Chapter 2 Reflection | Nauseda

Chapter 2 discusses the visual and structural elements that make up type, as well as a brief history on where certain aspects come from. For instance, the origin of Sans-Serif typefaces. It mentions the influence that the properties of early brushes and reeds, originally used for creating hand-written text, had on early typography. This was one aspect of the chapter that I found particularly interesting, because one wouldn't generally associate the typefaces used on, say, a computer, with writings that were created hundreds of years ago. However, the connection that modern type design has with these early writing styles is undeniable, no matter how subtle.

The chapter also has an in-depth look at the different vocabulary elements/parts that make up letter forms, such as ascenders, descenders, hairlines, and counters. These vary widely between styles and even within a font family, but their characteristics do not change. The portion about proportions was another interesting area of discussion, especially the visual demonstration using the letter 'O'. The proportion of stroke to hairline can completely change the feel of a particular typeface. The Ultra Bodoni 'O' seems like something one would see on the cover a 1930's magazine, while the regular Bodoni is so tame in comparison, it looks like it might be used for a newspaper print today, despite having been made over two-hundred years prior to the Ultra Bodoni.

After going over certain generic types of type, like Serif, Egyptian, Sans-Serif, etc., the discussion turns to measurement. Given the relationship of this section to the project we had just done in class, I was more than impressed at the level of detail that went in to early printing. I cannot fathom having to be so attentive to details when fine tuning the metal type blocks. It's not something the average person would notice or even think about when reading their morning newspaper, which is something I think this whole chapter was aiming at explaining.

This is an image I found interesting for this chapter because it not only explains the forms of the letters, it also creates an illustration with meaningful words using those forms.