Participation in all aspects is imperative to your success in this course and will be an integral part of your final grade.
At the conclusion of each project, there will be a formal group critique in which the work will be discussed. Critiques will provide an opportunity to speak effectively about your concepts and ideas, to see mistakes and discuss possible alternative solutions and to recognize what is working well in the project.
This course has two major objectives: to familiarize students with formal attributes including vocabulary and conventions of type as well as working through projects to develop a sense of visually interesting solutions using the typographic form.
At the end of this course, students should be able to:
1. Understand the history and antecedents of typography and written language through time.
2. Define commonly used terms (examples: leading, point size and kerning).
3. Identify letterform anatomy (examples: serif, ascender, bowl, ligature).
4. Use type creatively and non-traditionally (examples: type as image, experimental methods).
5. Use a variety of tools and methods to produce work (examples: xerox, computer, photography, hand rendering type).
6. Computer software is not an objective of this course. Student should feel free to experiment with digital
methods, but there will be no formal software instruction.
The projects, lectures, and activities in this class will provide opportunities to engage with the following topics:
- History of typography. Typographers past and present.
- Typographic vocabulary, terms, rules, and conventions.
- Anatomy of letterforms.
- Typography as image, hierarchy, and grid.
- Typography in the environment.
- Expressive typography.
- Current trends and uses.
