Saturday, February 11, 2012

Matter of Taste

This morning was a piece of cake... make that MANY pieces, as Sarah and I sampled options for our wedding cake- just another interesting element of this whole planning process. I'm not a big dessert eater, so it got to be a bit much after the third or forth slice... chocolate with raspberry filling? Rum-soaked sponge cake? Hmm. If I had my way, we'd all be sitting down for a hearty piece of good old carrot cake (although I swear that Sarah still makes the best version... every year for my birthday!).

We kept the wedding theme going by looking at our invitations. Taking another look at our design, I wasn't quite as satisfied with the type. I am glad we took some time out today to try some different options. We ultimately downloaded some new script fonts (Citadel seemed doable), and changed the color to reflect a more "summery" tone. The waterfall image will remain though-- that seems like the one "given."

It looks like this graphic design course is going to come in handy earlier than I expected! We actually spent some time looking at  the subject of type this past week, and it is interesting how subtle changes can affect the overall mood of a piece. I think most people are so used to seeing text that they're not even aware (I know I wasn't), but designers will treat type as both shapes and elements. Even the spacing is a consideration-- we tried this online "kerning" game, and it's harder than it looks: type.method.ac

At least the computer makes this all a bit easier to experiment with. I remember my first year of college, when they had us hand lettering type... I don't know if that is done at all anymore. It's all still a far cry from the early days of the old mechanical letterpress machines. It's astounding to think about all that went into using that original method:


Upside Down, Left To Right: A Letterpress Film from Danny Cooke on Vimeo.

Having said that, Illustrator's digital bezier curves are going to take some getting used to. So I guess it's all a process, and takes time to perfect good taste.

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