Aaron Bell » typography http://aaronb.net Just another WordPress weblog Mon, 12 Apr 2010 16:30:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 The Secret of Kells http://aaronb.net/articles/2010/04/the-secret-of-kells/ http://aaronb.net/articles/2010/04/the-secret-of-kells/#comments Sun, 11 Apr 2010 19:17:41 +0000 Aaron http://aaronb.net/?p=344 The The Secret of Kells tells the tale of a young monk, Brandon, who has a fascination with illuminated manuscripts, but more often runs afoul of his uncle, the Abbot of Kells. Tales of Northmen burning and killing throughout the land have caused the Abbot’s obsession with completing a wall to protect the villagers surrounding his abby, but prevents him from giving any quarter to young Brendan. However, with the arrival of Brother Aiden, a master illuminator from another abby, everything changes for Brendan and he is tasked with completing the great Book of Kells.

face

As a story, The Secret of Kells is nothing to write home about. The characters are very straight forward and quickly overcome any situations of doubt or conflict. As this is a film meant for children, it makes sense that nothing is terribly complex, but as an adult, the plot seemed overly thin. Sadly, the last sequence of the film moved far too quickly, skimming over a great deal of potential story and ends abruptly, leaving me a bit disappointed and wanting more.

However, where this film truly shines is in the art direction and execution.

farm

In a world where more and more 3d films are being made and promoted, The Secret of Kells goes in the absolute opposite direction, trumpets its 2d nature with fascinating perspective and framing. While seeing utterly flat scenes can be a little surprising at first, one quickly becomes accustomed and enjoy the visual choices made by the film makers.

abbot

The character designs too are all extremely unique, each bring their own charm and look to each of their scenes. In contrast with the beautiful and intricate patterns of the Book of Kells, the characters are very simple, with only enough lines colour to bring them to life. I really loved seeing the tall, striking figure of the Abbot in each of the scenes he appeared. Also, Panger the cat’s expressions and personality are presented extremely well.

snow

What I found most beautiful about the film was the integration of Celtic symbols and patterns worked into the backgrounds throughout the film. For the most part, these symbols are used in the more natural elements — trees in the forest and (my favourite) the snow falling during winter. Thusly, one can strongly see where the inspiration for those symbols originated and perhaps what drove young Brendan.

page

Music in the film is well done and appropriately Celtic, featuring the talent of Bruno Coulais and Kila. For a sense of it, I’d recommend listening to some of the youtube videos with the soundtrack or on the Amazon preview (though that has spoilers about the film story). I really enjoyed the music throughout.

As a typographer, my interest in the film was primarily in its connection to the Book of Kells — the imagery, patterns and the pages themselves. Unfortunately, the sections that involve the most stunning elements of integration with the Book are all in the film’s trailer and the film doesn’t bring too much more to bear. The only exception comes in the last 15 to 20 seconds, which are absolutely beautiful, but painfully short. However, as I mentioned earlier, the whole film is littered with Celtic symbols and patterns and I would be extremely happy to watch it again if only to look for those elements and appreciate the art.

gathering_berries

While I enjoyed the integration of insular type and forms in the film itself, I did not particularly appreciate it in the opening and closing credits. Set in a more traditional insular script / Celtic typeface in smaller sizes, I found them difficult to read, especially as they were not on screen for particularly long. While keeping in spirit with the setting and basis for the film, I felt the negative impact on readability was more significant than the overt connection with the period. A typeface with Celtic “touch-points”, but more aimed at usage for text sizes would have been more appropriate. After some research (and suggestions from Dan Reynolds) , I’ve found some possibilities that could work better.

Luminari is more firmly based in insular scripts, but has a little more readability thanks to a taller capital height and U&lc.

Amulet offers a large x-height, open counters and more Roman letterforms, making it more readable, but also features many of the stylistic elements found in Insular scripts.

Hamlet is one of my favourites, despite not being primarily based on insular forms. With an integration of Blackletter style and Roman forms as well as large, open counters, the typeface achieves a high level of readability, even at smaller sizes.

Rieven Uncial has many touch-points with Celtic insular scripts, but brings more regular forms to create a typeface that works well at medium sizes.

ITC Korigan is similar to Luminari, but with slightly simpler letterforms that may be more readable at smaller sizes. It wouldn’t work very well in extended text, but in short bursts is rather beautiful.

thesecretofKellsblog

A final item I wanted to point out was the main title. It seems there was some disagreement over the choice of typeface used for the main title of the film. “The Blog of Kells”, the book and soundtrack feature a lovely illuminated version of the title set in insular script and feels very appropriate to the context of the film.

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Then we look at the title used in the French Theatrical Poster and on the website set up by BV International & Disney — the title has been redone in FF Fontesque by Nick Shinn.

the-secret-of-kells-poster

FF Fontesque is indeed based on calligraphic forms, but not the ones found in insular scripts. Rather that “Shinn explains that he was actually inspired by faces with extreme contrasts of proportion like Garamond and calligraphers like Fred Goudy who believed that type shouldn’t be too perfect” (via Typedia). The illuminated version used elsewhere is lovely, so why the change to this ill-fitting and (to my eyes) inappropriate type choice? My guess is that the international distributers felt the insular film titling wouldn’t be friendly enough to kids and in order to make it seem more “appealing” changed it to something far less effective.

