In Prog Motion Graphic

Lukasavage Jess Post Modern Typography Website SP13

My postmodern website. An homage to when Morrissey, former singer of the Smiths, was bitten by a dog. Clicking 'pet the dog' leads the viewer to the second page.  Bigmouth Strikes again is a reference to the Smiths' song and works well for something about a dog biting someone. 

Proposal

Proposal for Kinetic Typography Project

Jessica Lukasavage

Problem Statement

Extinction is happening rapidly on our planet.  While some extinction is simply the natural order of nature, many animals and plants are disappearing at a rapid pace due to human involvement.

The goal is to create a motion graphic highlighting certain species currently being threatened by humanity, using kinetic typography and graphics.

Research

Initial inspiration, as well as research for this project has come from my involvement in the Save the Rhino Foundation and various other conservation groups, such as the World Wildlife Fund.

Problem

Most people live their daily lives and don’t give a second thought to our planet and how we are affecting it.  Meanwhile, plants and animals are disappearing from the world.  Some of these creatures are beneficial to the planet and without them the environments can change dramatically. 

Most conservation programs focus on animals that are not necessarily important to ecosystems, thus gaining criticism from those who believe that extinction is just a natural part of life.  My goal is to focus on species that are beneficial to their environments and would cause great problems if they were to become extinct.

Deliverables

Following the initial creation of the proposal on April 1^st, 2013, I will begin the research process to find threatened species that benefit their environments.  During this time, I will also be working on my font, Jowlsans, to improve it so that it can be used it the motion graphic. I will present facts about the species I find and incorporate my typeface into the graphic.  I will then link organizations at the end of the motion graphic that viewers can donate to. 

On April 15^th, 2013, there will be an in-progress critique where I will present 80% or more of this project.  On April 24^th, 2013, I will present the final product of this project for critique.

Budget

There is no applicable budget, as I already own After Effects.

Type Journal #5

The Jason Santa Maria talk was interesting.  He has a good eye for discerning good and bad typefaces and learning from him is beneficial to up and coming designers.  It was interesting in the talk when he showed the image of the design convention with the terrible sign of one word split into three parts.  It perhaps shows that even designers with good intentions can make really terrible mistakes.  He talked about a lot of things that were already covered in classes I've had but are nonetheless interesting to hear again.

Font sketches

Type Journal #4

from Monowolf.

This inspires me because of it's tall x-height and long curving extenders.  It has a very ornate feeling to it but also a feeling that it can be used in anything, from signs to titles.

http://simonwalkertype.com/

Simon Walker's type examples inspired me because of their old silent film feel to them.  They looked like the text cards that come up in silent-era films.  They were also reminiscent of old labels on classic products.

Typography Journal #4

Photo Safari

Point of View Cinema- Millersville PA

Lebanon Paper- Lebanon PA

Journal #3:

I thought the responsive typography will be a good idea.  It would be excellent for reading emails and whatnot, because then you could pace around your office or wherever your computer is set up and still read the text.  It would make reading written references easier to read from far away and would give someone the freedom of not being directly next to the computer while working on things.  As someone who makes money by drawing comics and stuff for people, it would be nice to be able to be sketching from the couch with the laptop on the coffee table.

I think this would be most useful for freelancers when it comes to art.  It might also be useful to those in the health care industry, as the font size increases, so older folks could read the type on the screen with no problem.

Inspiration/Ideas for Typefaces

Project 5: A is for Alignment. Jess Lukasavage

Jess Lukasavage

Professor: Nancy Mata

Art 244 Type II

Millersville University

Project 5: A is for Alignment 

part 1

Project 4: A Short Bibliography Jess Lukasavage

Professor Nancy Mata
Art 244 Type II
Millersville University
Project 4: A Short Bibliography Part II

I used Lobster for the script font and then I used DayPosterBlack for my own choice.  Both fonts seem to work fine as titles for the bibliographies.  

Lobster gives a more classic feel while DayPosterBlack grabs attention easier.  The bowl shapes of Lobster work well to contrast against Verdana's plainness.  The x-height compliments the type and the somewhat thin stroke works well.  With DayPosterBlack, it's thick strokes is somewhat distracting to Verdana's simple thin lines.  The x-height is fine against Verdana's and the bowl shape is different but still works.

Typography Journal #2 Jess Lukasavage

Nancy Mata
Typography II

Kinetic Type Videos

My favorite of the Kinetic type videos was the Shop Vac one.  I think it was effective because of its use of fonts to represent the various things that the song is about.  For instance fonts that resemble the ones that Walmart and Macy's used gave the overall message of consumerism and the boredom of the typical average-American life.  It was also a nice touch to include the musical notes for the guitar.

My least favorite was the Social Network "Going Live" video. Aside from the jarring typing noises, I felt like the screen seemed too dark and it came across as very boring.  The type wasn't lively and it seemed too standard and cliche.

I think that this example of kinetic typography is effective.  It's from Doctor Who, where the tenth doctor is leaving a list of instructions for his companion for when he has to become a human for awhile.  The tape recording animation works well, as does the tags for when he's listing numbers.  The only thing I don't like is the addition to the foreveralone rage face at the end in the pear.  Overall, it's good.

