Building Blocks 

X- Height 

Baseline

Ascender

Ball terminal 

Cap-Height 

Leading 

Descender 

Early 20th Century 

Eric Gill – born 22. 2. 1882 in Brighton, England, died 17. 11. 1940 in Uxbridge, England – sculptor, graphic artist, type designer. Studied at the Chichester Technical and Art School.

One of Gill's first independent lettering projects was creating an alphabet for W.H. Smith's sign painters. In 1925 he designed the Perpetua typeface, with the uppercase based upon monumental Roman inscriptions, for Morison, who was working for the Monotype Corporation.  He designed the Gill Sans typeface in 1927–30, based on the sans-serif lettering originally designed for the London Underground. In the period 1930–31 Gill designed the typeface Joanna which he used to hand-set his book, An Essay on Typography.

Herb Lubalin

New York graphic designer, dean of American art directors since World War II, type designer since 1970. A founder of ITC, he edited its magazine U&lc until his death in 1981.

Most people recognize the name Herb Lubalin in association with the typeface Avant Garde. And he was the typographer and designer behind its creation, after the success of Avant Garde Magazine and its typographic logo. But, his career spanned a much wider scope than that. One of the people behind the culture-shocking magazines Avant-Garde, Eros and Fact, he was a constant boundary breaker on both a visual and social level. Part of the founding team of the International Typeface Corporation (ITC) and the principal of Herb Lubalin, Inc it was hard to escape the reach of Herb during the 1960s and 70s. His constant search for something new and a passion for inventiveness made him one of the most successful art directors of the 20th century.

David Carson

David Carson (born September 8, 1955) is an American graphic designer, art director and surfer. He is best known for his innovative magazine design, and use of experimental typography. 

David Carsons work can only be describe as avant garde, his publication ray gun completely abstained against all of the founded principles of graphic design and layout, his work with typography, in context, can be seen as sacrilege. The article he had read about Brian Ferry and then published in dingbat for his publication is fitting of his style but also I understand it as being designed around the muse. The article was boring and wasn't worth reading and so Carson published it in an unreadable font. I think that Carson style of design is very spontaneous but also considered and that the juxtaposition of his type to the images in the publication give it life and although his work contains this energy of disobedience, Carson still designed his publication fit for purpose.

Object Alphabet examples

Rebranding old film adverts