CMYK

topic
WINTER 2002

top:news Guess the logo!

Just as fragments of commonly used words are easily recognizable (because we’ve seen them since we the top design studio newsletter THE TYPE ISSUE
rendezvous identity first learned how to read), bits of brand name logos are also etched into our minds. See how many you can
recognize. Send your answers to topic@topdesign.com. Guess every logo and receive a surprise gift!
Rendezvous entertainment is a newly
launched record label dedicated to the
passion of great instrumental music. Led
by Grammy award nominated artist, Dave
Koz, Rendezvous hired Top Design Studio to
brand their identity and create a company
logo. Top Design developed a typographical
mark which reflects the merging of eclectic
musical talents into one entity.

1 2 3
city of hope
Top Design created the theme and
identity for City of Hope’s largest and
most celebrated event of the year. A
Celebration Of Music In Film honored six
music executives from the leading film
studios in Hollywood. Top Design was
responsible for the event design—from
the creation of the theme and invitations
to a 200 page tribute book. 4 5 6

walmart.com
Top Design Studio helped Universal Music
and Video Distribution reach over 2 million
country music fans through a joint promotion
with Walmart.com. The studio designed the 7 8 9
logo, Give The Gift Of Music, which served as
a portal link to Walmart.com. Website visitors
receive a free CD sampler with purchase of
any country music CD. In addition, Top Design
Studio has been instrumental in the design of
in-store displays.
top design studio >> topdesign.com 818.985.1100
contributors: peleg top, rebekah beaton, alexis mercurio, shachar lavi, karen schakarov
©2002 Top Design Studio. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws.

FRONT COVER
BACK
CMYK

love it!
FROM THE TOP... emoticons communicating with type
In 1982, long before the general public was aware the

Fonts have a dynamic range of
personalities. The typeface I choose
for each project reflects the mood of
the assignment, as well as something
of my personality.
Like people, some typefaces are
extroverted, some introverted.
Other faces are edgy, silly, classic,
sophisticated, and modern. The
overall personality of the project
helps to dictate my choice of type.
Many designers have a short list of
favorites. As I have evolved over the
years, so has my choice of typefaces.
My current repertoire includes strong,
bold, contemporary, fonts like:
din
ABC
Typography is the essence of visual language, the art of aesthetically arranging written
Internet existed, Carnegie Mellon researcher Scott E. information in order to facilitate comprehension and communicate meaning.
Fahlman was taking part in early newsgroups. He quickly
A graphic designer’s role is to make sure the message is received. Communication is key.
realized the limitations of basic characters since text-based
communication lacked the body language or tone-of-voice As one of the most necessary elements in advertising, Typography is all around us. Each day,
cues that convey finite emotion. In trying to compensate for masses of text-based messages from television commercials to billboard ads are absorbed by
this frustrating gap in communication, Fahlman proposed consumers worldwide, yet many of us take their typography for granted, a good thing
people express their feeling through the use of ASCII hiero-
C O O L T H I N G S Y O U J U S T G O T TA H AV E ! paradoxically, since the intent is not to distract, but to guide the reader to the message.
glyphs. This meant using the keyboard characters to draw a
digital “smiley face.” This practice quickly became common- The best typography is invisible, its information delivered with subtlety. To achieve this,
place and the rest is history. These faces, read sideways, designers refer to specific rules. Aesthetic considerations involving space, proportion, shape,
have come to be known as “emoticons”, the emotional balance, and order are vital, but the successful designer is aware of much more than the obvious
currency of email and chatrooms throughout the world Quotable Products visual elements. The learning styles, perception and sociology of various targeted demographic
and across language barriers.
Quotable Products communicate the groups differ from one another and must be addressed...if the message is to come across.
feelings stirring within us all by quoting
Communication, from early pictographs to present day typography arose from the
some of the most gifted writers, thinkers,
:-) ;-) :-(
need to exchange information and promote understanding. Paul Watzlawick, world authority
and poets of our age. The Quotable

get ty Pe
on human communication and author of The Language of Change said it best; “ You cannot
concept hinges on a synthesis of timeless

futura
not communicate.” Good typography expedites the process.
quotations and minimalist design through
typography. Quotable serves up fridge

univers
magnets, coffee mugs, calendars, greet-
smiley winkie unhappy
ing cards and notepads. To order yours,

