Contact Us

Use the form on the right to contact us.

You can edit the text in this area, and change where the contact form on the right submits to, by entering edit mode using the modes on the bottom right. 

         

123 Street Avenue, City Town, 99999

(123) 555-6789

email@address.com

 

You can set your address, phone number, email and site description in the settings tab.
Link to read me page with more information.

Blog

I look at blogging as my tool to look below the surface. The tech field is moving so fast and so furiously that you can spend all your energy just trying to keep up. Instead, I’m stepping back and refocusing on what I find interesting and enriching as a designer.

Optical Spacing

Angelika Fuellemann

This post goes over the nuances encountered while resetting the CBS Local Market Logos. They were created 3 years ago in Helvetica Neue Bold and the original live-type files had been lost. Needing to correct some spacing inconsistencies, the decision was made to reset all 23 logos. It was great opportunity to experience the subtleties of typography with a classic typeface and an iconic logo mark.

The principles of optical volume and optical spacing ended up playing a major role in informing the spacing decisions*. Font design is all about minute adjustments to create optically pleasing letterforms. And logo design follows suit.

Illustration 1:

Helvetica Neue rounded letters hang slightly below the baseline to compensate for the optical illusion of vertical letters looking slightly larger than oval letters.

ILLUSTRATION 2:

In order for the CBS eye to look optically correct, it also needs to be slightly larger.

illustration2.png

Illustration 3:

Optical spacing between CBS and Market Names. The 3 basic letter shapes inform the spacing - Oval (C) vs. Inclined (A), Vertical (B). The vertical letterform was the median placement that all the rest were based on.

Optical spacing between CBS and Market Names. The 3 basic letter shapes inform the spacing - Oval (C) vs. Inclined (A), Vertical (B). The vertical letterform was the median placement that all the rest were based on.

Optical spacing between CBS and Market Names. The 3 basic letter shapes inform the spacing - Oval (C) vs. Inclined (A), Vertical (B). The vertical letterform was the median placement that all the rest were based on.

*Optical Volume: In typography, the combined appearance of the spacing between letters which cannot always be gauged quantitatively. Different letter-shape combinations generate the illusion of more or less space between them, resulting in the need for kerning.

Optical Spacing: In typography, the “look” of the typeset letters in relation to each other, which may or may not be geometrically accurate due to optical illusions caused by the proximity of various letter shapes. In good typeface design, spacing between lowercase letters is “built in.” (http://printwiki.org/Optical_Spacing)

Letters come in three basic shapes:

• Oval (such as an “O”)
• Inclined (such as a “V”)
• Vertical (such as an “I”)

The combined appearance of the spacing between letters is called optical volume, which can vary depending upon the shape of the letters. For example, the space between two squares may look different than that between two circles, even though they may be quantitatively the same. On modern typesetting software, automatic and manual kerning options can solve the problem of optical volume.