Design is everywhere

I was looking at screenshots for an upcoming game (Persona 4 if you are interested), and I realized that the display in videogames has to be designed too...and I really like the design they use for this game. It's similar to the design from Persona 3, but has subtle upgrades.

Type Terms 15-23 (aka the rest)

-- In justification or H&J terms what do the numbers: minimum, optimum, maximum mean?
-Minimum, optimum, and maximum are all values used for type setting when you justify something. The values refer to the amount of space between words.

-- What is the optimum space between words?
-The optimum space between words is less than the leading, but wide enough to differenciate between words without the text blocking looking too black. Really, it's something that you have to look at and judge for yourself, since it differs based on font size and leading.

-- What are some ways to indicate a new paragraph. Are there any rules?
Indent, First Line Indent, Hanging Indent
- Indent is moving some or all of the text lines in from the margins by a specified amount. It gives an easy entry point into a paragraph, and it related to the size of the type. Additionally it can be determined by the grid.
- First Line Indent is where the text is indented from the left margin in the first line of the second and subsequent paragraphs. Generally, the first paragraph following a heading, subhead, or crosshead isn't indented because it introduces an awkward space, although it can be done
- Hanging indent is an indention from a left or right margin which affects several text lines (like a running indent), however the first line is not indented.
- Traditionally the first paragraph isn't indented, with indentation starting with the second paragraph. In addition, you should always use the 'tab' key when indenting paragraphs, rather than just using the spacebar.



-- What are the rules associated with hyphenation?
- A hyphen is strictly for hyphenating words or line breaks.
- Never use two hypens instens of a dash
- Avoid more than two hyphenations in a row
- Avoid too many hyphenations in any paragraph
- Avoid stupid hyphenations (e.g. therapist as the-rapist)
- Never hypehnate a heading
- Break lines sensibly

-- What is a ligature?
- A ligature replaces two or three characters with a single unit. Ligatures prevent the collision or interference of characters, particularly the extended finial of the 'f' and the dot of the 'i'

-- What does CMYK and RGB mean?
- RGB is red, green, blue color selection
- CMYK is cyan, magenta, yellow, and black color selection
- when preparing to work for on-screen use, designers employ RGB, and when preparing for print they use CMYK

-- What does hanging punctuation mean?
- Hanging punctuation is an occurrence in justified text where punctuation is allowed to extend into the right-hand margin area to make the margin look neater.

-- What is the difference between a foot mark and an apostrophe? What is the difference between
an inch mark and a quote mark (smart quote)?
- Foot and inch marks are straight and resemble upside-down tears, whereas apostrophes and quote marks look like inverted commas and they actuall enclose the text.

-- What is a hyphen, en dash and em dashes, what are the differences and when are they used.
The em. The en
- The em is used to define basic spacing functions. It's equal to the size of the type, so if the type is 36pt, then the em is 36pt. Even though it sounds like it should be realated to the letter m, it the m will rarely be as wide as the em.
- The en is half of the em. So if the type is 36pt, then the en is 18 pt. The en rule is used for nested clauses as well as 'to' phrases, such as in 10 to 11 or 1999 to 2000.





Dashes
- Ems and ens are used in punctuation to dente dash length, and each has a specific function.
- The em is the size of the font itself and is used to separate out parenthetical thoughts as well as to show when there is an interuption
- An en, as stated earlier is 1/2 of an em and is used for nested clauses, as well as the 'to' phrases. In addition, it can be used like the em dash to separate out paranthetical thoughts when an em dash would be at the end of a line or would look odd. The en is also used to combine two hyphenated terms, and also to combine two terms that don't modify each other (for example, with names as is common in science: Boss--Einstein Condensate
- A hyphen is 1/3 of an em, and is used to join words and separate syllables.
- As a note, the bullets I am using in this blog entry are hyphens; in addition, em and en dashes are not part of a standard keyboard and instead fall under special characters.

-- What is a widow and an orphan?
Widow
- A lone word at the end of a paragraph. This is NOT desireable and the type should be somehow adjusted to avoid this
Orphan
- The final one or two lines of a paragraph separated from the main paragraph to form a new column and should be avoided at all costs

Type terms again 14/23

Typographic rules and terms

1.Parts of the grid:
1.Margin: The part of the grid that defines the active area of the page and directs the viewer towards the visual elements. They may vary in size depending on the format as well as the type and quantity of content. The margin spce may also be used for the placement of subordinate elements such as folios and footers.
2.Column: The vertical divisions of space that are used to align the visual elements. Single or multiple columns may divide the page, deending on the quantity and complexity of information included. Column widths may also vary according to the function of the design as well as the level of flexibility required by the designer.
3.Alley: The space between pages used as a buffer for the page fold. Basically, it's the gutter between two pages.
4.Module: The spatial areas that support the textual and visual content of the design. Depending on the quantity of the visual elements, the number of active modules may vary from one design to the next.
5.Gutter: (also known as column intervals) are inactive, negative spaces that separate ne column from the next and prevent textual and visual elements from colliding into each other.
6.Folio: fancy word for page number

2.The multicolumn grid has many advantages. Since they contain several spatial intervals, there are endless compositional options. They are flexible and accommodate a range of visual elements. The provide opportunities to create rhythm, drama, movement, and tension through the interaction of visual elements.

