Illustrator: Tools

Effects

>Pucker & Bloat..

>Distort & Transform >Roughen [when the edges are changed you can remove some of them by using the Pen Tool & Remove Anchor point

>Crop marks

>Warp

>3D >Revolve | > Extrude & Bevel -create a 3d shape from tools / drawings

Objects

>Expand appearance -changes in to editable object

Type

>Create outline

View 

>Show Rulers -tools can 'snap to line'

To use symbols in images such as 3D objects add them [drag and drop] to tools on the right under 'symbols' and they will be added to the library.

when adding them to the 3D image go through 3D > Extrude & Bevel then choose 'Map art' from there you can choose the symbol, position, size, side of shape you want it on.

History of Typography

Classification and Terminology
what is type:
"if writing is the physical notion of language, then type is it's mechanical notion"
'mechanical' being linked to the use of machines to create the type
'notion' graphic system, documenting thought symbolic code.


Origins
First movable type made from clay credited to Chinese 1041
1455 Johan Gulenberg [German] first use og 'moveable' metal type
-previously it was carved in wood/ clay.


Early Influences
-Romans: Chiselled letter form / use of capitals / serifs
-Greek: impressions in clay
-Chinese: Brush drawn characters
-Religious Scribes: Carolingian Court 7C -9C AD in France gospels of Charlemagne first used lower case.
he had scribes making copies of books and to speed up the process they wrote in lower case which would have been more flowing. 


Developmental Influences
-Desire to communicate: Religious / Poets / Artists / Writers
-Initially only available for the rich [church]
-Created because of a need for communication
-19th century industrial developments: Industrial revolution / power / type production for mass markets / transport


Design Influences
-15th - 19th century: mainly printers & craftsmen / work of scribes
-Late 19c - 20c: artists and art movements e.g arts and crafts [William Morris and Kelmscott] Eric Gill / Bauhaus
-Late 20th century: Designers, Neville Brody
Availability of digital processes


Manufacture
15 - 19c
Mainly printers and craftsmen, late 19c onwards
-Major type corporations
  -Monotype
  -Linotype: ended 1980's
IBM "Golf ball" typesetting: faces of type on metal blocks pressed onto acetate ribbon to create print on a page
Photosetting: Alphabet in photo negatives.. light is shined through and you get a copy of the type.
1980's start of digital type.


Type Terminology
Cold metal type: machine selects letters from the tray prints them then puts them back.
Current terminology used in digital production derived in general from use of metal type in 19c
-Font / family / character / caps or upper case / lower case
-Upper case comes from when the letters were set in a tray on the right hand side know as the upper case


Measurement of type
-Points and Picas [square of point 'character' size]
-Body refers to block type sits on [printing block]
-Face refers to the printing surface
-Height, distance between baseline and top of lower-case letters
-Set width, dictated by the characters e.g M and W widest
-Specify, point / body size is the dimensions by which we describe type.


Space between lines of type 'Leading' [strips of metal between each line]


Text / body type - 14pt and below
Display type - above 14pt 
Word spacing - achieved by placing metal spaces between words


Type setting
-Originally by printer craftsmen, type set by hand into type chase, cold set
-Mono type - machine set hot metal
-Litotype - machine set hot metal
-IBM "Golf Ball"
-Photosetting
-Digital


Alignment
-Justified: equal margins, randomly spaces letters
-Aligned left / right
-centred
-assymetrical, no alignment [by eye / page layout]


Classification
essential to choose right type face for the job main categories...
-Roman / Serifs
-Sans serifs / grotesque: names as they were considered ugly by type makers
-Slab serifs / egyptian
-Scripts and Decorative: only used as headings


Drop capitals [illustrated] : larger leading letters usually used at the start of articles. 

Negative Space

I tried out some ideas for using negative space tracing out areas of the text or surrounding space and I also used it to create patterns 

Illustrator: type editing

To select different images you hold shift and click on the objects you want


cutting objects from each other, cutting sections out...
Window > Pathfinder
>Unite = making the selected objects one image
>Minus front = cuts the front image out of the back one 
>intersect = creates a shape cut from the section where the images are overlaid.
>excludes = Opposite to above
>Divide = cuts the sections into separate images
>Trim / Crop / Merge / Outline


Type >Create lines > change to image
group / ungroup to crop
object >expand.. makes text with 'warp' editable again


Left tool bar > Rotate / reflect tools
you can align objects and text by selecting them and tools will appear at the top of the page
Select the second arrow tool 'shiftclick' on points of an object and they can be dragged and re-shaped.
Object > Envelope distort > make with warp
Object > compoundpath

Vectors

Looking through some journals I found a lot of examples of vectors these are a few that I picked out
Novum 09/10 This was an add spread in the magazine.

Illustrator

Today we had a quick introduction to Adobe Illustrator 
Bitmap vs Vector
Bitmap is photographic and made up of pixels, this is what Photoshop uses where as Illustrator uses vector which has a path that describes the shape, this means that vectors can be enlarged without distortion where as bitmap images will become sharper when made smaller but as soon as they are enlarged slightly they become very pixelated. 
The task we were given was to replicate the 'Ying Yang' sign and this was the result that I got..

I used six circles to create this image cut one in half and used different fills to get the right sections.

Some quick tools I noted down

-View > Turn on rulers

-View > Outline shows shapes

-holding space bar enables you to move around while using a tool

-create a line 'part' you can type along the path to that shape.

We were then left to experiment with some of the tools and as were looking at negative space I put together a really quick design using text, image and negative space.

Links

File Formats BMP GIF JPG PNG

Vectors 

I created Vectors before but using Photoshop, I'd like to be able to use illustrator to create some vector drawings mainly because of the flexibility with re-sizing the image. Where as with the vectors I have made so far the maximum size they can be is the size that I drew them.

Escher

I decided to have a look at some of the work by Escher and see how he uses images forming a pattern using negative space. Most of the pieces that he has done for symmetry drawings are of natural forms either animals or have some relation to flowers shapes and patterns. They seem to fit together well and blend naturally.

Negative space

I decided to use the words "Pear shaped" to create my word with negative space I cut the letters from a font sheet and laid them down evenly spaced. using the enlargement formula for the photocopier I set the enlargement size to 157% which would make the word "Pear" the same length as "shaped".
I then cut them back out and lined them up so they were centred. Lastly using the negative control on the photocopier reversed the colour so I had the negative space visible. 

Using pens I copied over the negative space and tried rearranging and changing the position of the letters

Negative space

While looking for some images that make good use of negative space I came across the work of Noma Bar that I found very interesting, I think some of the pieces are controversial and use a play on stereotypes for example the piece called 'Hoodies' Noma Bar's work 

Negative space

My new project is based on negative space in lettering and image. The first task I had was to cut letters out of a sheet that had been mixed up, to then arrange them into words but all that was really visible was the negative space. I managed to complete this task which took a little while but I managed to do it without finding any problems.

The next task is to make my own group of words to be at lease two or three lines long by cutting lettering out of a font sheet and arranging them, then photocopying and enlarging some sections to make a title like a newspaper headline. I decided I'd use the same wording as I did in my very first attempt at this as I knew it worked when I enlarged it.

As I didn't have a photocopier that could scale I decided to quickly try it out aligning it on the pc to see who it would look

I tried another quick one using numbers with letters