Course Goals

• Design rhetorically effective visual designs for different audiences, purposes, and contexts both by hand and with software.
• Learn the structure of letterforms and typefaces.
• Select, combine, and implement specific fonts in useful ways.
• Develop skills in designing individual glyphs, typefaces, and visual designs by hand and with software

Required Materials

• Kimberly Elam, Typographic Systems. Princeton Architectural Press. ISBN 978-1-56898-687-6. [Amazon]
• Ellen Lupton, Thinking With Type (2nd Ed.). ISNB 978-1568989693. [Amazon]

Notebook and chisel-tip pen. We’ve purchased these for you; I’ll pass them out on Thursday. Stop by the CM&D main office and pay Lorraine $10 to cover the cost.

Optional Materials

TypeTool, academic version ($24), Windows or OS X. (Be sure to pick the Academic version on the Buy page; otherwise, you’ll pay $49.) This will be installed in the CEC, so you only need to purchase your own if you want to install it on your own computer. Note: You’ll need to jump through some hoops to get the macOS version to run. It’s not particularly complicated but it’s not a native macOS app.

Projects

We’ll work on several large and small projects during the semester; there are more details on the Projects page. Overall, projects account for 80% of your course grade. The other 20% are from quizzes and participation/attendance (see below).

Quizzes

Each of the major, assigned course readings will be followed by a very brief quiz, either 3-7 multiple choice/short-answer questions or (for the Elam readings) an exercise in which you demonstrate the layout discussed in the reading. The quizzes are pass/fail and designed to make sure that you’ve engaged with the reading so that you can participate fully in class.

Assignment Due Dates

Assignments are typically due at the start of class unless otherwise specified. Late assignments are penalized 10% per course day late.

So, for example, an assignment due at the start of a Tuesday class will be penalized 10% if it’s handed in Tuesday at 6 pm or at the start of class on Thursday.

Participation & Attendance

This classes includes extensive discussion and in-class work, so attendance and participation are required. You’re allowed three absences. I don’t distinguish between excused and unexcused absences–if you’re not in class, you’re not in class. After your third absence, your grade will drop 3% per absence.

Assignments are still due even if you’re not in class on the day the assignment is due. If you’re going to be absent, make sure you get your work turned in to me on time or you’ll be penalized for lateness. In-class work and quizzes cannot be made up, although in the larger scheme of things missing a couple of quizzes or in-class assignments shouldn’t make or break your course grade.

Participation involves more than just showing up to class. I expect you to be paying attention (to me, to material videos we may be watching, to your peers in class or team discussion) and contributing in positive ways. During critiques of work, you should provide useful comments, both critical and supportive.

Example of critical but supportive comment: “The axis of the lowercase /a/ is different than the axis of the /e/ and /o/. I think what you’re using for the /a/ actually works better for the font, so maybe you could adjust the other counters to use the same axis.”

Example of non-useful comment: “I don’t like the lowercase letters.”

The Cellphone Rant

Don’t let your cellphone distract you from class activities (including listening to me drone on endlessly about things like lachrymose serifs or leading options). Turn off your ringer or just turn your phone off during class if it’s going to be a problem. In general, none of us is normally important enough to need to be notified with a little ping or jingle every time someone wants to know where we’re going to eat lunch.

If you have some major life event going on–you’re waiting for an organ transplant, you have an extremely sick relatively you’re caring for, etc.–let me know beforehand and I’ll cut you some slack. Otherwise, if I see you checking your cellphone (or if your cellphone constantly interrupts class in some other way), your participation grade will suffer.