Week 6A

Today, we spent time finishing up our typeface and putting it in Fontographer.

This is my font. It's my handwriting. Everyone wanted to combine things together that they liked or were inspired by, but I wanted to make my handwriting a font. 

Then, for the last part of class, we got together in our groups and discussed our website more. We added some slight changes to the layout. 

We added some headings below the numbers. We chose 3 chapters so we each have our own page to design. 

Week 5B

We are working on a student project. We are designing a website about typography. Shannon and Alaysia are in my group. This is what we have so far:

Week 5A

Class was cancelled today, but I still came in to work on my typeface. This is what I have so far:

I am missing a few capital letters because I wanted to have them represent my handwriting as much as possible. So I spent some time writing capital letters excessively and picking the best one. Here's some pictures of what I came up with: 

Now I am going to edit them on Adobe Illustrator and post further progression.

Update: Here is all of my letters. Capitals, Lowercase, and numbers:

I know some are MUCH bolder than others. But this is just progression. Now, time for editing. 

Week 4B

In Class

Deciding whether the font can do the job starts with reading the text.

• Is it complex?
• Does it have multiple sections and subsections in need of headings and subheadings?
• Does the author want to emphasize certain ideas?
• Do you need or want to italicize titles, quotes, or other items?
• Are there any repeating words or phrases?

If the answer is yes:

Find a font that can do the job!

You need a font family that:

• Works for repetitive words and phrases
• has all the styles you need
• has all the weights you need

A font family is:

• made up of all the styles in the font
• includes regular, bold, italic, and bold italic

Ex: Times, Times New Roman, Verdana, Century Gothic

A more complex font family includes:

• more styles
• more weights

Ex: Georgia, Gotham, Gill Sans, Helvetica, Baskerville

What Should You Look for in a Italic Style?

• Shapes of letters
• Legibility
• Contrast

Exercise: Bibliography

In this lesson, you will use h1 and h2 as intended. You will also use p, text-indent, margin, padding, <em>, <strong>, and a class. You will also practice choosing a font based on what it has to offer: roman, italic, bold, caps, and numbers.

After following all directions, here's a screenshot of my completed assignment so far:

After a few CSS changes, I wanted to make it look like the one example photo in the PowerPoint. Here is my result:

Now on to the next assignment!

Trying to get a web font to work on it...a work in progress. It's not working right now, but it's probably a simple mistake in my code.

Week 4A

Creating Your Own Typeface

Sketches were due in class. For me, I had some sketches, but it didn't really represent my typeface truly. Instead, I wrote "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." (Because it has every letter in the alphabet)

Here's a picture:

Instead of being inspired by something, or combining typefaces together, I decided that I want my typeface to be my handwriting. I've wanted to make my handwriting a typeface for a long time, and today, I finally got the chance to get it as a font in Illustrator. Woohoo!


Here's a picture:

Week 3B

Today was more focused on the web aspect of Typography. We went over a Web Lecture, and created our own HTML page, and linked a CSS page to the HTML page.

The final result (after saving) looks like this: 

Outside of Class: Compare and Contrast

Outside of Class: Compare and Contrast

This is Georgia compared with Courier New and Times New Roman. I noticed when looking at these fonts that Georgia is slightly bigger than Times New Roman, even though it says they are both 1em in size. Courier New seems to be bigger than both Georgia and Times New Roman, and it also looks like the kerning is different. It looks like Courier New is more spaced out. It also looks like Georgia's kerning is closer together than Times New Roman.

This is Impact compared with Arial and Verdana. Impact is not one of my favorite fonts, mostly because the font is really heavy and the kerning is very close. Arial and Verdana are similar, except if you look closely at Verdana, you see sharp points at the edges, for example: The letter C. In Arial, the letter C is curved up and in more, while Verdana's C is not curved in as much, and has a pointy edge. Impact's C is curved in the most, almost making a complete shape like a pill. I find Arial and Verdana much easier on my eyes to read. As for Impact, it's so heavy and looks like it's squished together. 