Oddly, after discovering the theatrical poster set in FF Fontesque, I found two other posters floating out there in the internet. One bears similar type to that used on the blog and a second that uses the frame of Aisling’s face in the leaves as the basis. The first, I believe, is the Irish release poster and uses the same image as the soundtrack. I’m not a fan of the usage of heavily saturated colour and odd contrast in the poster design as it draws the eye away from the central focal point, though I really like the usage of Aiden’s and the Abbot’s heads in the bottom right and left respectively. The second is the official US distribution poster created by NYICFF. I really like this version of the poster — it is simple, invokes the sensibilities of the film and has an attractive quality. However, I’m not entirely sure why “The Secret of” is set in small caps while “Kells” is U&lc (see the difference between the ‘E’ and ‘e’ as well as the height of the ‘l’s)?

secret_of_kells

SecretofKellsPosterFINAL_new.indd

All in all, I greatly enjoyed watching The Secret of Kells and the art direction, but feel the type treatment for it, while not necessarily inappropriate (except for the Fontesque titling), could have been improved with more careful selection.

I highly recommend The Secret of Kells as it brings a fabulous art and style to an industry that so often lacks it.

Film stills are from The Secret of Kells official website.

[updated with new information courtesy of Eric from NYICFF]

]]> http://aaronb.net/articles/2010/04/the-secret-of-kells/feed/ 1 Found Type http://aaronb.net/articles/2009/04/found-type/ http://aaronb.net/articles/2009/04/found-type/#comments Wed, 29 Apr 2009 06:20:25 +0000 Aaron http://aaronb.net/?p=128 Helvetica special features, Erik Spiekermann talks about his affliction by which he feels he must identify every font before actually reading it. That way you keep in touch with the "times" so to speak. ]]> Part of being involved in type is looking around to see what is out there. In the Helvetica special features, Erik Spiekermann talks about his affliction by which he feels he must identify every font before actually reading it. Part of this, then, is to see what is out there and figure out what all is being used. That way you keep in touch with the “times” so to speak.

So, I’ve started trying to go around town as I am walking to work or out at lunch to see what interesting typography is out there. All in all, I’m rather happy with the variety and quality I found. I’ve put a collection of them on my flickr account, but thought I would talk about some of my favorites here.

Daily News Advertiser Sign

This sign is one of the my favorites I found. It is totally hand made (check out the “A” character, you can still see the pencil lines from original sketches. However, despite its handmade nature, you can tell there was a lot of work that went into creating the letters. As a result, many of the letters look very close to one another. The baseline is very clearly defined and the S / G even drop slightly below the baseline appropriately. In addition, the creator made a really nice ligature for the “The” as well.

I’m having difficulty identifying the main font used for the “DAILY NEWS ADVERTISER.” It is similar to Futura and Nimbus, but the “S” is different from Futura and the “R” is different from Nimbus, so I’m not sure what it could be. Furthermore, the “G” is a bit unusual in a sans-serif.

This is one of the several photos that I took of this historical plaque on a building by Waterfront Station in Vancouver. I was rather taken by the font used on the plaque and thought there were numerous really beautiful letterforms. The “Q,” “R,” and “E” in particular have a really nice feel to them.

I have to say though, it was the “8″ that really captured my eye. The feel of the number is so nice, balanced and rounded. You feel like it is in constant motion despite the static element of the engraving.

The “M” bears a close resemblance to Waverly, but the “C” is totally different. Otherwise, I have been unsuccessful in identifying it. I really like the overall feel of the font and originally thought it may have been hand-done, but the inconsistencies in letter form is more likely due to the creation process, not a lack of consistent font.

Be sure to check out the flickr feed for the full collection of photos!

]]> http://aaronb.net/articles/2009/04/found-type/feed/ 1 Inspiration http://aaronb.net/articles/2009/02/inspiration/ http://aaronb.net/articles/2009/02/inspiration/#comments Fri, 06 Feb 2009 09:33:00 +0000 Aaron http://aaronb.net/?p=123 Of late, I’ve become increasingly interested in experimenting more with typography and grid structures to use in my design. These are two areas that I have long wanted to explore, but haven’t had the opportunity or time to invest. Well, I still don’t have that much time, but I’ve decided to start exploring anyway! That’ll show me. In any case, it is always good to make time for those important things in life.

I’ve started off focusing on Swiss type and grids, since they have been so influential in the development of modern design. One of the first sites I came across that really caught my eye was the blog / portfolio of Wilson Miner. He does so many things right with this design and coding, I may have to borrow elements from it. Of course, he borrowed elements from this poster by Josef Müller–Brockmann. Seeing that poster myself, I started to wonder if there were any other swiss posters that had layouts or grids that I would want to base my own designs off of. This led me to the following sites:

The Grid System is a blog of articles centered around the ubiquitous grid. There are a large number of excellent articles there, so I highly recommend checking it out if you are interested in developing and using grid systems in every day life.

