Typography lecture

I really enjoyed this lecture as I really enjoy typography pieces. Typography is all about making words or letters visually pleasing.

"To publishers and others concerned with presenting words to the public, in print or on screen, 'typography' means the process of making the words visually attractive and effective; and a typographer is someone who is professionally trained to perform that task, and earns a living doing so" Walter Tracy (1988) typographic scene p.1 1
Build
"The function of typography is to communicate a message so that it effectively conveys both its intellectual meaning and it emotional feeling." Willis Kunz (1998) Macro and Micro Typography

What is Tracking?
Tracking is adjusting the spaces in between letters of a word to improve the word visually.

What is leading?
Leading is the spacing between paragraphs.

In this lecture we began looking into the history of typography, a few pieces that caught my eye was the Bifur, 1927 by Adolphe Mouron Cassandre and 'word as image' by Ji Lee.

Bifur by Adolphe Mouron Cassandre is a black and yellow sans serif type face, some of the letters you would be able to work out individually and others you can't but because the piece is in alphabetical and numeral order, your brain works out the letter and number with out even having to think. The type face is set out in a triangle shape where the letters are and a type of base using punctuation and numbers. The main parts of the letter are black and you could almost recognise what they are without the yellow shapes, the yellow shapes help to identify each letter.

'Word as image' by Ji Lee I really liked it's the word vampire in a thin font but upside down and the M is made into vampire teeth. But the way Ji Lee have created this type face is much more. The thin font symbolises the thin build of a vampire as the stereotypical vampire is thin with a tall stance. The word 'vampire' is upside down too symbolise a bat the word is black also the symbolise the dark clothing of a vampire and the colour of a bat. The M in vampire is self explanatory, vampire teeth. This typeface is so simple but works so well.