Project 3: Bibliography

Jess Lukasavage
Professor:Nancy Mata
ART 244 Type II
Project 3: Bibliography

Part 1:

Verdana and Georgia font families

I used Verdana and then Georgia in my bibliographies.  For starters, Verdana is a much larger font than Georgia and it feels more straightforward.  The san-serif Verdana is more legible.  The italics are similar and the numbers in verdana are a bit more legible than in Georgia.  All in all Verdana wins here in legibility while Georgia, while lovely, still maintains a printed feel rather than a web feel.

Project 2: Communicating Different Meanings of a Word

Professor: Nancy Mata
Art 244 Type II
Millersville University
Project 2: Communicating Different Meanings of a Word

         

              I decided to use Verdana first, as it is a standard web font.  I used all uppercase characters and made it 40px.  It's legible and simple.

             For the second, I used Joti One from Google Webfonts. I decided to take these fonts from Google Webfonts because I work on a PC at home and the school has Macs so there are certain fonts that windows has that Mac does not and vice versa.  Using webfonts makes it easier to put my site on a Mac even though I worked on it with a PC because I know the typefaces aren't going to default to anything but what I want them to be.  Joti One is an interesting font.  It's legible in its larger size.

           The third typeface I used is called Butcherman and it is from Google Webfonts.  It works well in a large size as well.  It can be used for B-horror films and/or horror-punk bands usually.  It makes the word 'grin' seem a bit creepy.

          The last typeface I used is Scada, a Google Webfont.  To me, it is similar to Verdana.  It's simple and easy to read.  It's slightly less legible than Verdana.

Assignment 1- Compare and Contrast Fonts Outline

        Assignment 1- Compare and Contrast Fonts Outline

           Georgia appears to be the easiest to read, when compared to Courier and Times New Roman.  Courier has an old typewriter feel to it.  It's spaced far apart and appears larger than the other two, even though they are all the same size.  Times New Roman is much smaller but looks similar to Georgia.  Georgia was built for the web so it would be the easiest to read online.  

         Impact is a heavy typeface compared to the other two.  This makes it a bit harder to read when it's smaller.  It's also limited because it can only be bold and heavy, even when it is italicized.  Arial is the typical boring font and Verdana appears to be it's boring cousin.  Arial and Verdana seem like the go to fonts for web, whereas impact takes it place as the king of meme fonts.  Of course Verdana was meant for web so that's why it is easier to read.

        Verdana appears the largest of all the fonts.  It is the most readable for web.  Baskerville is lovely but it appears rather small and hard to read.  Baskerville's Bold helps it out a bit and makes it easier to read.  Didot is a bit larger than Baskerville but still appears rather small.  The bold version of Didot helps it a bit as well but it's still small and not as readable as Verdana.  Verdana was built for the web though so it makes a lot of sense that it would be the easiest of the three to read online.

Journal Entry #1

It's About Legibility

This article talked about how legibility and readability are two different things and they should not be confused.  First, the article mentions that not all typefaces are or should be created to have their prime function be legibility.  Generally, whenever a typeface has more spirit, personality, or distinction, it will suffer on legibility.  The less personable typefaces have higher legibility.

The article talks about how counters, serifs, and individual letter shapes can affect the legibility.  For instance, sans serifs have an easier time being legible.  Typefaces with smaller serifs work better. The best types are "transparent types", as they do not get in the way of the communication process because they do not stand out or distract the reader.

The article also mentions that knowing these things and practicing them helps separate typographers and graphic designers from desktop publishers, which I think is a low blow but I agree with the rest of the article.  Knowing the above-mentioned points can help a designer to figure out which typeface should be used for a project, as well as help them in creating their own typefaces.

Georgia & Verdana...

This article talks about a time when type was used to be printed out on paper and how it can look awkward when left on the web.  These were terrible times for trying to read something online since a lot of it looked awful, especially italics on the Mac.  But finally, a dark cloud has been lifted and Microsoft has hired a designer to make types specifically for web.  The designer is Matthew Carter and the typefaces are Verdana and Georgia.

Verdana was named for the verdant Seattle area.  It has a large x-height so that the characters look larger but it's not too big so the uppercase can be told apart from the lowercase.  It also does not look crowded in apps or browsers without adjustable leading.  Verdana's letters do not touch and the bold characters never fill in, even in 4 point.  The characters 1, I, l, and J are made so that they can never be confused.  Verdana can also be used off screen and look beautiful.

Georgia is the screen serif.  Carter did the almost impossible and made the characters comfortable on screen and also attractive.  Georgia is similar to Times New Roman but the x-height is larger.  It's also smaller than Verdana's though so it feels traditional and pleasant on screen.

A lot of web based fonts aim to be as freely downloadable as possible.  This article can be helpful to designers because it gives them two really nice fonts to use for web-based stuff and also gives them an idea of what looks good online.

Matthew Carter

Matthew Carter is a type designer and the son of English typographer, Harry Carter.  He designed web 1.0 web fonts Georgia and Verdana.

His career went through the transition from physical metal type to digital type.  He became a freelancer as well as typographic adviser to Crosfield Electronics. Along with the webfonts, he designed Bell Centennial, Big Caslon, Carter Sans, Miller, and Sophia.

This can be helpful to a designer because it goes to show that the industry is ever-changing and even an old man can learn to design new things with the times.