Anatomy of Type

Anatomy of Type

Individual letter forms have unique parts which have changed in visual form over the centuries. A nomenclature helps identify major elements of their construction. The evolution of lettering styles over time is a result of optical adjustments to the basic components by type designers over the ages.

Overlapping different typefaces reveals the differences they have between each other, even when set to the same point size. This means different typefaces will be useful at different times. When mixing families, one should avoid mixing serif and sans-serif typefaces. The only two anatomical attributes these typefaces share are base line and stroke.

Cataclysm
Descender Shoulder Counter Spine Stem Bowl Tail

Capline Meanline x-height Baseline

Cataclysm Cataclysm Cataclysm

Garamond Baskerville Futura Gill Sans

With Fill

Crossbar

Ascender

Stroke

Fillet

Serif

Without Fill

Anatomy of Type

Anatomy of Type

When covering the top or bottom half of a word, which is more legible? A covered bottom half creates a more legible top-half of a word. This is due to our language being read from top to bottom, left to right.

Fundamental to all typographic design is the interplay between the letterform and background. The form and counterform are reciprocal to each other, and essential to a letters design. A counterform is not simply what is left in the background. It is a new entity that emerges through interactions with the form, being either organic or geometric depending on the structure or style of the letter.

Cataclysm Cataclysm Cataclysm

Anatomy of Type | Cropping Studies

Anatomy of Type | Counterform Studies

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Anatomy of Type | Counterpart and Counterpoint

denotes counterpart relationships denotes counterpoint relationships

Anatomy of Type | Counterpart and Counterpoint

Anatomy of Type | Typographic Kinetics

When creating a visual hierarchy in typographic space, a designer balances the need for harmony, which unies a design, with the need for contrast, which lends vitality and emphasis.

As in music, elements can have a counterpart or a counterpoint relationship. Typographic counterparts are elements with similar qualities that bring harmony to their spatial relationship. Elements have a counterpoint relationship when they have contrasting characteristics, such as size, weight, color, tone, or texture. Counterpoint relationships bring opposition and dissonance to the design.

Each respective square and letterform are to be seen as independent compositions, each investigating form and counterform, gure ground relationships, symmetry and asymmetry, static and dynamic placement. The totems present a sequential order and a visual ow, while showing rhythmic pattern and and punctuation as dynamic ow. Articulated aurilly and visually, the typographic details show in each composition as well as the whole.

T y m caA t
C

AC y s L a taC

sm

a
c

S l C A

y
C

l
m M

Anatomy of Type | The Structure of Letters

Anatomy of Type | The Structure of Letters

The most elementary forms of letters are a visual code of strokes that we recognize through our experience of handwriting. Both uppercase and lowercase letters are distinct in structure. All are built combining the same basic strokes: vertical, horizontal, slanted, and curvilinear strokes. An entire alphabet can be categorized using these six basic underlying visual combinations of strokes.

B
Since the time of the Greeks, capital letterforms have consisted of simple geometric forms based on the square, circle, and triangle. The basic shape of each capital letterform can be extracted from this Roman letterform template found on Trojan Columns. It is composed of a bisected square, circle, triangle, an inverted triangle, and two smaller circles.

EFHILT

ilt

KMN

VWXY

vwxy

AZ

BDJPR

abdghjmnpqr

CGOQSU

ceosu

Typographic Page with a Chair

Using the initials of the designer, establish the letterforms into a typographic study that interprets a relationship to the form of the chair they designed. The goal of this is to discover relationships in form and division of space. Next, use the name of the designer, date of manufacture and the name of the chair to impose the words into a typographic study that demonstrates relationships to the chair.

size + weight + case

size + weight

size + width + family

size + weight

size + width + family

size + case

size + slant + color

size + slant + color + case

size + slant + color

size + slant + color + position

Chair Hang Tag

Type generally falls into two primary categories; informational and/or expressive. Its not uncommon to have a strategy for both present in layouts. Informational text is more common and the form responds to long traditions and conventions of size, spacing and established habits of organization on the page. In a book or website it is information

design that takes the lead. On a poster or motion graphics expression could lead. The ratio is determined by the designer and the needs of the communication. An emphasis or hierarchy must be clear and decisive so the roles each plays in the communication are clear. In design things are not equal.

Wegner designed over ve hundred different chairs...the father of Danish Modernism, his perfectly crafted chairs often drew from traditional models and were hand made.
The chair does not exist. The good chair is a task one is never completely done with.

W SA E YS OS WA WH E N AL A AT R M E E S CR FT GN TO RA WE AS J. AC NS AS K W RS. A S F I H L TA HA SE ST EC HIM MO BL RE TA R FO O MF CO

d dre un eh v d the r ve is re d o side m, h ew n ne r is sig .Co dern ten d re de irs.. e f o r o e M irs ha dw gn t c nish ha ls an We ren c a e d D d fe e f f t o i f d r o cra m al he fat ectly ition d rf . pe tra e d m fro d ma n s ha ay n alw tsma er f to gn cra as e a . W f as k w s. J s ir el ns t ta a s a s h H the him remo ble c ith w a o ct sa dw ef ort pe e f s t s o m re tra co wh ns o ,a te s o l l a a o m n cre e de lst ca d ka h al an tS As ion ality ne t i e d -b in tra 3 rig e o h t at for gre ld . ce yie an g ele

MANY FOREIGNERS HAVE ASKED ME HOW WE MADE THE DANISH STYLE...IT WAS RATHER A CONTINUOUS PROCESS OF CUTTING DOWN TO THE SIMPLEST POSSIBLE ELEMENTS OF FOUR LEGS, A SEAT AND COMBINED TOP RAIL AND ARM REST. Hans J. Wegner always saw himself as a craftsman whose foremost task was to create comfortable chairs. As he demonstrated with the 3-benet Skalstol, a respect for the traditional can also yield great originality and elegance.

E. SID L CK AL M NO RO VE LF A U H TIF TO AU IS BE IR . BE HA ES C L D UL A NG HO DA S N IT A ES SID BA

with. never completely done chair is a task one is not exist. The good The chair does