Type Workshop Two

Time for another type workshop with Graham! This time...kerning. For those that don't know what kerning is, it's changing the space between individual letters.

Observe.

The upper word 'railway' has not been kerned, it's just good old plain Times New Roman. Most people don't notice, and I didn't really until it was pointed out, that it looks really gappy because of the default kerning used.

The lower word I have kerned myself to make it look more balenced. It's not something I ever really thought about before but now that it's been pointed out to me, I can't help but notice it.

Now obviously, I'm only very new at doing this, so my kerned version probably isn't as balenced as it should be. I suppose it'll come with time.

Next project! A whole sentence. Picking out a proverb to play with, I chose 'A picture is worth a thousand words.' Which has always been a nice one and kind of links directly in with the creative side of things. Anyway!

We had to use typography in a way that would ensure that we read it in the correct order. I used Helvetica Neue Ultralight for all of these experiments while I was at college, but I don't have that at home so I had to settle for using Century Gothic. I wish, I wish I had Helvetica. Anyway, playing with word order, transparencies and weights, I think I managed to do it successfully.

Even though the below phrase is backwards, the eye automatically goes to the most prominent word, which in this case is 'A picture' despite it being the lowest down. It will then go to the second most prominent one, which is 'is worth'. Its transparency has been dropped to around 50% so it doesn't stand out as much.
Next, last but not least, it goes to 'a thousand words' which is on about 20% transparency, so it's very faded. By doing this, I've made you read backwards. (Shock, horror.)

Okay, moving down to the next one. Using the same proverb, I've done something different with it this time. In fact I've used two different techniques, so chose which ever one you want to deal with. First of all, the eye automatically goes to the most prominent word, which is the one that's the right way up so obviously 'a picture' is first. Your eye might go to the upside down 'a thousand' first, but straight off the bat, you brain will go 'sdalhgasdflk' and look for something it can read. And then it will deal with the next word which is 'is worth' and the brain can process it even though it's on its side. So on and so forth.

Also by arranging them in this way, in a spiral of sorts, the eye automatically follows the line of text as it goes around, making you read it in the right order. We weren't really taught this one, it's just from my own reckoning.

The same process has been applied below, though I've used the transparency affect that I used on the first proverb. The same effects as the above image still apply, but the transparencies of the different texts goes further to ensure that you read it in the right order.

-HJ x