I teach a class in typography and whenever I cover a subject I see examples of it and its abuse everywhere. I’ve been covering the use of quotation marks, apostrophes and prime or hatch marks.

(Prime marks are straight up and down and are used with numbers to indicate inches or feet. Quotes and apostrophes are curved or slanted, depending on the font. )

They are used incorrectly so often that people have begun to accept them when they would not accept a straight up and down comma. (Hopefully!)

It was my Mom’s birthday and we took her out to dinner. The food and service was very good but the typography was all over the place. The other samples are within a few blocks of her condo. So, Type Geek had to document them. (click image for larger view)

Exterior sign for Aldo’s

Two more exterior signs—same restaurant

Logos on plates and menus

Two signs—two apostrophe treatments—same place.

What’s this?

and it’s still snowing in Philadelphia! The mayor has closed down the city – all bus service is stopped, highways closed and Philadelphia University is planning on starting at 10:00 in the am.

Some of our hats.

Students, faculty and staff all joined in creating a mother load of hats to be donated to an area hospital. I worked with a smaller splinter group and the picture shows some of our results.

I like working with the students. They keep me fresh and hopefully I teach them something. I’m also always forced to update my software skills which is a good thing.

“Hail, hail, rock and roll.”

We feel that it is most important to understand the first bit, what color is,  in order to master the last, how colors influence each other. Not what paint is, or what dyes are, but what actual color is and how humans perceive it.

Color is Light and Light is Energy!
It is the small part of the electromagnetic spectrum of wave lengths that the human eye sees. When this Visual Spectrum is present we see white light. When individual wave lengths are viewed we see them as individual colors.

Prism

In the 1600’s Sir Isaac Newton proved the physical properties of color when he passed a light beam through a prism, refracting the white light into its separate wave lengths. (If you have a prism, look through it at a light source and notice what happens.)

I’ll discuss more on color in future posts.

If you are interested in having us speak to your organization, (or conduct workshops) contact me at beth@emmott.com or at 700 S. 10th St., Phila, PA, 19147

In the mean time—GO PHILLIES!!!

Jeanne’s passion is contagious and as a result I gave my Philadelphia University Graphic and Digital Design sophomores a project to design an advocacy poster on the topic. Most of my students had never heard of wetlands or at least had not been too concerned. Much research, and lots of design exploration was required—and at the end of the semester time was short. The results were exciting and several are below.