Pentagram's Abbott Miller: "Branding Has Become Oppressive"

Abbot Miller, a partner at Pentagram Design, believes that design is about telling a story and creating narratives. He has made books for photographers like Ansel Adams and and artists like Matthew Barney, which he described as "movies you hold in your hand." He has designed exhibition spaces which he thinks of as "a room with a plot." When asked how the graphic design industry has changed since Miller began his career, he stated that the importance of design has grown, and graphic designers no longer have to argue the importance of appearance and branding to their clients. 

"As 'Brand' colonizes more and more experiences and places, you get a zombie-like effect, a placelessness and overdetermined experiences."

Miller stated that he believes that branding has become "oppressive," and that he prefers the term "identity" to "brand." This is because he believes identities are more about a sense of personality and sensibility and can be more muted, whereas brands can sometimes become smothering.

When asked about his creative process, Abbott Miller stated that he always starts by immersing himself in the material, that way he can respond in a way that is informed by the content. He then likes to be extremely collaborative with his team and believes in the social aspect of design.

http://www.fastcodesign.com/3035300/pentagrams-abbott-miller-branding-has-become-oppressive/3

The Letter, Text, and the Grid

What are the advantages of having a multiple column grid? 

Multicolumn grids are more flexible than a single-column grid, and become more and more flexible with each column. This flexibility can help the designer to articulate the hierarchy of each element in a publication by creating different zones for different things. Text and images can span a single column or they can spread out through multiple, and not every inch of space has to be occupied. 

How many characters is optimal for line length? Words per line?

45-75 characters is optimal for line length, or about 12 words per line.
Why is the baseline grid used in design?

Baseline grids serve to anchor the layout elements and create a common rhythm. 

What are reasons to set type justified? ragged (unjustified)?

Justified text creates a clean shape on the page and uses the space efficiently, but sometimes ugly gaps can occur within the lines, so designers have to be careful to use a line length that is long enough in relation to the size of the type. Ragged text (unjustified text), respects the organic flow of language and avoids the uneven spaces that can sometimes happen when using justified text.
What is a typographic river?

In typography, rivers of white, are gaps in typesetting, which appear to run through a paragraph of text, due to a coincidental alignment of spaces.

What does clothesline, hang-line, or flow line mean?

A "hang-line" is a line that divides the page horizontally and becomes a place for body text to "hang" from. Elements within the publication will gravitate towards this line and provide internal structure for the page.  

What does type color/texture mean?

Type color/texture refers to the space between letters, words, and lines of text as well as the weight of the font. Typographic color can be used to control the hierarchy of the text.
How does x-height effect type color?

Typefaces with larger x-heights (such as verdana) help reduce type color and make by making large bodies of text less dense and therefore easier to read. 
What are some ways to indicate a new paragraph? Are there any rules?

Using an indent accompanied by a line length has become the standard for indicating a new paragraph, but designers have come up with some other alternatives, which include:

• paragraph spacing
• outdent and line break
• extra space inside line, without line break
• symbol, without indent or line break

One rule that designers follow when indicating a new paragraph is to make sure not to combine too many signals. Using paragraph spacing and indents together, for example, gives the text block an indefinite and unpleasant shape. 

Gregory Crewdson Presentation

6 influential designers

Fred Woodward

Most known for his work at Rolling Stone Magazine, Fred Woodward developed an eclectic visual language for the magazine between the years of 1987 and 2001. His dramatic couplings of typography and photography have become the magazine's signature. in 1996, Woodward was inducted into the Art Directors Hall of Fame as the youngest inductee, which was due to his energy and innovation that kept the magazine fresh for over 400 issues. 
http://www.aiga.org/medalist-fredwoodward/

Gail Anderson 

Gail Anderson also worked for Rolling Stone Magazine, side-by-side with Fred Woodward. She was praised for her "theatrical typography" and would often slave over the smallest typographic details. This hard work and dedication did pay off because she is well known for her ability to make letterforms "preform dramatic and comic feats," and is now teaching a class on choreographing type to popular and alternative music. 

http://www.aiga.org/medalist-gailanderson/

Tibor Kalman

According to AIGA, Tibor Kalman was one of the most influential people in the design world as far as his sway over how designers think. In the late 1980's, he became known as the "bad boy" of graphic design, as he was always prodding other designers to take responsibility for their work as "designer-citizens." He is most known for his work for Colors magazine, which was racy and dramatic. 

http://www.aiga.org/medalist-tiborkalman/

Alexi Brodovitch

Alexi Brodovitch is widely known for his work with what is considered America's first fashion magazine, Harper's Bazaar. He was hired on by the magazine in 1934 by its editor, Carmel Snow, in hopes that Brodovitch could "invigorate the magazine with the modern spirit." He insisted on using the entire double page spread as one piece, combining dynamic photography with unique type arrangements and elegant use of white space. 
http://www.britannica.com/biography/Alexey-Brodovitch#ref844876

Neville Brody

Born in London, Neville Brody was most known for his work produced between 1980 and 1993 as art director for "The Face" magazine. This magazine became very influential among designers as well as the general public, and it was often referred to as a "fashion bible." It set many of the design trends that were successful during this period. Designing over 20 different typefaces during his career, he is one of the founding members of the London based type foundry called Fontworks.

