Hell 2.0
I am taking a typography class this quarter and I’ve got another instructor who won’t allow the use of computers in her class. This rule continues to drive me insane, and I continue to flex it in my favor when I can get away with it.
The professor has a reputation for being the most difficult instructor in all of the graphic design instructor, and I often think that she’s let it go to her head. So far, my impression isn’t that she is difficult at all, just demanding and fast paced. She also looks exactly like Cuba Gooding Junior. I don’t mean that she looks a little like him. No, she looks JUST like him, sans the mustache (at least, as much as I can tell from a distance).
Our latest project is to take a photo of ourselves, trace a detailed outline of it (think coloring book) and come up with 20 or so words that describe us and the message about us that we wish to portray. Then, using various fonts, align the letters and characters to create a realistic image of us based on the tracing.
The catch is, you can’t use a computer, which includes finding and using your own fonts. No, you have to go to the library and find books with fonts and photocopy them. Or you can find fonts from magazines or other printed materials. No computer? Photocopies? Haven’t we already done this in 2D design?
I have more than 2000 fonts in my collection, WAY more than ANY book is going to show you. I tried to plead my case to Cuba, asking only if I could print off the font and then lay it out by hand. I didn’t even mention using the computer other than to find fonts that I liked. Her response was this:
“No, because it has to be a level playing field for everyone. You might have 2000 fonts on your computer, but so and so might only have 200. It has to be fair.”
What? Fair? So Sally Suckemsilly can go to the library, check out a book, therefore preventing me from checking out and using said book, but I can’t use fonts on my own computer? And, honestly, if Sally wanted the same font and couldn’t find it, I’d GIVE her a copy of it, too. What the hell? And how is photocopying a layout of a font ANY different than printing off the same layout on a laser jet printer? How many graphic designers out there photocopy fonts, lay them out by hand, then Photocopy them to produce a final piece? Can ANYONE explain this to me? Seriously, I want to meet a graphic designer in today’s world who doesn’t use a computer and only uses books and photocopiers.
I had hoped this quarter’s classes would provide some kind of challenge. Instead, they’ve proven the professors are mentally challenged.
January 21st, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Stop ya whining! We did this kind of thing back in college typography classes all the time - AND every time we did a project we had to draw fonts by hand! You’ll get to know your fonts on a far more intimate level, which you definitely need to do if you think you need 2,000 fonts. You will never, ever need 2,000 fonts. Hell, you’ll never need 100.
January 21st, 2008 at 5:27 pm
UH: I never said my problem was aligning things by hand. I said the source of the fonts shouldn’t be limited to books, which all contain the same fonts anyway. Why limit myself to Times, Univers, Helvetica, Futura… ZZZZzzzzz….. That was my point.
And I will need more than 100. I refuse to design anything with “Mistral” in it. ::Shudders::
January 21st, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Do you have Sally Suckemsilly’s phone number?
That is like the most important thing in this whole post.
I had one graphics class in college. We couldn’t use a computer either. That’s because we didn’t have them back then. We had to design a brochure. Mine sucked but I got a decent grade on it because the teacher felt sorry for me.
Pity is almost as good as being good.
January 21st, 2008 at 8:19 pm
When I was a reporter on my university newspaper, we had one suckass reporting professor who wouldn’t let us get credit for anything that we’d had printed in the paper. Nor would he let us run a story in the paper after we’d submitted it for class. Why? Because he was dick. And he said it wasn’t fair for the students who weren’t on the paper.
Fair schmair. If they were serious about a journalism degree, they’d be working on the paper, and if they weren’t fuck ‘em.
Your teacher is just pissy because back when she was learning, she had to carve out fonts on stone tablets.
January 21st, 2008 at 8:26 pm
mike: The school has hundreds and hundreds of computers all over campus. But I’m not sure why, as it’s becoming abundantly clear that no one is permitted to use them.
Phoebe: Fair schmair. If they were serious about a journalism degree, they’d be working on the paper, and if they weren’t fuck ‘em.
This is pretty much how I feel about the design program. It’s my own opinion that 75% or more of my classmates are either not serious about their career choice, or lack the ability to really do it for a living.
January 22nd, 2008 at 1:34 am
You’re going to cheat again, aren’t you?
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:36 am
sara sue: “Cheat?” No no no… “Flex the rules in my favor?” Yes.
January 22nd, 2008 at 6:14 am
Can you trace boobs?
January 22nd, 2008 at 12:02 pm
I think you answered your own question there, when you asked what the difference is. None she would ever see.
People make dumb rules as a polite way to ask you to cheat.
January 22nd, 2008 at 3:11 pm
sally suckmesilly? she sounds like someone i want to hang out with.
oh, where did you find that pic of c.rag on the copier?
January 22nd, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Where the Hell are these people from, Uraguay? What’s unfair about computers? It’s 200… um, 8.
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Casey: If nothing else, I’ll make a fake page from a book and photocopy it to appease Cuba.
Teq: C.Rag and I are very close…
Col: I bet they’re allowed to use computers in their Typography class.
January 23rd, 2008 at 9:02 am
I had education professors like that. One was an instructional technology teacher that FORCED us to make teaching stuff with 50’s era technology. It was pure shit, but you did it his way or you failed.
Of course once, it paid off. Anyone remember those blue mimograph sheets that smelled funny? If you are old enough your teachers used them and you know the smell. It was the only freakin machine in the building, no one knew how to use it, and it was all mine for the morning. My knowledge of out dated techonoloy paid off as others brawled over the copy machine
January 23rd, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Who’s the cutey copying her, um, personality?
January 23rd, 2008 at 8:01 pm
RR: If we go mimeograph, I’m going to drop the class.
Col: It’s AngryMan. In a wig.