There are five different types of logos, or six, if you include characters/mascots. Let's review:

1. Pictorial symbols are illustrative representations of the brand name that is emblematic of the company, brand or product. The visual is typically story-based and more illustrative than an abstract symbol that helps to increase recognition and uniqueness. New brands need to include a name with this symbol (combination logo) together to build brand recognition and equity. 
2. Letterform logos, which include monograms and letter marks, are perfect visual instances for acronym brand names that are long, difficult to pronounce or have many words. It is usually designed slightly more pictorial or stylized than just a simple letter to assist with recognition
3. Emblems are contained in a shape, either visual or inferred. They have an official look when placed into a badge or seal shape, but if not design correctly, can be difficult to use at small sizes depending on the number of elements within the shape. 
4. Wordmarks (or logotypes), are typically the longest-lasting of all types of logos, incorporates the company or brand name uniquely stylized by itself or simplified as part of a combination mark. Legibility of the wordmark must be considered in addition to recognition. The only time legibility is not the primary goal is if it’s a script or signature, denoting brand with a family history or a personal touch.
5. Abstract symbols take less time to process and in most instances, they express ideas more effectively than words. They are also universal nor have a language barrier, so they’re perfect for international companies. New brands need to include a name with this symbol (combination logo) together to build brand recognition and equity. 
6. Characters (or mascots), technically Pictorial Symbols, were first popular within sports teams, and later became popular with household brands in the 1950s and 1960s through the work of Leo Burnett. Characters create an identifiable face and add personality to the brand. They are sometimes incorporated as part of the primary logo, and other times only used as a brand asset in certain instances. 

For new identity projects, try to present at least two or more of these options (depending on client size and goals) to demonstrate deep exploration of the possibilities. There is almost never one single solution.

As a general rule, for smaller companies, aim for pictorial combination marks, emblems, and wordmarks. For larger brands, aim for abstract symbol combination marks and wordmarks. If you have a list of future identity applications, use your best judgement before presenting logo types. For example, if the client needs to apply their embroidered mark to apparel or if the mark will be used on primarily golf balls, then a character symbol with tiny details may not be the best solution.

Present a set of strong and varied examples of design thinking within your logo exploration and your client will appreciate it.

If you are a practicing designer and you’d like to design and sell full identity systems for $10,000+, book a call and let’s talk about how we might help to get you there fast. 

Typographer’s quotes (otherwise known as smart quotes or curly quotes) are a default preference in Adobe InDesign. To find your preferences in InDesign, go to Preferences > Type.

If they are turned off, go to Type > Insert Special Character > Quotation Marks. From there you can choose single or double quotes both as left and right.

Maybe you don’t want to drag your mouse all over the screen finding these marks, you can shorten your design time by typing directly into InDesign and using these keyboard shortcuts on the Mac OS.

• Option + ] produces an opening single curly quote ( ‘ )
• Option + Shift + ] produces a closing single curly quote ( ’ )
• Option + [ produces an opening double curly quote ( “ )
• Option + Shift + [ produces a closing double curly quote ( ” )

I use them often when typing in any software, not just InDesign. I’m using the shortcuts now, for example. It makes writing and typesetting much faster when you know your shortcuts.

Damn, those blocks of copy are super sexy. And not a river in sight.

What are rivers? They are the unpleasant spaces between words in blocks of copy. You can find them in poorly-designed books and magazines. And if you squint your eyes, you can see white lines flowing in-between words down the page; yup, those are rivers.

Rivers make content difficult to read because our eyes have to jump from word to word. And it’s very difficult to concentrate on a story when you’re searching for the next word. 

Use rivers, and the overall horizontal rhythm is compromised. Instead of a smooth, fast, performance-based ride along the sentence, the reader has to stop and start constantly, just to get through the rest of the story (see irregular rhythm, above).

Rivers are indicative of something that was producing too fast, aiming to get the content out as soon as possible (like a daily newspaper), or disregarding design (low budgets or unaware designers). Rivers evidence lack of empathy for the reader.
 

Do you see the rivers above? If not right away, it may take a little while to notice. For instance, in the first column... fifth line down, reads “words accomplished.” That line has a huge ol’ gap between the words.

We see those gaps so often that we are accustomed to them, but they still interrupt reading. Once you see them, OMG you can’t unsee them.

How can you avoid pesky rivers and set balanced blocks of copy? 

1. Always use hyphens. Using hyphens in your body copy will minimize rivers in your justified blocks of copy. In left-aligned copy, using hyphens will help to smooth out the rags. 
2. Keep your line lengths on the longer side. A comfortable length is 50 to 70 characters long, but if you have to go shorter, be aware that the gaps between words will widen.
3. Hang your punctuation. Quote marks, hyphens, and periods should lie in the margins and alleys, aligning type to type and creating a visible box of type.

Do balanced blocks of copy matter to the reader? They don’t.

What DOES matter to the reader is a seamless reading experience. Beautiful blocks entice people to read. And type set well will help to amplify the voice and tone of the content in the reader’s head. 

What does a distracted reading experience look like? See examples of typecrimes on Twitter.

I believe that there are clients who need your help right NOW to amplify their content to reach readers and help people. They cannot do that without your typography know-how.

You can help your clients grow their businesses and organizations by designing seamless reading experiences that audiences love.

Do you want the fundamentals? We cover horizontal rhythm in our online Type 1 Class; alignments, spacing, and weights are explained in Type 2 Class. Or visit us in the Los Angeles area and learn in-person.

But if you want to actively transform your portfolio and skills to demonstrate seamless reading experiences; schedule a call with me and let’s talk about how we can help.

Whatever path you choose to pursue learning, make sure it leads straight to your goal; whether it’s designing identity systems, improving typography for bloggers, or getting larger client projects. You don’t have to waste years, you can get there in a few months with the right game plan.

Now, what’s not to love about that?

Depending on what you’re using them for, you may need fonts with more readability and less style. For the ultimate scanability at large size headlines or introductory paragraphs of up to 35 words, you will want an extremely easy-to-read script.

How can you choose script fonts that are easy to read?

There are three things to consider when choosing script fonts. These are not hard and fast rules, but rather general measurements that work in tandem to find clarity in characters, words, and paragraphs.

1. X-Height. The lower the x-height, typically the harder it is to read. If the counters (the areas that are entirely or partially enclosed) are tall and wide, it is easier to make out the letterforms.

2. Stroke Contrast. If the thicks and thins of the letterforms have a varying weight contrast, the letters will be less readable than fonts that have less stroke contrast. Monoline, or consistent line weight scripts will typically be the easiest to read.

3. Stress. The more lean that the characters have, the less readable it is. Upright characters are best for readability. Typically upright characters will be closer together, making it easier to scan. 

With those in mind, we’ve found some newly-designed scripts that are highly readable and elegant. Although some of these are more readable than others, just use the three indicators to assess specifically for your audience.

Consider these to add personality and prestige to your projects that you’re designing for age groups who may need larger type, those with possible sight loss, or just the general public.

