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VISUALSUMMARY
-pgdipdvc
ceciliaserafini
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TYPOGRAPHY
VISUAL GRAMMAR
COLOUR
INFORMATION DESIGN
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typography
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Any man who would letterspace blackletter would steal sheep-
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”Frederic Goudy
Duringoneofourfirstdaysofclass,wehadtohandrenderournames.IpickedaseriffontthatIthoughtwasquitestylishandIthoughtIcoulditgiveitsomeairbyspacingitabit.Badidea.ItwasafterlookingatmynamehangingonthewallthatTonyaskedifanyoneknewwhat“stealingsheep”meantintypography.NowIknow. That’swhenIlearnedaboutkerningandtracking.Ialwayslikedtoincreasetheinterletterspace,butImostcertainlyneverstoleanysheep!
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The essence of the New Typography is clarity, as opposed to the old typo whose aim was beauty and whose clarity did not attain the high level we require today-
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”JanTschichold
AfterreadingHelen’sArmstrong’sGraphicDesignTheory,oneoftheessaysthatIfoundmostinterestingwasJanTschichold’sandhowhetalksaboutclarityintypography. ‘The essence of the New Typography is clarity, as opposed to the old typography whose aim was beauty and whose clarity did not attain the high level we require today. Today we need a greater economy of expression as a result of the amount of claims for our attention made by all the print. The beautiful type can never produce the pure form we demand today. The central axis, that started in the Renaissance runs through the whole like an artificial, invisible backbone: its raison d’être is today pretentious. The whole is a form that is predetermined and therefore must be inorganic. Every piece of typography that originates in a preconceived idea of form (also those of the pseudo-Constructivists) is wrong. The new typo is distinguished from the old by the fact that its first objective is to develop its visible form out of the functions of the text. Form must be created out of function, only then can we achieve a typography that expresses the spirit of modern man.’TheNewTypography,1928
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geometricalphabet- WhenIthoughtaboutcreatingageometricalphabetmymindwentstraighttothelines.Aftermakingdifferentandfailedversionsofletterformsbasedonlines,Idecidedtotrywithcircles.Itworked.Iused-yetagain-theruleofthirdsandtriedtomakethelettersasmuchlower-case-lookingasIcould.Toughjob.Ithinkitlooksquitegood,though.
Firstattempts!Poster
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x height
ascender
descender line
ascender line
descender
FAT FONT: ANATOMY OF A TYPEFACE
All the letters of the alphabet are created after the
template below. It’s a circle divided into 3 parts
horizontally and vertically. The final product is a
9-part circle and based on cancelling certain parts
and/or adding smaller circles, I tried to find the
proper shape for each letter.
The smaller circles are used usually for ascenders
and descenders. In this case, one of them is within
the x-height as part of the bigger circle and two
are below or above the x-height.
Thought it is a lower case alphabet, Fat Font is a
display font due to its characteristics. The
roundness of it reminds me of candy, therefore the
palette I chose. Below there is an example of a
poster that intends to bring out that characteristic.
Though I tried to be as consistent as I could
through out the whole alphabet, there are some
exceptions to the basic rules. This happened
because of aesthetical and functional reasons.
Examples are letter C and V (see below)
The only example
is the letter W.
Almost every letter is based on the single circle,
except for the W and the M, which are “double
units”. They measure 1 unit and 2 thirds, because
they are formed out of two circles that overlap in
the middle. Example is letter M.
45˚
rotation
Cecilia Serafini
THE BASICS
APPLICATIONS
SOME EXAMPLES
THE ALPHABET lower case
EXCEPTIONS
Rotated & double
Rotated Double
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FoundAlphabet- IloveLondon.Iseriouslythinkit’soneofthemostbeautifulcitiesintheworld.Oneofthemany,manythingsIloveaboutit,ishowbeautifuleverythingis.Theold,thenew,thesimple,theextremelydecorated.WalkingaroundcentralLondonIcameacrossaridiculousamountofbeautifulsignswithallvarietiesoffonts. EventhoughIquoteJanTschicholdafewpagesagosayinghowtheobjectiveofgoodtypographyisclarity,Idon’talwaysagreewithit.Asignneedstobepowerfull,itneedstospeak.Itneedstoinviteyouinsideandsellyousomething.Thatiswhymycollectionoffoundlettersisquiteloudandcolourful. TakeasanexampletheW.Idon’tneedtosaythatthatletterwastakenfromajapanesefoodplace,doI?Callitfood,orwhatever,butthepointisthattypographyisalsousedtoconveyaconceptoranidea.
