Photoshop is a pixel based program. A pixel is a square of colour, that we use to make up images in programs like photoshop. We can control how many pixels are in an image by adjusting the resolution. Most photographs from camera are taken at 72 pixels per inch as you can see below. 

This can cause problems if we wanted to print a photographed image, as printers print at 300, 600 and 1200 dpi (dots per inch) which could leave us with a low quality print. This is also dependant on what the use of the print is for. If the image is very large scale for a billboard or sign, the image can be slightly lower resolution as the audience is to going to be looking at it up close. The pixels will not be as noticeable from a distance and look as though they blend together to create a smooth image. This is the act of Optical Mixing which is the act of placing to diferent colours next to each other very finely to create what looks like a new colour if seen from a distance. The diagram below is good example.

Below you can see me adjusting the PPI (pixels per inch) on this photograph of a cat I took a long time ago to see the differences:

72 pixel per inch

 10 pixel per inch

3 pixel per inch

1 pixel per inch

Although the lower PPI images would be useless in many design solutions, there are many ways we could use this.

Chuck close for example, famous for "re-inventing the portrait" with his image on the left below started to create amazing detailed images out of squares that had been painted appropriately. Although they are not necessarily pixels, they follow the same concept.  Only when you stand back from the painting does it actually make sense.

Pixels can also be used to give an illustration a retro feel. The to images below are made up of less than 100 pixels. The smart positioning and colouring of squares have made these images iconic and have connotations of detailed illustrations of the characters.

Below is a Photoshop shortcut diagram that I found very useful. It helps make working on images faster and easier.

We then began to talk about the diferent colour modes and what they care used for. There is RGB (red, green, blue) that monitors use, and there is CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and key) which printers use.

 The difference between the two is that RGB uses  a mixture of light to create colours whereas CMYK uses inks. Unfortunately this can cause problems when printing a digital image, as RGB can produce a much wider colour variety than CMYK. You can see this in the diagram below of a colour gamut.

In photoshop we can choose from many colours. When we choose a colour that cannot be printed (as it is out of the CMYK colour range) we are given a tiny warning triangle to let us know. If we click on the triangle, it gives automatically changes the colour to the nearest possible colour that can be made CMYK inks.

Colours are represented with a colour code (or hex code) which you can see above (f31e10) and photoshop also shows use the percentage of CMYK and RGB is used to create the colour.

We can also use the colour tool bar that lets us adjust the colour by adjusting the individual colours of RGB which you can see below.

We briefly looked at how we can adjust the colour of images in "adjustments" under the image tab. The most commonly used by photographers is the levels and curves tool, which allows you to adjust the highlight and shadows in an image and make them lighter or darker. This can add some depth to an image and make it more lively and vibrant. The white balance uses the light in you image to give your image either a cool or warm look. This is useful if you have taken the photo in a light that gives your image an unpleasant tint. The white balance can also be adjusted on most DSLR cameras.

During this module I have learnt a number of new techniques which I can use in future. I now know so much more about type than I imagined possible and how it can be manipulated. I would have liked to learn more about composition and layout in this module as it would have been useful for the last brief, although I did find a lot of information about it in the library.

I would have liked to have had our screen printing induction earlier in the module, as I would have liked to screen print my final poster designs for studio brief 5 although it wasn't necessary

I really found the weekly feedback sessions useful as I often find it hard to generate ideas on my own work, and I enjoy seeing the direction others are going in and giving feedback to them. I have definitely become a lot more proud of my work than I used to be. I am keen to show people and see what others think of it.

As poster research I have collected some very influential, memorable and high impact posters. 

The poster below was part of a campaign from "stonewall", a gay, lesbian and bisexual charity. The phrase was so blunt and written in such a block font that it shocked people across the UK. 

