Talk Paper Scissors

Cross your t’s and tittle your i’s... 

Today’s episode takes a broad spectrum approach: we examine the anatomy of type through the lens of a children’s story called Letter Parade, as well as a racy rundown of Diana’s top 3 indecent parts of a character. Ooh la la! Grab an old book, magazine or scrap of packaging to keep track of the parts of characters, providing a go-to for future reference. 

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An infamous logo that combines an inukshuk with the year 1989. A font making the world a better place, one letter at a time. It’s time for the legibility vs. readability smackdown! 

In today’s episode, learn the difference between legibility and readability and how to use the technical aspects of typeface design and page layout to improve both. Discover why it’s not always necessary to have either in a design, however 99% of the time, a document should be both legible AND readable. Let’s do this in 3, 2, 1...

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This episode of Talk Paper Scissors coincides with Scholar Strike for Black Lives in Canada happening on September 9 and 10, 2020. Thousands of academics in higher education will be participating to show solidarity and protest anti-Black, racist and colonial police brutality in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere. During the Scholar Strike, we will pause our teaching and administrative duties. The idea is to use this time to organize opportunities to discuss, reflect and take action on police brutality and violence. 

Our guest on the show is Chantel Ragoo, a Graphic Communications Management (GCM) alumna and former member of the printing industry who now works in the fashion industry as National Sales Manager for MOTHER Denim. 

In the first 20 minutes of the episode, we talk about good and bad fashion, critical transferable skills in work environments, and the greatest challenges and greatest joys of Chantel’s work.

The latter 20 minutes are dedicated to discussing representation in various design industries, the importance of having difficult conversations, demonstrating equity over equality, and that social justice for the Black community is an ongoing process of educating yourself. 

Join us for a 40-minute deep dive into not only saying we’ll do better, but actually doing better. 

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Rules are everywhere, even in the world of design and typography... but rules are made to be broken! 

In today’s episode, Diana runs down designer Rob Carney’s 10 Commandments of Typography. While there’s no true list of to-do’s and not-to-do’s when it comes to typography (or design or art), these rules play the role of detective, helping us figure out why certain designs look professionally polished, while others look so cringingly amateurish. You’ll also be introduced to one bonus commandment… the most important of all... 

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Is it ‘tomayto’ or ‘tomahto’? And while we’re at it, is it a ‘font’ or is it a ‘typeface’? And does it really matter what we call it? Yes and no.

In today’s episode, you’ll learn the difference between a font and a typeface to talk the talk in the design world. You’ll also be introduced to type slang of yesteryear that’s used almost exclusively today. Closets and chests of drawers are referenced throughout, so ultimately, this episode airs a whole lot of dirty laundry about type. 

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