Bulletto, Zetafonts

Veronica, Miller Type Foundry

Buinton Rough, Mika Melvas

Montana Typeface, Alex Couture

Catsy, Emil Karl Bertell
 

Brushability, My Creative Land

Motherline, Letterhand

Raph Lanok, Alit Design

Sailoria, Wacaksara co

Magehand, Typia Nesia

Serene Textured, Pedro Teixeira

Aromatica, Latinotype

Vodka, Fenotype

Head Turn, Blue Vinyl Fonts

Zing Script Rust, Fontfabric

Instagram may be here for now, but may not be forever, so the validation is fleeting. Nor can the social platform correctly measure what is effective design, rather only indicate what’s popular at the time. Instafame does not equal fortune.

If your main goal is to gain Instagram followers, well then, I guess you don’t need to obtain typography fundamentals. However, you can build a successful design career on the foundation of typography and design mastery. 

I’ve asked seven experts and legends in graphic design why typography mastery is so important to one’s design career. Here’s what they said.

1. The sophistication of the typography separates a good designer from the crowd.

“These days, there’s a plethora of freelance designers and newly minted design graduates looking for work. When I review design portfolios, it’s always the sophistication of the typography that separates a good designer from the crowd.

“The fact is that sophistication isn't easy to come by. Design students are asked to be proficient with so many platforms, tools, and media. So much to learn in so little time at school. Developing a sensitivity to typography requires special focus, dedication, and usually the influence of a great teacher, or two.

“I truly believe one of the great callings of a designer is in making information clear and inviting; helping to make the world a less cluttered and confusing place. Masterful typography is the ultimate secret weapon.”

— Kim Baer, Principal of design studio KBDA and author of the Information Design Workbook

2. Mastery of typography and design is vital and a serious impediment to material success.

“Mastery of typography/design (it’s hard to separate those two) is both vital and a serious impediment to material success. We’re in the age of “good enough,” and it’s easier to produce volume if you’re not sweating every detail. Aiming for perfection is a pain in the ass for you, it’s a pain in the ass for your clients. It can make you seem “difficult” to work with. It certainly doesn’t make you cheap. Good enough is easier, perhaps it’s more fun, too, because, you know... “Whatever. It’s all good!” But in the long run, being “good enough” is a spiritually impoverished existence. Striving for mastery lays the foundation for a career that lets you become your best artistic self and connects you with other people who see the world the same way.”

— Stefan Bucher, Designer, Illustrator, and Writer at 344 Design and the Daily Monster

3. Only the most distinctive of graphic designers who produce truly unique work will survive.

“Right now the whole future of graphic design, including typography and type design is up for grabs given the level of automation around the corner. Only the most distinctive of graphic designers who produce truly unique work will survive. Too many designers are just designing to latest trend that will soon be translated to an algorithm, leaving them way out in the cold... and unemployed.”

— Louise Sandhaus, Graphic Design Faculty at Cal Arts and author of Earthquakes, Mudslides, Fires & Riots: California and Graphic Design, 1936 – 1986

4. A mastery in typography and design is an expectation.

“With all of the great teachers and technical tools available in schools today, a mastery in typography and design is an expectation. A truly successful design career is, as always, built on powerful ideas.”

Ken Carbone, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Director of the Carbone Smolan Agency and AIGA Design Medalist

5. Mastering typography means mastering the ability to see.

“Assuming a “successful career” means consistency in creating good design and communication, the connection is fundamental. As pigment is the painter’s medium, typography is the designer’s medium. The more knowledgeable and skillful the designer is with typography, the greater the impact the work has. Mastering typography means mastering the ability to see. 

“Usually good typography skills are developed through rigorous training from teachers with a lineage to the masters. The best typography teachers are adept at history, drawing, and observing—resulting in a level of discernment that cannot be developed quickly. It takes years of focus, practice, and dedication to craft. Understanding the minute details of typographic forms and how they translate imbalance to balance, brings confidence to the designer.”

— Petrula Vrontikis, Principal of Vrontikis Design Office, Faculty Member at Art Center College of Design, and Educator at Lynda.com

6. A big part of the expression of any design solution is typography.

“A big part of the expression of any design solution is typography. It’s highly important to have not only the basic competency, but to really understand that typography is the backbone to communication.

“For an organization that is looking to solve a business problem—be it a service design or customer experience brief—even in those rough phases, a designer needs to present journey mapping and research in a way that’s easy digestible. That may come in the form of a report that you might distribute to your client, or slides, a keynote presentation, or internal communication. Not just the end thing; such as a website or wayfinding signage. 

“Typography begins well before that. A lot of the progress to a successful design outcome is fundamentally from a typographic execution. If you have that understanding, you are using design holistically.”

— Ram Castillo, Design Director, Author, and Founder of Giant Thinkers

7. The better your type and design skills are, the better the results and the quality of your work.

“Young designers have an amazing selection [to choose from] but no reference points. The more designers use type and have good models, on and off-screen, the better the attention to detail. 

“Design education needs to include more exposure and study of history and practice of typography and its evolution. Basic practice of scale, readability and contrast, mixing type and styles needs to be studied and exercises with specific objectives should be introduced and repeated. Practice, review, redo and clarify are the edicts. The more you use and practice, the better your overall work will be.

“If you want to progress; financially, and in your critical career, the better your type and design skills are, the better the results and the quality of your work. We need more design and type skills in all sectors of communication.”

— Thomas Ingalls, Principal of Ingalls Design and Faculty Member at California College of the Arts

So when it comes to the act of designing, maybe it’s why some designers jump straight to the computer and move boxes around the page until the stars align.

Unfortunately, this method of guessing while designing generates a LOT of bad comps and a TON of revisions that BURN through your client budgets and timelines. Doing things this way is not conducive to saving time, avoiding frustration, or making money. 

BUT once you have a fast and proven METHOD for building basic typography structure on your page that addresses readers FIRST, it becomes fun again to make design decisions because you’ve saved time, money, and sanity.

Thank goodness we have the method to help you figure out exactly what type sizes and weights are needed when building basic hierarchy on a page. It helps you work much faster. And creates effective design for the reader, too.

So let’s jump into it.

In good typography practice, it’s not only the fonts you choose, but it’s also the size you use them at... that matters.

Size Matters.
The most efficient way to build page hierarchy is to “work from the page up.” What does this mean? It means that focusing on the body copy is the best place to start, since it has the most content (and is typically towards the bottom of the page).

For documents with flowing body copy, set the text size in proportion to the column measure. The measure refers to the width of columns in continuous text. Wider measures require larger type sizes.

In order to create a comfortable read with a range of 50 to 70 characters per line, use this formula to calculate your type size:

Whatever the measure width is in picas, cut that number in half to arrive at a starting point. For example, if the measure is 22 picas wide, start with 11 point type, to begin. 

Using the Info palette in Adobe InDesign to discover measure width in picas and character count in a line.

Then you can go up or down in type size as needed depending on the visual presence of the typeface, context of the piece, or just personal taste. Generally, I prefer my line lengths to be between 40 to 50 characters on web pages and between 50 to 70 characters on printed pages.

