Communicate with Symbols: Ideograms, Logos, Monograms

Spoken words are the symbols of mental experience, and written words are the symbols of spoken words.

– Aristotle

Quick History Lesson

For thousands of years of human pre-history, communication was only verbal. As societies became more complex, we developed means of written communication. At first crude pictures were used to represent common objects, then concepts and phonetic sounds. These early forms of written communication are known as pictograms or ideograms (Chinese characters, cuneiform and hieroglyphs). Read more about the history of writing.

The first true alphabet -- one which uses abstract symbols to represent sounds which are combined into words -- was developed in the Middle East about 4,000 years ago. Our word alphabet comes from aleph and bet, the first two letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

The Adobe Suite -- InDesign (for layout) and Illustrator and Photoshop (for pictures and special typography) -- contains tools for communication. The graphic artist communicates ideas with a combination of pictures (illustrations and photos) and words (type) which combine in a layout. Simply put,

Text + Pictures = Layout

Note that not all layouts are a combination of text and pictures, some are simply one or the other. No matter what the layout, a graphic artist must combine design abilities with technical knowledge.

Pictures as a form of communication

Since we use an alphabet does it mean pictures are no longer important in communication? No, indeed. Pictures are still a very effective means of communication. We "read" pictures much as we do words, but we understand on an intuitive level and do not require common language to transmit their meaning. Consider, for instance, these international wayfinding symbols developed by AIGA in 1974 :

An ideogram or ideograph (from Greek ἰδέα idea "idea" + γράφω grafo "to write") is a graphic symbol that represents an idea or concept. They are also called pictograms or pictographs. They convey meaning through pictorial resemblance to a physical object. Earliest examples of pictographs include ancient or prehistoric drawings or paintings found on rock walls. Pictographs are also used in writing and graphic systems in which the characters are to considerable extent pictorial in appearance. [1][2]

Pictography is a form of writing which uses representational, pictorial drawings. It is a basis of cuneiform and, to some extent, hieroglyphic writing, which uses drawings also as phonetic letters or determinative rhymes. [2]

Here's my monogram, HMH, in Babylonian cuneiform:

 

 A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition. Logos are either purely graphic (symbols/icons) or are composed of the name of the organization (a logotype or wordmark). An example of an abstract mark is the blue octagon representing Chase Bank, while an example of a representational mark is the "everyman" icon of PBS. Examples of well-known logotypes (wordmarks) are the striped IBM design, Mobil written in blue with a red "o" and CocaCola written in flowing red script. [3]

Three famous logos: an abstract mark (Chase Bank by Chermayeff & Geismar), a logotype (IBM by Paul Rand), and a pictorial mark (Girl Scouts of the USA by Saul Bass).

See more logos here: http://www.famouslogos.org/

 A monogram is a motif made by overlapping or combining two or more letters to form one symbol. Monograms are often made by combining the initials of an individual or a company, used as recognizable symbols or logos.[4]

Albrecht Dürer's monogram on a wood engraving (1498).

Mark Twain's monogram MT on the cover of his book The American Claimant.

The Univerity of Texas monogram

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideogram
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pictogram
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monogram 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphabet
http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/symbol-signs

Typography

Type evolved from the written word. From the time Hebrews put together a nifty system of writing in the second millennim BCE (about 4,000 years ago) until the invention of cast metal type more than 500 years ago (see below), books and other documents were copied by hand or entire pages were printed from engraved or carved metal or wood plates. It could take years to hand-copy just one Bible. Or imagine copying a Buddhist sutra, over and over and over again. Because of this labor-intensive process, books and literacy were reserved for only an elite few. Movable type revolutionized printing: Books could be reproduced by the hundreds instead of by twos and threes. This method of printing didn't change much until the 20th century when computer technology created a second typographic revolution.

Typographic terms

Much of the vocabulary we use to describe type are artifacts of the early printing process using movable lead or wooden type.

Type - Alphanumeric characters for printing.

Typeface - All type of a single design, such as Helvetica or Times Roman.

Font - An assortment of type of a single size and style, such as 9 point Helvetica Italic. In movable type printing, individual letters were organized in large, flat drawers containing all the characters of a single size and style.

Type measurement - Type is measured in points. Another unit of measurement you see is the pica ( pronouced "PIE kah'). You should know 12 points = 1 pica and 6 picas = 1 inch.

