typography??

[souljahs story]

whats the best way, of creating new typography??
layouts etcetra?
where should i look for inspiration.
need it soon.
how do i break the mould of regenerating the same idea over and over??
is this because that one idea works??

[Shade]

I'm not sure I understand, what do you mean by typography? Do you want to create a typeface?

[souljahs story]

Originally Posted by Shade

I'm not sure I understand, what do you mean by typography? Do you want to create a typeface?

nope, i mean as in the use of text layed out.

basically, ive been given a font, and have to create a cd booklet around that font, for a college project.
and am asking for advice on where i should look for ideas and inspiration. as am struggling a little.
the font is called wittenberger fruktar.

am just asking for a little guidance on typography

sorry for not making any sense

[Steeldolphin]

Well that is a huge subject, one that Shecky i am sure can really expand upon for sure.

Well i dont really know the full requirements and scope of your project but I can offer a few suggestions to remember.

Typography is not simply typing words into a program like illustrator or indesign and then choosing a funky font.

There are many things to consider, letterspacing (tracking and kerning), letter width and height, and of course leading (space between lines). Choices for headline or subheadline and body text are important as well. Now I am not familiar with your typeface that you listed there and Iam not sure if it is a font that can be used as both headline and body text. There are alot of 'display' type fonts out there that work great for headlines or titles but are very poor for body text.

Its a good idea to use more than single spacing between lines on body text (adjust your leading manually).

From a more design standpoint, look at the shapes of the various letters of this font. What do the shapes present to you is there something in these letterforms that evokes some ideas. Can you use them to create interesting space and/or division of elements in the design?

There really are way to many things to get into here. If you want you might wish to post up your progress of this project and perhaps we can help by offering suggestions at that point.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm yummy typography. yummy yummy yummy.

i would also look to Angryblue for a wealth of advice on type. this is a subject that could be expanded on for years, but a few basics to remember:

-If you go all capitals, they need more tracking (space between letters) to remain readable. Lowercase or a mix you should generally not alter the tracking the computer provides.
-all capitals do not read as well as a mix of capitals and lowercase; typefaces are designed to utilize the negative spaces between the letterforms, using all capitals breaks this.
-justified text usually looks bad (from a design standpoint) as it alters the spaces between the letters unnaturally.

i would STRONGLY suggest printing out (on actual paper) all the letterforms of the font you were given and then using a copy machine blow up and shrink down - then cut em up and collage - look at the letters as FORMS not as WORDS and that will help give you a direction. this is a great way to get going on a direction for a new project.

beyond that i would need to be asked some more specific type questions to give more advice. My personal type hero is Jan Tschichold so i always tell people to look at his layouts - if you are into a simple delicate kind of composition he is a god.

*edited cuz i made an incorrect comment. duh.

[souljahs story]

vheers thanks for the info,
i guess the font, ive been given is funky enough, so it'll be easier to look at the letters as shapes.

any advice, on how to advertise fonts??
whats the best way??

not sure what you mean by 'advertise fonts'

[souljahs story]

say for example, you create a font, and you wanna showcase it to potential customers, in booklet form.
whats the best way??

am thinking of possibly using two pages.
one page with everysingle, key, symbol etc.
and the other page,with the font, used in an article.

would that be a good way to advertise it??

basically yes - i should warn you up front that designing a typeface properly is a VERY complex task not to be taken lightly (assuming you want it to be good) - you are in essence making at least 62 different glyphs (in English at least - 26 lowercase, 26 uppercase, 10 numbers, not to mention punctuations) all of which need to be highly designed and work together in various configurations. Not trying to tell you not to do it, im just saying its very involved to do well.

I would design some layouts showcasing your font, think of them not as just a list of letters, but as a movie poster of "Your Font: The Movie" and generate some emotion and feeling behind it. Also all good fonts have an explination describing process of design, theory, precedent, etc.. You should also look at the sample pages that the bigger type foundries have, i personally like Font Bureau (one of the partners was a typography professor of mine,) and House Industries - they present fonts in a pretty straightforward way if you need to keep it simple.

something like this is a good way to present a typeface:

http://www.abrasivedesign.com/risd/g...iorshow/05.jpg

[souljahs story]

thanky
any good typographical books out there??

[freakyclean]

Complete Manual of Typography by Adobe Press (Peachpit)

along a somewhat related vien there is the Merriam Webster's Handbook for Writer or the Handbook for Editors and Copywriter, they are pretty similar.

You can also look at newspaper styleguides. They are available from places like the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune as well as the Associated Press. For Canadaians the Globe and Mail puts out a good one.

[Shade]

The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst is a typographic bible.

you MUST own the Bringhurst book. Must. Also I like "A Type Primer" by John Kane for an easyer read.

[Steeldolphin]

Originally Posted by shecky

you MUST own the Bringhurst book. Must. Also I like "A Type Primer" by John Kane for an easyer read.

I will be looking or that one.