Eric Gill stated that the ideal line consisted of ten to twelve words. Robert Bringhurst considers 66 characters to be ideal and does not believe text should be justified in columns less than 40 characters. 

Weight matters.
After you have your body text size established, work up the page into the header area. No matter if you have just one header, a single header and subheader, or multiple layers of sub and run-in headers, you’ll want to add some contrast to help lead your reader down the page. That can be done with type weights.

When specifying header size (which should be a direct multiple or proportion of your body text size), be sure to choose your weight accordingly. And vice versa. The weight of the font will give you a clue about the best size range to use it at for best readability.

The thinner or thicker your type is, the larger it needs to be.

Weights closer to ‘regular’ have a more balanced stroke-to-space ratio.

When extremely thin type is small, the strokes disappear against the page or the screen. When printed, the forms are likely to break up, and the printer may not be able to hold those fine lines. On a backlit screen, they look even thinner.

When extremely thick type is small, the counters will close in. When printed, the small open and closed counters will fill in with ink. This might not be the case on a backlit screen, but the ultra black or heavy forms are not as well-defined at small sizes and will affect readability.

If you’re gonna opt for a very thick or thin font, make sure it resides higher up on the page at a larger size for best legibility and readability.

Now you’ve got it! There’s a correlation from page size to type size to weight usage on the page. One element will affect the other.

Just make sure they all have a relationship to one another to create page harmony.

Two typefaces create a solid foundation for any type system, and here is our process for building a two-typeface system.

Type pairing is an art used to dramatically improve a typographic system with unity and variety. The characteristics of typefaces can compliment and harmonize with each other to create eye-catching combinations and breathe new life into any layout.

Here are the three steps we recommend:

1. Consider Classifications
2. Blend Characteristics
3. Find Balance in the Details

Step 1: Consider Classifications

Type classifications fall into two basic categories: serif and sans serif. A serif typeface has features that resemble small ‘feet’ connected at the end of the strokes. A sans serif typefaces does not have the ‘feet.’ The French word ‘sans’ means without.

Digging deeper, we introduce students to four simple classifications within the serif category and four within the sans serif category. There are more, but four is a great place to get started.

Within the serifs category, there are four basic classifications. 

Humanist Serifs typically have low contrast throughout the strokes. If the letterform looks like it could have been drawn with a pen with a 45-degree angle, it’s likely part of the Humanist class. Some examples of these are Garamond, Minion, and Bembo.

Transitional Serifs have a taller x-height than Humanist serifs and have a bit more detail, such as ball finials, curved tails on the lowercase ‘a’ and medium contracts throughout the strokes. Some examples of these are Plantin, Baskerville, and Caslon.

Modern Serifs have delicate details and high contrast throughout the strokes, with few or no brackets. Some examples of modern serifs are Didot, Bodoni, and Miller.

Slab Serifs with no brackets have thick serifs that are typically the same weight as their main stems and strokes. Some examples of slabs are Boton, Archer, and Rockwell.

Within the sans serif category, there are four basic classifications.

Humanist Sans Serifs,  like Humanist Serifs also look as if the letterform looks like it could have been drawn with a pen with a 45 degree angle, much like the Humanist serif class, but without serifs. Some examples of these are Frutiger, Optima, and Gill Sans.

Gothic Sans Serifs are space savers. Designed with varying widths, these typefaces have minimal contrast, vertical stress and a large x-height. Some examples of these are Franklin Gothic, Whitney, and News Gothic.

Grotesque Sans Serifs were designed 19th century and the first decade or two of the 20th and typically have uniform, upright characters and irregular curves. Some examples of these are Universe, Neue Helvetica, and Franklin Gothic.

Geometric Sans Serifs are built around geometric forms. Many of the letterforms look like shapes with circular bowls and triangular apexes. Some examples of these are Avenir, Futura, and Gotham.

Keep classifications in mind when choosing typefaces to clearly express harmony and personality, and to simplify your complex choices. You’ll want to consider these type classifications to help narrow down your choices quickly and eliminate any need to endlessly scroll through the character palette. 

Each class has particular letterform characteristics and knowing them will help you identify, pair, and save you a ton of time.

Step 2: Blend Characteristics

Blend characteristics such as x-height and character width for better hierarchy preference and balance in overall body. 

X-Heights  The x-height is the distance between the baseline and top of the main body of lower case letters, excluding ascenders or descenders.

Helvetica set at 12 points is not the same size as Caslon set at 12 points. I know, hard to believe. Each design of type is inherently different. There are characteristics that make letterforms larger and smaller-looking, even at the same type size. Helvetica is larger in character width and x-height than Caslon. 

Character Width  The em unit is the standard measurement of the width of a font. Each font will have a different em, loosely based (but not exact) to the width of the capital M.

Another thing I look at for pairing is the letterform variants in the type design, called allographs. These are the differences between single story and double story characters in the lowercase ‘a’ and ‘g.’ One variant is the type we use for writing, the other is best for reading. One is not always preferable over the other (but it depends who your audience is), just be aware of the character set when pairing.

Step 3: Find Balance in the Details

Similarity in the details of both typefaces will create rhythm and balance on the page with subtle notes. Placing two fonts of the typefaces on top of each other will allow you to further analyze the details.

The styles should compliment each other’s personality with a bit of contrast, but not so much that it’s visibly clashing. Remember, you as a designer are a casting director for a movie. You are seeking typographic actors to fill the roles needed to tell your story through the design. Be sure that the overall personalities of your actors do not clash, that one takes a leading role and the other a supporting role, and that they compliment each other in their details.

In creating balance, I’ll look to see if the letterforms have similarity in the details, such as the axis of the o, the overall slope of the characters, the length and height of the ascenders and descenders, and if there’s too much contrast in the personality or age of the typeface.

In our Wine & Type session, we go deeper with strategies and tips for pairing, but I begin with classifications, making sure the characteristics of each typeface blend well, and then look at balance in those tiny details. If they create harmony, balance, and a bit of contrast, then you’re on the right path.

Want to go deeper?

A quick way to find pairs is to use a gigantic superfamily for font pairing. Here are handful of superfamilies to consider.

Cookbook projects require more awareness of the glyph set and a third or fourth typeface to consider.

A deep dive in analyzing and pairing typefaces and fonts can be found in our type pairing class on CreativeLive.

Let me explain.

A mindset is a belief or attitude that orients the way someone handles situations. It predetermines the way a person interprets and responds to a circumstance.

Your mind is an extremely powerful instrument. Just believing in something can help you persevere and achieve the impossible. And what you believe can form your new reality.

And like a broken record, we are constantly stressing, over and over, that it’s the way you think and approach typography which is the real key to long-term success in design. 

You can’t condition your mind by watching YouTube, Skillshare, or reading books! You have to learn, practice, and keep pushing it until it becomes engrained in you and your design decision-making becomes second nature.

Photo courtesy of Bel V. Diriazs

Treat your brain like a muscle. Exercise is key.

Oh, and having the right mindset is the foremost attribute required for any art or creative director. This matters tenfold when you lead a team!

Design mastery is the vehicle that will get you from where you are now to your dreams. So it’s really essential that your mindset be flexible, risk-taking, and always growing.

