Читать книгу The New Banner Book - Betty Wolfe - Страница 6

the MESSAGE through WORDS

In this age of literacy, the most universally understood symbols are words. Words may be the only symbols on a banner. Often a thought that must be proclaimed through words speaks more emphatically without additional symbols.

Designing with letter forms alone can be as challenging a problem as arranging other kinds of shapes or symbols. The resulting banner can be rich, colorful, and decorative.

Study the letters on the following pages to help you create an attractive hanging.

Often a banner expressing an idea through shapes and symbols will be made more meaningful through the addition of a word or phrase as a key to its interpretation.

Examples: JOY, PEACE, PAX, LOVE, REJOICE, ALLELUIA, SHALOM, AMEN

Banners for saints, seasons, historical characters, or groups may be identified with a name.

Examples:

ST. PETER

ST. MARY’S CHURCH

CATHEDRAL OF ST. JOHN

ST. HILDA’S GUILD

TRINITY PREP

THE WESLEY CLASS

THE BELL RINGERS

FEAST OF LIGHTS

REDEEMER CHURCH

ST. CECELIA CHOIR

For banners with a religious theme, the Scriptures, hymns, psalms, liturgies, and canticles are sources of meaningful words. The phrases are countless, the translations many.

Examples:

Glory Be to God

Glory to God

Thy Kingdom Come

Venite Adoremus

Bread of Heaven

Cup of Salvation

Jesus Is Lord

God Is Love

Christ Is Risen

Read, Mark, Learn

Kyrie Eleison

Do This

One in the Lord

One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

Love One Another

Praise the Lord

SAMPLES of various type styles

SOME THINGS TO DO to make lettering easier and fun

1 Observe the great variety of letter forms used in printing and advertising. Become aware of their basic shapes, proportions, and individual characteristics.

2 Make a collection of letters from magazines and newspapers. Include both capital and small letters, roman and italic. Bold letters (with thick strokes) will be especially helpful. Also include samples of condensed (narrow), expanded (wide), and italic letters. Notice the small variations in form that give each typeface its particular style. Look at the width of strokes—where they are thick or thin. Observe the spacing of letters within the word.

3 Following the directions on page 10, make a chart of CAPS. This is especially helpful if you plan to work with young people or other groups making banners.

the MESSAGE through WORDS

Words are made of letters. There are two basic kinds of letters:

1. capital letters (CAPS)—uppercase, either sans serif or with serifs

2. small letters—lowercase, either sans serif or with serifs

CAPS

Below is a chart of bold sans serif caps arranged according to standard widths.

Notice: The letters are all the same height, but they vary in width.

important:

In sans serif letters, the ends of all straight strokes are square.

The center horizontal stroke of the E and H is slightly above center.

On the A and F, the center stroke is below center.

The vertical of the G is its distinguishing feature.

The I and J have no cross pieces at top or bottom.

The diagonals of the K and R hook onto the upright.

The bottoms of the V, W, and N are almost points. Also, the “V” of the M touches the bottom letter line, and the mid-point of the W touches the top letter line.

The center stroke of the E and F is as wide as the top stroke.

small LETTERS

An alphabet of small (lowercase) letters can be designed from four basic shapes.

These forms are:		1—the o form
		2—the curve of the n
		3—the straight line as in i and I
		4—the diagonal lines

Combine them to make all of the lowercase letters.

Notice that only the b, d, h, f, I, and k are tall letters with ascending strokes the height or higher than the caps. The t is shorter than the other tall letters and the cross bar is at the height of the letter line. Note the height of the upper diagonal stroke of the k.

The g, p, q, j, and y have descending strokes that go below the letter line.

notice

In the letters at the right, changing the shape and slant of the three basic shapes will change the style of the alphabet. Try expanding, slanting, joining, and adding serifs to make your own lowercase alphabet.

PATTERNS for LETTERS

Here is an easy way to cut your own patterns.

Cut strips of paper the height of the letters in your banner design.

Referring to the chart on page 10, mark off the width of each letter in the words of your banner. Try chalk.