http://designishistory.com/1980/neville-brody/

David Carson

David Carson's work gained the most momentum during the late 90's, the height of the grunge period. Known for breaking the rules, Carson has been both praised and criticized for his typographic approach, which has been described as both illegible and influential. His first job as an art director was for Transworld Snowboarding, followed by Transworld Skateboarding, which offered and ideal arena for experimentation and rule-breaking. 

http://www.aiga.org/medalist-david-carson/

Font Terms

SMALL CAPS: or "small caps" are capital letters that are the same height as a lowercase "x" from the same typeface, therefore they are shorter than the normal capital letters from the same font family. *Bookman does have small caps

EXAMPLE: AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz

LIGATURES: when two or more letters are joined together to form a single character. Some ligatures represent certain sounds, like the diphthongs æ œ
*Bookman does have ligatures

FOOT MARK: aka "prime symbol" looks very similar to an apostrophe, but should be used for mathematics and measurements. Depending on the font, it can be very difficult to tell the difference, but correcting this common mistake can set your typography apart. 

APOSTROPHE: used in contractions and to show possession of something. Usually, these are more curved or curly than the simplistic foot mark.

INCH MARK vs. SMART QUOTE: inch marks, like foot marks, should only be used in measurements, they are usually straight and simple. However, "smart quotes" should be used to signify a quotation. These marks tend to be curlier than inch marks.

HYPHEN: mostly used for the formation of certain compound terms and for word division, never use a hyphen in the place of an en dash or an em dash.

EN DASH: slightly wider than the hyphen, but narrower than the em dash, the en dash is mostly used for representing a span or range of numbers, dates, or times. 

EM DASH: depending on the context, the em dash can take the place of commas to enhance readability, parenthesis for a less formal sentence, and colons when you want to emphasize the conclusion of a sentence. 

Bookman

FONT INFO:

• Sans-Serif
• Designed by Alexander Phemister
• Also designed Franklin Old Style
• Designed in 1858
• Classification: Transitional
• Light (Bold, Italic), Medium (Bold, Italic), Demi (Bold, Italic), Bold (Italic)

FONT CLASSIFICATIONS:

• Old Style: Typefaces that are considered "Old Style" are seriffed fonts that are based on Roman typefaces from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that emulated classical calligraphy. 
• Examples: Garamond, Times New Roman, Minion Pro

• Transitional: These typefaces were considered "shocking" when they were first introduced in the mid eighteenth century. These typefaces tend to have a more vertical axis and sharper serifs than their Old style predecessors. They also have higher contrast between the thick and thin stroke widths. 
• Examples: Baskerville, Bookman, Cambria

• Modern: These typefaces were considered radical and abstract because of their extremely sharp contrast between the thick and thin lines.
• Examples: Bodoni, Adobe New Caledonia, Didot

• Slab Serif: Introduced in the nineteenth century, slab-serif fonts are bold and decorative with heavy and slab-like serifs.
• Examples: Clarendon, Rockwell, Memphis

• Sans-Serif: This kind of typeface became popular in the twentieth century. Sans-Serif literally means "without serifs" and are uniform and upright. In geometric sans-serif fonts, the o's are perfect circles and the peaks of m's and a's are sharp triangles. 
• Examples: Gill Sans, Helvetica, Futura

Key Terms: 

• Stroke Weight: the thickness of lines in a font character
• Axis: an imaginary line drawn from the top to the bottom of a glyph bisecting the character
• Small caps: uppercase letterforms that are smaller in height than the capital letters in a given typeface
• Lining Figures: all characters align at the baseline and at a common height
• Ligatures: two or more letters joined together to form one character

Type Measurements:

         Type size is measured in points. This refers back to when type was cast in metal, and a 10 point type is measuring the block of metal, or "body," that the type was set on. The proportion of the typeface on the body could vary from one typeface to another, so a 10 point typeface refers to the measurement from the baseline to the top of the body. This means that one 10 point typeface may look smaller than another, but they will both take up the same depth on a line of text. 

Emigre Fonts

Font: Platelet

Designer: Connor Mangat in 1993

This font was based on the California license plate, therefor all the letters have the same character width. According to the designer, this required some creative problem solving. For example "i" and the "l" fill their character widths with a large curve, or hook, shape at the bottom.

To me, the letters that include perfect circles are the most interesting, such as the upper-case "P," especially when it is juxtaposed by a letter made of only straight lines and right angles. This can be seen in the word "DELPHINIUM" in the image above.

Words that come to mind: uniform, rigid, restricted, mechanical, geometric. 

Font: Priori

Designer: Jonathan Barnbrook in 2003

Barnbrook based this typeface off of British typography from the early 20th century. He embraced signage from cathedrals and public buildings from his London neighborhood. 

I am drawn to a few of the letters from this typeface. The one that clearly sticks out is the "a," which is just a triangle. This is interesting because it is a purely geometric solution, but it is still readable as an A when it is put into a word. I am also drawn to the upper-case "N" because of the way the crossbar doesn't reach all the way down to the baseline.

Words that come to mind: meaningful, historical, non-traditional, thin

Font: Variex

Designer: Rudy VanderLans and Zuzana Licko in 1988

This font is just interesting all around. I am drawn in by the capitol H because of its uneven stem heights, as well as the S because of its vertical nature. The way each letter aligns with the next when put into words is very pleasing to the eye. 

Words that come to mind: bold, playful, curvy, light, uneven.