Keep trying new things, testing limitations, get uncomfortable, expose yourself, leverage your design community, challenge your skills, and do so on a regular basis.

Don’t underestimate the impact of your design work when you can move and motivate a person to take action. Your clients and partners depend on designers to keep moving forward.

That’s why we have been developing focused group coaching programs to help designers grow, improve, and succeed. Along with design discipline, we help to condition your mindset with accountability, celebration, and support.

We take this mindset sh*t seriously, yo. 

I know you’ve had your head down in work lately, so this is what I ask of you to freshen your brain up this week.

Do one of these things, and perhaps it will open your mind, give you a win, or dawn a new perspective:

• Enter your work in the 2018 Communication Arts Typography Competition. The deadline is in two days... and someone you know is a judge!
• Watch my interview with creative business consultant Emily Cohen about pricing strategies. We pack as much into 60 minutes as humanly possible
• Grab a new tee-shirt this week and pledge your commitment to the Grid Life! You live and design by the grid, so wear it on your sleeve
• Register for an upcoming #typedojo interview and hob-nob online with Design Director Jane Moon from Drybar, Art Director & Author Steven Heller, or Type Designer Neil Summerour
• Brush up on the powers and weaknesses of superfamilies in my Communication Arts article

Go forth and work on your mindset. If you need some support, join us and other design professionals just like you, in our Facebook Group.

Why is it important to you to improve your type and design skills? For us, it's to keep the lights on and allow us to keep doing what we love.

Precisely ‘nailing’ a concept pays the bills. How? Targeted concept execution will: 

1. Surprise the stakeholders
2. Capture the attention of their audience
3. Save budget in time and costs
4. Impress your clients
5. Get repeat work

These might sound like outrageous claims more suited for selling Ginsu Knives than typography skills, but hear me out.

For example, way before Michael and I launched Ramp Creative, he was working as an Art Director for a small annual report design firm in Orange County.

One of his earliest report projects that he designed at the firm was the 1998 Quiksilver Annual Report. The company was growing fast, partly thanks to a corporate brochure Michael designed earlier which helped cement the company’s distribution partnership with Nordstrom.

The Quiksilver report project was his baby, and he worked alone on it. Long story short, he and his design team came up with a theme that fit with Quiksilver’s messaging that year, and Michael nailed the concept that produced a successful report which strengthened the firm’s longstanding relationship with the corporation. 

1. Surprise the stakeholders
Michael designed the 1998 annual report to look like a newspaper, in part because the big company news at the time was that they were experiencing record growth. To get this message across quickly to Quiksilver investors and stakeholders, a painstaking effort went into making sure the newspaper looked legit. Michael made sure the typography looked authentic, complete with terribly-justified type in too-narrow columns, with crappy rivers and all.

2. Capture the attention of their audience
Delightful elements were added such as Quiksilver-red surfboards for the graphs. The board graphs became an enjoyable favorite for the company and were used as a graphic element representing growth for each annual report thereafter. 

To add to the feeling of authenticity, Michael also wrote and designed a functioning crossword puzzle in the financial section. Credible-looking details using recognizable typography give the reader an engaging double-take. 

3. Save budget in time and costs
For this much copy on a broadside sheet as shown on the Letter to Shareholders spread, a designer or design team can save hours of modifications and changes if they know what they are doing. Notice the full-justified text fitting to the bottom of the page. The lack of white space in this layout means changes have to be carefully managed with the client.

4. Impress your clients
Michael arranged the first finished print that left the web press to be delivered in its cellophane-wrapped bag to CEO Bob McKnight’s doorstep before dawn. Michael got a call first thing in the morning with much praise.

5. Get repeat work
Well, I’m sure you knew already, but the client kept coming back. Michael continued to design the report every year for another four years until he left the firm, and the design firm still to this day (20 years later) continues designing the corporation’s annual report.

A newspaper format without the authentic typography to fit the theme is a missed opportunity. A great design idea without flawless execution can create mistrust. To me, this is why typography (and the grid) is important.

The key to good typography is no secret, but it is definitely a mindset that takes repeat practice for mastery. I don’t have to tell you, as you’re already working towards these goals.

Great ideas deserve great execution. Go and nail it.

We personally align ourselves to brands that symbolize our values, knowing they help us identify with others who share the same ideals and strengthen those connections between each other. We use brand names, logos, taglines, colors, and messages as smoke signals in a noise-filled world.

As a result, brands are not only integrated into today’s world but also our history. One way we can revisit that history is to look back to the design source materials these household names were built upon.

Standards for Integrity

Brand standards manuals are a codified set of guidelines to uphold the visual integrity of an identity system and served a very practical purpose. A brand identity is a visual system, and the corporate identity manual is the instruction book for anyone using or implementing parts of the system.

These form these manuals were produced were in printed sheets housed in three-ring binders, passed around the company to internal departments, partners, and vendors. They were company documents created to provide graphic guidance for using identity assets for a company.

Symbols of Our Past

Behind these rulebooks are statements of intent that go deeper than logos, symbols, and typographic applications. The organizations above have all made significant contributions to the fabric of American culture and identity, and design has played an integral part throughout. As we look back through the lens of these designed objects, we are also able to look forward.

In 2015, Jesse Reed and Hamish Smyth from Pentagram started Standards Manual, an independent publishing studio in New York City focused on re-issuing former brand standards manuals. They began reissuing vintage standards manuals in case-bound form to archive and preserve these symbols of design history.

Their first reissue project, the 1970 New York City Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual designed by Massimo Vignelli and Bob Noorda, speaks to the relationship of the city, transportation, and navigation. The manual outlined the standards for the use of symbols, typography, color for implementation of wayfinding signage and communications for public transportation in New York City.

The typeface NYCTA Standard Medium was designed by Nick Shermanspecifically for the reissue. According to Standard Manual’s site, “scanned samples of the Graphics Standards Manual contained in this publication were used as the basis of the redrawing. Letter spacing, kerning, and the quirks of Standard Medium were all retained and precisely match those specified in the manual.”

Standard Manual went on to publish the 1975 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Graphic Standards Manual designed by Richard Danne and Bruce Blackburn which brought in $941,966 in funding.

At the time, the original manual was launched with a newly customized thick-lettered “worm logo,” transitioning from their older “meatball logo,” and outlined use of the identity system for implementation on publications, uniforms, vehicles, space shuttles, and more. Because there was only 40 copies of the original manual, it became highly collectible.

With the moon landing just five years prior to publication, the manual’s introduction describes the identity as a “…new tool to enhance and symbolize the progressive path we have always followed.”

Although the original standards manual inspired the reissue, the project was not sponsored by NASA. During the Kickstarter campaign, NASA released a full PDF of the original graphic standards manual on their web site.

Their third project was issue of the 1973 Official Symbol of The American Revolution Bicentennial Official Graphics Standards Manual — the logo for America’s 200th birthday party.

The manual demonstrate the construction of the symbol and demonstrated application to certificates, vehicles, TV spots, building signage and more.

