The Return of Sherlock Holmes Cover Series
To celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the U.S. Edition of The Return of Sherlock Holmes in 2005, a prominent New York publishing firm has decided to publish each of the 13 stories separately and release them together in a deluxe boxed set. You have been asked to submit a set of three covers as part of your design proposal. Choose three stories from the list below and become familiar with them. Then design a set of three 24p x 42p book covers to compliment these stories. Designs should not use iconography typically associated with Sherlock Holmes; they should seek to solve the problem in an original way. Designs must function as an identifiable set. Designs may be in full-color or black-and-white. They needn’t be computer-generated. They must relate to the content of stories themselves.
Week 1: Students present several ideas to the class. Presentations will be formal, either pinned-up or presented in flats on tables. Ideas will be discussed and refined. Students should be familiar with some or all of the stories in order to best participate in the critique. A minimum of three and maximum of ten directions is expected. Students working on the computer must show versions of their work, not just a single solution.
Week 2: Reading response due for “Paperback Nabokov” due Tuesday before class. In-class discussion of the article “Paperback Nabokov.” Individual meetings. Further refinement and progress monitoring. Final direction selected.
Week 3: Final critique. Covers should be presented trimmed to size and mounted on a single piece of black foamcore pinned to the wall for critique. Students will make a 5-minute statement of introduction, followed by comments from the class.
Available Titles
The Adventure of the Empty House
The Adventure of the Norwood Builder
The Adventure of the Dancing Men
The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist
The Adventure of the Priory School
The Adventure of Black Peter
The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton
The Adventure of the Six Napoleons
The Adventure of the Three Students
The Adventure of the Golden Prince-Nez
The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter
The Adventure of the Abbey Grange
The Adventure of the Second Stain
This assignment is from the class Letters, Symbols, and Composition.
Logo for a Classmate
Go on the Union Square Logo Hunt and discuss.
Lecture: Taxonomic structure of logos.
Reading: “Development of Form through Writing and Printing Techniques” by Adrian Frutiger [Signs and Symbols]
Reading: “History” by Per Mollerup [Marks of Excellence]
Divide into pairs and interview each other for an hour or so. Get to know each others’ likes, tastes, favorite words, colors, fashions, etc. Take good notes, you will use this information for the next four weeks.
Week 1: Use the information you’ve gathered in this week’s class to develop a logo for the classmate that you’ve interviewed. Come to class next week prepared to show fifty logo ideas in an organized fashion. From that batch, nominate 3-5 logos to continue developing. We will critique these.
Week 2: Based on the critique and further development, show how the logos you selected the previous week have progressed. Choose one logo in this group to render in final form. During this finalization process, read pp.69–177 of Paul Rand’s Design, Form, and Chaos to understand what a logo presentation book is, and how to tell the “story” of your logo’s development by thoughtfully introducing and rationalizing its form. Begin gathering materials (writing, illustration, research) for this presentation book.
Week 3: Present a finalized logo and an initial sketch/comp for your presentation book. We will critique both items in tandem.
Week 4: Refine the logo and book as necessary. Final critique.
This assignment is from the class Letters, Symbols, and Composition.
Union Square Logo Hunt
Here is your first assignment. There are logos all around you, and for the purposes of this class and for your future work as designers it is good to become aware of them and what you think of them. Break into three teams and go out into Union Square. In one hour, find as many logos as you can in one of the following categories and bring them back to class, in physical, photographed, or sketched form:
Animals
Arrows
Birds
Botanical Motifs (Leaves, Trees, Flowers)
Buildings
Crosses
Crowns
Dogs
Eyes
Flags
Fragments
Geometric Figures
Globes
Greek alphabet
Handwriting
Hearts
Initials
Keys
Lightning
Lions
Maritime
Möbius Strips / Infinity Symbols
Music
Mythology
Numbers
Science
Serpents
Stars
Waves
X
Meet back in the classroom and we’ll discuss what your team has found.
List above from Per Mollerup’s Marks of Excellence.
This assignment is from the class Letters, Symbols, and Composition.
The Seven Bridges of Königsburg
In 1736, Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler discovered the solution to a problem that the citizens of Königsburg had argued about for quite some time. He described the problem as follows:
In the town of Königsberg in Prussia there is an island A, called “Kneiphoff”, with the two branches of the river (Pregel) flowing around it. There are seven bridges, a, b, c, d, e, f, and g, crossing the two branches.The question is whether a person can plan a walk in such a way that he will cross each of these bridges once but not more than once. I was told that while some deny the possibility of doing this and others were in doubt, there were none who maintained that it was actually possible. On the basis of the above I formulated the following very general problem for myself: Given any configuration of the river and the branches into which it may divide, as well as any number of bridges, to determine whether or not it is possible to cross each bridge exactly once.
For next week’s class, create a single, black-and-white, 51p x 66p sheet that visualizes the problem and its solution. The purpose of your sheet is to teach others how to solve the Königsburg Bridge Problem, so you must use the tools and conventions of typography to help make the information clearer, and you must use whatever resources you have available to teach yourself more about the problem so that you may thougtfully explain it to an audience by way of your design. You may use one typeface only for your solution. Please note that you only have one week to complete the assignment. Good luck.
This assignment is from the class Letters, Symbols, and Composition.
