Typography The art of writing

In this unit: You will be learning all about Type and how to use Type in your artwork and designs. You will be using Adobe Illustrator to help explore some of the type functions. You will be creating artwork made purely of Type and fonts. You will be designing a book cover, as well as parts of the inside. You will be designing your own font

Brief history of type Paper was invented in China around AD 105, and it was this discovery above anything else that sparked the evolution of printing. The earliest paper was the same type of paper in use today, made entirely from vegetable fiber (tree bark, hemp, rags and other material). It wasn't until almost a thousand years after its discovery, by way of Persia, Egypt and North Africa, that paper made its way to Europe.

European Type Movable type technology was invented in Europe around 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg (1398-1468), a goldsmith from Mainz (Germany). It was Gutenberg’s knowledge of metal which allowed him to perfect his invention, to print one of the earliest known books in the western world and the very first with the use of movable type. With this new technology he printed approximately 200 copies of a two volume Bible consisting of almost 1300 pages. Forty-eight copies still exist today, although only twenty-one of them are completely intact

George Herbert –Easter wings. 1633 This was one of the first examples of an author laying out type in a way that enhances the story or idea in the text – what do you think the images are of?

For this project you will be using Adobe Illustrator to help you experiment with different type layouts and type effects. It is important that you keep your work saved, either on the server, on a thumb drive, or on the computer where you work. All work for assessment must be printed out. Follow along with Mr Hebden. If you make a mistake, press Ctrl+Z to go back. If you don’t know what a tool or function does, hover the mouse above it, and it will tell you the name. There is a useful tool guide on the next slide

This provides an overview of all the primary tools For this unit we will be using the selection tools The drawing tools And the type tools

Task 1 You will be learning what the selection tools are, and when to use them how to make simple shapes with the pen tool how to change the size and style of font how to make shapes, and then fill them with text. How to type along a line, inside a line

Homework You must create a history of type timeline. Going from the invention of the first alphabet to the present day. Try and find at least 10 important moments in the history of Typography. Could you go back earlier than the examples here? What civilisataions pre-dated the greeks? Illustrate your timeline with printed pictures. Include the names of artists