overlap the same stylistic features but once you are familiar with basic fonts, it is easier to narrow down and research which font is the one you are seeing before you!
Typography Fall 19 