A Set
Begin collecting items that are part of a set. Items should be three-dimensional. The governing principal of the set should be formal. No items in the set should be a set on their own. No items should be purchased for inclusion in the set. The entire set should be easily transported.
Part 1: Bring in the first item for your set and be prepared to discuss it.
Part 2: Bring in a total of seven objects for your set and be prepared to discuss them.
Part 3: Bring in a total of fourteen objects for your set and be prepared to discuss them.
Part 4: Bring in between 20 and 30 objects for your set.
Part 5: Display the set somewhere in the classroom. Items in the set should be numbered for display. Evaluate each of the sets on display. Nominate any necessary items for removal in writing. Give these nominations to the owner of the set.
Part 6: Remove items based on your classmates’ nominations.
Replace these items if necessary. Add to the set if necessary.
Part 7: Classify each of your classmates’ sets in writing.
Use a single system for each of the classifications. Share these classifications with the class.
Part 8: Classify your own set in this manor.
Part 9: Visually document the set using an appropriate medium. Design a poster for the set. The poster should display the entire set. The poster should display your classification system. Only one typeface should be used in your design.
This assignment is from the class Typography I.
A Chapbook
CHAP’BOOK, n. [See Chap to cheapen.]
1. Any small book carried about for sale by chapmen
or hawkers. Hence, any small book; a toy book.
2. A small book or pamphlet containing poems, ballads, stories, or religious tracts.
Set Jorge Luis Borges’ “The Library of Babel” in book form.
Requirements: The book should not exceed 16 pages, including cover. The book should not be larger than 36p x 54p. The book should not be set in more than one typeface. All text pages should be numbered. All other pages should not be numbered. A running head or foot may be included if appropriate. The book should include a title page and colophon. The cover should be purely typographic. The cover should reflect the book’s internal grid. The text should open on the right with a blank facing page. The colophon should be on the left of the final spread. The book should saddle-stitched.
Part 1: Design a sample text page for your book on tracing paper. Pay special attention to typeface selection, copyblock proportions, alignment, orientation, leading, kerning, and copyfitting. Bring multiple settings to class if necessary, along with annotations detailing your specifications.
Part 2: Using the revised sample text page as a base, flow the text you’ve selected into the book. Design an appropriate opening page based on your book grid.
Part 3: Design an appropriate title page and cover for your book. Fabricate the book.
This assignment is from the class Typography I.
Kerning Exercise
The handout for this project shows the letters for the words “art school” and a lower-case “i” (used for spacing) set in 136pt. Scala, a digital typeface designed by Martin Majoor in 1991. Set the following three versions of “art school” centered top-to-bottom, left-to-right on separate 84p x 66p sheets of tracing paper:
art school Art School ART SCHOOL
All three versions should be completed in black ink.
This assignment is from the class Typography I.
Type Comparisons
Purchase a pad of 108p x 144p (18 x 24 in.) drawing paper, pencils, and black tempera paint. Listen to the introduction to each of the related typefaces. Then, select five of these faces to study. Excluding Ii, Jj, or Ll, draw in pencil the contours of the same upper- or lower-case letter for each of your five faces as large and as accurately as possible on the 108p x 144p drawing paper, being careful not to distort the proportions of the letterforms as you go. Complete as many of these drawings in-class as you are able, and finish them outside of class if necessary. When you’ve finished the drawings, fill the pencil contours in with black tempera to make a solid, black letter.
TC1-Garamonds.pdf
Garamonds (1 of 3): Jannon, Adobe Garamond, Garamond 3,
Berthold Garamond, Stempel Garamond, Sabon, and Galliard.
TC2-Classes.pdf
Classes (2 of 3): Albertus, Centaur, Fette Fraktur, Berthold Baskerville, Bauer Bodoni, Snell Roundhand, and Clarendon.
TC3-Sans.pdf
Sans Serifs (3 of 3): Frutiger, Monotype Grotesque, Akzidenz Grotesk, Univers 55, Helvetica, Syntax, Futura
This assignment is from the class Typography I.
A Deck of Types
Purchase a pack of 36p x 24p (6 x 4 in.) notecards, unlined.
Part 1: On one side of the notecards, draw (in pencil first, then black ink) each of the entries in “Appendix A” (pp. 271–286) of The Elements of Typographic Style as they appear. Make the drawings as large as possible. Then, synthesize Bringhurst’s notes about each of the entries on the other side of the notecards.
Part 2: Select a letter of the alphabet, excluding Ii, Jj, or Ll. Select a typeface and draw (in pencil first, then black ink) the upper- and lower-case letter you’ve selected on one side of one of the notecards. Be creative: type is everywhere. There’s inspiration in class readings, discussions, or simply your visual environment. On the back of the card, write some details about the typeface: who designed it, the year it was designed, other typefaces related to it, outstanding features of the typeface, some aspects of its history, etc. Over the course of the semester, try to add about five cards per week to your deck. At the end of the course, you should have a total of 50. Students who extend their research beyond Bringhurst’s basic catalog will be rewarded.
This assignment is from the class Typography I.
Type You Like
This week, find a piece of typography you enjoy, then bring it in to share with the class. Come prepared to discuss this piece of typography, and, if you can, provide some insight into how it was made, what typefaces were used, why you like it, etc. Use your imagination: posters, shopping bags, receipts, books, magazines, or even clothes are all fertile places for typography.
This assignment is from the class Typography I.