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GraphicA series
of visual conversations
SioleongChao
KenyaHara
10.00
12.00
14.00
16.00
HongChong Ip
HelmutSchmid
PhilippeApeloig
AprilGreiman
David McCandless
EdwardTufte
To book email:[email protected]
Main Lecture TheatreLondon Collegeof Communication
Elephant & CastleLondon SE1 6SB
11.12.13
DialogueGraphic
A seriesof visual conversations
SioleongChao
KenyaHara
10.00
12.00
14.00
16.00
HongChong Ip
HelmutSchmid
PhilippeApeloig
AprilGreiman
David McCandless
EdwardTufte
To book email:[email protected]
Main Lecture TheatreLondon Collegeof Communication
Elephant & CastleLondon SE1 6SB
December 11, 2013
Dialogue
Graphic
A series of visual conversations
SioleongChao
KenyaHara
10.00
12.00
14.00
16.00
HongChong Ip
HelmutSchmid
PhilippeApeloig
AprilGreiman
David McCandless
EdwardTufte
To book email:[email protected]
Main Lecture TheatreLondon Collegeof Communication
Elephant & CastleLondon SE1 6SB
December 11, 2013
Dialogue
Graphic
A seriesof visual conversations
SioleongChao
KenyaHara
10.00
12.00
14.00
16.00
HongChong Ip
HelmutSchmid
PhilippeApeloig
AprilGreiman
David McCandless
EdwardTufte
To book email:[email protected]
Main Lecture TheatreLondon Collegeof Communication
Elephant & CastleLondon SE1 6SB
December 11, 2013
Dialogue
Graphic DialogueA series of visual conversations
SioleongChao
KenyaHara
10.00
12.00
14.00
16.00
HongChong Ip
HelmutSchmid
PhilippeApeloig
AprilGreiman
David McCandless
EdwardTufte
To book email:[email protected]
Main Lecture TheatreLondon Collegeof CommunicationElephant & CastleLondon SE1 6SB
11.12.13
Dialogue
A series of visual conversations
SioleongChao
KenyaHara
10.00
12.00
14.00
16.00
HongChong Ip
HelmutSchmid
PhilippeApeloig
AprilGreiman
David McCandless
EdwardTufte
To book email:[email protected]
Main Lecture TheatreLondon Collegeof CommunicationElephant & CastleLondon SE1 6SB
11.12.13
Graphic Graphic
Dialogue
A series of visual conversations
SioleongChao
KenyaHara
10.00
12.00
14.00
16.00
HongChong Ip
HelmutSchmid
PhilippeApeloig
AprilGreiman
David McCandless
EdwardTufte
To book email:[email protected]
Main Lecture TheatreLondon Collegeof CommunicationElephant & CastleLondon SE1 6SB
11.12.13
Graphic
Dialogue
A series of visual conversations
SioleongChao
KenyaHara
10.00
12.00
14.00
16.00
HongChong Ip
HelmutSchmid
PhilippeApeloig
AprilGreiman
David McCandless
EdwardTufte
To book email:[email protected]
Main Lecture TheatreLondon Collegeof CommunicationElephant & CastleLondon SE1 6SB
11.12.13
DialogueDialogueDialoghicGraphicGraphicGrap
A series of visual conversations
SioleongChao
KenyaHara
10.00
12.00
14.00
16.00
HongChong Ip
HelmutSchmid
PhilippeApeloig
AprilGreiman
David McCandless
EdwardTufte
To book email:[email protected]
Main Lecture TheatreLondon Collegeof CommunicationElephant & CastleLondon SE1 6SB
11.12.13
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grids, grids,grids- TheimageontherightisapiecebyJosephMüllerBrockmann.Theoneontheleftisaguidanceastohowtocreatethe‘swissgridmethod’thatIfoundfromaclassbackhome. Müller-BrockmannwaspartoftheSwissInternationalstyle.HewasinfluencedbydifferentdesignandartmovementssuchasConstructivism,DeStijlandBauhaus.