The well known poster below was a motivational poster created by the the British government in 1939 a few months before the start of the Second World War. The intentions of the poster were to raise the hopes of the general public. The poster uses an informal sans-serif font with a british red as the background. The

The poster below was created by Shepard Fairey in 2008 to promote Barack Obama in the elections. The colours are slight variations of the U.S. flag colours which symbolise patriotism. Obama is looking upward evoking a sense of "hope" in the future for America. The posters composition fits along with the Fibonacci spiral directing the eye along the word "hope" then to his circular logo, and then to his face. This implies that he is America's hope.

An info-graphic is a visual representation of information or data, such as a chart or diagram. Many informative posters use info graphics to tell information to the audience in an interesting way. Info-graphics are an effective way for the audience to visualise the data and understand it even more.

A key part of a good info graphic, is it's colour scheme. The colours should be vibrant and exciting. I would have liked to have created an info graphic for my image-only poster, unfortunately there aren't any statistics to base my info graphic around. 

Here are some great examples of info graphics I found at http://www.informationisbeautiful.net :

The rule of thirds, is a composition commonly used by photographers to take a visually pleasing  and balanced photo. The rule of thirds involves placing 2 lines across your design vertically and horizontally to split the design equally into 9 separate segments. If for example you are taking a photo of a nice landscape, you would want to take the photo with the horizon on one of the horizontal lines. like so:

This technique can be used in many ways. You can place your subject off centre along one of the lines to create a balanced photo or give a sense of direction. I could use this technique in my design work by fitting text onto, around or inside these lines and boxes.

here are some examples of how I have used it in my poster designs:

Each statement of this poster is in a separate horizontal box. This balances the design, making it not too top or bottom heavy.

With the design below I could have placed the heart rate line along the bottom line, although this would have left too much negative space at the bottom, making the design top heavy and unbalanced. Instead I centre aligned it to the bottom third, with the text centre aligned to the top two thirds.

Century Schoolbook

The Century font family is a collection of typefaces derived from 'Century Roman', a typeface created by 'The American Type Founders' designer Linn Boyd Benton in 1894. During the 19th century there was an increase in thin typefaces due to influences from Italian Typographer 'Bodoni'. These typefaces lacked impact and legibility, and so Theodore Low De Vinne, Publisher of 'Century Magazine', commissioned Benton to create a more legible typeface to be used in the magazine.

In Beatrice Warde's 'The crystal goblet' it is explained that 'form over function' in typography is not only unnecessary, but it is also distracting. Warde stated that 'type well used is invisible as type'. What Warde meant by this statement is that a typeface should fit it's intended purpose, which above all is to communicate an idea, this however cannot be achieved if the reader is being distracted by unnecessary, decorative flamboyancy. 

An excellent example of functionality within typography is Morris Fuller Benton's Century Schoolbook. Benton created this typeface around 1918 with the intention it be the most legible typeface. He utilised research from 'Clark University', that showed that letterforms with contrasting line weight but with lighter strokes. He also took in to account the use of counter-forms to increase readability. To this day Century Schoolbook is still used in most educational publications and even Supreme Court of The United States' documents as it so reliable. This typeface is a perfect example of Warde's 'invisible type', it meets it's purpose to communicate a question or piece of information in a book clearly without any distractions. This reinforces Warde's statement that 'to an extent, all good typography is modernist', that is to say that the functionality of the typeface was considered above all else. 

 The incredible functionality of this type face is displayed through it's ability to be used at a multitude of different scales.To an extent, form and function go hand in hand when it comes to the functionality of Century schoolbook, as it is the form that makes this such a successful and functional typeface.

Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation. A sign is made up of the signified and the signifier:

Signified: The initial meaning that is given to the sign.

Signifier: The visual sign, image, icon.

Denotation: The literal meaning of the sign.

Connotation: Implied/associated meaning based on shared understanding within culture.

Iconic signs: signs where the signifier resembles the signified, e.g., a picture, map.

Indexical Signs: signs where the signifier is caused by the signified, e.g., smoke signifies fire.

Symbolic (arbitrary) signs: signs where the relation between signifier and signified is purely conventional and culturally specific, e.g., most words.

Myths: a combination of paradigms and syntagms that make up an oft-told story with elaborate cultural associations.

