Briefly discuss one resource (for instance, about typography, logos, BSGs, etc.) from the class website or from your own research that you’ve found to be helpful. Please include a link if you mention a specific website.
winter 2023
winter 2023
Briefly discuss one resource (for instance, about typography, logos, BSGs, etc.) from the class website or from your own research that you’ve found to be helpful. Please include a link if you mention a specific website.
https://www.fonts.com/content/learning/fontology/level-1/type-anatomy/serif-vs-sans-for-text-in-print
One resource that I have found to be helpful is one of the typography sources, “Serif vs. Sans for Text in Print” on Fonts.com. In this article, they go over how serif and sans serif fonts function for body texts. I found their information helpful because it goes through the many aspects that one needs to consider in order to choose an effective and functional body font. It goes over how each respective font type is typically used in different mediums, sizes, and design styles. They claim that while serif fonts are more traditional, they can have mixed results when used for shorter and/or smaller passages. This is similar to what they say about color and other variations in type/format, in which they show how different serif types may or may not work for certain designs.
A large emphasis of the article is the overall legibility of body fonts, including the consideration of how distinct audiences will read them. This article has me reconsidering my choice of body font. While my font is low contrast with short and solid serifs, I worry about the legibility of it at smaller sizes. Because I have decided to use the Taviraj font in the Extra Light setting, it is overall quite thin. I think for a digital format like the Brand Style Guide Taviraj Normal and Extra Light will work, but if I were to print it out, I might change the font altogether.
I think this resource would be helpful for others who haven’t tested out their body fonts yet or are still deciding.
I enjoyed Canva’s “Beautifully illustrated glossary of typographic terms you should know” because it gave me the vocabulary to effectively write about typography. Before reading the glossary, I did not know that there were specific terms for each little part of the letter. I merely described them as little features that were pointy, rounded, short, curly, and so on. Very broad (and not helpful to the reader when creating a brand style guide)! I learned much about what made a letter unique, like how a slant or contrast could change the look. It was very comprehensive and I thought it was reasonably easy to follow! It also showed examples of what the term is in some letters.
One resource that I’ve found to be helpful is the logo website that we visited last class, Brandmark.io. I love how the website is set up so that it does most of the heavy lifting for you, by giving you certain color combos to choose from, and I love how it creates designs based on a few keywords as well. The variety of options that it creates in logos gave me a great headstart and some great inspiration for some aspects that I want to try and incorporate in my own BSG.
The resource from class that I’ve found most helpful is the glossary of typography terms by Canva. I really like this resource because it provides 34 different terms that help you understand what typography is better, and understanding the differences of terms has helped me notice more differences between fonts, along with what similarities they may share, which helps with font pairing. I particularly enjoyed this resource by Canva because it gives a clear illustration and brief definition of each typography term in a way that is easy to understand.
Link: https://www.canva.com/learn/typography-terms/
When working on the logo draft and trying to find something simple that represented by brand, I was overwhelmed with ideas. The resources that allowed us to play around were nice because they gave a visual but the BSG logo presentation is want really helped me focus my vision for the logo I wanted. It not only was there to remind me of the do’s and dont’s but inspired me to find something that was” building an identity”. Overall, I felt it was very helpful and guiding in trying to find a direction for my logo.
One resource I found helpful while working on designing a logo was Digital Synopsis’ “50 Incredibly Creative Logos with Hidden Meanings.” I’d been struggling to figure out a way to link my letters because L is not that conducive to joining with others, but looking at these examples opened up new ideas for me about the power and potential of tiny details and negative space. Much of the examples included in the article make use of Gestalt-type imagery, where the positive and negative space riff off each other to reveal a picture and/or other picture or word, depending on which area of space you focus your attention on. Thinking of space this way helped me come up with a few better ideas for my own logo.
Among the many resources that we have covered thus far, I think the typography focused ones were the one I found most helpful due to my previous unawareness of the technicalities. In other words, prior to reading and looking over the resources regarding typography, even the term itself was a foreign and new concept to me. In particular, I found myself relying and looking back to Canva’s “A beautifully illustrated glossary of typographic terms you should know” (https://www.canva.com/learn/typography-terms/) when completing the typography assignments of the week. Compared to the other resources, this one was formatted in a way that made the many typography terms easier to digest and understand. I also found the visuals that Canva used for each term very helpful, since I usually consider myself a visual learner. In short, this piece was both informational and interesting.
One resource that I love to use is Coolors.co. It’s a website that generates color palettes for you to use! You can also lock in certain colors that you like and continue pressing the space bar to generate other colors. If you click on one of the colors, you can also view lighter or darker shades of that specific color. Coolors.co also lists each color’s hex code, CMYK, and RGB values. It’s an effective tool and has helped me come up with some great color schemes in the past!