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visualgrammar-
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visual grammarand the city- A2ndprojectIhadforthevisualgrammarbookwastotrace(byhand)differentcityscapesandfindinthemshapesandactivities.Ithoughtthetracingwouldhelpconveytheconceptofallcitiesbeingcreatedbythesamebasicshapes,soitwouldnotmatteriftheimagewasfromLondonorfromPrague.
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the point is thought as ideally small and round, but it can assume an unlimited number of shapes-
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”WassilyKandinsky
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circles& lines- WhenIstartedtothinkaboutthevisualgrammarassignment,Iwantedtoexpressdifferentconceptsrelatedtovisualgrammarinafunway.ThoughIfinallydidnotusetheseimagesforthefinalproject,Ithoughtitwouldbeinterestingtoexpresstheseconceptsinareallyaccesibleanddowntoearthway.
Randomstructures,frequencyandrhythm.
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colour
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AccordingtotheMerriam-Websterdictionary,colouristhe‘Aspectofanyobjectthatmaybedescribedintermsofhue,lightness,andsaturation.Itisassociatedwiththevisiblewavelengthsofelectromagneticradiation,whichstimulatethesensorcellsoftheeye.Redlighthasthelongestwavelengths,whilebluehastheshortest,withothercolourssuchasorange,yellow,andgreenbetween.Huereferstodominantwavelengths.Lightnessreferstotheintensityordegreeofshading;itcorrespondstothesubjectivesensationofbrightness.Saturationpertainstopurity,ortheamountofwhitelightmixedwithahue.Thecoloursred,yellow,andblue,knownasprimarycolours,canbecombinedinvaryingproportionstoproduceallothercolours.Primarycolourscombinedinequalproportionsproducesecondarycolours.Twocoloursthatcombinetoformwhitelightaresaidtobecomplementary’.
so what iscolour?-
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Color... thinks by itself, independently of the object it clothes-
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”CharlesBaudelaire
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Color is all. When color is right, form is right. Color is everything, color is vibration like music; everything is vibration-
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”MarcChagall
So,whenitcametotalkaboutcolour,Iwasabitbored.Ithought“whatelseistheretoknow?Primary,secondary,tertiary”.However,Irealizedhowmuchcolourmakesorbreaksadesign.How,throughthecorrectuseofcolour,asimpledesigncanreallyshine.Conceptslikerecedingandadvancingcoloursareparticularlyusefulforacomposition,andanalogouscolourscancreatebeautifulpalettes.
Whenthetimewasformetostartthinkingaboutthecolourassignment,Ihadabsolutelynothinginmind,soIthoughtIcouldgosimpleandstarttryingdifferentcombinationswithsquaresandcircles.Thoughthesepiecesontheleftdidnotmakeittothefinalproject,Ithoughttheywereworthshowing.
informationdesign-
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Thepieceabiveisamappingofourclass.Iwantedtoexpressgraphicallydifferentdata:howmanystudentswewere,whatwhasthefemale-maleratioandwheredoweallcomefrom.
mapping
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Information design is the discipline of laying out and displaying information, whether it be simple or technical, so that it is easy to understand and is usable-
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”UKDesignCouncil
Tube maps from London, New york, Tokyo and Vienna.
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ThisbookwasdesignedandwrittenbyCeciliaSerafiniasaprojectforthePostgraduateDiplomainDesignforVisualCommunication.
ThefontsusedareBebasandPalatino,regularanditalic.
ThebookwasprintedattheLondonCollegeofCommunicationinMarch,2013.