1980s Design

Technological advancements, especially the laser printer, allow from less expense and greater digital experimentation in typefaces. This leads to the development of Arial.
The Face, a magazine designed by Neville Brody, pushes the boundaries of type in scale, proportion, and legibility, revolutionizing magazine design. In the late 1980’s, David Carson also experiments with magazine type. With Desktop publishing, these experimentations are made easy.
Bitstream becomes the first digital type foundry in 1981. It develops digital fonts like Charter and Verdana.
Postmodernism, a time when society disobeys authority and structure and celebrates expressionism and fragmentation, creates Template Gothic, a vernacular typeface.
Macintosh makes computers user friendly, for both designers and amateurs. Citizen typeface arrives due to the printing methods Macintosh provides. The Mac is still one of the most widely used tools in graphic design today. In 1984 Bert Monroy discovers Macintosh and begins exploring this new tool. He has become a foundation in the design world, introducing software such as Photoshop, VideoWorks, PixelPaint, and ImageStudio.
Fontographer allows anyone to manipulate existing fonts.
Haus der Kulturen der Welt, an institute in Berlin, creates a hand drawn logo made with a unique color system.

SGI computers are able to create the first 3D computer graphics.
Beginning in the 1980’s GUI (graphical user interface) is used to produce symbols and pictures rather than text.


Key Facts:
Arial Black, Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders, 1982: a sans serif design with softer and fuller curves with a less mechanical appearance.


Charter, Matthew Carter, 1993: a typeface with open letterforms used for printing.

Verdana, Matthew Carter, 1993: a typeface developed for screen use.

Template Gothic, Barry Deck, 1990: a typeface that seems to have imperfections, embracing the vernacular, or dialect, of low culture.


Citizen, Zuzana Licko, 1986: a typeface with stair step pixels arranged in smooth diagonals.

Stone, Stumner Stone and Bob Ishi, 1987: a typeface designed to maintain legibility at many resolutions.


Trxie, LettError, 1989: a typeface with a rough dirty typewriter look is designed.

Quiz Question
What magazine was the first to push the boundaries of type design?

http://abduzeedo.com/ultimate-80s-inspiration
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics

Definition

Absolute Measurement: measurements of fixed values expressed in finite terms that cannot be altered. Ex. Picas, inches, millimeters, etc.

Relative Measurement: measurements that have no prescribed, absolute size. Their size is relative to the size of type being set. Ex. Ems, Leading.

Points/Picas:
Point: the unit of measurement used to measure the type size of a font. It refers to the height of the type block, not the letter itself. It is an absolute measurement of .35mm or 1/75 of an inch.
Pica: a unite of measure equal to 12 points, commonly used for measuring lines of type. There are 6 picas (72 points) in an inch.

x-height: the height of the lowercase ‘x’ in a typeface. It is measured form the baseline to the meanline of a typeface. This is a relative measurement that varies with each typeface.


The em. The en
em: a relative unit of measurement used in typesetting to define basic spacing functions. It is linked to the size of the type, and will increase and decrease at the same rate as the typeface. The em equals the size of the type, for example 72pt font has a 72 point em. It defines paragraph indents and spacing.
en: a unit of relative measurement equal to half of one em.

Dashes (hyphen, en, em):
Dashes: short, horizontal rules that serve various specific functions such as em rules, en rules, and hyphens.
Hyphen: 1/3 of an em rule. It is used to link words, as a compound modifier (x-height), to break syllables of words in text blocks (geo-graphy), and to provide clarity (re-serve, not reserve).
En dash: ½ of an em rule, used to separate page numbers, dates, and to replace the word ‘to’ in constructions implying movement.
Em dash: used to form lines and house nested clauses. A row of em dashes would form a solid line, for it has no side-bearings and fills its bounding box, touching the surrounding characters. Punctuating em dashes are slightly shorter, and do not touch in a row.


Alignments: Justification, Flush Left, Flush Right
Alignment: the position of type within a text block, in both the vertical and horizontal planes.
Flush left: the text tight and aligned to the left margin and ending ragged on the right.
Flush right: the text tight and aligned to the right margin and ending ragged on the left. It is more difficult to read, used mainly for picture captions or distinction.
Justification: the appearance of rivers of white space. Tightly aligned with both the left and right margin (horizontal) or evenly spaced between the top and bottom margin (vertical).


Letterspacing: adds space between letterforms to open up text.