Link: https://coolors.co/
The resource from class that I’ve found very helpful is the fontjoy.com. I really like this resource because it is a very user-friendly platform to generate font pairings. This platform provides more than 700 typeface and fonts. Also, user can adjust the pairing according to different contrast levels. I also really enjoyed the glossary of typography terms by Canva. It was a great introductory article that explain with details about different elements in typography. Specifically, I learned new ways to describe fonts!
For me, the most useful resource I’ve used in class so far is the Canva article about typographic terms. https://www.canva.com/learn/typography-terms/
I referred to it a lot for the typography exercises we did for class. It definitely helped put my thoughts into words when it came to visually describing different typefaces. There were many terms I didn’t know at all before (like gadzooks and ligatures) and it was nice to finally have those set terms to articulate various typographic elements. It’s definitely something I will remember down the line as it’s extremely useful in helping me decide and explain which typefaces are best for a project and why.
One resource that I have found to be extremely helpful is https://www.dafont.com/ . I love how there is a wide variety of fonts and how easy it is to get a preview and description of all of them. When practicing with the logo exercise, the fonts I found on this site did a lot of the heavy lifting for me. For instance, the rope font I found made it really easy to add a cool effect without having to try and edit in rope texture. Something else I like about this resource is how easy it is to download the fonts. I don’t feel worried about accidentally downloading viruses, and they’re easy to install. All in all I’ve found this site makes it easy and fun to search for unique fonts.
I have two websites that have helped me narrow down a logo that I think matches my aesthetic well. Those two sites are Canva and Photopea.
I know we are not suppose to use Canva to conduct any designs, but I found it helpful as inspiration. I had no clue what I thought my logo should look like and simply exploring the logos on Canva gave me a stronger sense of direction.
With that said, I found Photopea to be really helpful on the design aspect of things. I enjoyed the tool that allowed me to cut certain parts of my letter in order to make the two more cohesive. I am still figuring out all the tips and tricks for Photopea, but so far it has done me well!
One resource I found helpful for the logo design process was the stock adobe generator website, which inspired many ideas for my logo. The only challenge I encountered was creating the logos I wanted to design using the editing tools, which I am still working on. However, using the resource allowed me to gain a clearer vision of how I want my brand logo to look on my page and the style I want to use to embody and represent my brand to any audience.
I enjoyed reading the different articles in the “on writing” section of the resources page. There were several that discussed various discourse that goes on in the writing and publishing world such as when to use a colon and how adding an extra space following a sentence is an unforgivable offense. However, the article that I found useful was about how to write an “About Me” page (https://jessielewis.medium.com/how-to-write-a-creative-about-me-page-with-examples-db907e0fd877). I have long struggled with describing myself in writing because I feel like it often comes off as either boring or self-absorbed. The point that this essay made that I found most useful is that in a good “About Me” page you are not simply describing yourself but rather what you stand for. You go beyond the facts and data regarding your personal life, instead describing your motives and why you do what you do.
https://fontjoy.com/
I found FontJoy to be an (unexpectedly) extremely useful resource. I spent soooo long on this website trying to pick my typefaces for the header, subheader, and body font. This generated aesthetically pleasing typeface combinations that I could not have created myself, especially before playing around with all of the typeface resources. This website helped me visualize what kinds of font paired best with others. For example, a bold serif typeface header looks good with a thin sans-serif subheader. This website allowed me to get familiar with what kinds of typefaces were commonly paired, what looked pleasing to me and in general, and what looked less good. Playing around with FontJoy opened my eyes to how strategic brands are when choosing typefaces to use because each combination gives a different feel.
Personally, I struggle a lot with typography and choosing fonts (especially fonts that pair well together). A resource I use for typography is: https://www.fontpair.co/
This website revolves around fonts and provides many different resources, from featured fonts and suggested font pairings. Whether or not you’re looking for a font, it serves as a good inspiration source as well, since the website is designed well!
For testing out font pairings, another website I enjoy using is: https://fontjoy.com/
Fontjoy allows you to actually test out font pairings and explore different font options! It has this generator that randomly pairs fonts together and is overall a fun interactive element.
As someone new to graphic design for branding, pretty much everything shared so far has been helpful for me. The font pairing websites have so far been the most helpful though– I tend to overcomplicate the things I do, especially visually. Typography is fun– too much fun– and seeing fonts in an isolated space makes it a little too easy to get carried away with something too ornate to sit cleanly on a page. Pairing a header font with a subheader and a body is a skill, and I am very glad to have something to compare and contrast at least Google fonts.