D School Blog

October 19, 2004

Ways to Talk About Places

Since we're doing a mapping project in Typography, Kristin Hughes gave a lecture on ways to talk about places.

Some ways to talk about places:

• Signs as maps. Communicates spacial relationships.
• Interpretive Maps. Show ground and tactical areas. Defines places by shape, tone, pattern, repetition.
• Walkabout. Place as a rite of passage.
• Annotated Schematic Map. Gives a sense of place and orientation.
• Panoramic Perspective. Typically shows landmarks from a bird's eye view.
• Word Collage.
• Image Map. A place through pictures.
• Symbolic Diagrams. Shows abstract information like past, present, and future.
• Soundscapes. Place through sounds.

All of this is related to what Ken Hiebert calls experience mapping. Experience Mapping has several key components:

• Wayfinding. Providing directions to relevant information.
• Paths and Points. Paths are routes along points. Points are events, places, etc.
• Landmarks. Landmarks turn the generic into the specific. "Make a left at the ice cream store."
• Grid. Shows the underlying structure of a place.
• Key. Explains.

Posted by Dan at 05:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 05, 2004

Reading Images

VCU professor Ben Day is here for the week with us as we work on our Unfamiliar Place poster. We're picking images to go with other text for our poster, so he gave a talk on how to read images today.

There are multiple readings of any image; its content is slippery and malleable. A rope can signify a rodeo, nautical references, a hangman, etc. You should look for what Ben calls sign indexes: what the images are pointing to. A windsock is a way of capturing the wind. A cake at a wedding isn't food, it's content signaling celebration.

Gather your images, then start labeling them. Put down the pointers: where it comes from, what could it signify, what were your assumptions when you collected it, what could it mean metaphorically. Are there any contradictions or oppositions of content? So much of good design has to do with juxtaposition, Ben told us. Find interesting juxtapositions of images: explicit vs. implicit, before and after, time and movement, linear and non-linear.

Posted by Dan at 05:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 18, 2004

Counterform

I must be a slow learner because after three weeks of graduate typography it's finally started to sink in: the space between the letters is just as important as the letters themselves. The shape that's formed between letters and words can be a thing itself and can make or break the whole composition.

Posted by Dan at 01:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 07, 2004

Obeying the Rules

My graduate typography class, taught by Kristin Hughes, began with a review of the basic rules of typography, very much like Karen Moyer's lecture on What's Normal.

The rules to generally obey are the following:

• For optimum legibility, choose classic, time-tested typefaces with a proven track records.
• Be mindful not to use too many typefaces at once.
• Avoid combining typefaces that are too similar. It looks like a mistake.
• Text set in all capital letters severely retards reading. Use upper and lower case letters for optimum readability.
• For text type, use sizes that according to legibility studies prove most readable. These sizes range from 8-12 points.
• Avoid using too many different types sizes and weights at the same time.
• Use text type of book weight. Avoid typefaces appearing too heavy or too light.
• Use typefaces of medium width.
• For text type, use consistent letter and word spacing (kerning) to produce an even, uninterrupted flow.
• Use appropriate line lengths. Lines that are too short or too long disrupt the reading process.
• For text type, use line spacing (leading) that easily carries the eye from one line to the next.
• For optimum readability, use a flush left, ragged right style.
• Strive for consistent rhythmic rags.
• Clearly indicate paragraphs. You never have to indent the first paragraph of a column.
• Avoid widows (words left on a line by themselves) and orphans (a single word at the beginning of a column or page).
• Emphasize elements within text with discretion. Never combine small caps and regular caps.
• Always maintain the integrity of your type. Avoid stretching or distorting your typefaces or putting text on a curve.
• Always align letters on the baseline or the meanline.
• When working in color, ensure that sufficient contrast exists between type and its background.

Posted by Dan at 02:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack