http://speckyboy.com/2011/01/06/30-beautifully-colorful-typographic-book-cover-designs/
http://bookcoverarchive.com/
http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/inspiration/beautiful-book-cover-design/
Here is a link to a New York Public Library exhibit, "Dust Jackets from American and European books, 1926 - 1947" Warning: some of these covers might be unsavory or even downright offensive. This is our history.
This blog might help in your search for a fiction novel with multiple narrators:
http://odysseybks.blogspot.com/2010/03/she-said-he-said-novels-with-multiple.html
ALL FINAL PROJECTS DUE BY 5PM FRIDAY AUGUST 5th
What you will turn in on August 5th:
FINAL EARLY LETTERFORM BOOKLET
FINAL TYPEFACE CD PACKAGE
FINAL BOOK COVER and THREE SPREADS
TYPOGRAPHY PORTFOLIO CD with all projects from this semester with original files and placed files in folder
FINAL EARLY LETTERFORM BOOKLET
FINAL TYPEFACE CD PACKAGE
FINAL BOOK COVER and THREE SPREADS
TYPOGRAPHY PORTFOLIO CD with all projects from this semester with original files and placed files in folder
FINAL TYPEFACE CD PACKAGE DESIGN DUE MONDAY AUGUST 1st
TWO COPIES IN TOTAL MUST BE TURNED IN BY THE FINAL DUE DATE OF WEDNESDAY AUGUST 5th
1st Proof due Wednesday August 27th for in class critique.
1st Proof due Wednesday August 27th for in class critique.
Research Blog Post for Monday, July 25th:
Please research at least three possible typefaces of interest for your next project.
On your Typography Research Blog, please post three paragraphs about three typefaces (one paragraph for each typeface for a total of three) from the list here, along with an image for each typeface.
On your Typography Research Blog, please post three paragraphs about three typefaces (one paragraph for each typeface for a total of three) from the list here, along with an image for each typeface.
READING for July 20th
Please read the short essays on Peignot and Cooper Black here .
Summarize both of these essays, one short paragraph for each, and post one image related to each essay. Do all of this on your separate research blog.
Also please read the project brief in the blog post below and be prepared to ask me questions on Wednesday.
Also, please check you links and make sure everything is working here .
Summarize both of these essays, one short paragraph for each, and post one image related to each essay. Do all of this on your separate research blog.
Also please read the project brief in the blog post below and be prepared to ask me questions on Wednesday.
Also, please check you links and make sure everything is working here .
CD Package Design
For our next project, we will create a CD Package for a typeface from this list of typefaces by classification: link
This booklet should display a minimum of three members of the type family (roman, italic, and bold) and give background information on both the typeface designer and the typeface itself, situating the importance of the typeface and typographer historically.
There should be a minimum of 350 words of historical information.
You may use black, white, and two colors.
The alphabet must be represented in upper and lowercase its entirety in roman, italic, and bold.
There is not a size (and consequently not a page number) specification for the booklet, other than that it must hold a CD. That gives us a minimum size specification of 4.75"
One page must contain a letter whose height (either cap-height or x-height, depending on the case) is 4.75".
There should be an image of the original typeface.
You need to print this project twice, you will turn in one package and keep the other for your portfolio.
This booklet should display a minimum of three members of the type family (roman, italic, and bold) and give background information on both the typeface designer and the typeface itself, situating the importance of the typeface and typographer historically.
There should be a minimum of 350 words of historical information.
You may use black, white, and two colors.
The alphabet must be represented in upper and lowercase its entirety in roman, italic, and bold.
There is not a size (and consequently not a page number) specification for the booklet, other than that it must hold a CD. That gives us a minimum size specification of 4.75"
One page must contain a letter whose height (either cap-height or x-height, depending on the case) is 4.75".
There should be an image of the original typeface.
You need to print this project twice, you will turn in one package and keep the other for your portfolio.
For Tuesday, July 19th
Read Pages 76 - 113 in John Cane's A type primer.
Also, read this blog post, from the Designing With Type online resource:
( it can also be downloaded here: link)
Graphic Arts
The most significant event of the century—and one that dramatically affected the course of history—was Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of printing from individual pieces of cast type. The success of Gutenberg’s press was phenomenal. It is estimated that by the end of the century more than a thousand printing shops were operating in more than two hundred centers, and that 40,000 editions, or 10 to 20 million books, had been printed—a total that represents more books than had ever been produced before Gutenberg’s time.
Printing in Germany
Johannes Gutenberg was born in Mainz, Germany, some time around 1397. Little is know about his early years, but it is clear that he was the right man, in the right place at the right time.
Gutenberg was the right man because of his familiarity with the craft of the goldsmith and the diemaker. He was in the right place because Mainz was a cultural and commercial center. It was the right time because the Renaissance thirst for knowledge was creating a growing market for books that could not be satisfied with the traditional handwritten manuscripts.
Handwritten manuscripts were made to order and were usually expensive. They were laboriously copied by scribes who had either to read from a manuscript or have it read to them while copying. This process was not only time-consuming, but led to many errors, which had corrected. Adding to the expense was the scarcity and high cost of vellum and parchment. As a result, handwritten manuscripts were limited to a select few: clergymen, scholars, and wealthy individuals.
A relatively inexpensive means of producing multiple copies of books seems to have been developed just a little before Gutenberg began his experiments with printing. This was the so called block book whose pages had illustrations and minimal text cut together on the same block. The carved blocks were inked, and images were transferred onto paper in multiples by rubbing or by the use of the screw press. Block books were believed to have been made for semiliterate, preaching friars who brought the word of God to the urban working class and the poor.
Insight and Innovation
Gutenberg’s genius was realizing that printing would be more efficient if, instead of using a single woodblock to print an entire page, the individual letters were cast as separate blocks and then assembled into pages. In this manner, pages could be made up faster, errors could be corrected more rapidly, and, after printing, the type could be cleaned and reused.
Using his knowledge of die making, Gutenberg created several pieces of type, not in wood but in metal. It was this process of printing from cast type and not the process of printing per se—which already existed—that was Gutenberg’s great contribution to the graphic arts. Technically speaking, Gutenberg’s invention, the letterpress, was so well conceived that it remained the dominant printing process for almost five hundred years.
With his chief assistant, Peter Schoeffer, and his financial backer, Johann Fust, Gutenberg was now ready to set up shop and embark on great masterpiece, the forty-two-line Bible, so called because its columns were forty-two lines long. It is a great irony that just before the publication of the forty-two-line Bible around 1455, Gutenberg seems to have lost control of his establishment for the nonpayment of his debt to Fust. The operation was then taken over by Fust and Schoeffer and unfortunately, there is no evidence as to whether Gutenberg oversaw the completion of the job or gained any financial rewards for his efforts.
After the judgement, it is believed that Gutenberg set up another shop and continued printing books and other materials for another ten years. In 1465, he received a generous pension from the local archbishop but died three years later. According to an early source, he was buried in the Franciscan church
at Mainz.
Continuing a Legacy
After Fust and Schoeffer took over Gutenberg’s shop, the first book they printed and published was the Mainz Psalter of 1457. This psalter was notable for a number of reasons: it was the first book with a colophon showing the printer’s name, location, date of publication, and printer’s mark or device. It was also the first book in which the display initials were printed in color rather than painted by hand. The partners printed a number of important books, two of which were the Latin Bible of 1462 and a Cicero of 1465.
While on a book-selling trip to Paris in 1466, Fust died of the plague. After Fust’s death, Schoeffer continued publishing until his own death in 1502.
Also, read this blog post, from the Designing With Type online resource:
( it can also be downloaded here: link)
Graphic Arts
The most significant event of the century—and one that dramatically affected the course of history—was Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of printing from individual pieces of cast type. The success of Gutenberg’s press was phenomenal. It is estimated that by the end of the century more than a thousand printing shops were operating in more than two hundred centers, and that 40,000 editions, or 10 to 20 million books, had been printed—a total that represents more books than had ever been produced before Gutenberg’s time.
Printing in Germany
Johannes Gutenberg was born in Mainz, Germany, some time around 1397. Little is know about his early years, but it is clear that he was the right man, in the right place at the right time.
Gutenberg was the right man because of his familiarity with the craft of the goldsmith and the diemaker. He was in the right place because Mainz was a cultural and commercial center. It was the right time because the Renaissance thirst for knowledge was creating a growing market for books that could not be satisfied with the traditional handwritten manuscripts.
Handwritten manuscripts were made to order and were usually expensive. They were laboriously copied by scribes who had either to read from a manuscript or have it read to them while copying. This process was not only time-consuming, but led to many errors, which had corrected. Adding to the expense was the scarcity and high cost of vellum and parchment. As a result, handwritten manuscripts were limited to a select few: clergymen, scholars, and wealthy individuals.
A relatively inexpensive means of producing multiple copies of books seems to have been developed just a little before Gutenberg began his experiments with printing. This was the so called block book whose pages had illustrations and minimal text cut together on the same block. The carved blocks were inked, and images were transferred onto paper in multiples by rubbing or by the use of the screw press. Block books were believed to have been made for semiliterate, preaching friars who brought the word of God to the urban working class and the poor.
Insight and Innovation
Gutenberg’s genius was realizing that printing would be more efficient if, instead of using a single woodblock to print an entire page, the individual letters were cast as separate blocks and then assembled into pages. In this manner, pages could be made up faster, errors could be corrected more rapidly, and, after printing, the type could be cleaned and reused.
Using his knowledge of die making, Gutenberg created several pieces of type, not in wood but in metal. It was this process of printing from cast type and not the process of printing per se—which already existed—that was Gutenberg’s great contribution to the graphic arts. Technically speaking, Gutenberg’s invention, the letterpress, was so well conceived that it remained the dominant printing process for almost five hundred years.
