Type 2 - Journal 6

Being a good writer can help you become a better designer and being a good designer can produce better writing. The two go hand in hand having many things in common, such as brainstorming, research, organization, roughs, revisions, etc. Yet, so often we seem to separate the two. We should try to see them more as a whole than two separate pieces. By being a good writer, a designer can better communicate their ideas and by being a good designer a writer can communicate to a specific audience in a specific way. This makes both products better in the end.



Links:
The Role of Writing in a Design Curriculum
Better Writing Through Design
Brand New

Type 2 - Journal 4

In the video of Stefan Sagmeister's presentation Yes, design can make you happy he spoke about things in his life that have made him happy, mostly about the ones that had to do with design. He also spoke about other people's designs that made him happy. I really enjoyed the designs made by other people that he showed. The subway signs were very interesting because they could easily go unnoticed. I wonder how many people notice them and how many do not? I like projects like that because if you do notice them, they can easily brighten your day. Also the speech bubble project was interesting because it let the viewers be a part of the project. I often enjoy projects where the viewer is a participant, like in the PostSecret project for example.

I also watched J.J. Abrams' talk, The mystery box. He talked about why mysteries are interesting to him and how that came about. He showed a lot of interesting clips from his projects as well as others. When he showed the Kleenex box that he had disassembled I found it really interesting. I never thought of all the work that goes into making something as simple as a box for Kleenex. I also really liked the whole theme of his talk, which sprang from the magic box his grandpa bought for as a kid and he has never opened.

The last video I watched was the presentation Fashion, passion, and about a million other things by Isaac Mizrahi. His talk was very intruiging and quite funny. It was interesting to learn that he stays up late and feels like that's when he comes up with his best ideas. Also it was interesting, and funny, when he spoke about following people that he finds interesting and going to Tarot card readers to find new ideas. Mizrahi said he was greatly inspired by color and amusing mistakes.

I picked these videos not only because they were recommended, but also because they were some of the few people that I had heard of on the site. Although, I'm sure many more of the talks were also good.

How Good is Good?
I think it's really fascinating that design can make people feel all those different things. The design doesn't even have to be different to evoke these different emotions. Two different people could feel two very different things while looking at the exact same design.

The Ten Commandments of Typography & How to Break Them

The Ten Commandments:

1. Thou shalt not apply more than three typefaces in a document.
2. Thou shalt lay headlines large and at the top of a page.
3. Thou shalt employ no other type size than 8pt to 10 pt for body copy.
4. Remember that a typeface that is not legible is not truly a typeface.
5. Honour thy kerning, so that white space becomes visually equalized between characters.
6. Thou shalt lay stress discreetly upon elements within text.
7. Thou shalt not use only capitals when setting vast body copy.
8. Thou shalt always align letters and words on a baseline.
9. Thou shalt use flush-left, ragged-right type alignment.
10. Thou shalt not make lines too short or too long.

How to Break the Ten Commandments:

1. Break the fetters imposed by the use of only three typefaces.
2. Let thine eyes be seduced by the hierarchy of type.
3. Do not forsake smaller of bigger sizes.
4. Be seduced into trying new and expressive typefaces.
5. Treat kerning and tracking with total irreverence.
6. Entice the reader to sample the delights of your text.
7. Do not forgo the liberal use of capitals within your text.
8. The Lord designed letterforms to stand side by side, but there is no harm in their being lured away from one another.
9. Yield to the temptation to align text in unusual ways.
10. Lure the reader down unfamiliar paths.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It's a great way to learn the rules of typography and how not to use them. Plus the creative format of the book made it an interesting read.