Codes: a combination of semiotic systems, a supersystem, that function as general maps of meaning, belief systems about oneself and others, which imply views and attitudes about how the world is and/or ought to be. Codes are where semiotics and social structure and values connect.

Colours: Red/white/blue have diferent connotations that we have given to them in our culture. Red can signify: energy, passion, love, power, strength, death. White can signify: purity, simplicity, peace. Blue can signify: peace tranquility, calm, stability, unity. The actual connotation of these colours are made more clear with context. e.g. A horror film poster using red will signify death/blood etc.

Stars: The denotation of the stars is that they are a visual interpretation of the stars in the sky, but the connotation within this context is that they signify the 50 states of america. 

Stripes: The stripes are in reality just strips of colour, although they represent the original colonies of America.

George Washington:

"We take the stars from Heaven, the red from out mother country, separating it by white stripes, thus showing that we have separated from her, and the white stripes shall go down to posterity representing liberty."

The image above is a McDonald's advert from july 2008. The hand gesture used in the image known as "Hand Horns" is a symbol that was popularised by Dio, an American heavy metal band, that symbolises the rock and roll genre as a whole. The use of this hand gesture, could be due to them trying to associate McDonalds with youth, fun and freedom.The colours used in the image (yellow, red, black) are symbolic of the McDonald's company and are used in all their branding guidelines. The gold/yellow is used as a symbol of quality and value as traditionally the substance, gold, which is the colour gold, is very valuable. The red is a colour that is symbolic of the companies bold, strong nature. The colours combined makes the branding very strong and the logo almost unforgettable. The golden arc "M" is a symbol for the McDonalds franchise too, with other connotations, such as "mmmm", the noise a person makes when they are enjoying food. The black "M" that is behind the yellow "M" is an icon for a drop shadow. This is supposed to connote that light is beaming down on the "M", from above, possibly giving off religious connotations of a heavenly light shinning upon the "M". Subtly associating the company with god and heaven, will make customers want to buy their food. This is giving the audience a positive image about the food served at McDonald's. The actual intentions of the ad are not clear. It may be trying to make McDonald's appeal to a wider audience by associating it with rock and roll. The hand gesture, combined with the colours is an icon used to represent the packaging and french fries served at McDonald's. Subliminal messages can also be seen in this advert. For example the finger nails, combined with the downward yellow arc on the hand is an icon for a smiley face, giving off positive connotations. The white background is used as a symbol for purity, cleanliness, healthiness. These are all attributes that a customer wants their food to be associated with. The bright colours clash with the white background that make the colours seem even more vivid. This connotes that the food is vibrant with taste, fun and excitement. Lastly, The catch-phrase "I'm lovin' it" connotes that there is a vast range of people that love the food. "love" being the optimum word. The word connotes that there are strong positive feelings towards the food at McDonald's, letting the audience know that the food is good. All together the advert has a powerful look that connotes the McDonald's company as a strong, vibrant and healthy company.

We had a mono print induction today at Vernon Street. We were shown how to set up an inking area and the diferent ways we could experiment with the printing presses. We were shown that after doing one print, we can get an interesting outline effect, by using the same print wit hound the stencil pieces. I would like to use this process in the future. I could use it for the poster project. My reasoning behind it, would be that traditionally printed poster have more depth to them, and generally making the design higher impact. Below are a few photos from the induction. I'm planning to collect my prints soon.

Since the 1960's the human race has been developing technology and making faster, more efficient, safer robotic systems. The development of technology has been snowballing and new technologies are being discovered every day. In the 1960's humans were looking at how technology could improve the world we live in and be used in almost every situation. Many people blame the Sci-Fi television show, "Star Trek" for the sudden spurt in technology evolution, predicting devices such as the mobile phone, tablet computers, touch screen technology, video conference calls and headgear devices. In the 1982 the CD was invented and made commercially available to the public. This is when technology started to snowballed.

