Design: Type: A Seductive Collection of Alluring Type Designs

275 Pages·2012·31.06 MB·English

by  Paul Burgess

Design
n:Type
A seductive collection of
alluring type designs
Paul Burgess/
Burge Agency
with Tony Seddon

To mum and dad, for
your support, every day,
in every way.
Foreword.
Paul Burgess.
For
rreword.
Whilst researching for this book, I spent a You see, I spent those early days looking
lot of time contacting different designers through books I could only dream to
from all walks of life: the new kids on the own, being inspired by the great work
block, the edgy agencies, right through to inside, wishing that one day I might get
the forefathers of the industry. One such my work published too. And now, I’m glad
forefather, or maybe iconic grandfather to say that (unlike our great forefather),
of design, kindly pointed out to me that I’ve reached a point in my life where I’m
he had reached a point in his life where he privileged enough to be able to give some
no longer wanted to contribute to books inspiration back through this book.
such as this and had no interest in being
published alongside others whose work Whether you’re looking upwards with that
may not appeal to him. same youthful, wide-eyed optimism I’ve
always had, or you’re an old hand that
I hadn’t realized it at the time, but my view gets a kick from opening a crisp new
is quite the opposite. I remember when tome and seeing a new piece of great
I first fell in love with design at the age typography, I hope this book does it’s job
of sixteen, then studying it as a degree, of inspiring you.
becoming fascinated by type, then to the
early days of my career, right though to But whatever happens, don’t grow up too
being a creative director, and even now, much and keep enjoying (and sharing)
running my own agency ... I’ve always typography.
been excited about opening a new book
on any design subject, especially one on
Burge.
typography.
Contenn
nts.
Design:Type
Contents
Chapters. Essays. A closer look.
__
1_ Design:Type. An introduction: 006 Blok Design: 020
Minimal:Type Paul Burgess. PAR.
008
2_ Less is so much more: 010 Sensus Design 038
Ragged:Type Tony Seddon. Factory Zagreb:
074
First Shot 2010.
3_ Breaking the rules: 076
Free-form:Type Jorge Restrepo. Magma Brand Design: 046
140
Fonts in Focus.
4_ Embracing imperfection: 142
Traditional:Type Jay Roeder. __
182
Wonksite Studio: 092
New traditionalism: 184 mySHELF.
Bethany Heck.
Magma Brand Design: 110
Slanted Magazine.
Brigada: 136
Typotecture.
__
344 Design: 150
344 Questions.
Jay Roeder: 158
Blink 182.
Imagine: 180
Cake Liberation Front.
__
I Love Dust: 190
Choice Cuts.
Voice: 208
Longview Vineyard.
Bethany Heck: 220
The Eephus League.
__
Contributor Index. 268
About the author: 272
Paul Burgess
Design:Type. An introduction.
Paul Burgess.
Designn
n:Type. An introo
oduction.
“Type? You mean fonts? Like Times New But what is good typography? What
Roman … Oh, no, I like Comic Sans.” makes type work? What makes it fail?
Why do we get so excited about it?
For the uninitiated, typography (or fonts
to many) is something that, on the whole, Anyone who’s ever studied fine art, or
passes them by in their every day life. OK, even gone to a life drawing class, will
there’s the occasional moment of joy in probably have heard the expression
selecting the font for that report or “quality of line,” referring to the
presentation they have to write by Monday confidence someone has in putting pen/
or those heady moments of selecting from pencil/brush to paper. A trained eye can
the default dozen fonts available on their see instantly the quality of someone’s
PC to put together a party invite. brush work. The same is true in so many
crafts—you could talk about the quality of
But to the initiated, the trained, the wine in much the same way. And
experts, and the downright obsessed, typography is no different. It’s all about the
typography can become a way of life, and quality—the quality of font, the quality of
even take it over if you’re really lucky. application, the beautiful balance on the
page, and the well-considered hierarchy.
Simple tasks like reading a book, ordering
from a menu, or choosing a birthday card Type is too often “dumped” on a page,
become ordeals. Nice ordeals though. with little or no consideration for its real
Let’s not get down about it. It becomes beauty. Rule #1 with typography is to
impossible to read a single word without diligently follow all the typographic rules,
analyzing the type choice, the way the keep it simple, use a rigid grid structure,
type’s been set, and the context of that never letter-space lowercase text, avoid
type treatment. unbalanced layouts, etc.
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Design:Type
Rule #2 is to be empathetic to your For a while now, we’ve seen this backlash. Whatever the influence may be, we are
audience. Use typography appropriately: No sooner had computers become the seeing a retro typography comeback,
Softer, rounder fonts for kids books or most valuable design-tool since the lead within a contemporary environment.
toys; harder fonts for corporates; angry pencil, than people started to rebel against Whether it’s the use of serif fonts in a very
fonts for horror movies; serifs for them. Rule breaking is one thing, but minimal capacity, or ornate letterforms
established businesses or classical music. going back to our roots and bringing the within funky work, the old-school is
pencil alive once again is a completely definitely back in fashion, and doesn’t
But aren’t rules made to be broken? different way of fighting the rigid type it look great.
Absolutely. But to break the rules, you rules. Again, it takes immense skill to
have to know the rules, followed the rules, make one’s own hand-drawn lettering And what about being appropriate
be an expert in them, and bore people to work for a real-world client project. And and empathetic to our audience?
death with them at dinner parties. Picasso even more skill to persuade that client it’s What happens when we use type
could draw perfectly well (in the traditional the right thing to do. But the last decade inappropriately? What happens when
sense), but chose not to. If you can’t follow has given a new lease on life to we use a serif for a hi-tech product? Or a
the rules, don’t break them. hand-crafted typography. kid’s book? Can we use an angry or raw
type treatment to promote the latest
When the rules are followed to the letter Maybe it’s the influence of ‘new romantic-comedy and still make it work?
(pun intended), beautiful typography can traditionalism’ in popular culture, with Sometimes making things so wrong
be achieved. When we keep it simple, and 1920s and 1950s post-war influences in can make them right.
appropriate, the results can be stunning. music and fashion returning to our lives.
But when we break the rules, we enter a Or just the resurgence of a values-led We too often create our own boundaries
whole other league of design. It’s not for societies as the baby-boom Punks and through fear of trying something new. But
the faint-hearted. It takes courage, Rockers of the ’60s and ’70s become our boundaries are usually restrained by
conviction, and a huge amount of grandparents and the more sensitive our clients or the uninitiated who lack the
talent—and of course, quality of line— New Romantics and Goths of the ’80s and bravery, vision, and skills to think beyond
to break the rules and make it work. ’90s become parents themselves. the dozen fonts on their PC.
Invariably, fortune favors the bold, not
those that play it safe. So let’s all embrace
the rules, then let’s smash the hell out
of them!
Minimaa
al:Typee
e
Chapter 1
Minimal
Simple
Informative
Straight
Clean
Slick