Author Archives: hn150316

Design Samples_Natalie

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I found this logo at my friend’s workplace. The design caught my attention instantly with its vibrant red color background and its elegant white typeface. This is perhaps a different version of Bodoni Bold with a strong relationship between thick and thin strong. The point size and letter spacing work well together, not only making the logo harmonious, readable but also attractive and daring.

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Verizon recently changed their logo. Personally, I think this design is less messy and graphic elements compared to the old design. The typeface used for this logo is Helvetica. I was not sure what type of Helvetica is used at first, but after searching for more information online, it is Helvetica Neue Haas Grotesk. This commercial poster is very clean and simple. You can get the message instantly and the minimal checkmark at the end of the logo delivers the company’s philosophy which is reliability.

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The logo at the MoMA Museum is strongly impressing to me. Its angle and perhaps customized Gothic typeface effectively create a geometrically visual reflection against the mirror building. Also, the size contrast between the uppercase letters and the lowercase “o” got my attention too, making the design easily to read for even non English speakers.

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This is the book cover of a book which I have. I like how the designer incorporates the white background with the contrast between black and red color within the typeface (Helvetica?) This integration gives the design floating in the space and comforts the eye at the same time. It is clean, simple and fun especially with the letter “D” flipped over.  The design successfully speaks for the message of the title of the book.

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The last design that I personally think excellent is the subway information touch screen. NYC Subway system has been using Helvetica as its main typeface, but I am not pretty sure which typeface it is used here. However, it is still universally readable, and therefore it can make sure everyone gets the correct message/information. The point size is pretty large but not too large. The leading and letter spacing are not too narrowed or wide. As a result, it is easy to read when I am either far way from it or near it. It is simple but importantly practical so that everyone can use it easily.

Expressive Words by Natalie

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I spent a lot of time working on this project because I wanted to explore more about what InDesign can do as I am new to it. In this project, the first thing I had to do was to choose a typeface that would work for the majority of the words. After searching through Helvetica family typefaces and weights, I ended up choosing Helvetica Light because it is the most neutral to me. If I want my words to be bold, increasing sizes would do it. Or if I want my words to look softer, Helvetica Light size 48pt or less would be a good choice.

For my design approach, at first I just played around with each word, quickly creating as many different designs as possible. Then I went over each design and made some adjustments. Since I am new with InDesign, sometimes I struggled to turn my ideas into exactly what I wanted. Therefore, while working on this project, I also watched some tutorials online to enhance my skills. I did not only try to captivate the meaning of each word but also wanted it to be aesthetically pleasing as well. For example, for the word “Quiet,” I have two different ways of thinking about how to design it: One is to make the letter “q” stand out from the rest of the letters; and one is going after its literal meaning, making the word really quite and small. Or for “Hostage,” I wanted to make it simple, bold, crisp, and constrained because that is what hostage should suggest. Therefore, I just simply used a much larger size 200pt with negative spacing and kerning to make each letter attached tightly to each other. I also tried to create an angled version of it. Generally, for all of the words, I wanted to see how they would look different just by using various sizes, positions, and angles. Sometimes, it got difficult because I ran out of ideas and designed each word similarly.

Through this project, I learned how to set up a new document in InDesign as well as what gutter, bleed, and picas are. I also acquired many new InDesign skills although I barely knew anything about about it before that.  I gained the understanding of tracking and kerning, which was one of the most important piece of knowledge I learned. Without proper space between letters or words, the design would look awkward and unpleasing. Understanding how letters stand next to each is as important as having the big idea for a design.

Trace Your Name by Natalie

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Bodoni is one of my favorite typefaces beside Helvetica. The typeface is more refined with unbracketted serifs, and it has an extreme contrast between thick and thin strokes. The x-height is small and the vertical stress is strong. During the process of drawing my name “Natalie” and tracing the words “the gentle”, I noticed some other characteristics of Bodoni that made it more difficult for me to draw.  First of all, the curved parts of lowercase letters “a”, “e”, “h”, “g”, “n”, and “t” as well as of uppercase “G” go slightly over the meanline and baseline. Also, the right side of uppercase “N” extends over the baseline while the top of uppercase “A” overshoots the capline compared to other uppercase letters. Moreover, the strokes of uppercase “T” are slightly angled on the two sides; the head serifs of lowercase letters “h”, “t”, and “l” are a little bit slanted.

I also realized that in order to draw and trace more accurately, especially due to the great contrast between thickness and thinness within each letter, I needed to use well-sharpened 4H pencils. Even when I filled the letters, I had to keep sharpening my pencils so that I could keep the hairlines as thin as the actual Bodoni.

While focusing too much on getting each letter right, I forgot that letterspacing and word spacing are as important. At first, I made some mistakes when I left too much space between “the” and “gentle” for both uppercase and lowercase versions. Also, the word gentle was so crowded that it needed a lit bit more space. I tried to kern letters “T” and “A” so they would look more appealing. If I did not, they would look too awkward together in terms of spacing.

Overall, through this project, I learned more about Bodoni, the basic steps of drawing a typeface, typographic terminology, letterspacing, and word spacing as well. Although my tracing and drawing are not totally accurate, I am glad that I have learned a lot through my mistakes.

What is Graphic Design?

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Hang Escobar (Natalie)

After reading the article, I learned that graphic design is not only the art but also the process of visual communication. Graphic design has been used almost everywhere nowadays, from subway to school, from magazines to websites…It can be experienced instantly, over time, or minute to minute (which is also called interactive design).  That means, graphic design does not have just one category but many. And because of that, designers are not just “graphic designers” generally but depending on the field they specially work in and the level of their careers, they can also be UI/UX, web designer, production artist, experience designer, or copywriters…Moreover, since we live in the world of advanced technologies, some of these titles may change or there may even new titles in accordance with the changes of their fields.

My biggest question for the author is that is it good to be best at both graphic design and interactive design if I want to be an UI/UX designer? I know that they have different goals, one is more about visual and textual communications while the latter is more about the interaction between users and the sites/apps. Some graphic designers know a little bit about interactive design and vice versa.