Kerning: the removal of space and letterspacing in the addition of space between letters to improve the visual look of type. This can be done manually or automatically.


Tracking: adjusts the amount of spacing between characters.



Word Spacing: adjusts the space between words. It is usually defined as a percentage value of an em. It is relative to the size of the type being set and can be controlled by adjusting the hyphenation and justification values.

Widow: a lone word at the end of a paragraph.

Orphan: the final one or two lines of a paragraph separated from the main paragraph to form a new column. This should be avoided.

Hypho: a hyphenated widow that leaves half a word on a line.

Leading: the space between lines of text in a text block, measured from one base line to the next. It is measured in points, and is relative to the type size and font; however, its measurement is separate from the type size. It is used to allow characters to ‘breath’ and make information easy to read. Also, it is a hot-metal printing term referring to strips of lead that were inserted between text measures in order to space them accurately.

Indent, Fist Line Indent, Hanging Indent:
Indent: the text line is moved from the margin by a specific amount, allowing the reader to easily enter the paragraph. The indent length can be related to the point size of type or determined by the grid.
First Line Indent: the text is indented from the left margin in the first line of the second and subsequent paragraphs. The first paragraph in a document following a heading, subhead, or crosshead is not indented.
Hanging Indent: the first line of the text is not indented, but the subsequent text lines are indented from the margin.

Media

Adrian Frutiger

Adrian Frutiger, born in 1928 in Unterlaken Switzerland, has created seventeen widely know typefaces, including President, Meridien, Appllo, Courier New, Frutiger, Serifa, Univers, and many more. His career with type and printing began as a printer’s assistant at age sixteen. Not long after, he studied under Walter Kach and Alfred Wilimann at the Zurich School of Arts and Crafts. Upon graduation, he began at Deberny and Peignot typefoundry transferring traditional printed typefaces into the technological world. However, outside of work he began to create his own typefaces. His first, Phoebus, was completed in 1953 and with two more designs in just two years, he soon became known as an international typeface designer.

Beginning in 1987, Frutiger began receiving awards for his contributions to typography. He has received five awards, ranging from the Type Directors Club (TDC) Medal in 1987 to the SOTA Typography Award in 2006.

Of his typefaces, Univers is his most notable font because of its diversity and complexity. Frutiger made a typeface system for Univers, organizing 21 variants into a numeric system. Within this system, the first digit of each typeface represents the weight, and the second digit denotes the width. With each number increase, the weight and height of the type increases and vise-verse. The Univers family is organized into the Universe grid, defining each variation by width and weight.




http://www.identifont.com/show?110
http://www.myfonts.com/person/frutiger/adrian/
http://typophile.com/node/12118
http://www.searchfreefonts.com/articles/family-planning.htm

John Baskerville

John Baskerville, born in Wolverley, Worcestershire in 1706, was known as a writer, stonecutter, letter designer, and printer throughout his lifetime. However it is Baskerville’s work as a type founder for which he is best known.

During the 1700’s John Baskerville made contributions to the type world that are still being used today. After starting up his own printing business in 1750, Baskerville began to print and publish books. However, during the time between starting the business and his first publication in 1756, Baskerville was able to make improvements to the printing press, printing ink, papermaking, and letter design. Though many books were produced, Baskerville’s most infamous book was his Bible of 1763. When first published, other English printers claimed that Baskerville’s style of printing “damaged the eyes.” Nevertheless, individuals abroad loved the new design. In Fact, Benjamin Franklin brought back Baskerville’s work to the United States, making it a standard in government printing.

His books were printed in a new and unique type style. Usually printed on quality paper and with quality ink, Baskerville’s typeface, with level serifs and contrast of light and heavy lines, soon became a standard typeface. The attention to proportion and small differences between fine and bold strokes set Baskerville apart from all other type styles.

http://ilovetypography.com/2007/09/23/baskerville-john/
http://www.myfonts.com/person/baskerville/john/
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0806405.html

Grid

Creating a grid lays a ground in which any content can be organized. With correct placement of design elements, order, unity, and movement through the space are created. All of these elements allow viewers to interact with the space, moving from one place to another based on elements the grid allows designers to emphasize. Though the grid is a key element to design, it should melt away and leave the viewer focusing on the content rather than the layout behind it.

Research source & grid examples
http://www.designbygrid.com/
http://www.webdesignerwall.com/trends/grid-and-column-designs/