(Part 2) Best products from r/typography

LAASR is right... but, if you gotta a job and you gotta get it done you have to start somewhere now, no time for years of experience. I have been there and here is my suggestion.

Look at some great casual script fonts. Start typing out the words you need, do your kerning, spacing, sizing your capitols up a bit, give yourself a nice start. Now print out a ton of what you have in a very light gray. Buy some fun brush pens and mark over what you have produced. Practice line quality make each letter unique. Now save a few of the pages you like scan them in and use pieces from each sketch that you like and Frankenstein something together. You may need to go through the same steps again. Once you have something you really like take it into illustrator, trace it and clean up the vector.

People love a hand drawn feel, and short of becoming the master of a handful of styles I have used this technique with a fair amount of success.

one of the fonts I used recently for a similar look

Pens 1 2

I wouldn't have used a cover with the title entirely in upper case to illustrate X-height. It just looks like an arbitrary line if it's not apparent that it is the height of lower case letters without ascenders. There are also a few errors. The Boards of Canada bit says 'decsencer', and you missed the counter of the d. The document grid isn't corrected for the perspective distortion caused by having the camera at an angle to the table/cover surface, and is also a little misleadingly represented as it is a compositional tool for blocks of text or anything else on a spread, and doesn't relate to the placement of words within a block of text at all.

I like the idea, but you do fall a little short on the execution I'm afraid. Tips for next time:

• Mount the camera properly horizontally. If you're at college you might be able to borrow the special equipment for doing this ideally. This is the equipment you'd be seeking - use a spirit level to check! If not, I can think of a few ways to improvise it.
  
• Make sure you're using the best examples for what you're trying to illustrate.
  
• Your captions weren't really following very good typography principles in themselves. For example, they are arranged on the left, but are aligned ragged right so at times they jut out toward the record and create uncomfortable trapped space. Ragged left would have created a nice parallel vertical gap between the text and the edge of the records. You also jump between typefaces and sizes. That can be nice for specific applications or to illustrate points (like when you differentiate between a serif and sans serif) but jumping between them without good reason is a bit distracting.
  
  I feel like I'm being really critical, and please don't take it personally, but it's really the details that separate okay projects from great ones.
  
  Also that scab on your hand looks pretty bad and you should get a glove or something if working is damaging your hand. :P

Surely!
An oblique nib holder, coupled with a flexible nib, with an ink to dip in (india ink is thick and good for dip pens, though any ink could work if cared for).

It is difficult to get used to, but very fun to try.

http://www.amazon.com/Speedball-Calligraphy-Flexible-107-Pen/dp/B009L9T7IM/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1377656372&sr=8-6&keywords=speedball+nib

http://www.amazon.com/Speedball-Oblique-Point-Holder-ANH9455/dp/B000BYT4FC

http://www.amazon.com/Speedball-2-Ounce-India-Super-Black/dp/B0007ZJ8TM

Then try something along these lines for paper...

http://www.allunderone.org/calligraphy2/calligraphy.php

Print that only HP 32lb laser paper...

http://www.amazon.com/HP-11310-0-Premium-Choice-Laserjet/dp/B000099O2W

And you are looking at a grand total of ~$25.00.

Granted this is a calligraphy nib holder and its VERY different than a fountain pen, and requires that you practice a LOT.

A good video on YT of this technique: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Pz04cuzVCo

GOOD LUCK!

This may be an unusual response (and please save my advice for last), but personally I've always struggled with one thing when I was beginning, which is I locked myself in a tunnel vision of individual glyphs and I never actually checked out how they play out together. I mean, I did that whole hamburgerfontsiv thing, but I never really played with how it looks. How I drew it initially was how it was. Nowadays I don't even finish the glyphs, I just roughly create their proportions to get a general feel of the font. Then I stretch them, distort them and change them to get the most optimal form while having an entire word before my eyes. Proportions are a huge part of your typeface's impression and letters look totally differently alone and in a sentence.

That being said, don't worry, I was stuck in that tunnel vision for a good reason--drawing a simple glyph was a challenge to me and it will be to you as well. It's okay, just remember to see how your font plays out. Nothing is more demotivating than working a few weeks on something just to see it turn out badly. This is why it's always recommended to use font software which lets you write the letters you draw and compose them however you like. Regular vector art software makes you work to preview your font in action and ends up being a huge mess.