:() :-o :-#

visit: www.quotablecards.com

avenir
franklin gothic Type treats!
loud mouth surprised my lips are sealed

bodoni The products of Acme Studios are created to

:-Q :-@ |-O

commemorate the artistic achievements of the 20th

meta
century’s greatest contemporary artists, architects and
designers. This pen and business card case designed www.houseindustries.com
by Rod Dyer are wrapped in an alphabet designed by House Industries is a unique font house, providing edgy, hip and stylish font collections and
Typography translates mood and
meaning. In this issue of TOPIC, we Eric Gill, one of the most influential typographers of unusual illustrations. Here at Top, we choose House products whenever the project calls for
what??? shouting yawning
take a look at typography, its origins our time. Other artists, architects and designers a distinctly different look.

:-P :-r :-$

and its role in communication today. honored by Acme Writing Tools include Alessandro

Enjoy!
Mendini, Andree Putnam, Constantin Boym, Charles www.eyewire.com/magazine/columns/robin/goodtype
and Ray Eames, Karim Rashid, Kenny Scharf, Michael Eyewire—a great resource for fonts as well as stock imagery (both still and motion) features
Peleg Top Graves and Nancy Wolff. www.acmestudio.com graphic designer and educator, Robin Williams, author of over a dozen bestselling, award-
principal & typofile winning books, including The PC is not a Typewriter—a small, must-have style guide for any
tongue hanging out tongue sticking out $$ where your mouth is office. Robin’s books and articles offer friendly, easy to grasp tips which empower the non-
designer to create professional-looking type.

The earliest graphic images date circa 15,000 B.C.

Images created by early humans were symbols of
things existing in their world. Known as pictographs,
these symbols represented people, animals, plants
or inanimate objects.
As society became more complex, so did visual
communication. Pictographs expanded to Ideographs
because they expressed ideas or actions. This evolution
represented a major step in the development of
a written language.
Around 1500 B.C., the Phoenicians developed an
alphabet (far easier to learn than 1,000s of picture
symbols) making widespread literacy possible. Being
traders across the Mediterranean sea, their alphabet
spread far and wide. Phonecian is thus considered
to be the ancestor of all modern alphabets.
The Roman Capital letters, still in use as our
modern alphabet, were developed and per-
fected before the first century A.D. by Roman
stonecutters. Lower case letters, or Caroline
miniscules, are the result of Charlemagne and his
efforts to create a consistent, more economical
writing style.
Prior to the invention of the printing press, Illuminated
(from the Latin, meaning adorned) manuscripts were
written on vellum—the stretched and dried skin of
animals. The process of producing books was performed
by skilled calligraphers and illustrators and were lim-
ited to clergy, scholars and the wealthy.
Johann Gutenberg’s letterpress invention in 1452
was so important that it remained the dominant
printing process for almost 500 years. Gutenberg’s
genius was realizing that literature could be made
accessible to the masses by creating individual
letterforms that could be moved and then re-used.
As the industrial revolution escalated, the demand
for news—and thus, newspapers outweighed
the technical ability to produce them. Ottmar
Mergenthaler invented the first successful type
setting machine in 1886 and called it the Linotype
(because it set a line o’ type).
a
The earliest computer-based typesetters were
a hybrid between photocomposition machines
and later—pure digital output. In the late 1980s
PostScript gradually emerged as the standard for
digital typesetting.
Over the past decade, digital type has been
taken to new levels as computer capabilities and
technology soared. Motion Type, animated through
digital and analog methods, is no longer relegated
to immobile placement on a page.