Class schedule :: DMA 384 : Digital Typography :: Spring, 2013
About the Schedule
The Week # column indicates what week the class is in.
The Date column contains the day and date of the class.
The What are we doing today? column describes what we will do during that class. Classes may feature any or all of the following:
- Lecture involves me explaining a set of concepts relevant to the theoretical portion of the course.
- Demo features a demonstration of the technical processes required to complete exercises or projects. Often, step by step instructions are listed to assist in the completion of a task. It is highly recommended that a "dry run" of the classwork be completed prior to the start of the class. Classwork descriptions are typically written out here or provided via a link.
- Quiz/Exam may follow selected readings and lectures. All quizzes and exams will be conducted on Angel.
- Critiques will be held on exercise/project due dates. The first 10 or so students to hand in their assignments will receive critiques, so get your work in early.
- Lab work will be time for you to work on assignments, and have assistance from your classmates or me. There will often be lab work time after discussions.
The What's Due? column shows what readings and assignment(s) are due that class.
- Projects are extensive assignments that take several weeks or even a month. They serve to accompany a large portion of the course content and focus on a broad range of processes and concepts.
- Exercises are shorter, 1 or 2 week assignments that focus on a specific skill essential to each project.
- Classworks are step-by-step tutorials that are done alongside the professor, where students learn techniques and processes they will need wo complete projects.
- Readings are to be done outside of class time, and may be accompanied by a quiz or discussion forum on Angel. We will discuss readings and asking questions. Answering the questions will improve your participation grade.
Schedule subject to change-Check this page frequently for updates!
| Week # | Date | What are we doing in class today? | What's due? | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tue Jan 15 |
Lecture: Intro/lab dynamics | N/A | |
| Thu Jan 17 |
Lecture: Type History Demo: Type Journal Over the course of the semester, you will collect samples of typography. You may sketch, photograph, cut items from magazines, find scraps of paper on the street, or cut out bits of packaging. Web typography is OK if it is really good-remember though, its low resolution will yield poor printouts. Create a two-inch-square sample of each specimen that you find. (Making a viewfinder will help you frame your samples nicely as well as cut them out without measuring.) Arrange your specimens in a simple grid (2 columns, 4 rows, all cells touching) and adhere to a page in your sketchbook. On the back of each page, include notes about why you chose the sample, what typefaces you think each sample uses, etc. Complete 8 entries by end of semester. Demo:Exercise 1:Typeface analysis and identification.
|
Cut your viewfinder. Register at the following websites:
|
||
| 2 | Tue Jan 22 |
Lecture:Reading Demo:Project 1:Typeface Design ObjectiveTo familiarize students with the unique features of the standard character set we interact with each day. Consistent design will challenge students to be creative, as will physical restraints of canvas size and 1-bit palette.InstructionsDesign a new font whose forms relate to a 12 x 12 square grid. Each box in the grid must be either black or white. You have no curves or true diagonals. Consider proportion, weight, and structural features such as height of cross bars, how elements end, how to accommodate curves and diagonals within the grid of squares, etc. Build your file out in a photoshop file. Use the 1-pixel pencil tool to plot your letters on a 10x10 pixel grid. It will help to use a duplicate window to observe the letters at native resolution while working on the 1600% zoom view. Consider the characters that can be accessed either directly or by holding shift on a mac keyboard, yielding 94 characters you must construct. Your photoshop file should show these characters in a neat grid, but the arrangement is up to you. Give your typeface a name. Print out your typeface and mount on foam core adhered to black mat board. Post your design on your website. Use these characters:`1234567890-=qwertyuiop[]\asdfghjkl;'zxcvbnm,./~!@#$%^&*()_+QWERTYUIOP{}|ASDFGHJKL:"ZXCVBNM<>? DueThu Examples |
Felici 1-2 | |
| Thu Jan 24 |
Lab work |
Type Journal Entry #1 Exercise 1: Font identification Reading:
|
||
| 3 | Tue Jan 29 |
Lab Work | http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/22/books/just-my-type-a-book-about-fonts-by-simon-garfield-review.html?_r=2&ref=books | |
| Thu Jan 31 |
Critique:Project 1 | Project 1 | ||
| 4 | Tue Feb 05 |
Lecture:Reading Demo: Exercise 2 : Forest Lawn
|
Reading: Felici, ch. 3-4. We will discuss the reading next class. | |
| Thu Feb 07 |
