Media Arts & Graphics
Fonts as character
Are you the Right Type?
Unit Introduction:
Objective: Students can design and create a character illustration that represents a font using analog and digital methods of design.
Key words: Adobe Illustrator, Belzier, Cartooning, Character, Command, Comics, Curve, Digital, Direct Selection Tool, Font, Handles, Paths, Points, Racism, Selection Tool, Stereotypes, Swatch, Typeface, Typography, Weight (line).
Approaches to Learning:
Organization:
time management—including using time effectively in class, keeping to deadlines
self-management—including personal goal setting, organization of learning materials
Reflection:
self-awareness—including seeking out positive criticism, reflecting on areas of perceived limitation
self-evaluation—including the keeping of learning journals and portfolios, reflecting at different stages in the learning process
Thinking:
generating ideas—including the use of brainstorming
planning—including storyboarding and outlining a plan
inquiring—including questioning and challenging information and arguments, developing questions, using the inquiry cycle
applying knowledge and concepts— including logical progression of arguments
identifying problems—including deductive reasoning, evaluating solutions to problems
creating novel solutions—including the combination of critical and creative strategies, considering a problem from multiple perspectives
In groups, discuss the following and record your answers:
What are fonts/typefaces?
Does font help convey meaning? How?
When and how are different fonts used?
How can font make an impact?
Be prepared to share your answers with the class.
Optional: What Type Are you?
Lesson 1: Types of Stereo'types'
Critical Question: What are stereotypes?
We all seem to hate comic sans, but why?
Be prepared to share your answers with the class.
Do you feel the characters reflect or create stereotypes?
Do you feel they are racist or offensive? Why or why not?
What stereotypes have you encountered?
In what way does font affect our perception of a situation or message?
What does the cartoon suggest about how stereotypes might impact the way we see ourselves and the way we see others? How might stereotypes impact the choices we make?
Comic Sans is a Hero!
Vincent Connare is the designer of Comic Sans and created the font in three days to meet the deadline for the release of Windows 95 software. “I had been given a beta version of Microsoft Bob, a comic software package designed primarily for young users. The package featured a dog called Rover, with message balloons set in Times New Roman—a system font oddly unsuited to the comic context.
Connare said, "Comic dogs don't talk in Times New Roman!"
Comic Sans was inspired by comic book lettering of Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns and has a handwritten, playful, and quirky look. My inspiration for Comic Sans came from the shock of seeing Times New Roman used so inappropriately,” said Vincent Connare.
"My original idea was it was going to be used for kids. It wasn't made for everybody to like it," – Connare.
Characters & Stereotypes
Labels are used to identify individuals and/or groups. People and groups are often complex and a simple label does not adequately describe them. This is what stereotypes are all about. A stereotype is an image we have in our minds regarding individuals and groups. There are labels suggesting that an individual or all members of a group share a specific negative or positive quality. If we say women are weak and men are strong, that is a stereotypical remark applied to individuals and groups. It is obviously not true, since you probably know of many women who are physically strong and men who are physically weak. Such stereotypical remarks are often made, even though they are not accurate. All people are unique.
Can you match the person in the left-hand column to the quality in the right-hand column with which he or she is usually associated?
1. Blondes a. Lack of respect of adults
2. Fat People b. Aren't scholars
3. Redheads c. Smoke cigars
4. Teenagers d. Have more fun
5. Athletes e. Are glamorous
6. Professors f. Are hot-tempered
7. Politicians g. Are always jolly
8. Actresses h. Are absent-minded
Sometimes a playwright exaggerates a character's description, name, dialogue, or actions so that the audience has no doubt about the personality of that character. This technique is often used in melodramas, farces, thrillers, and mysteries and usually includes a lot of humor.
Review the characters from the following video clip and decipher the stereotypes of the characters from their names.
You can break a stereotype!
Stereotyping can be a very limiting and misleading development of a character. the stereotyped evil person or the perfect goody-goody can both be very boring. In most cases, it is better to break the stereotype and create a much more interesting character.
Formative Assignment:
Lesson 2: Expressions with Type
Critical Question: What kind of Personality does Typography Express?