Edit: and if I may recommend a book, if you can put your hands on this, it's a good intro to designing fonts.

Books books books!

Some essential reading:

• Thinking with Type - very basic, and a good place to start; designed like a workbook
  
• The Elements of Typographic Style - pure reference
  
• The Vignelli Canon (PDF, also available as paperback)
  
  You have probably heard of the documentary Helvetica. This movie inspired me to become a type nerd. The follow-up movie, Objectified, is also very good and focuses on consumer design.
  
  Web sites / blogs:
  
  
• Typophile - active forum and community
  
• I Love Typography - great blog
  
• The Ampersand - pictures of ampersands; more interesting than it sounds
  
• Brand New - logo design, not typography specifically
  
  If you are at college or have a college campus nearby, check our their art library. There are bound to be awesome resources there. Explore graphic design periodicals and get lost in giant bound books of type samples.
  
  Edit: Disclaimer: I'm merely a design hobbyist.

Ha, I would also assume that getting people to read it is unquestionably good in most ways :) But…I also wonder about if, in academia, there's a sense that a cover that's too good might not be serious enough, that it might be seen as sociologists see Malcolm Gladwell books or economists see Freakonomics.

Anyways: I think these sorts of historical stories, where you are looking at a modern-day state of affairs and retracing the steps and powers that brought it into being, are super interesting for a general audience. Elaine Pagels' Revelations and Russell Shorto's Amsterdam are two that come to mind, although that's a very broad grouping.

I bring those up because looking at the cover, it feels very much like "somebody had a PhD thesis and they turned it into a more readable book." I don't know if that's the case with this or not, but it sort of looks like the sort of book you'd find in a university's library, where the professor who works there keeps 1 copy at the library and makes his students buy the remaining stock every year.

I might pick it up if I'm someone with an academic interest in history, but not someone like me who enjoys history as a general interest reader. And based on what little I can tell from the cover, it's a book that could potentially have a broad appeal with the right marketing — it's a topic that ties in with so many things in the headlines.

So, in terms of what to do: I might do some research at the local bookstore on what's hot in book covers at the moment. With a b&w photo + one color, this can be very understated and elegant when done with expensive materials and processes, but as a flat image, it says "academic work." With Elaine Pagels' Revelations, rather than having a block of color over the image, it's just white type over the image. This tends to feel stronger to me. With Shorto's Amsterdam, you have more of a collaged, geometric approach that you would probably want to have a graphic designer do if you were going to take a crack at that. I would also see how the image looks at like 100 and even 50 px across, since this is going to live primarily as an ebook. Again, context.

EDIT: the main thing I didn't express outright was that I think fiddling with the type but leaving the general layout as is will not make a big difference. There needs to be some intrigue, some emotional connection, that makes the reader click on your book amidst the search results for "cold war history" or whatever they typed into amazon. Adjusting the typography is not going to accomplish that.

I know you said no books but I had to jump in with this suggestion: Logo Modernism by Jens Muller. It's $53 and a massive heavy book--if he's a student he probably doesn't have it. I just got it this year and it felt like an ultimate luxury gift to buy myself. Friends love looking through it when they come over, too! (If by chance he already has it he could always exchange it, but if he doesn't have it, he'll cherish it.)

Everyones posting books haha. Not sure how much you want to spend but here is a lil list. Basically just a list of things I love.

C-THRU Accu Spec II Type Gauge and Specifier Set gauge and specifier set
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0015ASPM4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_ynkaCb6RAAWP1

Zig INPK-001 Calligraphy Practice Kit
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HDYC1R0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_ItkaCb421S3GK

Calligraphy Starter Kit - Beginner Calligraphy Lettering Set - Beginning Modern Calligraphy DIY Kit - Oblique Pen Hand Lettering with Nib
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01AML1OVA/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_QukaCbF9BCRPY

Not sure how viable this one is but I worked with the Glyphs software before and it is amazing. I had it for mac, it allows you to make your own fonts.

