The Sound and Motion of Color

Can sound and motion illustrate the personality of color? The Animation class at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design set out to discover the answer.

AIGA (2005). Design>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric>Color

Spacing and Kerning

What makes a typeface look the way it does? The design of the letter shapes is a primary factor, but it’s by no means the only one...

Strizver, Ilene. AIGA (2004). Design>Typography

State Department Bans Courier New 12, Except for Treaties

Just when it seemed typography had no discernable impact on government policy the US State Department outlawed its standard typeface.

Shaw, Paul. AIGA (2004). Design>Typography>Legal>Government

They're Not Fonts!

Typefaces are designs like Baskerville, Gill Sans or Papyrus. Type designers create typefaces. Today they use software programs like Fontographer or Font Lab to create the individual letters. A few still draw the letters by hand and then scan them into a type design application. Fonts are the things that enable the printing of typefaces. Type foundries produce fonts. Sometimes designers and foundries are one and the same, but creating a typeface and producing a font are two separate functions.

Haley, Allan. AIGA (2002). Design>Typography

Typography and the Aging Eye: Typeface Legibility for Older Viewers with Vision Problems

The population is rapidly aging and becoming a larger share of the marketplace. The demands of the aging eye require typefaces that function well under low-vision conditions. Can signage display useful information that is accessible to all ages?

Nini, Paul. AIGA (2006). Design>Typography>Accessibility>Elderly

A User-Centered Drowsy-Driver Detection and Warning System  

This work is a culmination of years of research to develop an effective in-vehicle countermeasure to drowsy driving. Previous work resulted in an independently validated measure of drowsiness that was then incorporated into a drowsy-driver prototype monitor. The goal of this project was to develop an associated drowsy-driver interface that enabled effective, user-centered interactions with the underlying system. A multidisciplinary team designed a new drowsy-driver interface and introduced smart user interactions through a careful participatory design process that included both design experts and commercial motor vehicle drivers. It is hoped that this effort and subsequent field trials will result in a reliable, smart system that convinces drivers that they are driving in an unsafe condition and to make a wise choice--stop and rest.

Ayoob, Ellen M., Richard Grace and Aaron Steinfeld. AIGA (2003). Design>User Interface>User Centered Design

Weingart: A Craftsman to the Core

Experience with Wolfgang Weingart during his last year before retiring from the HGK Basel, Switzerland.

Rotmil, Adam M. AIGA (2004). Design>Typography>Interviewing

What Is Success?

Although it is true that designers generally rely on clients, pleasing them is not the ultimate purpose of our work. What designers share with our clients is a public, an audience. Our clients wouldn't need us at all if we weren't helping them reach that public. Our broader responsibility is to the ultimate users of our work.

Lupton, Ellen. AIGA (2007). Careers>Graphic Design>Audience Analysis

Why is it so Hard to Make Products that People Love?

Why do so many good designs get trampled during the product development process? If everyone is trying to create something good for their customers, why is the development process so rife with disagreements and compromises that actually hurt businesses in the long run? If everyone has the same good intentions, can't the business people just make up their minds about what kind of product they want to create and let design create the right solution?

Adlin, Tamara and John Pruitt. Gain: AIGA Journal of Business and Design (2006). Design>User Interface>Collaboration

The (Mostly) True Story of Helvetica and the New York City Subway

There is a commonly held belief that Helvetica is the signage typeface of the New York City subway system, a belief reinforced by Helvetica, Gary Hustwit’s popular 2007 documentary about the typeface. But it is not true—or rather, it is only somewhat true. Helvetica is the official typeface of the MTA today, but it was not the typeface specified by Unimark International when it created a new signage system at the end of the 1960s. Why was Helvetica not chosen originally? What was chosen in its place? Why is Helvetica used now, and when did the changeover occur?

Shaw, Paul. AIGA (2008). Design>Typography>Technical Illustration>Case Studies