If your patterns turn out to be too large or small, reduce or enlarge them on a copy machine and save lots of time.

Within these widths, draw the letters. Think about what will be cut away in order to leave the bold letter forms required for a banner.

Cut apart and cut out each letter. Notice that the straight tops and bottoms are already cut. Since these are patterns, cut through to get inside a letter.

Mechanical (measured) regularity in width of letter strokes or of duplicate letters is not necessary—in fact, it gives a sterile look. These letters have a slight flare. See page 16.

For O’s and other round letters, cut the strip a fraction wider in order to compensate for the optical illusion that will make these letters appear too short.

In most banners the strokes of cutout letters should be bold, not thin.

a bonus

These letters are excellent for posters and bulletin boards.

Once you know the basic proportions of letters, you are free to have fun with them. In other words, once you understand the rules, you can break them.

some variations

Make extended strokes—if they enhance the design.
Overlap an occasional letter if it fits. Some will fit inside each other easily, or touch comfortably. Don’t force them.
Vary the width of the strokes.
Bounce letters up and down a very little, or stagger slightly. Either technique will give a less mechanical, more vibrant effect.
Try leaving the centers solid.
Add serifs. See page 16.

Do not do any of these unless they enhance the design. Fancy or clever letters are not more beautiful, nor more easily read.

for the PROFESSIONAL look

SOME DOs AND DON’Ts for arranging letters and words

spacing

BETWEEN LETTERS Pack the letters close together within each word.
Some combinations of letters can be permitted to touch each other.
BETWEEN WORDS Between words, leave room for an O.
BETWEEN LINES Normally the space between lines of letters should be narrow, almost touching.
emphasis to emphasize an important word, use one large letter or large letters in that one word.
but do not capitalize the first letters of a line of capital letters.

always arrange the letters HORIZONTALLY

The WORDS are to be read; therefore, they ought to be legible at a glance.

1 When space is short, arrange a word in syllables.

2 Arrange words as though within a rectangle if they fit without forcing.

3 Arrange lines of words blocking them either to the left or right margin, or both when possible.

4 Group words as if contained within a circle or elliptical shape.

5 When the design demands a vertical or a diagonal, turn the entire word.

Do not arrange words vertically or on the diagonal. Diagonal margins carry the eye to the corner of the composition, destroying the basic rectangular shape of the banner design.

SERIFS

CAPS

The caps in the chart on page 10 are bold sans serif letters, i.e., letters without decorative endings.

The addition of the serif changes the style of the letters.

In addition to thick and thin strokes and small variations in proportions, the design of the serif accounts for the many styles of letters used in printing.

Notice that there are almost never serifs on the top of A, or on the pointed bottoms of M, N, V, and W.

SQUARE SERIFS

CURVED SERFIFS

TRIANGULAR SERIFS

FLARED STROKES

ALPHABETS

These letters are OPTIMA BOLD, 36 point, CAPS (uppercase)

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN

OPQRSTUVWXYZ

These letters are optima bold, 36 point, small (lowercase)

abcdefghijklmn

opqrstuvwxyz

This style of letters is called UNCIAL and is adapted from medieval handwritten letter forms and designed bold to be appropriate for cutting from fabric. The letters tend to be rather elegant and are spaced very close together, sometimes touching.

The letters below are lowercase, designed for banners. There are no caps.

Suggestion: Enlarge the letters on a copy machine. Although there is no standard height for letters on banners, they should be at least 2½" to 3" tall.

For more formal or traditional style banners, use UNCIAL or VERSAL letters. The forms below are adapted from medieval pen letters for cutout letters.

Characteristics of

1 Round forms are used for D, E, H, M, N, P, T, U, and W.

2 The vertical strokes are thick; the horizontals are thin.

3 The ascending strokes of D, H, K, and L go above the letter line. The descending strokes of J, P, Q, and Y go below the letter line.

Characteristics of

These are based on roman letter forms (page 10), but they were handwritten letters, and each scribe developed his own style and proportions.