Typographic Posters is a site dedicated to presenting and preserving posters involving typography and graphical elements. To get one’s work on the site, you have to apply especially and show your work to be of a certain level of excellence. However, as a resource for inspiration, it is wonderful. There are tons of different styles and designs from modern designers all around the world. I especially liked the work of Benjamin Lambinet, but I will need to spend more time on the site! I do wish their user interface was a bit better though. Navigating the site via the sidebar proved a chore since with every reload, the scrollbar would reset to the top, regardless of which artist you were currently looking at. Ultimately, I took to just opening artists in new tabs and breaking the experience for the sake of ease-of-use.

Speaking of ease-of-use, I point you now to the Swiss Poster Collection. Run by the Swiss National Library and other prestigious agencies, it aspires to be a searchable collection of swiss typography posters. As with most public / government run sites, the design and UI aren’t particularly well executed, but if you know the name of the person in particular you are researching, it will provide large, high quality images of posters by that person. A bit hit or miss, but could prove useful. I really wanted a “browse” option, but could not find one…

One of the best sites I came across was Swiss Legacy, a blog run by Xavier Encinas, amalgamating new works and content in the tradition of the swiss typographers. I found numerous little gems and interesting links from his blog. One of my favorite was Type Trumps, “playing cards” of different typefaces. I am really fond of physical objects and to have reference cards for typefaces would be rather nice. Such things really help me come to understand better than just seeing it on the computer screen. Another great piece were these business cards made by a company called Hello, out of the UK. The thin layer of green in between the white edges of the card, plus the embossed backside really add character and life to the cards. I can’t imagine what the cost ended up being, but my is the effect nice. Finally, I wanted to bring up this article about Helvetica in the New York Subway system. Many designers have seen the film Helvetica, but it doesn’t really tell the true story of the typefaces used in New York. It is a really interesting read, so I recommend checking it out!

So that concludes my evening’s activities for swiss type exploration. I got some good ideas and will be spending more time in the coming days to see what designs I can come up with!

As a last note, I still really want these shirts, but wow expensive.

]]> http://aaronb.net/articles/2009/02/inspiration/feed/ 3 Typographic Resources http://aaronb.net/articles/2009/02/typographic-resources/ http://aaronb.net/articles/2009/02/typographic-resources/#comments Mon, 02 Feb 2009 04:06:25 +0000 Aaron http://aaronb.net/?p=118 I found a massive resource list of typography links and articles posted by Michael Tuck in reference to his article called 8 Definitive Web Font Stacks (an article that I talked about in a previous post). I haven’t even begun to explore the various resources, but the ones I’ve seen look amazing! Be sure to check them out. The comments for each item are Michael Tuck’s.

]]> http://aaronb.net/articles/2009/02/typographic-resources/feed/ 0 Font Stacks http://aaronb.net/articles/2009/01/font-stacks/ http://aaronb.net/articles/2009/01/font-stacks/#comments Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:21:49 +0000 Aaron http://aaronb.net/?p=63 I found this very interesting article about the usage and value in what the author calls “Font Stacks.” The term refers to the font-family code in CSS and using fonts that are specific to different Operating Systems prior to the base web safe fonts. For example:

font-family: Frutiger, "Frutiger Linotype", Univers, Calibri, "Gill Sans", "Gill Sans MT", "Myriad Pro", Myriad, "DejaVu Sans Condensed", "Liberation Sans", "Nimbus Sans L", Tahoma, Geneva, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans serif;

Created by Michael Tuck

In this font stack, there is a general order of Windows fonts, Mac fonts, Linux fonts and web safe universal fonts. Within each OS font set, you go from least commonly available to most commonly available. In the case of Windows for this example, Frutiger is the least common and Calibri is the most common (on every Vista machine).

So this seems like a bit of trouble, but what does it gain us? Given restrictions on the web, there are approximately 5 fonts that one can use with security. While they work, wouldn’t it be nice to have more options? Especially when the vast majority of users will be able to use one of the special fonts that you have picked out (he claims upwards on 90% of users).

It all sounds good, but there are still some problems. First off, the fonts aren’t exactly the same. By attempting to use more beautiful fonts, you lose control over the exact look and feel of the site. Furthermore, Vista fonts such as Calibri have a base size much smaller than other fonts. In the example above, you can see that Calibri is significantly smaller. As you can expect this may cause a problem in readability, so perhaps it would be better to avoid such fonts, but the choice is yours. A third issue is that one must increase testing to see what the site looks like on more machines so you can have a sense of how the font stack is affecting the feel. Finally, poor font choices in your stack will result in poor legibility if someone ends up with that particular font choice, so it is crucial that you pick and test!

Overall though, I am fascinated by the concept and plan on experimenting a bit with it myself! As much as I like web fonts for nostalgia, it would be nice to explore different options to develop even better experiences on the web.

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