The manual’s designer, Bruce Blackburn, notes, “What an intimidating challenge… just take 200 years of history and distill them into a form that would make a good lapel pin. Not exactly a piece of cake.”

Standards Manual’s newest venture, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identity, designed in 1977 by Chermayeff & Geismar is being Kickstarted in partnership with Earthjustice and AIGA.

What was originally produced as printed sheets in a three-ring binder will be reproduced as a case-bound book with a slipcase. The manual will feature the EPA logo, usage, colors, patterns and demonstrate implementation of collateral, reports and more.

There’s no denying that design has played a valuable role in giving a strong voice to the work of the EPA. To quote the ongoing Kickstarter campaign, “Like the NASA Graphics Standards Manual, the EPA manual was commissioned as a result of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) ‘Federal Graphics Improvement Program.’ This manual beautifully encapsulates the role design has played in advancing federal programs for public good.”

With the recent threats to EPA funding and relevance in the current administration, bringing awareness to the EPA (and the NEA) through this re-issue is timely. The Kickstarter campaign ends on Friday May 26, 2017, at 3:00 PM PST.

Symbols of Our Future

Today, brand standards are still necessary to upkeep the intent and integrity of a visual system, although recently referred to as style guides, brand standards, identity guidelines, and brand books.

Most contemporary standards manuals are distributed online via web pages or PDFs. No longer tangible or as easy to reference, but also not as difficult to carry around the office. These manuals can be found on the internet, as they typically published as public information. Logo Design Love maintains an updated list of style guides.

Brand standards were important then and arguably more important now as companies cross borders and expand into the global economy. In a brand-obsessed society, consumers also need strong visual systems in order to comprehend and communicate.

Most of the PDF guides will range from 12 to 50 pages and cover digital applications after the logo and system specifications. Few of today’s manuals will succeed 100 pages, unlike the 200-page epitomes from the past.

A wonderful aspect of Standard Manual’s reissues is that they are weighty and substantial, giving us a tactile understanding of how standard manuals functioned for communications in the 60s and 70s. It makes us nostalgic for how design functioned in an era not so long ago.

(Originally published on the AIGA OC Medium channel)

I had originally thought that ‘widows’ were those lonely words on the last line of a paragraph and that ‘orphans’ were the lonely lines of a paragraph at the start or end of a column. However, when book designer Shannon Losorelli-Doronio started teaching in the TypeEd program she learned it a different way and remembered them as “an orphan has no past; a widow has no future.”

Ellery Curran addressed the mix-up on the Opus Design site saying "you can call them whatever you want, maybe widphans or ordows? They are a problem and need to be fixed!"

So I Googled the terms to get a straight answer (SPOILER ALERT: there is none). And as I expected, there are four ways the internet defines these two terms. Names of things do not typically affect what they really are. No matter what their names really are, at least the agreement across the board is that both of these type crimes are still very painful to look at.

Orphan: single line at the bottom of a paragraph
Widow: single line at the top and bottom of a column

Magazine Designing says that“ a “Widow” is a line of text at the end of a paragraph separated from the rest of the text, meaning that this line is either in the next column or in the next page. It can also appear as an opening line of a paragraph at the bottom of the column or a page, thus separated from the rest of the paragraph. “Orphan” is a word or few words in its own row that end a paragraph, thus creating too much white space between paragraphs.”

James Felici says via Layers Magazine that ’according to my typographic tutelage (dating well back into the last century, before personal computers), a widow is a short last line of a paragraph. An orphan is a short fragment of a paragraph that appears at the top or the bottom of a column. A widow that appears at the top of a column can also be an orphan. Poor dear.‘

Orphan: single word at the bottom of a paragraph and bottom of a column
Widow: single line at the top of a column

Ryan Boudreaux on the TechRepublic site addresses orphans and widows in web design and says ‘widows leave too much white space between paragraphs or at the top of a page. This interrupts the reader's eye, disrupts the reading process, and can even deter comprehension. Orphans are single words that are left alone at the end of a paragraph. An orphan is a word, part of a word, or very short line that appears by itself at the end of a paragraph. An orphan can also be a paragraph-opening line that appears by itself at the bottom of a page/column. Orphans result in too much white space between paragraphs or at the bottom of a page.”

Adobe InDesign's help page mentions “you can eliminate orphans and widows, words or single lines of text that become separated from the other lines in a paragraph. Orphans fall at the bottom of a column or page, and widows fall at the top of a column or page.”

The Chicago Manual of Style states that an orphan is a "short line appearing at the bottom of a page, or a word or part of a word appearing on a line by itself at the end of a paragraph. Orphans can be avoided by changes in wording or spacing that either remove the line or lengthen it," and “a widow is a "short, paragraph-ending line appearing at the top of a page." Widows should be avoided when possible by changes in wording or spacing that either remove the line or lengthen it. 

Orphan: single line at the top of a column
Widow: single line at the bottom of a column and single word at the bottom of a paragraph

The Book Designer mentions, “because there are so many paragraphs, there’s a kind of random distribution that happens in books. If you get to the bottom of a page and there’s only room for one more line, and that line is the first line of a paragraph, you will have an odd look at the bottom of that page. This is a widow. On other pages, just the last line of a paragraph may bump to a new page, leaving a stub of a line at the top. That’s an orphan.”

Cheeky Monkey Media states, “the widow, is a word or word fragment that sits at the end of a paragraph of type. This will cause a visual disruption to the colour of the page. The orphan is the worse of the villainous duo, whereas the widow sits at the bottom or end of a paragraph, the orphan sits at the top of a column or page. The orphan also breaks up the horizontal alignment across the top of the page which is very important. It should be noted that different sources will disagree with what a ‘widow’ and what an ‘orphan’ are, in fact, some sources reverse the meanings altogether. At the end of the day, regardless of what you call them, the transgressions should be identified and rectified.”

Orphan: single line at the top of a column and single word at the bottom of a paragraph
Widow: single line at the bottom of a column

Matthew Butterick mentions on his Practical Typography book site, ”Or­phans ap­pear at the be­gin­ning of a para­graph, so they’re at least a full line. But wid­ows can be any length, even a sin­gle word, be­cause they ap­pear at the end of a paragraph.“

And finally, to stress the point that these terms are somewhat interchangeable, Dictionary.com has this entry for “orphan.” Ugh.

* There’s no debate for counter and bowl, I just get them mixed up sometimes.

What are your definitions of Orphans and Widows? How did you learn the terms? Let me know in the comments!

I enjoy working with people who are serious about learning how to better their typography skills and make strides in their work. Those of you who have taken my Boot Camp Clinic know how these repetitive drills can strengthen your typesetting muscle memory and sharpen your eye. 

I’d like to help you improve the typography work by spending some time reviewing your work and giving feedback on your projects. I’m seeking three designers to join me for private face-to-face portfolio reviews and to give some specific suggestions to help you improve your type.

So, at the end of April, I’m giving away an hour-long private mentoring session (worth $150) to three lucky designers who post their finished page in my Boot Camp: Core Typesetting Training in InDesign Skillshare Class. The session will be conducted privately via video online and recorded for your reference.

