type reading:

full of handy information like default leading (space between lines of text!) being around 120% of the typeface's cap height. tracking refers to the distance between letters in a way that kerning must not really do all on its own? the idea in all these things is to create a smooth grey space rather than stripes of unintelligible text.

i wish i could understand how text was ever set into a justified paragraph... that confuses me so much in terms of the calculations necessary, as you type in real time and your words scramble to look nice.

centered is, of course, a bit dull. and left and right aligned must fight to maintain a simple, nondescript rag (unaligned edge) to ensure it looks random and careless.

stacked letters are difficult, it seems, and ever using lowecase is punishable by type death.

my timestamp and likely typos betray me,
<3

more simultaneity, type/image juxtaposition, etc

(all the time we spend thinking about the juxtaposition of type and image, it's like we're studying graphic design or something!)

the meggs reading deals with image transformation in the variety of ways in which it's possible. images can be altered from the object of their expectations to create something unexpected, or exaggerated to emphasize some aspect or another, or combined to generate additional meaning in the crevasses between them.

the dadaist photomontage was basically the birth of collage, the meaningful quicksketch, not of representing the ideas of things but of literally saying "THIS, AND ALSO THIS." it's a particularly powerful way of combining ideas, especially as they are grounded in the real and the familiar. especially nowadays, photomontages can appear to be as credible as legitimate photographs.

any image can be dynamic, powerful, dramatic, and exciting, even just through its angles, cropping, presentation, & composition. images taken in this way demand of the viewer that they figure out the trick, or at least come to terms with the mystery.

graphic support elements, such as lines (aha!), shapes, patterns, flourishes, etc., help to add emphasis, or divide a composition into more legible pieces. they can also direct the focus to where it needs to be to gather the most information most effectively.

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the consistent juxtaposition between tiffany ads and international news stories makes for a horrifying(ly accurate) snapshot into the western consciousness. by singling elements in conjunction, meaning will ALWAYS appear. it is not possible to show things together and ask the viewer not to think about how they relate. in this way, between any set of images, any set of objects, any set of ideas, framed together, it is possible to find, if not a narrative, than at least an observation on the set of circumstances wherein these things have been found.

in the coming project, we are combining IMAGE, GRAPHIC ELEMENTS (lines! aha!), and TEXT to encapsulate the character of kansas city neighborhoods in a poster series. the trick will be to juxtapose all of these things in ways that not only please the eye aesthetically, or even add up cleanly, but that spill over the original container into newer places that explain more about the district that any one of those elements ever could by themselves.

a link: lovely web-color reference

http://0to255.com/

it gives you perfect tints and shades for any hex color you can get! just thought i'd share it.

best 1 panel webcomic i've seen in a while.

i think cslacker just borrowed it, though. i dunno where it's really from. :D