Helvetica Movie

Helvetica

Jeremiah Kinnamon

This was an interesting idea for a documentary and as a documentary it is also more imaginative than I expected going into it. The concept of the film was the ubiquity and endless possibilities inherent to a 50 year old typeface, that has crept over the written language, infusing itself to all facets of society.

The film clearly illustrates how something that we see everyday can be there and we don’t really notice it, as Michael Beirut put it, “You know, there it is, and it seems to come from nowhere. You know, it seems like air? It seems like gravity?” So for someone that needs to pay attention to things like these, I wasn’t as surprised as I could have been, because for years I have been paying attention to these things, however, for most people who aren’t designers, this could be like discovering a new layer in their visual world.

Words, as the film shows us, are everywhere and there is a good chance that the words in front of us are part of the Helvetica font family. The power of the font is that it is so good at being there, conveying information, and not really getting in the way of that process. I think that is why so many people may not realize what it is they are seeing, that the font on that street sign and the font on their DVD player manual are the same. The simple elegance that has enabled it to pervade our written culture and change our visual landscape is captured by the film and is clearly shown to be one of the most important typefaces of the century.

The other side of the font are those people that wish we could have another font to look at. Because Helvetica has become so ubiquitous, it has begun to force a sort of conformity and ritualized expectation into our visual lives, making it more difficult to be different. So while Helvetica is an excellent font, we must be careful to not overuse this typeface, lest we end up limiting ourselves as designers, and failing as stewards of our visual environment. It could be worse, I suppose. The designers of the world could be infatuated with a different, suckier font, like Trajan or Comic Sans.

Whether one chooses to go with the safe and reliable (but always elegant) Helvetica or break the mold and try something new (not Trajan) is something to consider. The truth is that at one time or another, Helvetica will be the perfect font for a particular project but there are many, many fonts out there and we should not limit ourselves to only one.

Spring Break Typography - Colorado

Colorado was the place where I was born back in the Mid-Eighties. I was born on a military base as both of my parents were in the Army. The interesting thing about living in that part of the world during the Cold War was the fact that my family and I would have been instantly vaporized in the event of nuclear conflict. The reason for this was that we were living in the shadow of Cheyenne Mountain, where NORAD is entombed. This is a valuable military target. Fortunately, I was never vaporized and I eventually moved away from Colorado before I reached a state of sentience. But the place is still dear to me and I love the topographical weirdness of the state.

Much like the Cold War, with its ups and downs, I went there with my mother-in-law (I know! Bad idea.) and the whole thing was like getting vaporized in the brain with a shriek-ray. My wife and I barely survived somehow and we actually avoided emptying the bear spray in its face. A wiser man would have avoided the whole thing altogether by recognizing a dangerous situation in advance: Two incompatible women, high altitude and lack of oxygen, 24/7 space sharing. Plus the wild card of having two gassy dogs, one of whom is about to menstruate. On top of this, the "mother" was pulled over FOUR TIMES. I shit you not. Total of traffic tickets coming to about $500. Yeah, I wish I that kind of money to blow. The good news is that the states of Colorado and Kansas are back in the black. It's like buying and iPad and throwing it off of Pike's Peak.

Anyway, I was able to take some pictures of the typography of Colorado and the "Old West"

Enjoi

Journal 6: What Inspires Us/What Problems Face Us

Jessica Helfand:

Inspiration:Her students inspire her the most because they are always changing and growing and looking the world in a new way. They stay on top of what matters the most in design. The benefit of teaching is because they teach her.

Problem: THe degree to which we are myopic. We only look at problems when they are in front of us, we need to develop longer range vision. We look too narrow, not globally enough. Thinking needs to be better, more expansive. In the future, students must learn to be more versatile and ready for new challenges.

Ami Kealoha

Inspiration: Looking at rubber band ball is a way to find inspiration because of they are so different yet similar things. They are versatile and able to do many thing. Simple, multiple uses, and practical.

Problem: Pollution of light and other things is a big problem because it is becoming a big problem. The assault on your senses is overpowering and needs to be addressed. Also, basic human necessities like medicine and water are a problem for designers.

Daniel Pink

Inspire: Hard to say because there are so many. But, he says eraser. Because it lets you clean mistakes. Not just the rubber eraser, but even digital erasers. The ability to change a mistake, to erase, means you can also create.

Problems: Systems are biggest problem. Moving away from individual items. We need to systemize things. For instance, healthcare is being addressed as an engineering problem. We are trying to optimise systems that are outdated instead of replacing them all together. The complete overhaul of crappy systems needs to be a big goal for us as designers and members of society. Prevention should be the key, not intervention when it comes to dealing with systems.

Deborah Adler

Inspire: The Pieta in Rome, by Michelangelo. Saw first in Italy, the emotion was overwhelming and she looked at it for like an hour. There is a deep connection between the designer and the peace. She has a deep empathy for Mary as she holds the recently deceased Jesus. She went back to Italy and saw it again, and she wondered how she would react to it, and after 14 years it was still as pwerful

Problem: Designers strengths should not be defined by aesthetic or style. It should be based on the heart of the design and how the design can meet certain needs. Having a love affair of the audience is very important. If you can accept the first part then the second part becomes irrelevant. The habit of thinking of someone's problems will help lead one to better design. When your work springs from the desire to solve a problem, then you will be more successful.

