ZOYES CREATIVE: BLOG
We love the work of the talented Detroit-based photographer and filmmaker Sam Wolson. In recent years his talents have seen him travel internationally – a from working currently in Paraguay to the Burning Man Festival to Johannesburg. He has freelanced for Slate, The Root, Mail & Guardian, and maintains a photography blog for the Huffington Post. More of Wolson’s work can be seen here:
Luxury home builder, Christopher Macklin came to Zoyes Creative Group in need of a web presence. We designed and developed a site that displays the impressive nature of his work while reflecting the unique philosophy of his design process.
We recently launched a website for Bloomfield Hills-based floral artist Fleur Detroit. Our goal was to develop a custom wordpress solution that would highlight the beauty of their arrangements.
We bet you’ve never seen a Starbucks designed like this! Japanese architecture firm Kengo Kuma & Associates recently finished a fantastic space for a Starbucks location in Japan. The space utilizes an interior wood frame to reflect its location near the “Dazaifu Tenmangu,” a major shrine.
http://kkaa.co.jp/works/starbucks-coffee-at-dazaifutenmangu-omotesando/
Font is an integral component in the branding process. For those who are looking for more script options, let us introduce you to Argentinian type foundry Sudtipos. They recently released a fantastic new script type, Storefront Pro. Designer and co-founder Ale Paul did a fantastic job blending classic script style with modern typographic elements to creative this beautiful type.
For those who love Typography and Instragram, your love for both may just grow when you see the latest project launch by the consistently fantastic website ‘I Love Typography.’ The new project – “We Love Typography: World” allows users of Instagram to post photos of interesting type samples and signage from all over the world. Updates are geo-tagged and when used in conjunction with Google Maps street view it allows viewers to get a real feel for the context of the type.
Wordpress website mock-up for William Brundage Real Estate, currently a work-in-progress.
(Source: zoyescreative)
Design Is History
“As a designer it is important to understand where design came from, how it developed, and who shaped its evolution. The more exposure you have to past, current and future design trends, styles and designers, the larger your problem-solving toolkit. The larger your toolkit, the more effective of a designer you can be.”
New website on deck: ModHMary, Wordpress rebuild.
There is great potential for designers to utilize laser cutting in larger scale projects.
This example of a team of creatives from Seattle making furniture and architectural lighting from laser cut materials is a wonderful testament to how this technology is changing how we view the current “manufacturing model” of mass production.
Note that the way the light comes through the corrugated cardboard is dependent on the thickness of the stroke from plan view. You will notice that it is inherent in the product itself that light comes through the material, and the designers used this criteria as the basis for their designs.
This is just one part of a larger academic project in which I’m taking the Scrabble packaging (the board, the tiles, the box) and re-imagining & redesigning it. One of my first steps in the process was redesigning the wordmark. In case you weren’t aware, Scrabble rebranded in March 2008, ditched the iconic logo that I’m sure we all remember as kids, and moved towards a slicker, more contemporary looking wordmark. There are a few elements of the wordmark that I think are good, but for the most part, I don’t like it. I think it abandons too much of the original wordmark’s character and I think dropping the ‘S’ especially is a mistake.
This is a great study.
Many older, iconic companies that attempt to rebrand often default to “slick and modern”, stripping their previous identity of all elements that are assumed to be out of date or unnecessary. This is a good example of taking an established mark and improving on it without compromising its character.
(Source: typeandesign)
Simple rules for good typography (via iwanttodesign)
Here are some basic rules to improve your typography across either web or print. Of course, these rules are only to start with, and rules are meant to be broken. But if you want something to look neat, clean and generally well designed they are a good set to follow.
Don’t use too many typefaces
Consistency throughout a document or website is helpful. It brings unity and one identity. It also makes it clean, tidy and just basically not messy. A good rule to follow then is to not use more than 3 different typefaces in one document.
Hierarchy
It is always important in typography to pay close attention to the hierarchy of the page. The most basic thing is to keep the headline at the top of the page in a larger size. But more than this its just a case of looking at the page and asking other people what they read first. As a designer we should be thinking about communication constantly. This is our primary focus.