This is Georgia compared with Trebuchet MS and Arial Black, two other fonts of my choice. Arial Black looks like it could be an edited version of Impact. It's heavy, but it's easier to read and it doesn't look like it's squished together. Georgia and Trebuchet MS look like they are almost the same size, although I think Trebuchet MS is slightly bigger. I know they are all 1em, but I think due to kerning and the width and height of the letters it makes the fonts look bigger or smaller than others. Trebuchet MS is similar to Verdana, the c's curve the same, except Verdana still has the pointy & sharp edge. I feel that the q's for Trebuchet MS and Arial Black would be similar if Arial Black wasn't a heavy font altogether. Also, an obvious statement: Georgia is a serif font while Trebuchet MS and Arial Black are sans-serif fonts. 

Day of Design

Day of Design
9:15am | 12:15pm | 3:15pm

9:15am - Alexander Reyna, Creative Director of Major League Baseball

The first speaker for the Day of Design event was Alexander Reyna. He's the Creative Director of Major League Baseball. He describes himself as a "cabinet maker" which is a blend of artistry and craft. 
He has been working in design for 25 years. Four of those years have been for Major League Baseball. He does everything except game design and is 100% self-taught.

A short list of what he does:

• Making Stuff
• Tinkering
• Motion - intersection of all these different forms of design
• Interactivity / UX / UI / Experience and more
• Product Design

Make The Future

He made something with Real Time 3D visualization that allowed people to have more engagement with baseball. (seeing where the ball goes, speed of the throw and hit, etc.) 

People have great ideas but they are too afraid to create them. You need an Idea and Willpower, which is creating something out of nothing. 

His Process

• Are they using it on the couch or on the subway? 
• Thngs like this are important because it effects the design

• Collaboration and feedback is key
• We iterate solutions until they delight the user
• They buy it when they feel they are a part of the solution

Honesty Is Obvious

• UX does not hide the truth
• Avoid the dark patterns (http://www.darkpatterns.org)

L.A. Fitness - If you want to cancel your membership, you can't do it online. 

Create Delight

Make products that work "right" and surprise the user

Something He Learned

• New form factors require new ways to interact

12:15pm - George Hakim, Creative Project Manager of Toyota North America

The second speaker for the Day of Design event was George Hakim. He's the Creative Project Manager of Toyota North America. He background was mainly in Graphic Design.

Engineering The Art of Storytelling

Safety Commitment: Check yourself before you wreck yourself.

• Stories convey experience and wisdom
• Stories excite sympathetic reactions

Expanding Audience

Over the years, storytelling's audience has expanded to:

• Books
• Radio
• Film
• Video Games - Interactive / you being part of the journey
• Music Videos
• Internet
• Videos that go viral 
• iPhones / smartphones
• Social media

At Toyota, they use Virtual Reality as Storytelling for training purposes. 

The Golden Circle

Simon Sinek

• People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
• Do business with people who believe what you believe.
• Talk to people from the inside out, because that influences action, that's where gut feelings come from.

Ask Why 5 Times

    Root Cause         Pay Attention to the Big Picture        Explain it to a Nontechnical Person

What's the problem?                                    HOSHIN                                                                                   MUDA

Learn The History

Genchi Genbutsu - Go to the source

Know Your Audience

Toyota's Mentality: Customer FIRST

Plan, Do, Check, Act

Idea (define / plan) → → → → Create (do)
           ↑                                             ↓ 
           ↑                    Ⓞ                       ↓ 
           ↑              Empathy                ↓  
           ↑          (customer first)         ↓  
Refine (act) ← ← ← ← ← ← ← Test (check)  


*People retain 58% more information when both visual and auditory senses are stimulated.

More Meanings 
KAIZEN - continuous improvement
MIERUKA - visualization

Key Points 

• Root Cause - Why
• Mieruka - visual storytelling
• Kaizen - continuous improvement

Kiki / Bouba Effect

• We can match names with objects.

Advice

1. Travel - helps with visual communication, global experience
2. Don't be afraid to take a job where the experience intimidates you