Below is a photo an illustration from the 1982 series of futuristic children's book's, "World of Tomorrow" by Neil Ardley. The illustration depicts a person who has been seriously injured, who is being operated on by a robotic surgeon. Below is the text that goes along with the illustration.

Here you can see an operation taking place in a hospital of the future. The patient has had a terrible accident and lost an arm. However, the arm has been recovered and robot surgeons are reattaching it to its owner.

The operation is very intricate. Tiny nerve endings and blood vessels have to be fixed to each other. The robots work tirelessly and with great precision and speed to repair the damage. They can operate on very small parts of the body, using needle-thin laser beams to cut through and also to seal the tissues together. Human surgeons check the robots via television and make sure that the patient remains in good condition.

After the operation the patient will receive special care to speed recovery. As well as good nursing, this may include radio or electrical treatment to make the nerves, bones and skin grow quickly so that the patient's arm soon regains its normal use.

Treatment to induce tissues to grow could be very valuable in the hospital of the future. It could help burn victims to recover very quickly by encouraging new skin to grow over their burns. Even more important, it may help to cure paralyzed people. The treatment would cause new nerves and muscles to grow and replace the dead nerves and muscles producing the paralysis.

It's even possible that such treatment could make missing organs and maybe even limbs grow again, much as our hair and nails continue to grow after cutting them. One day surgeons may be able to remove a diseased part of the body and provide a framework on which the patient grows a new part!

What I find interesting about this subject is that just as Star Trek had done, Neil Ardley has predicted or at least set the grounds of what is currently being used as a robotic surgeon. Below is a photo of the "Da Vinci SI", a surgery robot that has sparked much controversy to how quick technology has progressed and to the point where we are putting our lives in the hands of a robotic system.

The Da Vinci Si

The Da Vinci Si has two separate but connected sections:

The Tower, which is positioned directly above the patient during surgery. It has four robot arms - Three which can hold a multitude of diferent surgical instruments, and the fourth holds the system's 3D cameras. These arms are controlled by a computer that actually replicates the movement of the operating surgeon.

The console is where the surgeon sits and operates the robot's controls while looking into a stereoscopic monitor that provides a magnified, high definition 3D views of the surgical site. The surgeon manipulates the robot's four arms by maundering two master controls that provide fingertip precision of movement.

The surgeon also operates a foot switch that provides additional options, such as the ability to switch between two diferent energy sources. Touch pads allow the surgeon to easily adjust video, audio and system settings.

The company that has developed this machine is called Intuitive Surgical. The Da Vinci Si was created in 1999 and now being used in many countries. A report from Intuitive surgical itself in September 2012 indicated that more than 20 hospitals in the UK and Ireland already have these machines. These including: St Mary's and St George's and Guy's in London and units in such regions as Glenfield Hospital and Manchester Hospital.

Below is the news article, from the Daily Mail I chose to base my research around. The reason i chose this is article is because of the way that the Daily Mail chose to report it. The goto they chose to accompany the article depicts a human-like robotic hand holding a scalpel delicately between it's thumb and index finger. This is quite strange as this is nothing like the actual robots used in surgery.

It seems as though they have chosen to depict the robot like this to spark controversy on purpose as they know that there are many people who are scared of robots and fear for how far they have developed. The idea of a human-like robot (aka. Humanoid robot) scares many people. 

The main issues that the news article states are:

1. There are surgeons that are not getting the correct training to use the machines.
2. There are currently no regulations to having them safety checked by the MHRA.
3. Robot surgery may not be any better than regular surgery.
4. Robotic surgery costs more than regular surgery.
5. Robotic surgeries have gone wrong in the past.
6. There aren't enough statistics to prove that robotic surgery is better.

Surgeons without correct training

Since January last year there have been 500 reports of problems with the Intuitive Surgical's devices.

The leading problem reported was that an electrical current could jump from the robot into the patients body, causing serious injury. This may be related to surgeons cleaning off their tools by scrapping instruments against each other. The instruments have a protective plastic tip covers on them and it was noted that scrapping them together led to tears or holes in the cover that led to electrical arcing which in turn led to injuries to patients.

