Typical Project

Right now I am working on a typical project of a graphic designer. Our assignment in my Typography class (which every graphic designer should have taken or intensely studied) is to create our own font. Now, every graphic designer does not NEED to have their own font, but it is very important to know what font to use for different projects. For example, you wouldn't want to use Comic Sans MS or Marker Felt if you were creating an invitation to an elegant ball, and you also wouldn't want to use Curlz MT to present a project. Every font has a different use and there are many things that go into making a font. Some of the things you have to consider are if you want the font to be serif or sans serif. Serif's are the little edges on the tips of letters like in Time New Roman compared to Arial font which has all smooth edges and nothing hanging off. Then you have to think of how high you want your ascender and how low you want your descenders to go. Ascenders are the highest point of all of our letters, so for example the top of the L would be your ascender and the bottom of your Y, Q, or P would be your descender. Then there is the baseline, which every letter sits upon. The point size is the total area used for your font so the highest point to the lowest point of any letter is the point size. You also have to worry about leading. Leading is the amount of space between the horizontal lines. You never want your letters to look too close together. Take a look at this picture to learn more about what I'm talking about.