With his chief assistant, Peter Schoeffer, and his financial backer, Johann Fust, Gutenberg was now ready to set up shop and embark on great masterpiece, the forty-two-line Bible, so called because its columns were forty-two lines long. It is a great irony that just before the publication of the forty-two-line Bible around 1455, Gutenberg seems to have lost control of his establishment for the nonpayment of his debt to Fust. The operation was then taken over by Fust and Schoeffer and unfortunately, there is no evidence as to whether Gutenberg oversaw the completion of the job or gained any financial rewards for his efforts.
After the judgement, it is believed that Gutenberg set up another shop and continued printing books and other materials for another ten years. In 1465, he received a generous pension from the local archbishop but died three years later. According to an early source, he was buried in the Franciscan church
at Mainz.
Continuing a Legacy
After Fust and Schoeffer took over Gutenberg’s shop, the first book they printed and published was the Mainz Psalter of 1457. This psalter was notable for a number of reasons: it was the first book with a colophon showing the printer’s name, location, date of publication, and printer’s mark or device. It was also the first book in which the display initials were printed in color rather than painted by hand. The partners printed a number of important books, two of which were the Latin Bible of 1462 and a Cicero of 1465.
While on a book-selling trip to Paris in 1466, Fust died of the plague. After Fust’s death, Schoeffer continued publishing until his own death in 1502.
RULES FOR POSTING WORK
Typography is about the details, and poorly displaying your work can obscure these details.
Your work should always be...
Tacked down at all four corners
Printed on clean, flat, unwrinkled paper.
The work should be hung straight and level, with the bottom edge parallel to the floor. Each page you hang on the wall should have 1" of space around the design...crowding two works together turns them into one.
Neatness
Cleanliness
Visibility
Reverence
Respect
Your work should always be...
Tacked down at all four corners
Printed on clean, flat, unwrinkled paper.
The work should be hung straight and level, with the bottom edge parallel to the floor. Each page you hang on the wall should have 1" of space around the design...crowding two works together turns them into one.
Neatness
Cleanliness
Visibility
Reverence
Respect
checklist of principles for organizing content on a page...from design author Robin Williams
PROXIMITY:
When several items are in close proximity to each other, they become one visual unit, a cohesive group. The proximity implies a relationship. Similarly, separating items not related as an organizational strategy also provides clues in terms of content, in terms of the relationships, and in terms of the hierarchy of elements on the page.
ALIGNMENT:
Alignment creates visual connections. Similarly aligned elements can be grouped, and grouping can be implied by either aligning these elements to the same invisible line or by conforming these elements to the same alignment based shape. Visual relationships are created through alignment.
REPETITION:
Repetition can be used to create rhythm through consistency, consistency can create coherence. Variation can then be used to draw attention. Organized variation can be used to create hierarchy and to influence rhythm.
CONTRAST:
Contrast is difference to varying degrees. Contrast works along a scale of difference to determine flow, to create a general speed of read. Contrast works along a scale of difference to determine the level of attention to detail your reader will give your design.
When several items are in close proximity to each other, they become one visual unit, a cohesive group. The proximity implies a relationship. Similarly, separating items not related as an organizational strategy also provides clues in terms of content, in terms of the relationships, and in terms of the hierarchy of elements on the page.
ALIGNMENT:
Alignment creates visual connections. Similarly aligned elements can be grouped, and grouping can be implied by either aligning these elements to the same invisible line or by conforming these elements to the same alignment based shape. Visual relationships are created through alignment.
REPETITION:
Repetition can be used to create rhythm through consistency, consistency can create coherence. Variation can then be used to draw attention. Organized variation can be used to create hierarchy and to influence rhythm.
CONTRAST:
Contrast is difference to varying degrees. Contrast works along a scale of difference to determine flow, to create a general speed of read. Contrast works along a scale of difference to determine the level of attention to detail your reader will give your design.
EARLY LETTERFORM
Assignment:
Select a letter from the Phoenician or Greek alphabet, research the letter, and write approximately 100 words.
Create four two-color designs, each distinctively different, using black and red as shown in the examples. Incorporate your copy into each design. In the first design make the symbol the most prominent element. In the second make the display type the most prominent element. In the third make the text type the most prominent element. All design elements should be two-dimensional. In the final comp make the symbol the most prominent element again.
Each design should be 8" x 8" and printed on an 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper with marks and bleed.
It is your choice which of the colors, red, black, or white is used for the page, for the symbol, for the text and display type.
For your text and display type, use one of the 5 typefaces we have been working with thus far:
Garamond
Baskerville
Didot
Century Schoolbook
Helvetica
Consider the following issues:
Colors and textures created through letter, word, and line spacing.
Legibility based upon tracking and leading.
Shape created by counterform and the influence on the perception of the composition.
These will be among the topics discussed in critique.
The Original Project Brief
EXAMPLES:
The Cooper Union
Hong-ik University
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