Another rare problem that was reported was that a surgeon could accidentally cut through an artery because they cannot feel it's firmness.

The makers require surgeons to do 20 operations under supervision before they can work by themselves. Unfortunately in the UK there are no official standards of checking how proficient a surgeon is on the Da Vinci Si and surgeons can be too keen to use them.

The equipment is far too expensive to run training at the Royal College of Surgeons.

Statistics

In Britain there is no available database to collate any of the problems seen in the U.S. due to the fact that official body is taking responsibility for overseeing the safety of this technology or monitoring it's effectiveness. 

Unlike in the U.S. where it's known that 367,000 procedures in 2012 involved these robots, we don't even know how many operations were performed this way in the UK yet. 

We only know that the robots are used in over 20 hospitals across the UK and Ireland.

One of the earlier tests to show positive outcomes from robotic surgery , in journal Urology, in 2002, looked at 30 patients who underwent the same operation as well as another 30 who underwent the same operation but with traditional surgery. The outcome showed the same general outcomes, but the patients who underwent robotic surgery went home earlier and with less pain. It isn't enough strong evidence to prove that robotic surgery is an improvement.

The Cost Of Using Robots In Surgery

A Da Vinci robot costs around 2.3 million pounds. On top of this, there are annual servicing costs of 100,000 pounds.

With such high costs it doesn't make sense using robots in surgery with such a small difference in positive outcomes.

Intuititive Surgical

The California based company is facing 26 lawsuits from patients and according to a recent review by Bloomberg News the robotic devices have been linked to 70 reported deaths since 2009.

Many companies and hospitals, are trying to promote this high tech robotic system. Some are offering a hands on demo to show how safe they are and be able to take your photo with one. 

Robots Replacing Humans In The Workplace

Many people worry that robots will also take jobs, as they have done before. Robots are used to make products as they can be programmed to make the same movements over and over again. Recently the self-checkout was introduced into almost every major supermarket, which has made it easier to serve more customers, with only one member of staff supervising. The sudden burst in technology development has definitely contributed to the recent high rate of unemployment across the world. There are people who worry that soon the robots won't need to be supervised in tasks such as surgery and customer support, which will leave there to be no use for humans to work.

The 1982 book outlined the many jobs that it claimed were supposed to be made obsolete by technology by the 21st century. Like nearly all predictions for the future, there's some they got right, some they got wrong, and there's a lot that's open to interpretation.

The book said that these jobs would be taken over by robots:

Grocery Cashier

Farm Workers

Dry Cleaners

Small Real Estate Brokers

Door-to-door Salespeople

Toll Booth Operator

Bank Clerks

Traditional Telephone Operators

Typists

Secretaries

Art Room Staff

File Clerk

Librarians

Warehouse Inventoryperson

Warehouse packers

Machine Loaders

Machinists



Robots in Pop Culture

As mentioned before, pop culture has had a large influence on the development of technology. Below is an interesting diagram that shows how pieces of fiction have influenced technology throughout the years and made certain pieces of technology a reality.

Click HERE to see full size

The Fear Of Robots

The fear of robots is known as technophobia. It is the fear of advanced technology or complex devices. The younger generation have been brought up in a world with technology surrounding them so are more comfortable using them and open to new technologies, whereas an older generation of humans are uncomfortable around computers and robots because they find it hard to understand how to use them and fear that they are too smart. Pop culture has a large influence on what we think of robots and has given many people a negative impression. This may be a leading reason as to why many people are against robotic surgery taking place.

Pop culture has lead us to believe that humanoid robots should be feared. If developed, they would be  stronger than humans, maybe faster, be able to perform tasks with much more precision, but the biggest fear among humans about robots is that they could become self aware. Self aware meaning that they knew they were robots and that we are humans and that the sole purpose of their being is perform a task for us. This would obviously annoy the average human and want some sort of revenge, thus the fear of killer robots. here are just a few films which have been based around the idea of humanoid robots.

