the tomb of Col. Robert R. McCormick

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For my very first ever photo posted to this blog, I'm choosing a photo I took on Good Friday at Cantigny Park in Wheaton, Illinois. The photo is of the tomb of Col. Robert R. McCormick, a veteran of the First World War, and a newspaper man. But not just any newspaper man, he was the owner, editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune, and also got the paper involved in radio and TV with the famous call sign: WGN - "World's Greatest Newspaper."

I could not think of anything more appropriate to start this blog than with photo of the tomb of a soldier and famous newspaper man. It's symbolic on a number of levels.

But first the typography of the tomb engraving itself--a very easy to read, and surprisingly modern sans-serif font that features thin, tall, all-capital letters. Notice how the first letter of every word is a little taller than those used in the rest of the word. There's a lot of text in this engraving, and it seems this particular type was chosen to get the maximum in a very limited space. The stone itself is a very high quality white granite imported from North Carolina.

The reason this first entry into the journal has a lot of symbolic importance extends to many different levels. Here's a few to get things started:

NEWSPAPERMAN - Though the inscription on this part of the tomb deals with Col. McCormick's service during the First World War, he was actually far more famous for his owning the Chicago Tribune, and the WGN radio and TV stations. He was a mass media genius, and obviously was very, very familiar with the world of typography.

STONE ENGRAVING - All the earliest forms of writing that survive to the common day survived because they were engraved in stone or clay, or at the very least, pigments were used on a stone surface, like cave paintings for instance. Stone was the ideal medium for putting out a message that you wanted to last for a very, very long time.

TOMB - In the digital age, it is quite obvious that many of the old forms of mass media are dying off, or being reduced in size and influence. This goes for newspapers, television, books, records, and various other things that can easily find life in 100% digital form. Even when I watch TV now-a-days, it's often shows I select from an "On Demand" service, rather than trying to re-arrange my schedule around their airing. Digital is all encompassing, and is changing the way news and data are delivered in a very major way. It would not be the least surprising to me if printed books and newspapers were to be completely gone from sale within ten to twenty years.

Click here to buy a print or digital download of the photo.

RZ

digital typography used by this blog

I just can't keep well enough alone.

This blog was created using Google's outstanding Blogger tool, and to get up and running quickly, I chose their canned "etheral" template. But I can't have a blog without adding my own personal touches, especially in regards to the type used to make this blog. Hence, that's the first thing I modified, in what I hope is a long, slow steady stream of modifications over the life of this blog.

First to be changed was the blog's text in regards to the body of posts (what you are reading right now!). For blog posts, I chose my all time favorite web font, Verdana, and decided to go with a 13 pixel size. I like text to be in the 13 to 14 pixel range, if possible.

Second, I changed the type for the blog post title. It is now a really cool font called Droid Sans, and it's 24 pixels in size.

Third, I changed the type for the blog title itself, typography journal. I wanted the blog's title and the post titles to have matching type, so I chose Droid Sans for that as well, at a size of 60 pixels.

More changes will be coming in the days or weeks ahead, but type is always the first to be changed when I play around with templates. I hope you like how everything looks.

RZ

the typography journal

Hello everyone!

This is my first entry in my new blog: typography journal. Let me tell you a little bit about this projet, why I'm starting it, and what you can expect.

First of all, let's make sure we understand the term typography. I'm sure you've heard it before, but it's not a common word, and therefore I should define it as best I can. For a start, here's the formal definition from my computer's dictionary:

typography
noun
• the art or process of setting and arranging types and printing from them.
• the style and appearance of printed matter.

While the first part of that definition about setting and arranging type and printing is certainly very important, this journal will be mostly interested in the second part of the definition: the style and appearance of printed matter. In my own words: this will be a journal that will concentrate on how typography is used in the world around us, especially in regards to it's style and appearance.

This journal is a requirement for a digital typography class I'm taking. Just like artists keep sketchbooks for drawing whatever it is that strikes their fancy where-ever they may be, this digital journal will--in a way--serve that same purpose. But unlike a true artist armed with his sketchbook out exploring the world, this blog will be a collection of typography, and none of it will be my own original creation. Instead, I'll be collecting, exploring and critiquing other people's typography.

However, there will be one litte bit of originality and creativity applied to this blog by it's creator: the typography I find will be photographed by me, with my own camera. I hope to have up to 100% of the photography on this site be my own orignal photos, but I do reserve the right to use someone else's photography if I come across an image of a subject I'm not able to photograph on my own.

So am I going to be taking photos of books and magazines and posting them to this blog? No.

Rather, the approach here is going to be a little unique. Rather than exploring the typography of the printed page, I'm going to focus on on the typography of everyday life.

To be more exact: I'm going to be focusing on how type is used on things. And by things I mean everything that is not a printed page or a book cover. Rather, I'll be looking at how typography is used on signs, buildings, cars, trucks, airplanes, trains, appliances, tombstones, monuments, shopping carts, packaging, parking lots, and all else. And I'm not going to necessarily look for amazing, outstanding uses of typography, but rather the mundane, boring uses that we see everyday and don't thing two seconds about: stop signs, traffic signs in general, signs along the highway and on buildings, and that sort of thing. My intention is to make you stop and think about these things, how they are designed, their intended audience, why they are even there to begin with. It is a celebration of the mundane. But I do promise to throw in a few more interesting pieces as well.

My personal goal is to add as many as ten images a week--we'll see if we can maintain that pace for a couple of months.

The format of the posts will be very simple: a title, a photo, and a brief description or critique of the typography sample. Since I don't plan to add any advertising to this site, I hope to make a few cents by selling prints and digital downloads of the images I post. There will be links to the an e-commerce site where those transactions can be completed.

I do hope you find this site interesting. I'll keep the comments section open if you have any feedback.

Thank You.

Ron Z.