Typography in Real Life

Got funk?

Since reading the Letter portion of Lupton's book, I am noticing all different aspects of typography surrounding me. I think it is extremely interesting how typefaces families emerged. I had no idea that separate fonts were used for screen versus print, what an x-height is, ascender, etc. I believe type tells a story within itself as it can be executed in such a variety of ways, not only through the actual font, but also through the use of tracking, leading, word spacing, kearning, etc. It can get pretty funky (the things you can accomplish with typography!)

I have choosen this poster as an example of excellent typography. The font choosen is very appropriate for the James Brown concert along with his style of music. It's loose and, as mentioned above, funk. What I find truly amazing and noteworthly is how the artist must have used the perfect amounts of kearning, leading, word spacing, etc. to create the dips, rounds, juts and other movements in the shape of his face. We can perceive depth demension and shape to the utmost degree (we can even see his tongue.) Surrounding the head another font variation is used in all caps with a seemingly condensed look. I believe this was a strong choice in that the caps show the importance of following the letters as they move in towards the main focus, being his head. The condensed aspect makes the eyes follow the movement as the texts also decreases in point size. All together, the lines form an almost sunlight glow behind the head going even further to make it the center of attention. It simply just pulls you right in.

And lastly, the information positioned at the bottom left, along with the use of yellow color for "James Brown" and a larger point, but same font as the face,
maintains the connection of the face with the name and follows the movement which the condensed cap type portrayes. It's also close to the face, making it easy for the reader to skip down to. The entire piece gives off an optimistic and joyful tone which in turn, from an advertising perspective, will attract many people to this show.