Defining Typography
Typography is a Visual Form of Communication. Typefaces are like fingerprints. Out of the hundreds of typefaces available, you will not find two that are perfectly identical. The differences lie in the particular characteristics of a typeface, such as stress, thick and thin line strokes, and the Serif and Sans Serif style used.
A typeface refers to a group of characters, such as letters, numbers, and punctuation, that share a common design or style. Examples of typefaces include: Helvetica, Times New Roman, Arial, and Verdana.
Fonts refer to the specific size and style of a typeface within a type family.
A character is an individual letter, numeral, or punctuation mark.
Ascender-Any part in a lowercase letter that extends above the x-height, found for example in b, d, f, h, k, etc.
Descender-Any part in a lowercase letter that extends below the baseline, found for example in g, j, p, q, y, etc.
Counter-The enclosed or partially enclosed circular or curved negative space (white space) of some letters such as d, o, and s is the counter.
Baseline-The imaginary line upon which the letters in a font appear to rest.
X-Height-The height of the lowercase letters, disregarding ascenders or descenders, is typically exemplified by the letter x.
Serif
Serif fonts have tapered corners on the ends of the main stroke. Serifs originated with the chiseled guides made by ancient stonecutters as they lettered monuments. Serif type is typically thick and thin in stroke weight.
Serif fonts work best on paper because the serifs on the letters help tie all the letters in a word together and create the recognizable word entities (as opposed to a group of individual letters) that we use when we are reading.
San Sarif
Sans serif is derived from the French word, meaning "without serif." It is a typeface which has no serifs. Sans serif typefaces are typically uniform in stroke width.
Sans serif fonts are usually the best fonts to use for ease of on-screen reading. Verdana was actually created specifically for this purpose.
Sans Serif Fonts
Decorative
This broad range of font families includes quite a few very creative typefaces, such as scripts, handwritten, and graffiti. Generally, fonts can be grouped into the decorative category if they are not designed for the purpose of being an easy-to-read serif or sans serif font.
You typically use decorative fonts for titles or headlines in which you want to create a certain impression. Gory, scary, floral, youthful, and western, are just a brief list of looks that can be derived from using decorative fonts.
Script
Script Fonts
or type mimic historical or modern handwriting styles that look as if written with different styles of writing instruments from calligraphy pens to ballpoint pens. They are usually in cursive. Typical characteristics of script type are: connected or nearly connected flowing letterforms and slanted, rounded characters.
Virtual Fieldtrip
Visit the Website Contrast of Type. Explore the 7 ways in which Carl Dair contributed to the building blocks of design education and practices we still use today.
Formative Assignment:
Lesson 3: Create a Font style
Critical Question: What kind of Personality does Typeography Express?
Let's have some fun this week! We're going to write the alphabet BUT not just any 'ole alphabet...we're going to create our own WaCkY aLpHaBeTs! Before we create our one-of-a-kind alphabets, we need to talk about typography.
Typography is the art and technique of arranging letters to make written language legible and appealing when displayed.
Typography is very important to graphic designers. Next time you look at a poster, video game cover or book, look at the font. Does the font match the theme of the poster/video game/book? Does it make you want to play the video game or read the book? Typography is all around you, you just need to pay attention to the details!
Instructions
Step 1: Take some time to brainstorm ideas and do some preliminary research for your font. Think about its possible appearance and what the font means. When complete, share your ideas in a small group and add to your list. Remember, this is simply a brainstorm activity to help generate ideas.
What mood, situation or images does it convey?
Can you play on the title of the font?
What nationality is it?
What time period is it from?
Is it male or female? Adult or child?
Hero or villain?
Tall or short?
Muscular or weak?
How is its posture?
What clothing could it wear to accentuate the meaning?
What facial expression would it have?
What could its occupation be? etc.
You will need to show evidence of your brainstorming phase. Choose a theme! GET CREATIVE!
Step 2: With a pencil, lightly draw the entire alphabet in all capital letters. If you need more than one sheet of paper to write out the alphabet, feel free to use as many pieces of paper as you need!
Step 3: Turn each letter into something that goes with your theme. Take your time, and make it look nice. Coloring using either marker or colored pencil is required.
**DO NOT DIRECTLY COPY THE EXAMPLES BELOW. THINK FOR YOURSELF AND CREATE AN ORIGINAL ALPHABET DESIGN**