visual communication
ADS 560/VISC 525

 

  :: syllabus :: calendar ::

Professor: Andrea Herstowski
Office: 200 Marvin Hall
Office hours: by appointment

email: herstow@ku.edu

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ADS 560/VISC 525: Font Design

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Materials
sketchbook
tracing paper
guided paper (transparent or reg)
really thick sharpie
thick sharpie
thin sharpie
pencils

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We will be using Glyphs

Tutorials: Lynda.com and Glyphs website so take a look.

Reference Read: LetterFountain

Read: I Love Typography

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Timeline

2 weeks lowercase historical context
2 weeks display caps (gameshow or cartoon, no scripts)
2 weeks scripts
2 weeks numbers and/or punctuation
6 weeks your own font
2 weeks how to promote your font and present the work done in class

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Calendar
Wed – Jan 18th: intro to class, sketching historical (lowercase only)
Mon – Jan 23rd: historical (Guest designer: Josh Scruggs, intro to glyphs)
Wed – Jan 25th: historical
Mon – Jan 30th: historical due into start gameshow/cartoon (caps only)

Details:
required 10 letters (n h o b e a f r g m) (lowercase only) perfectly drawn in Glyphs
using the given "n" as starting point define the character width, stroke weight and type of serif.
move on to these other letters n h o b e a f r g m (lowercase only)

Objectives:
basics of traditional text face design and basics of Glyphs
understand construction of of the n
understand the extrema, points and handles, how to draw and correct in Glyphs
understand and construct overshoots
similarities and differences between characters.

if you are done early and want to go on you should explore one of these two options

Extra steps if you are done and need to keep working on 1 or 2
1. continue drawing the letters
i u t s j x k w z 

2. explore drawing options (filters in Glyphs. Make sure you save as each time it will save over your work if you don't.
try making the letters you drew oblique, 
rounded corners, 
experiment with your letters to see how many variations you can make using Glyphs save each variation as its own font

Final
turn in your glyph file and font file(s)
prepare a well designed pdf of process what lead you to the "n" you decided on, what decisions you made on each of the rest of the letters. show all your letters. show them in at least 3 different words. if you did explorations based on your original letters put each exploration on a it’s own page. describe what you did for the exploration.

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Wed – Feb 1st gameshow/cartoon
Mon – Feb 6th gameshow/cartoon
Wed – Feb 8th gameshow/cartoon
Mon – Feb 13th gameshow/cartoon/ intro to scripts (Guest designer: Josh Scruggs, intro to scripts)

display font: based a gameshow or cartoon (no script fonts)
H, A, M + the rest of the name or descriptor at least  9 - 12 capital characters
understand Capital letter construction, what is the cut in called for the M N show the R example why you keep letters in parts...

Final
turn in your glyph file and font file(s)
prepare a well designed pdf of process what lead you to the decisions you made 

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Wed – Feb 15th scripts
Mon – Feb 20th scripts
Wed – Feb 22nd scripts
Mon – Feb 27th scripts
Wed – Mar 1st scripts due, intro to numbers/punctuation, intro to last project

Script font: develop at 9 - 12 script characters. could be one word or a couple words

Final

turn in your glyph file and font file(s)
prepare a well designed pdf of process what lead you to the decisions you made  understand Script letter construction

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Mon – Mar 6th numbers
Wed – Mar 8th numbers
Mon – Mar 13th numbers due (Guest designer: Josh Scruggs)

Choose numbers or punctuation ? ! & * { ; " $ @

Final
turn in your glyph file and font file(s)
prepare a well designed pdf of process what lead you to the decisions you made 

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Wed – Mar 15th font
Spring Break
Mon – Mar 27th font
Wed – Mar 29th font
Mon – Apr 3rd font
Wed – Apr 5th font
Mon – Apr 10th font (Guest designer: Josh Scruggs)
Wed – Apr 12th font
Mon – Apr 17th font
Wed – Apr 19th font
Mon – Apr 24th font

Final
turn in your glyph file and font file(s)
prepare a well designed pdf of process what lead you to the decisions you made 

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Wed – Apr 26th promotion
Mon – May 1st promotion
Wed – May 3rd promotion

promoting your work
refine, expand…

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May 8 - 12
due all due during finals week
fonts due + promotional materials final