Typographic Lectures

The session began with an introduction into typographic terminology which gave me a better understanding of the anatomy of type and the ability to talk about typefaces and their specific traits in more detail. The different variables surrounding type such as leading and kerning, were also discussed and a TED talks by John Maeda demonstrated how the typeface, size, colour and kerning can effect the context in which a word is viewed. 

We also discussed what the difference was between a typeface and a font, the agreed definition being that a font refers to a family of typefaces ie Helvetica is the font, Helvetica neue is a typeface. Also a font refers to the physical embodiment such as the computer file and the typeface is what you see displayed on the screen.

We watched another TED talks by graphic and type designer Andrew Byron called "if H is a chair" which talks about seeing objects differently and applying them to type. He also discussed how limitiations can sometimes influence deign which is an interestung concept that could be carried through into my own practice.