Lecture: Chapter 3:be prepared for quiz! Demo: Project 2 TitleWord, Text, and Paragraph compositions GoalTo understand how the appearance of words influences their meaning. DescriptionTypography utilizes the medium of type, just as sculpture utilizes clay and metal. Unlike those lifeless materials, however, type is packed with a-priori meaning. The words speak independently of their format. But the format can enhance the meaning. This project will encourage you to seek ways to enhance the meaning of your type. DirectionsChoose two words from the list below. In 6 different compositions, arrange each word to express its meaning (one word per composition). The composition is 6 x 6 inches square. You may vary the size, spacing, placement, and orientation of the letters. You may execute your project by tracing letters, cutting and pasting photocopied letters, using a computer, or any combination of these methods. Use the typeface Futura Bold. You may repeat, omit, slice, block, or overlap words or letters. Do not use drop shadows or horizontal/vertical scaling (distortion). Consider the entire space of the square. Mount your two best designs to foam core and black museum board. Words
Part 2: Text exercise as part of project 2 Pick your best two word designs, and both of your paragraph designs, and present on foam core/black mat board. Here's the text for the parapgraph part of the project: Print situates words in space more relentlessly than writing ever did. Writing moves words from the sound world to a world of visual space, but print locks words into position in this space. Control of position is everything in print. Printed texts look machine-made, as they are. In handwriting, control of space tends to be ornamental, ornate, as in calligraphy. Typographic control typically impresses most by its tidiness and invisibility: the lines perfectly regular, all justied on the right side, everything coming out even visually, and without the aid of guidelines or ruled borders that often occur in manuscripts. This is an insistent world of cold, non-human, facts. Design 3 paragraphs, using Adobe Garamond. Pick your best one, mount to foamcore/mat board. Exampleshttp://www.papress.com/other/thinkingwithtype/teachers/word_project.htm |
Type Journal Entry #2 |
||
| 5 | Tue Feb 12 |
Chapter 4 lecture/quiz. Lab work | Exercise 2 | |
| Thu Feb 14 |
Lab work. | |||
| 6 | Tue Feb 19 |
Lecture: Reading Lab Work | Read Felici, Ch. 5-6 | |
| Thu Feb 21 |
Critique: Project 2;
Demo: Exercise 3: Grids. Fix up a poorly designed table. Find a chart from an old science book, or use this one for reference. Eliminate unnecessary lines or other elements; consider shaded bars, other methods for showing quantities, alternative labeling systems. |
Type Journal Entry #3 Project 2: Words and Paragraphs |
||
| 7 | Tue Feb 26 |
No class-Fall Holiday | ||
| Thu Feb 28 |
UPDATE-CLASS CANCELLED TODAY Demo: Project 3; Lecture: Reading |
Reading:
Ch.7-8 An interview with Khoi Vinh Ellen Lupton, "Grid as Table". |
||
| 8 | Tue Mar 05 |
Lab work | N/A | |
| Thu Mar 07 |
Lab work | Type Journal Entry #4 | ||
| 9 | Tue Mar 12 |
Group 1: Session 1 at WNYBAC View Larger Map |
Project 3 | |
| Thu Mar 14 |
Group 2: Session 1 at WNYBAC | N/A | ||
| 10 | Tue Mar 19 |
Group 1: Session 2 at WNYBAC | Reading: Felici, Ch.9-10 | |
| Thu Mar 21 |
Group 2: Session 2 at WNYBAC. If you're not going downtown, here's your assignment. You may do it in class or outside. Due next Tuesday (11/8). Lay out the quote your team has chosen, in the same dimensions (14"wide by 20" high. Illutstrator or Indesign) Each student should do his/her own layout, changing type sizes and placement of words as he/she sees fit. You are unlimited as to how you manipulate the text. Include the colophon, "Designed in DMA 384: Digital Typography, at Canisius College, 2011 by" and then sign the printout. Research what a colophon is/should look like for guidance. |
Exercise 3. | ||
| 11 | Tue Mar 26 |
Lecture: Reading Demo:Project 5 Design and produce at least an 8-page (at-least) book. DescriptionFind a poet who you like (it can be you or someone you know). Use their poems for the content of your book. Search the library, bookstores, etc. for examples of poetry books for inspiration. If the text is online, just copy/paste. If it's in a book, type it in, or try the OCR scanning software in the web lab. NOTE: Per today's (11/8) discussion, song lyrics are acceptable. Graphic elements such as lines and shapes are ok; images are not. Final project will be critiqued during the final exam. LinksJapanese bookbinding:http://freespace.virgin.net/beaux-arts.bindings/tutorial.html Concertina Book Instructions http://www.lib.msu.edu/drewes/Conservation/concertina/concert.html Simple five-stitch binding: http://world.std.com/~deanb/zgg/book_5st_1.html Lab Work |
Reading: Felici, Ch.11-12 | |
| Thu Mar 28 |
Critique: Project 4, Digital Quote | |||
| 12 | Tue Apr 02 |
Group 1: Session 3 at WNYBAC | ||
| Thu Apr 04 |
Group 2: Session 3 at WNYBAC | |||
| 13 | Tue Apr 09 |
Lecture:Reading | Reading: Felici, ch.13-15 Project 4 |
|
| Thu Apr 11 |
No class-Thanksgiving | |||
| 14 |
Tue Apr 16 |
Lecture:Reading Demo Japanese binding Demo Indesign Stylesheets |
Type Journal Entry #7. Reading: 16-18 |
|
| Thu Apr 18 |
Lab Work | Reading: http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2011/11/29/the-perfect-paragraph/ Click here to see examples from Fall '05 |
||
| 15 | Tue Apr 23 |
Lab Work | N/A | |
| Thu Apr 25 |
Lab Work | |||
| 16 | Finals Week | Critique: Project 5 | Project 5; Type Journal #8; | |