OUGD403 - Type Lecture

This lecture was a basic overview in to the anatomy of type and various different aspects of typeface, font and lettering themselves. We started by looking into the differences between font, type and lettering, and looked at various quotes from different artists which might help us better understand these slight differences. For example Typeface is the initial or primary design, Typeface designers work where they create a system of letters which can be endlessly rearranged and work together.
Fonts however, are a collection of letters. Although font and typeface are often used interchangeably, a font is what you use and a typeface is what you see. Fonts are usually grouped in the family tree of a typeface such as Helveticas family tree which include Helvetica Bold and Helvetica Italic ect...
Lettering is slightly different and is essentially illustrations of letters, words or phrases. As Jessica Hische states 'As a letterer when asked to write the word 'Holiday' I don't first draw the whole alphabet, i draw the word as a unique image, when the letters are rearranged, the letters will usually only work in the desired order.' Reflecting back on the lecture, this quote has really helped me understand the key principals of what lettering really is.

The lecture then looked more primarily at the anatomy of type and the different names for specific parts of lettering, for example the bowl or aperture of a letter.  We also looked at the imaginary scaffolding around each letter which are the blueprints for any new font such as the baseline. Following on from this was the difference between kerning and tracking which led onto a small inspiring clip on the use of these features. This clip showed various exaggerated illustrated examples of the word 'fear'. The word was portrayed in various different amplified examples such as extreme tracking or tiny font, each example was then broken down on what emotions the letters were giving off such as the extreme tracking made the word feel very open and free. This was very inspiring for me because it made me realize how subtle changes to the font can play with the viewers emotions in such a big way.

Finally the lecture came to Vignellis six basic Typefaces, Garamond, Bodoni, Century Expanded, Futura, Times Roman, Helvetica. Vignelli stated that there is too many typefaces in the modern world we live in and that all we need are these 6 basic typefaces. This philosophy is what our first study task was based on.