3.There is only one space after a period (or any ending punctuation mark for that matter) because most fonts today use proportional characters, so you no longer need extra spaces to separate sentences. The reason why typewriters used two spaces was because they used monospaced characters, so you'd need two spaces to separate the sentences.

4.A character Is a graphic symbol used in writing or printing. It includes everything within a font, from numbers and letters to punctuation and other symbols

5.The optimal characters for a line length can be determined in several ways. You can use the lowercase alphabet with the measure being 1.5 to 2 times this width. More complex is to make a measurement in picas, use the relationship of 2:1 to 2.5:1 to divide the measurement, and then divide by 12 to get the optimum point size. Or you could do this in reverse to the optimum measure size. A third method is to select a specific number of characters per line (not less than 25 not more than 70) which is enough for about six words of six characters per line.

6.The baseline grid is used in design to order and unify the compositional space; the underlying structiure should be apparent without actually being seen. The grid can help the designer to compose visual elements to balance and contrast the shape of the page, while aslo prividing a clear hiearachy and sense of direction and movement.

7.A typographic river is a phenomenon the occurs when the space between words becomes greater than the space between the lines. In this way, your eyes are drawn to these spaces which look like white space 'rivers' flowing down the page between overly spaced words and letters.

8.A clothesline aka flowline aka hangline is the horizontal alignment across the page that draws the viewer's eye naturally from left to right. It gives the page an internal structure. Elements on the pages gravitate towards/”hang” from this line.

9.You can incorporate white space into your design in many ways. You can use different sized margins and/or gutters, or you can just leave some modules on the grid for whitespace. In addition, you should avoid keeping the amount of whitespace completely equal and predictable across the page. This makes your page more static, where as varied whitespace, interacting with the positive space, leads to a much more dynamic and active design.

10. Type color/texture comes from the appearance of blocks of text (usually in smaller fonts) where the leading and kerning are done in such a way that the text block itself looks darker or lighter. This occurs because the more kerning/leading, the more whitespace, and therefore, the more 'gray' the text will look, since there is a balance of whitespace and black text. With less kerning or leading, the whitespace is minimized, giving the text block a more black or darker appearance.

11. X-height is the size of the lowercase 'x' in a font (aka the height of the main body of a lowercase letter, excluding the ascenders and descenders). The x-height determines the point size of the font. Larger x-heights give a darker text color because it takes away whitespace and makes the text body as a whole look more blocky.

12.Tracking is a way to alter the space between characters. Tracking increases the space between characters evenly, regardless of what letters they are.

13.Kerning is another way to alter the space between letters. Kerning increases the space based on the character pairs. For example, there is strong kerning between the V and the A and no kerning between the S and the T. Characters need to be kerned because their unique shapes. For example, rounded parts of letters have extra white space around them. So even if every letter has the same letterspacing, the rounded ones look like they have an unnatural amount of space around them. Common characters that need to be kerned are: WA, VA, ry, AC, FA, Ro, and OA.

Helvetica...again

So, my idols down at Penny Arcade mentioned the Helevetica film on one of the newsposts. I think Helvetica might be haunting me. I swear it's everywhere.

In addition, they also did this nice speed drawing video of their Prince of Persia works.

Fun stuff ^^

DAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

http://rabbids.us.ubi.com/mediacenter/

So the Rabbids are pretty much my favorite Ubisoft characters...The link above shows videos made to promote their new game. What I love about the videos is the expressiveness of the rabbids, and the humor of it all =)

Demon Barber of Fleet Street

So, on Wednesday I saw Sweeney Todd at the Lied center. I am always amazed at how different stage productions and films are, and yet how they both manage to get across the same themes, the same story...they're saying the same lines, but they way it is presented is so different!

This production was unlike anything I had every seen. First off, the actors all played at least one instrument, so they were both the orchestra and the actors. They would play and sing, or switch from playing to singing...but all of it was done quite seamlessly...it didn't feel 'off' or odd that they had these instruments...

In addition, they kept the same set for the entire musical, but they moved around props and used certain lighting to express ideas. One main prop piece was a coffin, which they used on two stands as a table, or stood upright to funtion as a judge's table (with a ladder set up in the back) seat...or turned it around to make it function as a higher platform. They did this with a few props, and the simplicity of it was beautiful...in addition, these prop transitions were done while others were singing, but it didn't distract from what was going on. in fact it was nice to have the play be continuous, without stopping to change scenes

Basically, Sweeney Todd at the Lied center was supremely well executed. I also discovered that there are subtle differences between the play and the movie, which was also interesting and also helped to deeper flesh out some characters and storyline. If they were doing the production another day here, I would totally recommend it.

Helvetica

Well, I found the movie to be interesting, but somewhat slow. I think Gavin said it best when he said it was interesting and boring at the same time. I never noticed how prevalent Helvetica is in our society, or even in the world for that matter. Now, though, whenever I walk around, I unconsciously look at the lowercase 'a' in the type to see if it's Helevetica or some other font.

I also never knew how popular it was to designers, and how some designers were obsessed with it, other's scorned it, and still others seemed to have more of a 'Helevetica period.' It makes me wonder what Frutiger thinks of Helvetica.

The music and cinematography during scenes where they were showing signs with Helevetica on them were done really well. I especially liked how they showed faded or ruined typography (peeling numbers, etc), because it was quite beautiful.