Freeman Mau:

Inspire: The poster that was designed by his partner 30 Years AGO. It was about chinese calligraphy and typography. The poster was for studio 11. This was the moment he became a graphic designer.

Problem: The problem is to make a choice. The designers in hong kong, china or asia are facing a drastic change; the economic growth each year is huge. In 15 years there will be more than 200 cities. With More than 1 billion people. They have the option to move wherever they want. The hard part is deciding where they want to jump in and make their mark in this giant and growing society.

Journal Entry No. 5

Summary of Jonathan Harris' Talk:

Jonathan Harris is a remarkable thinker and has wide variety of interests that range from scientist to artist, which is perhaps an uncommon talent, to be able to use both sides of the brain. So with that said, the article is focused on understanding the digital realm and trying to gain a feel for where it is going, something that is not easy being how unpredictable technology and culture can be.

Jonathan Harris talks about going from the written word and sketches to the more liquid form of the Intenet becaue of a loss of his sketches at gunpoint. It is interesting to think how that even impacted his life, say, if it had not happened, would he be making this lecture today.

He also talks about having an education and then beginning to implement his knowledge. The issue being that the cold hard rationality of his field of interest made it difficult to make things human. The art that he does is very technically based, using computers to compile words of the English language, and using the computer's ability to select random items.

Also, as a designer knows, he has fought against strenouous deadlines and dealing with unexpected problems in his work, like his idea for a dating website being used already. So through these experiences he is sort of defining his humanity, finding it, losing it and all the while this is being played out in his work.

The challenge of creating an original and working idea is also a key theme in his talk. So creating something that is interesting and something that works at the same time is obviously important. The benefit of living an interesting life is that it can make finding better ideas more easy, or at least your ideas won't be as boring. Also being bold is important. And other things.

How does the technology we have define our humanity? He brings up a point from a friend that a lot of our tech development lacks focus beyond getting people to buy stuff and that as a society, younger people just don't talk to each other or interact in person any more. It is a sort of compulsion, a going to far with something because you aren't thinking enough.

So, the talk in essence is how it is important for us to maintain our identities as we engulf ourselves in the flame of technology, because as things are now, it is too easy to become "dehumanized" and become just another "user." So this is the challenge for the new generation of thinkers and makers: How are we going to let people be themselves, how can our design influence this, so that we don't impede our customers and clients.

Typography Questions

_ What are the advantages of a multiple column grid.?

-The multiple column grid allows for a more versatile design which can produce and wide and varied result that promotes captivating visual flow and typographic color

_ How many characters is optimal for a line length? words per line?

-Between 55 and 90
_ Why is the baseline grid used in design?

-This provides a strong basis on which to build the entire spread
_ What is a typographic river?

-the spaces between the words that can make flowing river like structures
_ From the readings what does clothesline or flow line mean?

-the line across the spread which captures the attention across the two pages
_ How can you incorporate white space into your designs?

-By leaving empty places in a meaningful and attractive way
_ What is type color/texture mean?

The typographic color is based on the density of type on a particular part of the page. A very patterned and monotonous type structure might be considered to be "gray" while a very dense and bold part of the page might be "dark" and so on
_ What is x-height, how does it effect type color?

-X height is the height of the lower-case letters excluding a few including the j,i,t, and others. It can affect the amount of white space that reaches the viewer's eyes
_ In justification or H&J terms what do the numbers: minimum, optimum, maximum mean?

-This is the difference between the settings in where the words are layed out in a different order. This can also affect the 'typographic color'.
_ What are some ways to indicate a new paragraph. Are there any rules?

-there are many ways to do this, not limited but including: Type size, Placement, Color, Caps, Bold, Indentation, etc.. The rule is to keep it simple and recognizable
_ What are some things to look out for when hyphenating text.

-the M dash and N dash
_ What is a literature?

-The text being manipulated. That is the written words being laid out on the page.
_ What does CMYK and RGB mean?

-Cyan Magenta Yellow K (Black) and Red Blue Green
_ What does hanging punctuation mean?

-The indentation of the paragraph to create a ledge in the spread
_ What is the difference between a foot mark and an apostrophe?

-A foot mark indicates information relating to the text is at the bottom, where it is typically in a small size. An apostrophe indicates possession and contractions
_ What is the difference between an inch mark and a quote mark (smart quote)?

-This comes down to the usage of the marks, and it is quite subjective
_ What is a hyphen, en dash and em dashes, what are the differences and when are they used.

-They are all vertical marks made to indicate different things in the text. A hyphen could indicate a compound word, an en dash could indicate a year, and an em dash indicates a pause in the text, to indicate some new or different information
_ What are ligatures, why are they used, when are they not used, what are common ligatures

-a ligature occurs where two or more graphemes are joined as a single glyph. Ligatures usually replace consecutive characters sharing common components and are part of a more general class of glyphs called "contextual forms", where the specific shape of a letter depends on context such as surrounding letters or proximity to the end of a line.