Leading - The space between letters and lines are important too. Leading – pronounced "ledding," as in the element lead – refers to space between lines of text. When printing with movable type, space between lines of words was achieved by inserting thin strips of lead. Each strip was equivalent in thickness to one point. Typically two strips were added, becoming two points of leading. Today, automatic leading adds about 2 points of space between lines (e.g., 8 point type with auto leading is 10 points of leading. This may be expressed "8/10" or "eight over ten").

Kern - A part of a typeset letter that projects beyond its side bearings, such as the serif of the letter "b"

Kerning - Decreasing space between two letters, often so they touch or overlap.

Letterspacing - Adding space between letters. Opposite of kerning.

Tracking - A modern computer-based term referring to space between letters.

Serif - Times Roman is an example of a serif font. Serifs are the little ornamentations on the letters themselves. Serif fonts are generally easier to read than San Serif fonts at small sizes (8 point and smaller) or on long blocks of text.

San Serif - Helvetica is an example of a san serif font

Ascender - the part of a letter that is above the body. For example, the tall part of the letter "b."

Descender - the part of a letter that decends below the baseline. For example, the tail of the letter "y."

Body - the main portion of a letter. For example, the round portion of the letter "b." A lower case 'a' only has a body of the letter, no decenders or ascenders. A lower case 'd' has an ascender in addition to its body.

Headline or Display type – Type that introduces the text or grabs the reader's attention. Sizes are generally large, 14 pt or larger.

Subhead - Type smaller and visually less important thana headline, but still commands attention.

Body Type or Text - Type that is subordinate to the headline and makes up the main body of a page. Sizes are in the 6-12 point range. Lengthy text can be made more legible with the addition of a point or two of leading (e.g., 9 point type with 13 points of leading, 12 point type with 16 points of leading).

Text Justification or Alignment - Ragged or flush, centered, justified.

Widow - A single word on a line by itself at the end of a paragraph. Poor typographical form.

Orphan - A single word on a line by itself at the beginning of a column. Poor typographical form.

Words of advice

... Two aspects of a type … [are] … fundamental to its effectiveness. Because the common meaning of “legible” is “readable” there are those – even some professionally involved in typography – who think that the term “legibility” is all that is needed in any discussion on the effectiveness of types. But legibility and readability are separate, though connected aspects of type. Properly understood … the two terms can help to describe the character and function of type more precisely than legibility alone. … In typography we need to draw the definition … of legibility …to mean the quality of being decipherable and recognisable – so that we can say, for example, that the lowercase h in a particular old style italic is not legible in small sizes because its in-turned leg makes it look like the letter b; or a figure 3 in a classified advertisement is too similar to the 8. … In display sizes, legibility ceases to be a serious matter; a character that causes uncertainty at 8 point size is plain enough at 24 point.

-- Walter Tracy, Letters of Credit

Neat stuff

• The Chinese had a printing presses between 1041-1048. The Jikji, a guide for students in the essence of Buddhist practices, was printed in 1377 in Korea (the metal type volume predates the Gutenberg Bible of Germany by 78 years). German Johannes Guttenberg printed the Bible in 1440, which is widely accepted as sparking the European Renaissance.
  
• The area of a layout with type should be proportional to the unprinted area, and the choice of typeface should complement the content. 
•  Text in all capitals can be difficult to read because there is no variation in the letter forms, no ascenders and descenders.
  
• Most of the information of a letter is in the top portion. Try it for yourself! Get a newspaper that has headlines in upper and lower case letters and a piece of blank white paper. Cover the bottom half of a headline with the paper and I'll bet you can still read it. But cover the top half of the headline, and you'll probably have some difficulty making out the words.

Further Reading:

• History of the Alphabet
• World Heritage Rights Versus National Cultural Property Rights: The Case Of The Jikji
• Printing press
• Gutenberg Press
• Johannes Gutenberg

Getting Started and Making a Layout

Create new document in Illustrator or InDesign

We'll go through this together in class. To launch an application, find it's icon in the appropriate directory and double-click on it. Then create a new document from File Menu > New. Select the size and orientation you want, then click OK. Now you have a fresh blank page ready for your layout.

A layout is a vehicle for graphic communication, most often a combination of text and pictures, but can be text alone.

Type or Text... the first part of the layout equation

At left of your workspace is the Toolbox. Different tools do different things to the objects and type in your layout.