2001: A Space odyssey (1968)

H.A.L 9000 is the robot that is used to control the spaceship in this film. H.A.L 9000 malfunctions during the film and the protagonists decide to shut him down, unfortunately because of how advanced this robot is it reads the lips of the protagonists as they are discussing how to shut him down, and decides to kill the astronauts in various ways in order to complete what he was programmed to do during the space voyage.

The Terminator series

The whole plot of terminator is based around the idea that robots will become so evolved that there will be a war between humans and robots. Although the protagonist is a "good" robot, there are plenty of evil killer robots throughout.

I-robot

Based on the 3 rules of robotics created by Isaac Asimov, an American science fiction author, I-robot  tells the story of a world almost entirely run by robots. The 3 rules state:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Unfortunately a new set of robots are controlled by a mainframe that becomes self-aware and begins to try and kill all human life.

Wall-E

Although Wall-E is an animated film, it brings a serious message with it. The image above shows the humans that had to leave earth on a space ship and became so used to having everything done for them by robots that all they do is sit in chairs on computers and eat and drink. One of the morals of this story is that we shouldn't let technology be such a huge part of our life. We need to experience real life more, or we could end up just like them.

Gill Sans, known as "The Helvetica of England" was designed in 1928 by Eric Gill. The origins of Gill Sans can be traced back to 1918 when Eric Gill's teacher, Edward Johnston, was hired to design the signage for the London Underground railway. Not completely satisfied with Johnston’s work, Gill set out to create the perfect, legible typeface. In Eric Gill's book "Essay on Typography" he writes:

"The first notable attempt to work out the norm for plain letters was made by Mr Edward Johnston when he designed the sans-serif letter for the London Underground Railways. Some of these letters are not entirely satisfactory, especially when it is remembered that, for such a purpose, an alphabet should be as near as possible ‘fool-proof’… as the philosophers would say—nothing should be left to the imagination of the sign-writer or enamel-plate maker."

Drawing heavily on Johnston’s work, Gill first experimented with his ‘improvements’ in 1926 when he hand-painted lettering for a bookshop sign in his hometown, Bristol. The alphabet, which at the time only contained uppercase letters, was noticed by Stanley Morison for its commercial potential. Morison commissioned Gill to develop a complete font family to compete with the sans-serif designs released by German foundries fueled by the overwhelming success of Futura. The font was released commercially by Monotype in 1928 as Gill Sans. 

While his personal life was later discovered to be rather controversial, Eric Gill (born 1882 as Arthur Eric Rowton Gill, died 1940) was an important British sculptor, artist, and typeface designer who also gave us Perpetua and Joanna (named after one of his daughters), among others.

Gill Sans rose to popularity in 1929 when it became the standard typeface for the London and North Eastern Railway, appearing on everything from locomotive nameplates to time tables.

The typeface was used in 1935 by designer Edward Young on the now iconic Penguin Books jacket design, putting Gill Sans on bookshelves around the world.Many other notable companies (particularly in England) adopted Gill Sans as a corporate typeface by the mid-1900’s, including the BBC, British Railways, and ultimately Monotype themselves—making the typeface Monotype's fifth best seller of the twentieth century.

- Information found here.

The reason I have chosen Gill sans is because it has been widely used across the UK because it's neutral tone leaves it's personality up to the audience, rendering it a generally likeable typeface. I believe my partner in this project, Molly, reflects this typeface, as she is very easy to get along with and is liked by many people.

Below are photos of the 3 newspapers that I bought in search of a news story that I found interesting to research for this project. It is quite interesting the diferent styles that the magazines have gone for.

The Daily Star is a red top which means it is a tabloid aimed at light readers who are interested in celebrity gossip. The newspaper is dominated with pictures and has a lot of colour compared to any broadsheet. The use of bold, sans serif font for the title is quite eye catching and quite scary. The intentions of the newspaper is to scare the audience into buying the newspaper out of curiosity.

