Monday, January 20, 2014

Brooke Griggs Chapter 2 Reflection

Chapter two concerns the anatomy of type. This beginning portion focuses on the different aspects of letterforms. These terms include the arm, leg, ascender, descender, serif, bowl, etc. The book has the definitions of all of the terms listed along with a visual representation of them.  The next portion of the chapter begins to focus on how individual aspects interact with each other and also how different letterforms interact. It discusses things like stroke-to-height ratio and contrast in stoke weight. Following this, there is another list of definitions including terms like “old style figures” and dingbats. Page 33 has a very interesting type analysis that was very useful when working on our own type analysis. The latter portion of this chapter shows even more examples of all things typography; including specific types of fonts, point sizes, and font families.

This chapter functions as a “field guide” to typography. I feel like if I ever had any questions concerning type or typographic design I could most likely find the answer in here. This is another chapter of this book that definitely benefits from having visual representations of the concepts it is explaining. I feel as though people who are new to typography would be much more confused about the topics being discussed if there was nothing for them to see a visual example.


Like I stated earlier, I used the type analysis on page 33 to help me with my own typeface analysis. The authors were very detailed in their analysis, which helped me better understand, and actually see, the unique qualities of a typeface. Also, the definitions and examples in the beginning of the chapter were also very helpful with the project. I am a very visual learner so it was very helpful to be able to have this chapter to aid me in my further understanding of typography.

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