To put text on your page, use the Text Tool. Use your cursor to click on the T in the toolbox, then click and drag the mouse diagonally down and right to "draw" or create a text box on your blank page. Begin typing.

Use the Character Panel or Palette (on the right) to change type styles. Panels are used to control aspects of items in your layout, such as type size or alignment. To apply a new style or attribute to your text, select the type by highlighting it - click and drag across the text - with your cursor, then select or change the attribute in the Character Panel. Also note, the Control Panel at the top of the page changes with each tool selected, and has many of the same controls as the panels on the right of your screen do.

Menus drop down from the top of the screen and control many of the same aspect that Palettes do, and a few more that they don't.

Pictures... the second part of the layout equation

To place pictures (graphics) in InDesign, use Selection Tool (black arrow in upper left of Toolbox), go to File > Place. (If you like to save time, learn the keyboard shortcut.) Locate and select a graphic from the hard drive or a disk. When the graphic has been imported into InDesign and is ready to be placed on the page, the cursor will change from an arrow to a paintbrush when the graphic is loaded. Click once on the page to "place" the graphic. (Tip: when clicking the mouse to place an image, click outside any text boxes or graphics. If you click inside, the new graphic will be placed inside and replace or move the existing item.) You cannot open graphic files in InDesign.

Placing pictures in Illustrator is the same as in InDesign (File > Place), but note that there is no keyboard shortcut. You can open both vector and bitmapped graphic files in Illustrator: you can modify vector graphics, but you cannot modify bitmapped graphics.

Important Concept: Links

When you place pictures in an InDesign layout, you don't acutally make a copy of the graphic in your document. What you see on the page in your InDesign document is not actually the graphic file itself: it is a preview, a low-resolution representation of the graphic. InDesign creates a link to the original graphic and displays the preview to keep file sizes small.

Think of a link as a little breadcrumb trail, or a leash, or an umbilical cord... something that InDesign uses to connect to and keep track of graphics placed in a document. Because InDesign does not store a copy of the placed graphic file within your layout document, the link keeps track of all its data. If the document is printed with an outdated or broken, it can produce undesired results.

The Links Palette (at right) keeps track of all the graphics you place in your document. InDesign needs to know where the original graphic file is in order to successfully print a graphic in its proper resolution. Printing a document with a without its links (a.k.a."broken" links) can result in unattractive "bitmapped" or "jaggy" graphics. The Links Palette displays status of all the links in your document, and allows you to update or link them to different files.

Working on lab computers and saving your files

In our class, we'll be using Adobe Creative Suite CS4 installed on the Macintosh partition of your lab computer.


The safest mode of working in our lab is to work from the Documents drive (the yellow drive on the desktop of your computer)

In case of an accidental freeze, crash or log-off, your files will remain there temporarily. If you crash while working from the desktop you will lose your work. Working from a flash drive or external hard drive is also not recommended -- it's much slower than working on the hard drive, and you will also lose your work in the event of a crash or freeze.

Be sure to save your document (file) frequently while working

Work from the computer's Documents folder, and save frequently. After you're finished, save and close your file. Copy all your files (drag and drop) from Documents to your flash drive.

About vector and bitmapped graphics

Vector graphics (sometimes called vector shapes or vector objects) are made up of lines and curves defined by mathematical objects called vectors, which describe an image according to its geometric characteristics.

Vector illustration

Bitmap images—technically called raster images—use a rectangular grid of picture elements (pixels) to represent images. Each pixel is assigned a specific location and color value. When working with bitmap images, you edit pixels rather than objects or shapes. Bitmap images are the most common electronic medium for continuous-tone images, such as photographs or digital paintings, because they can more efficiently represent subtle gradations of shades and color.
Bitmap images are resolution-dependent—that is, they contain a fixed number of pixels. As a result, they can lose detail and appear jagged if they are scaled to high magnifications on‑screen or if they are printed at a lower resolution than they were created for.

Bitmapped image (photo)

Read more at Adobe Help Resource Center, http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/Illustrator/13.0/help.html?content=WSA9EFBCB8-EC3C-4a5b-AFCD-2A3F77D917D5.html and http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/Illustrator/13.0/help.html?content=WSCFDA855F-B5B4-4316-AA0A-DFA4CC1DAC7D.html