i should probably blog something...

...about lemurs! as if i'm not sick of them already...

the lemur has been pretty interesting to draw, as it has a very distinct face and and lots of different features.  this includes his very interesting mane/beard sort of thing around his face that gives him the appearance of looking like a creepy old man...

kind of creepy, right? But then at the same time, you want to cuddle with it's fuzzy little teddy-bear like body!

you can make your own judgment on whether you think it's creepy or cute.

besides the mane, his tail is another thing that makes it interesting.  It's long and resembles a large, poofy cat tail.  In some of my drawings he looks a little like a cat because of this, so I'm going to have to focus on emphasizing the features that are attributed to a lemur (and not a cat) so that people don't think it's a cat.

i'll blog more soon...it's past my bedtime. :)

more typography defs. yay!

weight: the density or lightness of the individual letterforms.

width: the width of the character which is in relation to the height.

style: used to allow designers to put emphasis on a particular word or phrase, allowing hierarchy to be distinguished. (ex. bold, italic, underlined)

font: specific size and style of a given typeface. (example, example, example)

typeface: a complete alphabet including letters, numbers, punctuation marks, accents and special reference marks.

x-height: the height of a lower case x or the height of lower case letters.

cap height: the distance between the baseline and the top of a capital letter.

leading: the spacing between the lines of letters (pronounced ledding!). it is also measured in points.

letterspacing (tracking): tiny spaces inserted in between letters (especially when in upper-case) so as to not cause dark patches in the text.

IN REGARDS TO MEASURING TYPE...

how is type measured in inches, mm, points or picas? mostly measured in points and picas.

point: equivalent to 1/72 of an inch

pica: equivalent to 1/6 of an inch

how many points in an inch? 72.

if a letter is set in 36 points, about how many inches tall is it? 1/2 inch.

how many picas in an inch? 6.

how many points in a pica? 12

(look at this handy little picture!!!)

woo hoo, i love learning new things!

:)

typography defs.

grid: tied to the International Typographic Style from the 1950's.  visual simplicity and uniformity were shown through a mathematically constructed grid.

why do designers use grids? what are the benefits or functions? it helps create precise layouts for both complex and simple layouts and allows hierarchy, accessibilty, flexibility, and consistency.

what is a modular grid? has consistent horizontal divisions from top to bottom as well as vertical divisions from left to right.  they govern the placement and cropping of pictures as well as text.

margins: space that surrounds the content of the page.

columns: one or more vertical blocks of content positioned on a page

grid modules: an area calculated in depth by the text leading and width by the text line length.

flowlines: the horizontal line that appears on a layout within the text; so your eye goes through the page


gutter: the blank space between facing pages

hierarchy: elements being emphasized, prioritized, or presented

typographic color: apparent blackness of a block of text resulting from the combined effect of the relative thickness of the strokes of individual characters, their width and print size, and the line spacing.

ways to achieve a clear hierarchy: keep it simple by only using one or two distinctly different typefaces.  use less sizes, weights, graphic elements, underlines as well.

white space: the negative space around the text. there should be a appropriate amount, so that there is not an overwhelming amount of either white space or type.

contrast: allows the reader's attention to go to the important messages as well as enhance the visual appearance.

MAKE

first class of the year in typography! we went around campus and found letters to make the word...well, MAKE. it was cool to see what my partner (steph roche) and i were able to find and make letters out of.  the first picture is letters that we found outside and inside buildings.  the second picture we made out of tree bark! it creates an interesting and fun sort of typeface, i think.  it's a little jaggedy and earthy and janky.