Here’s the challenge: enroll, perform the suicide drills, complete the page in 10 minutes or less and post the final PDF in the Skillshare Class.

Three winners will be chosen randomly, but if you set your page in anything other than the default face Minion, your changes may be boosted (no promises)! If you’ve already posted your project, then you’re in the running.

Winners will be chosen from the Projects tab on April 30 and contacted via project comment. Good luck and see you in Skillshare!

As I progress in my design skills, I notice imperfections in my work, especially in my old work! And as I continually train my eye, I notice imperfections in type around me, as we call type crimes. Knowledge is a curse. Although ignorance is bliss, that doesn't mean the reader is not interrupted while reading.

Micro typography is an advanced practice to improve readability and can demonstrate an elegant, uninterrupted, and cared-for reading experience. Micro typography encompasses small adjustments on the character-level and address typeface and weight choice, hierarchy, spacing, alignments, justification and hyphenation preferences, kerning, beautiful rags, and choices and placements of glyphs so on.

Well-designed passages of text allow readers to become engrossed in the content and the words. Attentive designers who design for the reader can use micro-typographic practices to steer clear of awkward spaces, odd weights or spaces, and other distracting speed bumps on the page.

I feel a major typographic difference while reading an issue of Worth Magazine compared to reading the Los Angeles Business Journal.

The perception is that Worth costs more (or has a higher value) than Los Angeles Business Journal is from the proportional handling of the grid and typography. Choices in typeface, hierarchy, contrast and layout to build a strong a design system can make a huge difference (view our redesign proposal of the Journal).

Glyph Spacing
A detail that helps to support a continuous reading experience is spacing. Here’s some guidelines for use of spaces between glyphs and type (did I forget any? Let me know).

Glyphs that need a space after are:

• copyright symbol

Glyphs that need a space both before and after are:

• plus and minus signs within mathematical equations
• ampersands

Glyphs that sit right next to type are:

• registered marks
• trademarks
• asterisks
• positive and negative signs
• degree symbols
• at symbol
• primes and quotes
• currency signs (if placed within body copy)

Glyph Placement
Michael Stinson, my partner, speaks on the below video clip about how to place registered marks and trademarks alongside a wordmark.

Here are some examples of registered marks and trademarks with type lined up to type.

He also demonstrates some small adjustments to typeface choice, hyphenation and justification to improve the design of a magazine article and how to overhang punctuation in Adobe InDesign.

Fine-tuning your type control can make a huge difference and increase the reader’s comprehension. Good typography is about subtlety. And the discriminating reader will distinguish the difference between a good reading experience and an outstanding one.

Chat with Chank Diesel of Chank Fonts

Take Notice Of What’s Around You “I am just in a heightened aware state at the time; I’m not checking my email, I’m not checking my phone, I’m just very conscious of my surroundings. And I have found that a lot of beautiful typography is at the tops of buildings, where people don’t normally look, in back alleys, and manhole covers, which is one of my favorites. Just the utilitarian design; on railroad tracks, and graffiti, that most people, on a given day, they're too busy to stop and notice.” — Nikki Villagomez, Author & Creative Studio Manager at Dixon Hughes Goodman LLP

Process is Important “Take advantage of the digital tools to create perfection. Just knowing you can start with fairly very wobbly. Think of letters in terms of clay that you’re going to sculpt. They don’t need to be fully sculpted before you jump to the digital side of things. At CCA, we do this, we do a baptism-by-fire. In the case of the design studio at CCA, we start by wide-open concepting, insane letter-drawing, with no judgement or no preciousness at all.” — Rod Cavazos, Principal at PSY/OPS & Adjunct Professor at California College of the Arts (CCA)

Seek Critique “Critique is really incredibly important. Especially for me, having been self-taught, without any formal education and resources. I feel like we need to do more to go out of our way to seek critique. Because we tend to have this “artist-mentality,” even designers, often, where we feel offended if somebody has something to say about our work that needs to be changed. But you can also give critique and help others. As long as you are giving critique in the spirit of helping others grow, rather than simply being negative about it. It's a really really valuable thing to give somebody and it's always, something we should be seeking out as well.” — Joseph Alessio, Typographic Illustrator and Lettering Artist

Discover Your Tribe “Berlin has a lot to do with my career turn, that’s when I started to do lettering professionally. Berlin is a city all about type. It is one of the cities with more of the type designers in the world, so you see type everywhere. There’s meetings every month where you see type nerds sharing their font projects, there’s even a museum, the Museum of Letters. So, typography here is very important topic, and the topics of legibility, readability, clarity are really essential here.” — Martina Flor, Berlin-Based Lettering Artist

Chat with Gemma O'Brien from her studio in Sydney, Australia

Show Your Progress “This was one of the first typefaces that I designed. I used to be embarrassed to show this stuff, because I was just trying too hard to impress people, but I’m not afraid of it anymore, but I think this kind of showing of a milestone [is important]. One of the first things that I was learning about type design is stroke contrast; and sort of the difference between the thicks and the thins and where they should go, and where they shouldn’t go. Also, a lot of stuff about optical adjustments, overshoots, those kind of technical things. Also the value of prototyping, I had drawn all of the letters, and when I wanted to make a change to the stroke contrast, I had to go through and change it on every single letter and it was really time-consuming.” — Terrance Weinzierl, Type Designer at Monotype

Keep Evolving “I had the mindset that a lot of young designers had, I just wanted to make really cool shit. And over a 22-year period, that’s changed. And I’ve become more and more concerned about how the things that we're doing create change for people. How they impact people’s lives. How they deliver value to businesses. As well as the design of the business itself. And so, my philosophy has become much broader, much more concerned about how all the pieces fit together, and how they influence each other, rather than just the aesthetic, which used to be enough, it's just no longer enough for me.” — Steven Ryan, Partner, Design Discipline Lead at R&S Marching Arts

I’m looking forward to another year of Typography Dojo! Hope you’ll join me by following us on Crowdcast or by subscribing to the YouTube channel.

I was taught to handle both ends of the type spectrum. Meaning, you can hand-draw type, which is lettering, where you’re handling three or four words at the max. I was also taught that a good designer has to be able to handle 300 words or more on a page in typesetting. A good designer needs to handle both.

I tell my designers, “I’m not training you to be a designer beyond school, I’m training you to be a creative director hopefully someday.” Where they can handle all levels of type and whether it’s directing someone for lettering for a specific magazine cover, or you’re directing a staff that has to handle a lot of content. And handling of the content is being overlooked, if you will, in the education part of the design industry.

That's what we try to bring back, the fundamentals, because it is a little bit more on the 'technical' side rather than the 'art' side. And I think that for a lot of programs in the universities, and graphic designers starting out, their perspective of what design is in the beginning too, they don’t expect that technicality. I tell them, that’s the beauty of graphic design, the balance between the technical and the art.

That’s why we pride ourselves in the fundamentals like, just going from Roman to Bold. Or a subhead let's say.

I was taught there’s a process of building up hierarchy on a page and you always start with the body copy. And then you move up to the subhead, then the header, and you work your way up the page. Because everything’s relatively proportioned to one another as you build it. And so there’s a definite process in that.

