Type fever, type fever
We know how to do it
(da-da-dun, da-da-dun, da-da-dun)
Gimme that type fever, type fever
We know how to show it
(So let’s show it!)
Ethos, Pathos, Logo
Type is probably more of an appeal of ethos, but type may also evoke emotions. Yes, ethos and pathos aren’t either-or when it comes to design. Elements of a design may relate to both. But you need to recognize (and explain) their boundaries. I’m pretty confident there is no appeal of logos in typography.
- Ethos:
appeal or presentation of one’s character or credibility; characterization- western gear
- fortune cookie
- Algerian
- Pathos:
appeal to emotions; evoking emotional responses- Ford Fairlane
- Close to Delta Airlines logo typeface from 1945-1962
- Magneto
- Happy Days
Some other definitions to consider when distinguishing between ethos, pathos, and logos:
Ethos
- character: an assumption of one’s moral or ethical nature–good, bad, ugly.
- credibility: an assumption that an individual or group is fair minded, believeable, trustworthy.
- characterize: marking an individual, organization, idea, situation, or text (e.g., document) with specific attributes or characteristics.
- For instance, how might you characterize the Jackass movies?
- juvenile
- immaturity
- gross-out humor
- extreme stunts
- For instance, how might you characterize the Jackass movies?
- look and feel: this is an idiomatic expression we use in American English to refer to the qualities, attributes, characteristics, and textures of an item, person, or text.
- “Feel” in this phrasing has NOTHING to do with a speaker or document trying to evoke an emotional responses of an audience.
Why does the following have a look and feel of a Greek restaurant?
Why do the following have a look and feel of a Chinese restaurant?
What’s improper about including the above three images?
Pathos
- emotion: sadness, anger, happiness, joy, celebration, etc.
- affect: response to emotional stimuli.
- feeling: can refer to emotions but is also used for senses like touch, which has NOTHING to do with a speaker or document trying to evoke an emotional responses of an audience.
Additionally, we sometimes claim “I feel like this is a well-designed proposal,” which doesn’t imply an emotion–it’s an assumption or perspective. An assumption, belief, attitude, or opinion is not the same as an emotion. You might “feel” someone is credible or not, but that has NOTHING to do with a speaker or document trying to evoke emotional responses from an audience.
However, one could make an argument that “I feel like you don’t talk to me enough,” represents an attempt to make the listener consider the feelings–emotions–of the speaker, which elicits an emotional response from the listener. That is for the psychologists to figure out. I seriously doubt this will ever be of concern for you in document design. Your personal life, however, might be full of it.
Logos
- logic: as in a formal study and not an audience’s interpretation of what’s “logical”
- argument: reason behind supporting a position through evidence or formal logic (as in syllogism)
- facts: evidence claimed to, assumed to, or known to be true
- statistics: collection, interpretation, and organization of data; often numerical or chart-based representations
Please consider the above elements when doing your assignments and use the terms in your discussions and memos.
Also, unless wikipedia is mistaken (hardly a chance at that), typefaces are not subject to copyright. Check out “Intellectual Property” section on the page.
Type Highlights
I know you use fonts daily, but do you ever stop to think about what they convey? Robin Williams is pretty detailed about how to incorporate typefaces into your designs, but I want us also to think about what typefaces convey. Let’s go over some general information on type:
- boumas (distinctive shape of words)
- Characteristics of letter forms (Kimball & Hawkins, p. 159)
- Serif vs. Sans Serif
- Eye direction and perception
- Serif creates a line
- Sans serif’s vertical look
- roman vs. italic
- Text vs. Display Typefaces
- Verdana
- Bookman Oldstyle
- Monospace vs. proportional
- Imagine this line of text?
- What does this type remind you of?
- Where might you see this?
- Movie Script 1 and Movie Script 2
- Leading (not line spacing)
- Line Spacing–single, double, triple, etc. spacing between lines (uniform across all lines)
- Kerning–adjust the space between just two characters
- Tracking–uniform spacing between all characters
- Justification
- Quotation marks ‘’ “”
- Primes ‘ “ –When I publish my page here, the primes switch to quotation marks…
- Compare to what Robin Williams calls “typewriter marks” (pp. 153-155–4th ed)
- OpenType, PostScript, TrueType: If you’re interested in a brief discussion of these, click on the link.
- Setting typeface (“font-family”) for webpages
- Typeface vs font
- Antialiasing: reduces distortion when an originally high resolution image (or sound) is displayed (or played) at a lower resolution.
Describing Fonts (What rule/s am I breaking?)
The following font is “professional” because it has a no frills look that calls out longevity and stability. The typeface is Bookman Old Style. It’s rather “stately” looking and evokes an ethos of conservative, prudent business.
The above fonts conform to a business or law firm look that has no desire to be seen as goofy or childish like this font called Ravie:
The above font evokes a very “clown-like” ethos with the colors and wavy appearance. Also, if you think your font looks like candy, it’s probably a sign (semiotics anyone?) that you should use it for kids and not professional, white-collar businesses.
What does the following font suggest?
These fonts were created in Photoshop and saved as .jpgs–they aren’t “a cheap design shortcut” like WordArt (p. 187). Put your cursor over the font image to see the typeface name.
What do you think about this design on the wine bottle (thanks to Jennifer in a previous class for this link)?
In what time period might you find the Metro Nova typeface?
Type and Culture
Read over this section. Before we start discussing it, though, I want you to do something.
Open up MS Word (or create a new webpage and name it “culture.html” or “myculture.html” or something like that). You don’t have to put this online, but I want you to have something to review. Describe the communication attributes and affinities of your culture(s). What are the proper or improper ways of communicating in a culture you’re in or one you know well. Also, consider the documents important to your culture–what texts do you interact with? Remember, we’re not just looking at capital-C Culture; instead, consider subcultures such as workplaces, peer groups, regional memberships, educational cohort, etc.
A few weeks ago, I asked you to have a typeface that you’d be able to explain. We’ve talked quite a bit about ethos and typefaces because it seems to be more likely when discussing type. But I’m sure we can find typefaces with emotional appeals.
Consider the following cultural questions:
- Are there any regional conclusions I can make about type?
- What is the dominant industry, organization, bureaucracy, or condition that seems to govern business standards?
- What is the dominant industry, organization, bureaucracy, or condition that seems to govern social standards…
- in the country?
- in the world?
- in the region?
- in the city?
- in what part of the city?
- in the community?
- in your occupation?
- What defines Charlotte life? Or what defines your hometown’s life?
What Video Game am I?
In order to see the above text in rage italic, you’ll need to have the rage italic font saved in your FONTS subfolder in your WINDOWS folder. I do have the rage italic font saved on my computer, but it doesn’t show up. Let’s see if it does in the Computer Lab. Alternatively, can you tell the difference between the following two png files?
Random typeface examples not included above
- Western Look (it conveys an American West ethos)
- Wilderness Look (what message does the characters’ shape convey?)
River Country…(ever wonder why it closed?)
Classic Las Vegas (pre-LV strip boom)
Chinese Restaurants