The sun has gone for a diferent approach with a more comical approach, making reference to a popular film, whilst being quite sarcastic. I prefer the design of this tabloid more as it is less cluttered. There is only one headline on the cover and the rest of the adverts are boxed off and don't overlap each other unlike the Daily Star. They have used the same font for the headline as the daily star, although it has less impact black on white.

The Daily Mail is a middle-market tabloid. The use of a blacklister font for their logo and serif font for their headline shows that this magazine is slightly more upper class than the previous red tops. They have used diferent fonts for diferent stories to appeal to a larger audience, with more serious stories about health tourism (Serif font) and less serious stories about the royal families family photos (sans serif font).

I have decided that the story I want to research is the one below, from the daily mail, that talks about the rate at which more robotic surgeries are taking place. It is quite a controversial subject as there have been many instances where the robotic arm has malfunctioned and caused serious injury to the patient. This worries many people. I am also interested in the way that the Daily mail has reported on the subject. They have a picture of a android hand which a scalpel in-between two fingers. This is very misleading as the robots are nothing like human arms in the slightest. They resemble the machinery that is used to assemble cars. Many people fear how advanced technology is getting, and using such a misleading photo creates even more controversy.

I plan to do more research into this story over the weekend for our crit on monday.

Comic Sans

Released in 1994 by Vincent Connare, Comic Sans was made to imitate the easily readable and non-intimidating lettering in comic books. Despite It's hatred among designers, influencing designs like the ones below, I believe that the font has a purpose within design.

In Simon Garfield's book "Just My Type" it is explain that the original purpose of the font was for a programme called "Microsoft Bob" which was intended to be user friendly to as a wide of an audience as possible. The the smooth lines and rounded ends of the letterforms give the font a childish quality which wouldn't be intimidating to people who hadn't used a computer previously and would feel friendly and kind-hearted. The font previously used for "Microsoft Bob" was Times New Roman which was far too traditional and professional, and didn't suit the childish illustrations that accompanied the software. Comic Sans was perfect for such a formal medium, whereas It wouldn't suit such a heavy body of text aimed at a diferent audience, such as The Bible, Lord Of the Rings or Government documents.


Hevetica

The original Helvetica was created in Switzerland by Max Meidinger and Eduard Hoffmann at "The Hass Type Foundry". it was originally created to have no outstanding characteristics or give off any impressions. This neutrality was paramount, and based off the idea that type itself should give no meaning. There have been multiple variations of the type including: Helvetica Bold, Light, Black, Textbook, Compressed. Helvetica was seen as a sleek, modern look that companies were looking for to remake their identities after wars within Europe. The design of Helvetica makes a design look quite corporate but formal enough to be used in retail and less traditional businesses on packaging advertisements and logos. This is one of the reasons it is often used in transit system signs. Below are a few examples I found of Helvetica's use.

Times New Roman

Times New Roman gets its name for "The Times" of London, the British newspaper, which the font was commissioned for in 1929. The Times hired Stanley Morison of the font foundry,"Monotype" to create a new text font . Morison led the project and was supervised by Victor Lardent, an advertising artist for The Times, who drew the letterforms.

Times New Roman has characteristics that suit The Times newspaper. It is sophisticated and timeless, and gives the reader the feeling that they are reading something intellectual. The audience wouldn't be as keen on The Times newspaper if it was all written in comic sans.

Typeface for Molly

I used Adobe Font Finder to try and find an existing font that had similar characteristics to the one I plan to create to represent Molly. Adobe Font Finder can help you narrow down your search by categorising the fonts into diferent styles and characteristics.

I searched "Humorous, Informal, Sans serif" as I believe that they are styles that represent the characteristics of Molly.

These are the 4 fonts that came up:

All but "Back to School" are very similar to Molly's handwriting. I plan use one as a basis for my typeface and change characteristics to look even more like Molly's handwriting.

I also stubbled upo another font by the name "Tekton" which I think also has the same look that I intend on going for.

 I got Molly to write down the alphabet again to see if the style of writing had changed since I last asked her to, although it seemed very similar. It has a rushed, friendly look to it. I plan to create a quite simplistic sans serif that has an upbeat feel about it