THE DECEIVERMarch 31, 1100 AD seriously, this is the best content this section has ever been graced with.Sword-Fighting31
“Greetings from The Swiss Alps!” r e l l e u M
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Duec to completeo lack of contentrner in this week’s sports section, the production team at TRW has decided to feature a new column: “graphic design corner.”
As a production assistant, I have the ultimate power as far as content goes. The edi- tor-in-cheif really has nothing to do with what goes in here, as we are the last step in the production of the paper. WE HAVE THE POWER TO PRINT ANYTHING!!
Ok, given that, let the pretentious discussion of all things graphic design begin...
First, let the age old rivalry between helvetica (bastard child of Akzidenz Grotesk) and arial (complete poser microsoft imitation font) be settled. On first inspection, the dif- ferences between the letterforms in these two fonts are minimal, but this is not what makes or T
H breaks a font. Helvetica has “street cred.” Arial G I
R does not. Arial was created by Microsoft, and is helvetica therefore crap. Ok, so Helvetica actually has a fair-sized family to chose from, and arial has two weights. Arial, and Arial Black. It is likely that
G Arial black was added as a pseudo-suitable N
O headline variation on the limp font. With the R
W thicker stroke, this font now can be used for arial headlines and crappy looking body text. Helvetica = good, Arial = bad, Akzidenz Grotesk = God. Got it? Good. Next up, a les- son in the classic technique of kerning. Kurt Russel is the second best actor on the face of the planet. Second only to David Hasselhoff. Oh T
H wait, kerning. Right... Sorry, I had to rub one G I R kern this out. The closer letters are to eachother, the bet- ter. ALWAYS. The further letters away from T
H eachother, the worse. But there IS an exception G I
R to this rule: extreme kerning in either direction.
O
S Kerning closely is more suited to bolder type. As L A the lettterforms bleed into each other naturally, k ern this this dynamic is strengthened by close kerning. Naturally, good graphic designers take every lesson they’ve ever been taught to extremes. The same is true with wide kerning, but only appli-
L cable to extremely thin weights. Very light type- L A
B faces are complimented by a disjointed appear- T E
K ance which can be attained by extremely wide S A
B kerning. This is particularly useful in cases where a string of type is far too short, yet cannot be a ” O
“ larger point size. Since this is the sports section, I’d
A
R like to draw some parallels between your stupid U T games, and the divine art of typography. This bas- U F O ketball is a circle. Just like the letter “o.” See? The basketball, I hear anyway, is used in juvenile con- tests of strength, and the letter “o” is the perfect manifestation of geometry in type. Thus con- cludes this edition of graphic design corner, I hope you learned well.
“Joe Howley doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with a woman performing anal sex on a man” “There are no bad typefaces, only bad typographers.” - Jeffrey Keedy