Dr. Donnelly asked us at the end of class to come back with an answer to the question, "Why is calligraphy important to our Digital Literacies class?" I'm not sure if he meant calligraphy or typographysince those are two very different things. Calligraphy is handwritten, while typography is printed matter. Calligraphy isn't directly related to our class, but that inspired typography, and the reason why it was so important to Steve Jobs.
I do think typography is important, although after taking three classes that gushed about typography and having read 3 books all about typography, I feel like people may be going overboard. I have lots of respect for people who spend their life making the typography that we take for granted, but does it really matter if the curve of the S is less than a hair uneven? I do admit I probably don't realize the work that goes into typography since it's such a commonplace thing, and maybe that smidgen of space destroys the whole aesthetics of the font.
To answer the question, typography is an important part of our class (and using the internet in general) because we are always using typography. We always use it every day and with so many options out there, we have to figure out what is the best font to represent our work.
You make a lot of excellent points. I viewed calligraphy as representing the fact that computer technology isn't a completely original idea. It's something that borrows principles and ideas from concepts that have existed for possibly centuries (if you're talking about fonts, that is).
ReplyDeleteI don't really think the average person even realizes bad typography unless it's really blatant. I did recently watch a video where someone complained about how the number 5 in a video game sprite that looked a bit wonky, but other than that not much else. However, once you learn to recognize bad kerning, it may change the way you look at signs for life.
ReplyDelete