Monday, January 21, 2013

Cait Stone - Chapters 4 & 5


Chapter 4

As chapter 4 discusses, the three main elements of legibly are: contrast, simplicity, and proportion. These three elements can be adjusted in a designer’s personal style in order to demonstrate expressions.  When you break down the actual anatomy of the text you can see how easily it can be to confuse certain letters with similar aspects therefore it is important for a font to make some distinction.  The upper parts of the letters provide a much easier way to distinguish one letter from another when compared to the bottom half. Though there is a ranking to the legibility of different letters, the typeface can cause many changes in this list. Another important element to legibility other than typeface is spacing.  Each letter has a specific spacing surrounding it that is not always exactly the same as the letter before it. This spacing is proportional to the width of the letters. The weight of a typeface can make a large difference on legibility, when a font has high contrast within the strokes it can be more difficult to read than a low contrast typeface such as Century Gothic. Some other things that affect legibility are: color contrast, condensed of expanded typeface, how is it arranged on the page, and indentations.
 













Chapter 5

Grids are immensely important tools for designers when making layouts and typefaces. When type elements are introduced to a layout it creates another set of spatial structure that can express different elements. The way in which a letter is situated on a page – straight, rotated or tilted- can make the letters appear to have motion.  I enjoy designs that are not necessarily symmetrical but have a clear structure which is easily achieved by using grids. There are many different ways is which to play with the grid system – discovering new spatial divisions. 

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