Designers these days, they don’t like process. They want to jump to making it look good. So I try to drag them through that process a little slower so it sticks in their mind, because I’ve watched a lot of interns and designers come through my office trying to do layout, composition, typesetting, image manipulation, all that, in one shot and waste a lot of time and money.

We were taught the way to layout something, especially for print, is: format, grid, type, composition; and then you can go into—when everything’s copyfitted and everything’s arranged–go back and add images and color last.

If you get your process in place, it can be applied to anything. Whether it’s designing for a yacht, or a magazine spread, or a mobile app, it’s the same mentality because type is always involved. Some of those examples might have more type than others of course, but you always want to have the same mentality because the type always goes on first.

It’s not just the design of the yacht, it’s about the experience of the patrons reserving it. It’s also what the name sounds like and how it appears everywhere. Where does it appear? Does it appear on the back of the boat? If you take that into consideration, consideration of the type, even if it’s only five characters, it should be dealt with as a channel of communication rather than just a logo mark.

You have to emphasize the value of what’s being read there. And that’s what a lot of business execs don’t understand, is that there’s more in those five characters than you think. It’s not just representing the voice of your company and how you sound, it’s how you look, how you speak, whether it’s succinct, professional, luxury, whatever it is, a split second, in that little mark.

And where you place it, needs to be thought out. I know it seems trivial sometimes, it seems like such a small thing, but it’s really important. Especially for branding these days.

An excerpt from my interview with Prescott Perez-Fox on the Busy Creator Podcast.

I grew up with children’s books, and truly loved the stories. Every evening, a favorite book of mine renewed a spark of imagination before bedtime. Story time was the fun part of school while delivering life’s lessons and eventually encouraging me to read. Those books provide me the adventure I craved, allowed me to become a hero for a day and granted me permission to visit new worlds in my daydreams.

The books also gave me and my classmates our very first taste of typography and illustration. Those pictures welcomed us in, but it was the words which really hooked us and carried us away. Some books were easier to read, and some more difficult, depending on our age and reading ability. Word length, character size, and quantity of type versus white space on the page either created comfort or presented a challenge.

In the 70s, the time of my childhood, most of our classic children’s books were typeset in large typefaces from the classifications Humanist Serif (or Old Style) and Transitional Serif.

Both serif styles differ in calligraphic style and stroke contrast, but they were both used in children’s books for their similar legibility.

These two classes were popular for book typesetting because they are easy to read, mainly attributed from the following five characteristics.

1. High x-height  The x-height of a character refers to the visual size of the typestyle, not the point size. Compare the heights of the lowercase ‘x’ from a Humanist Serif to another typeface, and that will give you an idea of how ‘large’ and legible it is. Both of these are Transitional Serifs, but Baskerville is easier to read than Mrs. Eaves, because of its high x-height.
2. Large counters  Another indication of letterform size is in the size of the counters. Letters containing closed counters include A, B, D, O, P, Q, R, a, b, d, e, g, o, p, and q. Open counters have apertures (open “mouths”) and exist in the letters c, f, h, i, s and so on. When the counters are larger, they are easier to read.
3. Wide bracketed serifs  Brackets are the curved connection between the stem and serif. Think of a wall being a stem and a shelf being a serif. A bracket is used under the shelf to hold it up. Wide serifs with brackets help the reader identify the letter.

4. Double-story allographs  Allographs are considered variants of a letter. The lowercase versions of letter g and letter a have two types of variants. The one we learned how to write in grade school penmanship is single-story. The alternative is double-story. The double-story variants are easier to read because there’s more visual indicators in the letterform.
5. Moderate contrast in stroke variation due to calligraphic origins  When there is some contrast and stroke distinction in the letterform, it aids in readability.

The overall layout of the text pages implies the reading level. Large format, type size, white space and illustrations will visually communicate that the book is for beginners. Smaller page size, smaller type size and dense copy with little or no visuals will appeal to older readers. When a child opens the book, they know if they can read it or not, before reading any of the words.

The book Corduroy by Don Freeman (1976) is about a bear who wanders around a department store after closing time. It was a favorite of mine when I was very young. Looking at the text page, the copy is set in a classic Humanist typeface called Palatino, which has a large x-height and wide counters. Only one or two sentences are set at a time, which indicates the book is for toddlers.

Early readers love Little Golden Books. I used to carry my 12-book box set around the house and would pull out the gold-spined volumes one-by-one. One of the originals, The Poky Little Puppy by Janette Sebring Lowrey (1942) is also set in a Humanist typeface, Garamond.

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White (1952) is a book written for tween readers. The page is set in Caslon, which has been classified both as Humanist and Transitional Serif.

Pull out your old books and take a look inside. Most of the classics were set in serif. And more recent ones, depending on their concept, might be set in sans serif. Either way, they probably have large x-heights, wide characters, and two-story allographs to keep kids reading.

Which books did you love as a child? Did they have memorable typesetting? I’d love to know what typography first influenced you as a young reader.

All book images are sourced courtesy of Google books and material copyrighted by their authors.

My partner Rachel has been interviewing designers called in a series called Typography Dojo. On the program we’ve had lettering artists, type designers and typographers.

One message that many of our guests have shared is the importance of mentorship.

When Joseph Alessio began lettering, he found a small tight-knit community on Dribble who provided him de-facto education “that wasn't shy about giving critique. While there’s resources online, there's nothing quite like someone who knows what they are doing and is able to take a look at your work.”

Martina Flor said her type design work vastly improved after she joined the Typostammich in Berlin. Within the group, there were notable designers and she wondered if they would welcome her. She ended up finding inspiration, encouragement and respect with the design community. “By putting pressure on my work, they contribute a lot.”

If you’re a self-starter, sometimes a little nudge could set you in the right direction. Gemma O’Brien mentioned she had a tutor who helped her initially set type and then she spread her wings from that point on.

Almost 40% of the workforce are now freelance, contract and over 26% of all employees work remotely, which leaves most young people without mentors.

Mentors were typically found on your first job; a boss or manager who took you under their wing to show you the ropes. You were paid to learn on the job and used those skills to continue your career path.

My mentor taught me how to set type on a page in the phototypesetting era, with boards, blue pencils, a waxer and a T-square. From there, I translated what I learned to the computer and to this day still use the same approach in my digital work.

“Mentors provide the knowledge we are missing, open doors to new connections, and impart philosophies we otherwise would have had to wait years to learn,” Sasha VanHoven mentions in 99u article Mentorship as You Know It Is Dead. “Mentors themselves aren’t extinct, the models under which they existed are,” she noted. “Look for a mentor not only by what they can teach you, but by what you can teach them as well.”

The lack of design mentorship has left a huge gap in the creative workforce.

Dan Mall, founder of design collaborative Superfriendly confirms in this video. “You go to school and learn your craft then enter the field to do your work. However, this straight edge process has left out a middle phase for the educated people that need to learn by doing (because the jobs they want are only available for the already qualified candidate).”