Font size
Use no more than 4 font sizes in a document or website. Preferably 3. Again this is a case of consistency. Too many copy sizes make a document disjointed. 3 also allows enough variation to emphasise certain text and categorise text together. For example, you have one size for a heading, one for an introduction, one for body text and one for a pullout quote or something else. This will be consistent across the whole
8-10pt for body copy
Always keep body point between between these sizes. It looks neat and tidy and allows headings. Definitely do not go over 12pt.
A typeface not legible is not a typeface
There is a place for all kinds of artistic typefaces, but for good standard copy lets keep things simple people. It must be legible. This is certainly the case for body copy. Keep experimental typefaces for posters or at best headlines. They are never well received in large quantities. Can you read this easily?
Leading
Leading is essentially the vertical space between the lines of type. Leading is something that so many designers forget about, its easy just to stick with the auto settings. But trust me, this can make or break a document. Pay close attention to your leading. I personally like to keep my leading tight, but without ever overlapping. Usually I will go for a little above the font size, slightly below the auto setting. This works especially well with helvetica like typefaces. Either way, there should not be too much space, and the letters should not overlap at all!
Kerning
Kerning is the spacing between letters. Again, like leading this seems like an obvious one, but still needs careful attention. Consider if your typeface generally needs spacing out more, or if it looks better with tighter kerning. I always prefer helvetica and futura manually tightened as they have quite a bit of space between letters on the normal setting. Also it is worth taking special care with specific characters. Again, no characters should overlap. An example of this is for helvetica r and t characters together. Be worth kerning manually in this case.
Accent or emphasise
This can help bring out key words and also break up large sections of text. Large chunks of copy tend to be quite scary, and ideally people like to skim. A subtle emphasis can bring out key words. A different colour, slightly darker perhaps or a slightly bolder version of the font are nice techniques.
Do not over emphasise
Emphasis in a body of text should be kept simple and elegant. I either use bold, italic or underlined. Too much, just makes a page look messy.
No caps in body text
This one is simple enough. Never use capitals in body copy, it is just not as legible. Enough said.
Always align to a baseline
Keep text in simple horizontal lines. This is another body text rule and again seems pretty obvious. Ideally you use a baseline grid throughout. More details of how to that here.
Flush left ragged right
Always keep the text left aligned and don’t justify. This is legible and does not look messy. Justifying text across a smaller column especially creates massive gaps or ‘rivers’ in the type. Don’t do it.
Lines not too long or short
Line length is also important. It helps legibility and prevents your eye from slipping up or down a line in a large body of text. My rule is do not have less than 6 words or more than 12 in a single line. Use columns in a page to make this structured and easy. Your page will be neater and more legible.
Punctuation and Bullet points
Punctuation marks and bullet points are something which is easily forgotten in typography. Modern design software does not make it easy for us to handle this correctly. Bullet points, should ideally be in the page margin. Not indented. Likewise, punctuation marks should be in the margin as well. The image below from Mark Boultons site illustrates this perfectly. You can see a tutorial for bullet points here, and punctuation marks here.
The fibonnaci sequence
the first two Fibonacci numbers are 0 and 1 and each other number is a combination of the previous 2. These numbers are meant to have a natural visual elegance to each other. Since the Renaissance, many artists and architects have proportioned their works to approximate the ‘golden ratio’. Therefore in typography it is a good suggestion to consider using only these numbers to structure your chosen point sizes to. It will give your whole document a natural elegance.
0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144…
Conclusion
Typography is a massive subject and I am sure many will disagree with the suggestions I have made. Remember these rules are always made to be broken. With knowlege and experience comes the decision if it is appropriate to stick to or break these rules. These rules are kind of beginners guide to typography. Stick to them and I think you can’t go far wrong.
Hope you have found useful. If you have any to add, please leave a comment.
Spell check is good.
Just launched - Portfolio website for Kaiser Suidan of Next Step Studios & Gallery.
We are Zoyes Creative, a one-stop shop in Metro Detroit providing services in all areas of design; from graphic, web design and marketing to laser cut signage, environmental graphics, illustration and model making.
