As a graphic design student I would by no means say that I am an expert at typography. Even when I am no longer in school there will be so much yet to learn. However, since starting this semester and progressing through this class, it has become clear just how prevalent the blatant disregard for the proper use of typography actually is. The semi recent popularization of the house hold computer, all styles of font have become available to anyone with their own computer. Thus taking the beautifully and painstakingly made characters and completely disregarding their maker original intentions.
As a future professional in the field of graphic design, I feel it is my duty to point out every typographic mistake I see. Although non-designers may find this “annoying” or perhaps “unnecessary”, I on the other hand do not. And as I continue with this class I hope to find more and more things to confuse and annoy my family with.
I Love Typography Blog
A recent article I read on the popular blog, I Love Typography, tells how one man dislike of the common Persian typefaces created a modern typeface that brought back the old style of Arabic writing, that had been lost in the age of mass printing and publishing. This typeface is call Harir. It brings back the beauty of the traditional style of calligraphy mainly used in Arabic writing. I am fascinated by this mainly because of the fact that these characters are so unlike my own and yet use the same principles that we have been learning about about in our own alphabet. This video is a better explanation then I can give for Harir. I hope that it sheds a little more light on just how similar our alphabet and the Arabic alphabet are.
Harir, a modern Arabic typeface from Typotheque on Vimeo.
Another designer I found that wishes to improve the everyday use of typography, is Cardon Webb, a recent graduate of SVA that wants to good design to the people in his community. Especially those who hang flyers on telephone poles and message boards. He uses the same basic information on the flyers and makes it into a beautifully designed poster. Unfortunately Webb's site is down right now however, I have posted a link to the article itself here
My last example of better understanding type is a site that helps you understand the differences between different typefaces. One of the problems that I had at the beginning of this class was being able to distinguish between typefaces that seem very much the same. This site shows just how different they are by laying them over top of one another so that you can see just how different the subtle the lines and shapes of the characters actually are.
I have posted a link to the site here
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