But where can you find mentorship? Joseph found it online within Dribble, Martina discovered it in her local meet up, and I was hired into it. But being hired might not mean you’ll get a mentor. Within the same company, especially at large companies, can prove difficult. Andrew Hwang at Facebook says to network as much as possible. He wrote, “collaborating on the same project is a great way to learn from and find mentorship in a designer you admire.”

What if you don’t work at the same company? Cross-industry and company seekers might find one within the AIGA design community with many local chapters hosting mentorship programs of their own. Join a local Meetup group to find other designers in your specialty. Online, Re:Create looks to be an online mentor-matching service.

We have curated an online group to mentor and support designers in their growth, called the Varsity Team. Our Varsity Team knows the value of mentorship well. We are a small group of designers with different specialties; brand identity, print, UX, web, packaging, etc. supporting each other in improving typography skills, design process and even career direction. We are enrolling now for the Fall session. If you’re interested in joining us, fill out the application to get started, enrollment closes on September 1.

Who knows, mentorship may be found in your existing circles, if you just look. Be sure constantly seek out those who you can learn from, and also teach. Not doing so means you may miss an opportunity to grow.

And you know what? This isn’t an isolated situation. We hear this frustration all the time. This type of work comes up often among the Varsity Team members.

Graphic designers spend a lot of time trying to figure out where to start with pairing typefaces to symbols.

As a matter of fact, I’ll never forget my first freelance product logo with then-client Canon Business Machines in which I logged over 120 hours in designing. I remember staying up all night looking at logo books and scrolling through the font palette, not knowing where to start.

I couldn’t bill them all those hours, so I lost my big on that project. Instead of making $1,500 on that logo, I probably lost $1,500. I guess Canon paid for my education. And it didn’t even turn out that great.

What went wrong?

First of all, I didn't understand how important type was. I was focused on the symbol, and was using the letterforms to fill in space.

I assumed that great logos were all about the symbol, and the company name didn’t matter. On most logos, I didn't notice the type. I realize now that is the one thing that demonstrates good typography.

I was referencing bad logos. I didn't know what was good at the time. I had zero guidance.

Have you ever known someone to design their own logo? Or commission their cousin or secretary because they had Adobe software? Those logos are all over the place. Uninformed, unfocused and amateur. Now that I look back, I see the answers were easy to find. I should have studied the masters.

I didn't know what the look for. I didn't realize that classifications and characteristics were important to understand.

Typography fundamentals matter. Even in logo design. Especially in logo design. When you're building a visual communication tool that will be used by a company for upwards of 10 years and placed on everything from a side of a building to the surface of a golf ball, those fundamentals matter.

Want to save some time finding core typefaces for logos? Michael and I address this issue and provide some guidelines in this video recorded during one of our monthly Alumni Calls.

First watch the video, and then I want you to take a minute to test your pairing skills.

Soulspace was a client of ours, a Hawaiian yoga sanctuary, in which we developed a few early logo directions for.

Take a look at these three directions, and look at the symbol and the type. What do you notice?

Let’s see if you can decide which of these three logotype variations work best, and why.

Don’t say which one you LIKE the best, because when it comes to design, it's not about what you like, it's what works to communicate visually.

So, in your opinion which works best? A, B or C? Leave your comment here with your best guess on which one works, and state why you think so.

Type designer Hrant Papazian designed the Trajic notRoman, which consists of invented glyphs, questioning the decipherablility of various forms and put to the test in a real-world experiment at TypeCon 1998. What is a “Q”? What is the morphological essence of a letter? Such questions led to an experiment that taunted the limits of legibility in order to better understand the character-recognition processes of the human mind.

MicroFoundry Designer Hrant Papazian is a diasporan Armenian living in Los Angeles. It helped that his family was living in Silicon Valley exactly when the personal computer was born, so making digital Armenian fonts was a natural outcome. Eventually he started making money at it and has expanded into working with Latin and other writing systems. He presented Trajic notRoman at TypeCon in 1998 and we asked him a few questions about the project.

Why Trajic notRoman?

I love exploring, the unknown. When I see a letterform I wonder how it works, how it wanders, where it might take us. I see the written word as a malleable tool, just like spoken language, and as a designer I want to help amplify and enrich it. I believe the best way to do that is to change it, so I started exploring the limits of the Latin alphabet.

I chose the Trajan font as the ideally ironic source to design all the possible “mutations” I imagined had a chance of being identified as the intended letter. I named the resultant font Trajic notRoman (as a play on Times New Roman).

I presented Trajic at the first TypeCon in 1998; during that presentation I tried to –informally–gauge the decipherability of many of the forms, and learned a good deal from that feedback. Although I sometimes mention Trajic online and during conference talks, I haven’t presented it in its full form since; however I do feel its speculative essence makes it persistently relevant.

What was the outcome? Did the reaction reveal anything?

One thing I learned is that what people explicitly state they can read is not the same as what their more free-wheeling subconscious reading mechanism can interpret; that has guided my work in text typeface design ever since.

Another outcome is that I realized there was a strong demand for such speculative fonts! Over the years many people emailed me asking to buy a copy of Trajic notRoman. Having derived it from the actual outlines of Adobe Trajan for the sole purpose of field-testing the concept, I could not legally or ethically sell or even give away the font. I could have made a font from scratch based on my invented structures and sold that resultant font, but frankly I’m not a good businessman, and I’m prone to favor contemplation and discussion over action!

I know that’s anathema to the contemporary approach to creativity, but I feel simply making something leads to mere refinement of the thing, while I’m a bigger fan of cultural progress, which is essentially in the mind.

What's next for you?

I'm a juror for the TypeCon protoType competition and exhibition, designed to discover and promote the most notable examples of speculative typeface design. Speculation here implies trying out unconventional ideas in pursuit of new functionality.

Good typography is ultimately about designing a great reading experience. The best practices for typography are mostly the same across different mediums, however the way we apply it and make it work varies. Pages on the web deserve harmony no matter what device you're reading it on.

I'm always looking for courses to keep me up on my game. Although most of these combine web application with typography fundamentals, the courses focus on one area of web type; web fonts, web layout, responsive typography, font stacks, media queries, proportion, rendering and more. Here's a few I've found helpful.

An Introduction to Web Fonts & Modern Web Typography taught by Simon Foster, Web Designer on Skillshare. The session covers CSS media queries, reading distance, font hosting services and more in an hour-long class, $6-$10/month subscription.

Web Typography taught by Mattox Shuler on Team Treehouse. The class covers typography basics, choosing and using web fonts, laying type out for the web, and responsive typography in the 4.5 hour-long class, $25/month subscription.

Responsive Typography Techniques with Val Head on Lynda.com. In a little over 2 hours, hosted fonts, sizing, typographic scale, font stacks, line lengths and media queries are covered. Very clearly explained, $19.99-$29.99/month subscription.

Fundamentals of Design taught by Tim Dikun on Code School. This course covers typography classifications, size, leading, weights, line-width and widows. Because it's a design class, it also covers colors and layout, Free.

Responsive Typography with Jason Pamental on Front End Masters. This 6 hour extended class covers typography basics, sizing, performance, proportion, font rendering and more, $39/month.

Do you have any courses that you've taken online that helped you understand web typography?