Day 34

In art school, many, many years ago, one of my favorite classes was Typography.  Typography is the art of arranging letters or type to make them attractive and interesting. Back when I was in school there weren't nearly as many font choices as there are now.  Most of you have written a document and played around with the fonts, changing the way that they look, finding your favorite, adding others for emphasis or just because you liked the way that it looks.  Creating a new and original font or typestyle can be very lucrative for a graphic artist, particularly nowadays when it seems that there just isn't much room for a new font.

Before we start, let's look at the different parts of a letter:

• Baseline: the invisible bottom line on which characters sit.  
• Meanline: the middle line that is at the top of most lowercase letters such as “o,” “p” and “r.” It is also at the curve of letters like “h.”  
• Cap Height: the distance from the baseline to the top of uppercase letters like “B” and “H.”  
• Ascender: The part of a character that extends above the meanline.  
• Descender: The part of a character that extends below the baseline, such as the bottom stroke of a “g.”  
• Stem: The stem is often the main “body” of a letter. The vertical line of a “B” and the primary diagonal line of a “V”.  
• Bar or Arm: Bars are horizontal or diagonal lines of a letter, also known as arms, and are open on at least one side. “E” or “T” 
• Bowl:The fully closed, rounded part of a letter. Letters A, B, D, O, P, Q, R, a, b, d, e, g, o, p, and q all have a bowl.  

Here's a good example of the anatomy of letters.

There are also different styles of letters.  You are familiar with bold and italic and probably use them often.  You are also probably familiar with other styles as well, but you more than likely haven't given them much thought because you didn't know their names.  

Letters are generally divided into two separate groups: Serif and Sans Serif.  

Letters that are in the serif group have an extra decorative line at the ends of a character.  Examples of serif fonts are Times New Roman and Georgia.  

Letters in the sans serif group do not have that extra little decorative line.  Sans is a preposition that means 'without' so sans serif means 'without serif'.  Examples of sans serif fonts are Verdana, which I type this blog in every day and Helvetica.  

Next, we have cases.  There is UPPER CASE, lower case and miXeD cAsE.  

Finally, there are four different styles of lettering.  

• Roman Style in which letters have thick and thin parts.  It is usually a serif font.  

Roman Style Fonts

• Script style in which the letters are connected, as in cursive handwriting.  These fonts can be serif or sans serif and are often used for invitations or for elegant, formal occasions.

Script Style Fonts

• Poster Style fonts which are usually bold and easy to read.  These fonts are often used in advertising, packaging and print media.  They are generally one thickness but can be serif or sans serif.

Poster Style Fonts

• Trademark and Creative fonts.  Trademark fonts are usually created for specific company logos and are generally easily recognized and associated with that particular product.  Creative fonts are the fun fonts.  They are usually unique and have a theme and are highly decorative.  

Trademark Fonts

Creative Fonts

The challenge for today is to design a new font.  Decide which group you want it to be in: serif or sans serif.  Then, decide if you want it to be Roman style, Script Style or Creative.  Draw at least one capital letter, one lower case letter and one number for your new font.  Take pictures and upload to google classrooms.  By the way, don't forget to look for the treat that I left for you today in google classrooms.  You will need a printer, but I hope you enjoy it.

Oh, and I hate to be a buzzkill, but when you get to high school and beyond, it's Times New Roman, 12pt. all the way.  Trust me, you will thank me later on and your teachers and professors will love you for it.