Assignment Due February 8th
Tracing, 5 typefaces, history of typeface
Tracing Exercise:
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5 Typefaces:
Out of the list of 13 words to choose from, I ended up going with “tradition”.
I was torn between rebellion and tradition. To me, these words invoked opposite thoughts. A rebellious typeface would be one that went against the norm. Something that tried to stand out or include unique stylistic details. I mentally chose times new roman as the most default typeface.
Tradition on the other hand made me think of “going back to the roots”. I thought of typefaces that people take for granted and even typefaces that tried to imitate styles of writing before the modern word processor.
Here are my 5 typefaces I chose and the reasonings behind each follows:
Times New Roman: This is the most used typeface other than possibly the Arial family. It has solidified itself as a classic, easy to read and versatile typeface for many types of publications.
Papyrus: This typeface tries to imitate the way early writing would soak into papyrus paper in places such as Egypt.
Mistral: Like papyrus, this typeface tries to imitate human handwriting. In this case, it tries to imitate the quick, non-equal strokes one would use while quickly writing cursive.
Avenir Next: I was actually assigned the original Avenir typeface for the upcoming project. Avenir Next is the version of Avenir that is optimized for digital screens. It tries to stay organic and neutral. It is a geometric based typeface that tries to clean up the representation of modern typographical trends.
American Typewriter: This typeface is pretty self-explanatory. It imitates the typeface of American typewriters.
Personally I believe that Times New Roman represents tradition the most with mistral coming in a close second. Mistral only seems to be a “traditional” typeface if used in certain contexts such as letters and notes. Times New Roman can be used in most circumstances.
Although these typefaces may represent the word “tradition”, not all of them are very versatile, if even usable typefaces for everyday works.
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History of Typeface: Avenir
I was assigned the typeface, Avenir. It is a very simple and clean sans-serif based typeface. My research on the history and its style follows below.
