DAVID ALLIN REESE

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TYPE COMPENDIUM

DESIGN AND TYPOGRAPHY

FALL 2014

RINGLING COLLEGE OF ART + DESIGN

Anatomy of Type

Is it surprising that something so

fundamentally human as type would have

been anthropomorphized? We speak of

font “families”; like male and female we

have serif and sans-serif (and more recently

marriages of both). Individual letterforms

have arms, legs, beaks and tails, eyes and

ears, spines and shoulders. A knowledge of

the lexicon helps designers and typographers

to talk about fonts, their appearance, formal

qualities and subtle variations.

David Allin Reese

x - height

Serif

Baseline

Capheight

Ear

Apex

Ascender

Tail

Crossbar

Descender Line

Loop

Eye

Terminal

Counter

Bowl

Stem

Fillet

Link

Leg

Arm

Foot

Aperture

Shoulder

The orbit or rotation of a planet or planetary satellite in a reverse direction from that normal in the solar system.

Meanline

Anatomy of Type

The apparent size of a typeface is directly

connected to the mean, or body size. Within

any given size (72pt.) there can be wide

variation in the way it appears on the page.

While the x-height remains the same the

the length of the ascenders and descenders

grows longer or shorter and the point size

must be adjusted accordingly.

Caslon / Baskerville

RetrogradeGaramond / Baskerville

David Allin Reese

RetrogradeRetrograde

Retrograde

Retrograde

Caslon / Garmond

RetrogradeBell / Baskerville

Retrograde

RetrogradeRetrograde

Modern No. 20 / Baskerville

RetrogradeGoudy / Century Old Style

Retrograde

Retrograde

Anatomy of Type | Legibility

Covering the top and bottom halves

of letter forms demonstrates that, in

general, the upper half of a letter is more

legible than the bottom half. Exceptions

to this tendency are letters that extend

below the baseline. Nearly half of any

word can be removed before it is no

longer legible. There is a difference

between “legibility” and “readability”.

Which is more legible when covered, the

bottom half of the word or the top half of

the word? How much of the letterform

can you remove and still read the word?

RetrogradeRetrograde

RetrogradeRetrograde

Anatomy of Type | Cropping

As in music, elements can have a counterpart

or a counterpoint relationship. Typographic

counterparts are elements with similar qualities

that bring harmony to their spatial relationship.

Elements have a counterpoint relationship

when they have contrasting characteristics,

such as size, weight, color, tone, or texture.

Counterpoint relationships bring opposition and

dissonance to the design.

Retr oR et roR et r o

The Parts to the Whole

Form and counterform, positive and

negative space.

The space inside and between letters

is every bit as important as the strokes

themselves. Typography demands the

observation and awareness of the abstract

qualities of the forms within the form.

Designers can activate counter space

to create distinctive and memorable

monograms, marks and logotypes –

embedding meaning in these formerly

empty spaces.

FJT

Visual Semantics

In this project we aim to enhance

the meaning of words through

expressive typography.

A word set on a page is an abstract

representation of a sound and

a concept. Except by chance a

word doesn’t look like the thing it

represents. Typographers, however

can manipulate letterforms to define

a concept visually as well as literarily.

Evo ution

T R A N S I T I O N

Structure

While letterforms are each distinct

in their structure, they all are built

by combining 4 strokes;; vertical,

horizontal, slanted, and curvilinear.

These elementary strokes form the

foundation, a visual “code” that

is recognizable through our long

experience with reading and writing.

Light or bold, wide or narrow,

roman or italic, sans serif or serif –

these are details and decoration. As

the example illustrates the entire

alphabet can be created using only

the most minimal of elements.

Hybrid Typeface

Writing began as pictographic images

representing object in the world. As societies

became more complex alphabets evolved from

simple pictures to abstract shapes which could

represent more subtle qualities and ideas. The

first printed typefaces were based on medieval

and renaissance scripts but slowly became

more refined.

By about 1800 type designers had isolated

the purely geometric form of letters from

their calligraphic origins leading to a wildly

inventive period which helped define the early

industrial revolution. The ready availability of

tools to create digital fonts now allows every

designer to create their own typefaces. Post-

Structuralism, radical experimentation and

remix culture has created a third wave of type

design, as free and open to interpretation as the

internet itself.

Russel SquareAnke

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Identity

Typography is, above all else a

system, an ecology on the page. A

visual identity applies a systematic

typographic voice across several

different mediums;; a business

card, letterhead, portfolio, website,

etc. This system should be visually

coherent, fulfil the needs and

express the persona it stands

for –above all it must be versatile,

flexible and never redundant.

407.902.9477

davallree@ao.com

DAVID ALLIN REESE(DESIGNER / PROBLEM SOLVER)

be.net/davallree

david allin reese;

be.net/davallree

designer

407 / 902 / 9477

be.net/davallree

DAVID

ALLIN

REESE

David Allin Reese

407 902 9477

be.net/davallree

DAVIDALLINREESE

407 902 9477

be.net/davallree

DAVID ALLIN REESE

DAVALLREE@AOL.COM

DESIGNER

BE.NET/DAVALLREE

I AM A DESIGNER WORKING TO MAKE THE TRUTH KNOWN

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AND TO MAKE IT BEAUTIFUL.

I AM A DESIGNER TRYING TO INCITE CURIOSITY FOR THE UNKNOWN

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AND THE WONDER THAT THE FUTURE COULD HOLD.