Humility

"Printing demands a humility of mind, for the lack of which..."



Reflection
I need to consdider the title safe and action safe in regards to the bottom text. Also I think 'PRINTING' could maybe be bigger and am not too keen on the typeface. I want to use one which is widely regarded as good, and so used Helvetica. I will ask about this in my final crit. Some keyframes are below...

Storyboarding for top 10

My weekend consisted of this... I still need to work out the final animation stage of creating a crystalline goblet and the information of the channel etc.

Words...?

My chosen content (words) and what the hell they mean!

Type 4

Session 4 focussed on A4 leaflets. If your design can fit onto an A sheet then it is more cost effective a there is less waste.

Progress Surgery with Fred

STOP THINKING AND DO!

My content is...
Printing demands a humility of mind, for the lack of which many of the fine arts are even now floundering in self-conscious and maudlin experiments. There is nothing simple or dull in achieving the transparent page. Vulgar ostentation is twice as easy as discipline. When you realise that ugly typography never effaces itself, you will be able to capture beauty as the wise men capture happiness by aiming at something else. The “stunt typographer” learns the fickleness of rich men who hate to read. Not for them are long breaths held over serif and kern, they will not appreciate your splitting of hair-spaces. Nobody (save the other craftsmen) will appreciate half your skill. But you may spend endless years of happy experiment in devising that crystalline goblet which is worthy to hold the vintage of the human mind.

This will be animated as kinetic typography over 50 seconds using basic effects on After Effects. My idents will be samples from this whole 50 second animation with information about the channel and when. "Typography Season on More4"

Direction, forward

I know what I am going to do! Too bad I don't have any visuals at the minute... I am hoping to get them all down and all my assets created but the end of the week.

I want to create kinetic typography like this...



Using an extract from this text, or something maybe a bit more rlatable to my audience...

The Crystal Goblet by Beatrice Warde. Excerpt from a Lecture to the British Typographers’ Guild

Imagine that you have before you a flagon of wine. You may choose your own favorite vintage for this imaginary demonstration, so that it be a deep shimmering crimson in color. You have two goblets before you. One is of solid gold, wrought in the most exquisite patterns. The other is of crystal-clear glass, thin as a bubble, and as transparent. Pour and drink; and according to your choice of goblet, I shall know whether or not you are a connoisseur of wine. For if you have no feelings about wine one way or the other, you will want the sensation of drinking the stuff out of a vessel that may have cost thousands of pounds; but if you are a member of that vanishing tribe, the amateurs of fine vintages, you will choose the crystal, because everything about it is calculated to reveal rather than to hide the beautiful thing which it was meant to contain.

Bear with me in this long-winded and fragrant metaphor; for you will find that almost all the virtues of the perfect wine-glass have a parallel in typography. There is the long, thin stem that obviates fingerprints on the bowl. Why? Because no cloud must come between your eyes and the fiery hearth of the liquid. Are not the margins on book pages similarly meant to obviate the necessity of fingering the type-pages? Again: The glass is colorless or at the most only faintly tinged in the bowl, because the connoisseur judges wine partly by its color and is impatient of anything that alters it. There are a thousand mannerisms in typography that are as impudent and arbitrary as putting port in tumblers of red or green glass! When a goblet has a base that looks too small for security, it does not matter how cleverly it is weighted; you feel nervous lest it should tip over. There are ways of setting lines of type which may work well enough, and yet keep the reader subconsciously worried by the fear of "doubling" lines, reading three words as one, and so forth.

Printing demands a humility of mind, for the lack of which many of the fine arts are even now floundering in self-conscious and maudlin experiments. There is nothing simple or dull in achieving the transparent page. Vulgar ostentation is twice as easy as discipline. When you realise that ugly typography never effaces itself, you will be able to capture beauty as the wise men capture happiness by aiming at something else. The “stunt typographer” learns the fickleness of rich men who hate to read. Not for them are long breaths held over serif and kern, they will not appreciate your splitting of hair-spaces. Nobody (save the other craftsmen) will appreciate half your skill. But you may spend endless years of happy experiment in devising that crystalline goblet which is worthy to hold the vintage of the human mind.

Peer Evaluation

Contextual Understanding
Look into kinetic typography and think about the way in which they animate type
Do you need to make it clear that it is 'Top 10' according to Simon Garfield?
Look into BBC Four and the TV programmes which are shown.
Good range of type in title sequences
Good looking at whats good/bad about each font.
Look at how fonts are used in bad places.
Look at type being broken down in animations - could use to break down font to show bad elements.
More range of research into what fonts are bad other than just one book.
Look at other professional opinions on fonts - interview tutors?

Concept Development
Use BBC Four as channel which it will be viewed on as this is a documentary channel.
COnsider the tone of voice and whether it is appropriate to your audience, is it educational or informative and who wants to know?
How will the title sequence and idents be consistent.
Good idea loads of possibilities
What channel would it go on? Look at tone of voice of film 'Helvetica' and what channels showed it? Discovery?
Doesn't have to be digital, could be about how fonts are badly used in real situations.
Why is each font bad?
Could look at the history of fonts. Why they were made, how they have been misused. Papyrus was used in Avatar, was it suitable?
Where is Comic Sans?
Comedy approach maybe.

Visual Development
Will the typefaces be drawn? Experiment with vector, line drawings or cutouts.
Consider the colours
Maybe think about personification of the typefaces eg. a bold typeface may be strong.
Will the typeface be written in that typeface eg. arial written in arial.
Consider composition on the screen and how will the type be animated.
Will it be image/collage and how will the type stand out from the background.
Need storyboards, colour, backgrounds, sound, get crackin! You lost out on time so need to catch up.
How will type move
How will interact with type.

Additional Comments
Think about the point size and legibility. Also length of time it will be on screen for.
Look at movement and depth of perspective with type.

Action Plan
Look at other opinions on bad fonts
More visual experiments
Storyboards - What situations will the type be in
Decide tone/channel, humour, serious?
Colour and sound