Just an update!

As someone pointed out to me, I shouldn't let my blog die all of a sudden... so here's a web banner I made for an event I'm helping with.

An important thing to remember when selecting fonts is you should use more simple fonts for the text body - that will make it easier to read. Save the more decorative fonts for the titles/headers. I'm not sure how to explain picking fonts that will work together... it really just depends on what mood you're trying to set. Each section has it's own personality, but it still needs to flow together.

images © Kelci Stephenson 2011

Alphabetext

Special notes:

The following fonts were found on Font Space: Dodge, Quigley Wiggly, Uneasy, Xifiction, Yahoo, and Zombie Holocaust. This is a great site with a fun collection of fonts. The rest of the fonts were standard with my Adobe programs. Examples of fonts often include how numbers and punctuation marks look, thus the bottom right corner is not another example - it's just the title of this piece.

The punctuation marks are Times New Roman (you've probably never heard of it) and the font labels are Microsoft Sans Serif. 

Each letter is sized to 55 pt, and are all set on the same baseline except for the H (but I loved the Harlow font, even though it descended into the font label. Because of this, it's bumped up a few points from the baseline). Keeping the same font size for each letter gives a better understanding that font sizes are not standard fit per point. (i.e. a Comic Sans 12pt text can be shorter than Papyrus 12pt text)  

images © Kelci Stephenson 2011

The Spine

The main part of the letter S (lower and upper case) is the spine - the left to right curve.

The orange selection is the spine. Font - Lucida Handwriting Italic. (And yeah, I couldn't resist adding snake eyes and a tongue.)

And just to drive home a better visual so you can remember, I drew a spine onto a letter S (Font - Birch). And then added some texture in Photoshop. Because I'm just hardcore like that.

images © Kelci Stephenson 2011

The Anatomy of Letterforms

We're no strangers to love. You know the rules, and so do I.

And now you're no longer a stranger to the rules of letterforms!

When you get right down to it, typography is all about the letter and the unique characteristics of each one. This shows you the very basics for these forms, but here's a little more detail:
Baseline - imaginary line where the base of capital letters rest
Meanline - imaginary line that dictates the height of the body of lowercase letters
Capline - imaginary line where the top of capital letters reach
Ascender - stroke of lowercase above the meanline
X-height - space between baseline and meanline
Descender - stoke of a lowercase that goes below the baseline

"oh no she didn't!"

Yup. I did.

images © Kelci Stephenson 2011

Complementary color lesson III

The last set of the complementary colors - Red and Green. Decided to treat you with a quote instead of just stating the facts again.

Random facts: Lady Bird Johnson was First Lady of the United States between 1963 and 1969. In Austin, Texas, she made efforts to beautify what was then called Town Lake. This included a recreational trail system that loops around the lake's shoreline and landscaping the area so it would no longer be an "eye sore". In 2007, Town Lake was renamed Lady Bird Lake in her honor.
Austin tip: If you want the locals to think you're one of them, only refer to it as Town Lake.

Fonts used - Gabriola, Rage Italic, and Kunstler Script (the letters I, R, and L to create the flowers)

images © Kelci Stephenson 2011

Complementary color lesson II

Complementary colors are often used as a set, with one color in the foreground and the other in the background to make it "pop". Blue and Orange are the second set of complementary colors.

Also - KITTIES! Because my friend said so. And naranja is Spanish for orange. Why use that instead? Because I can.

Fonts used - Gautami and Hobo Std Medium (for the name of colors and the kitties)

images © Kelci Stephenson 2011

Complementary color lesson I

Complementary colors are sets of colors opposite from each other on the color wheel. When a color is placed with its complementary color, they appear more intense. Yellow and Purple are examples of this.

On a side note, the English usage of purple and violet are interchangeable... but in color theory it doesn't work that way. Purple is the range of hues between red and blue, which can be explained as the combination of red and blue. Violet is considered a spectral color that just has a smaller wave length than blue. 

Understandable, right? Yeah.. I didn't really think so either. To me, the world violet just sounds more elegant than purple.

Fonts used - Freestyle Script and Chiller (the letters V, Y, and L to create the pansy flower) 

images © Kelci Stephenson 2011