You could also have a letter in his favourite font 3d printed which is really cool. I think it would be roughly $40 for something about “2x”2x”1.

Lastly if you could get him some oldschool Letraset sheets. Chartpak 1000 Vinyl Letters and Numbers -20 Numbers, 569 Capital Letter -0.3-Inch -Black
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B002XIHXJS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_oAkaCb8VHYWZ6

Yo, Helvetica, I'm really happy for you and I'mma let you finish, but Sign Painters is the best movie about letters of all time. Of all time!

Also Just Like Being There and Art & Copy are great design docs.

• The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst
  
  
• Stop Stealing Sheep & find our how type works 3rd Edition by Erik Spiekermann, this one is a super easy read but a great book.
  
  
• Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton, I have the 2nd Edition
  
  
• Making and Breaking the Grid by Timothy Samara
  
  
• Typographic Design: Form and Communication by Rob Carter, Ben Day, Philip Meggs. I have the 4th edition but I think most are okay. This is a good general typography textbook.
  
  
• Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, and Other Typographical Marks by Keith Houston
  
  I can't give suggestions on hand-lettering books yet as the few I have read weren't good...so I'm trying to find better ones. But check out Louise Fili and Jessica Hische for inspiration and of course Paula Scher and Sagmeister.
  
  There are many other books so I welcome others to chime in and add their suggestions.

Honestly, a good history of design book would be the route I would recommend going first.
This is one of my favorites. http://www.amazon.com/Meggs-History-Graphic-Design-Philip/dp/0471699020/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396721586&sr=1-9&keywords=history+of+design

After that I'd recommend learning your terminology as far as the different parts of letters goes. Once you have that down, moving to learning about points & picas will help a lot, especially if you want to get into designing grids and/or fonts. A lot of designers I know still don't understand those, and it gives me the edge every time.



One of my favorite books to keep around as far as reference goes is "Forms, Folds, and Sizes".
http://www.amazon.com/Forms-Folds-Sizes-Details-Designers/dp/1592530540/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396721691&sr=1-1&keywords=forms+folds+and+sizes

thanks so much! i'm always so stoked when somebody else gts into this insane obsessive medium, hahaha. and Josey the dog is awesome :)

my lighting setup is actually fairly cheap; i usually use one or two of these mini LED photography lights that you can find for <$10, but pretty much any kind of bright direct light will do the trick. if you have the luxury of a portable turntable you can even just watch it outside on a sunny day, which rules

Jeremy Dooley of insigne created a really darling board book (and ebook) for younger children:

• https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/insigne/the-clothes-letters-wear
  
• http://smile.amazon.com/Clothes-Letters-Wear-Jeremy-Dooley-ebook/dp/B00KFTZA4C
  
  Though that's a bit young for your audience, showing off different styles of lettering in popular culture (games, movies, etc.) and helping students draw their own alphabets could be fun and engaging.
  
  http://prototypo.io is another extremely hands-on tool after you've explained some of the basic terminology.

The choice of typefaces and the choice to use so many screams amatuer to me. I get that you tried to made each font "relate" to the word you were representing but it just doesn't work. The color choices are awful to me, they dont work together. Is an event planner your main job? Its what sticks out the most followed by community management. Also your content is not really saying anything. I guess you're trying to say you do all these things but I would certainly hope not all at once. From what I've heard, employers/clients will frown on someone claiming specialty is so many areas because it implies you're not really good at any of them just mediocre at a lot of them. The composition is filling, not activating the page. As a user/reader, it is way to much work to get to the intended message, that can be okay if the journey is stimulating and leads to an interesting or unexpected pay off but this doesn't, it's predictable and only surprising the surprisingly poor execution. I recommend Design Elements: A Graphic Style Manual.

I'll admit, when I decided to use the st and sp ligatures in my book, it was a point of contention among most of my initial readers. I thought it fit with the setting (fantasy Victorian/early Industrial age), but it definitely deviated from what most fantasy books had.

When just looking at a random page (you can see an example at the Amazon look inside), it was initially overwhelming. But, every beta reader said that it didn't bother them after 2-3 pages.

The names threw people more.

As such, I always like the more elegant ligatures, but I rarely use them outside of setting the mood/setting.