This is a simple sketch of a coffee cup in Inkscape.
The truth knocks on the door and you say, “Go away, I’m looking for the truth,” and so it goes away. Puzzling.” (Robert Persig) by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Tonight, I just wanted to play a bit with a word: bibliophile. It’s such a beautifully rhythmic word, and while I tend to read more screens than physical pages, I feel like I can align myself with the word.
In Inkscape, I found a good hefty font in Chunk Five, typed out the letters, and converted the word into a path. I ungrouped it, as text to path always groups the letters. Then, using the node tool, I extended the serifs to the left and right wherever they had room to move. Originally, I did not cross over the dots for the i’s but after playing with the serifs going through the dots, I decided I liked it. I hope you did too. 🙂
Today, I decided to use Inkscape to play with type. When you type less than three (<3), you are expressing an emoticon for love, symbolized by a heart. It’s a straightforward, easy-to-use symbol. Two close friends or sweethearts might use it in SMS to express a little love.
Melissa Brisbin and I have used an alternative to less than three to express not only that we are good friends, but that we exchange and share value in technology, libraries, and related interests. Ampersand greater than (&>) resembles a heart too, but indicates a togetherness, a bond. When we type it to each other, it’s a little reminder of our history. In honor of her birthday yesterday, I decided to work on the ampersand greater than as a typography muse.
I started by going through my font catalog and pulling out all the fonts that had interesting ampersand and greater than symbols.
Then I began pulling out the best combinations, angling the symbols, pulling them together into a single flowing shape.
Finally, I went back in and tweaked the finest points of the combinations. This was my result: nearly the final set.
And today, I decided to add some color, along with final tweaks to the pieces.
Advance Organizers are a design method where an audience is given new information in one of two ways to become oriented with a new concept. In cases where the audience is newly introduced to the topic, we might use an expository advance organizer. If an alien was trying to learn about the way that a human hand functions, for instance, we might use an expository advance organizer in the form of a description of the look, feel, uses, and functions of the hand. If the alien had hand like appendages, let’s say 3-pointed claws, we might use their understanding of that in the form of a comparative advance organizer that showed the similarities and differences between the alien claw and the human hand. The purpose of either would be to grant the audience a better understanding of the new concept before going into deeper detail, training, or demonstration.
Above is an illustration of the comparative visual anatomy of serif typography and sans-serif typography, in which the letter A is used in a comparative advance organizational method, since you, the audience, is likely familiar with the letter A.
I thought I’d share the things I think about when approaching a new design. Over the last 10 years or so, I’ve developed a way to think about design when faced with a blank digital canvas, and it’s helped me to develop solutions every time. There are many principles of design and breakthroughs that have happened in its history, but these are the ones that I consider first.
Usually, unless I am working on a piece in the interest of fine arts, where one may value abstraction and ambiguity, I am trying to convey something specific in design. Perhaps the easiest way to do this is with words. However, the typography is a message in itself. If you choose to display the word “gravity” in Helvetica, Comic Sans, or Creampuff, it is three different ways of emphasizing the word, one of business and straightforwardness, one of childish play, and one of casual sexiness. Be careful not only what you are saying, but how you are saying it, and fonts are a great way to define the how.
Hard, thick edged lines create gravity and strength in a design. Lighter, curved, frilly lines create an atmosphere of elegance. Angular accents create active layouts, pointing the eye here and there. You can use line to direct the eye, border elements in your design, or bring the viewer back again and again to a symbol.
What happens visually when you line three words up, one after the other, in a perfect square? What happens when you take those same three words and create a rectangle? What about if you give them some space? What about if you angle the words? The overall shape of your design will carry a message, the virtual lines created by words will carry a message, and the flow of the viewer’s eye from one element to another will carry a message.
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