The first symbol is the “yin and yang”, a Chinese sign expressing the philosophical concept of opposing forces that are interconnected.
Visual aspects

• strong figure–ground
• symmetry
• complementary color: black and white
• contrast

Meanings

• life and death
• mind and matter
• opposition and attraction

The circular form — that occurs in so many symbols — establishes continuity and expresses a desire for unity while containing two contrasting forms that connote (or signify or suggest) interdependence.This contradiction is a simple yet profound idea that is life.

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In high school, I skipped typing class after just a few sessions, to stay in the studio to work on art. I regret it now, being a slow and scattered typist, but I do remember a few things I learned before I cut for good. “Always double space after the period.” Why? It’s a visual cue for the end of one sentence and the start of a new one. This is no longer needed but it hangs on reflexively with most people.

This is a vestige of the typewriter, when all the letters occupied an equal space or fixed-width, from a cap “W” to a lowercase “i.” This was because the typewriter could only advance the same amount of space with every stroke. When every letter has equal space, you have to have a means to indicate a pause.

Digital fonts account for this by occupying variable space for each letter based on what precedes it and what follows. An interesting side note: HTML recognizes only a single space no matter how many spaces are there, unless you style it to display them. This was fine when HTML was all that was accounting for typography in a browser. But, with the proliferation of WYSWIG editors in blogging software, among other things, this is no longer the case. Paragraphs with double spaces after sentences are showing up all over the web, not to mention all those PDFs. The extra space breaks the rhythm of the typography. It’s distracting, like a missed note, and some consider that it reduces legibility.

WordPress example:The two spaces create a river of white. A river usually refers to the gaps created by wide inter-word spacing but it can be any spacing.

Why bother with such a small detail? The practice of typography is built on relationships; letter to letter, word to word, line to line, and so on through multiple pages. If you care about creating beautiful type, start with the basic elements and your compositions will flow.

For an in-depth review of typography from rhythm & proportion to harmony & counterpoint read the indispensable book The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst.

See these extracts The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web by Richard Rutter.

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gutenberg bible spread in the Library of Congress

It was a remarkable typographic and technical achievement, Gutenberg had to overcome a variety of difficulties to produce the two volume edition. However, producing multiples of a book went beyond a practical solution, it changed the way we think and relate to one another. According to Marshall McLuhan, (I’m simplifying his ideas considerably), we moved from story telling = group, shared knowledge, to print = individual, specialized knowledge. This ability to distribute information took the power of interpretation out of the hands of the few (literary intelligentsia) and gave it to us all.

Where: Library of Congress, 2nd floor of the Jefferson Building.
When: Monday – Saturday, 10am – 5pm.
Metro stop: “Capitol South” on the Blue and Orange lines. Two blocks north on 1st St SE

For more on McLuhan’s (prophet of the electronic age) interpretation read Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man or The Book of Probes by Marshall McLuhan.

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