The second class in a series devoted to the study of typography. Students will primarily focus their efforts towards developing a greater understanding of typographic form through exercises based on the setting of words, phrases, sentences and short paragraphs. Students will first focus on the appropriate setting of spaces in-between the letters that make up words, and projects will gradually increase in scope and complexity up to the setting of pages of text with multiple levels of hierarchical meaning.

Upon successful completion of this course a student will be able to:

• Demonstrate the ability to visualize and control typographic spacing parameters such as kerning, tracking and letterspacing
• Demonstrate control of common typographic spacing problems such as orphans, widows and rivers
• Manipulate typographic parameters such as point size, leading and measure to organize text and improve legibility /readability of text
• Manipulate typographic contrasts such as weight, posture and width to create emphasis and organize text into hierarchical message systems
• Select, construct and apply multiple column typographic grids systems in order to improve readability, and create emphasis, structure and organization to texts
• Demonstrate control of paragraph justification and hyphenation methods
• Specify type using multiple typographic parameters, create examples of sample text using those typographic specifications
• Demonstrate an understanding of the correct usage of troublesome punctuation such as curly quotes and em/en dashes
• Construct page margins based on the golden rectangle

There are 2 required textbooks for this course. Reading assignments will be given throughout the semester from these books as well as other handouts provided by instructor.

The Complete Manual of Typography
by James Felici
Pub: Adobe Press, 1st ed.
ISBN: 0321127307

A Type Primer
by John Kane
Pub: Prentice Hall, 1st ed.
ISBN: 013099071X

There are no scheduled mid-term tests or final exams this semester. Simple quizzes covering the assigned reading materials may be given at any time during the semester.

Throughout the semester you are required to work a minimum of four and a half hours per week outside of classes on your projects. (Many of you will find that you will need to spend even more time per week.) Please be aware that not all project work can be done at home or at your convenience. Please also be aware that expecting yourself to continue to work a full-time or near full-time job (over 20 hrs. per week) will most likely have a negative impact on your grade. Studio course projects require a great deal of time in order to complete. It is very difficult to try and balance both a full-time job and a full load of studio classes.