Today’s vocabulary is in honor of a current J Sherman Studio client, who has used this expression several times, much to our delight!

As described in Wikipedia: “Sticky wicket (or sticky dog, or glue pot) is a metaphor used to describe a difficult circumstance, particularly in cricket.”

Where does this expression come from?  It comes from the sport of cricket.   It refers to a patch of ground that is still drying, and thus is unpredictable when you are batting on it.

Uses for the word?  What kind of sticky wickets have you found yourself in lately?

Stet is a proof mark that basically means: “ignore me!”

As defined by Merriam-Webster, stet is used to: “to direct retention of (a word or passage previously ordered to be deleted or omitted from a manuscript or printer’s proof) by annotating usually with the word stet.”

Basically, if you are marking up edits but then realize you don’t want one of your edits to be implemented you can strike out that edit and write “stet” next to it.  That signals to the designer to ignore your edit. However…

We prefer for clients to avoid using “stet” frequently.  Please mark up edits roughly first on your own working copy, then copy to a clean sheet before handing it back to the designer.  If you do this you will not need to tell the designer to ignore any particular mark ups.  Much more simple!

Indicia is an elegant sounding word with a simple meaning.  Indicia is a plural noun for “indicium,” which is a distinguishing mark.  The context we most often hear indicia is when a client request a postal marking on their mailer instead of a stamp. 

Freedictionary.com defines indicia as: “postal markings often imprinted on mail or on labels to be affixed to mail.”

Here is a quick example of indicia on J Sherman Studio client projects.  We don’t mind if clients ask for an “indicia” or “the postal information,” but doesn’t the word indica just sound more exciting?

Legibility is something that we think a lot about as designers.

Legibility, an adjective, as defined by The Merriam-Webster dictionary is “1 : capable of being read or deciphered” and “2 : capable of being discovered or understood.”

When we design most projects we aim for legibility.   Legibility is contextual, it is not just about making your font larger.  Variables that contribute to legibility can include whitespace (or clearspace), contrast, heirarchy, size, and much more.

For a designer, what is a bleed?  What does it mean if your designer says that they want to make your printed materials bleed?  Is that cruel or hurtful?  Not at all… in printing a bleed is a beautiful, painless thing.

The noun, bleed, as defined by Wikipedia is: “…is a printing term that refers to printing that goes beyond the edge of the sheet after trimming. The bleed is the part on the side of your document that gives the printer that small amount of space to move around paper and design inconsistencies.”

When we set things up for print, if the materials will have ink that goes beyond the edge of the paper then we try to let the objects that will “bleed” go at least 1/8″ beyond the trim marks.  That means when the printer cuts the piece to size, that extra printed material will be cut off.

Here is a little diagram of how we would set up this graphic if it was going to be printed as a little card.  You’ll see two sets of marks on the side.  The inside marks represent the trim lines, where the cutting happens, while the outside lines represent where the bleed ends.

A vector graphic is a digital image that uses lines and paths instead of pixels.  Vectors are completely scalable: you can take a two inch diameter circle vector and enlarge it to 20 feet in diameter and it will be as smooth as it was at two inches.  If you did this with raster image it would dissolve into a grid of pixels.

Types of bitmap files include:

• ai
• eps
• svg

For vector graphics the file size is dependent on the complexity of the graphic rather than the size of the image.  A vector image that included hundreds of little circles would be a larger file than a vector image with one single circle.

A raster image is a digital image that uses pixels.  Unlike vectors, when you scale a raster image up it is limited by how many pixels it has.  If you take a small raster image and enlarge it, at a certain point you will see the pixels.

Types of raster files include:

• jpeg
• tiff
• png
• gif
• bmp

For raster images the file size is dependent on the size.  A four inch graphic at 72dpi is smaller than  a seven inch graphic at the same resolution.

Wikipedia articles to learn more about these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_graphics and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raster_graphics

What is a favicon?

Favicon, a noun, is short for “favorites icon.”  The easiest way to define favicon is simply to show an example.  Check out the image below:

The favicon is the little icon that is displayed in web browsers to identify the website or webpage.  We based the J Sherman Studio favicon on the little red square of our logo.  Favicon display varies per browser but typically displays next to the url address and sometimes in the browser tab (like the Firefox screencapture above).  Favicon design, like any small icon design, can be tricky since everything is reduced to a tiny size.

Next time you surf the web take a peek and check out which sites have favicons and which do not.  I think of favicons as an elegant finishing touch on a website.  It is surprising to see how many websites don’t bother with this tiny touch.

Please share your favorite favicon designs? Or let us know if you need help designing this tiny graphic for your site.

Ascenders and descenders make type fun.  They are letterforms that either go above the main body of the letter or below the baseline.

Ascenders and descenders help make type more readable.

Newsflash: most of us don’t read read, we scan.  When someone scans a line of text, the ascenders and descenders help make the words stand out and become more recognizable.  This is why it generally is not recommended to write body copy in all-caps.  All-cap letterforms are less differentiated, so larger amounts of text are not very easy to read in all-caps (and it also looks like you are YELLING at someone in all caps!).

HOW MUCH HARDER IS IT TO READ THIS TEXT IN ALL CAPS?  IT MAKES IT LOOK LIKE I AM YELLING AT YOU, AND YOU HAVE TO READ IT CAREFULLY TO SEE WHAT IT IS THAT I AM YELLING ABOUT!

Instead be kind and write body copy in lowercase.  Save all caps for things like titles or highlighting a single word in a sentence.  Let the happy and attractive ascenders and descenders help you to identify each word.

Besides helping readability, ascenders and descenders can be quite attractive.  My favorite descender, not surprisingly, is j.

Today we want to share a tiny but extremely important “design ingredient.”  The amazing pixel… without pixels we would have no digital images.

Pixel, a noun, is defined as “the smallest element of an image that can be individually processed in a video display system.” from dictionary.com

This image below shows how pixels work.  They are the tiniest elements of digital pictures.  When images are enlarge beyond their resolution you begin to see their pixels.

Wikipedia has a lot more technical and historical information on pixels for anyone who is interested.

I love thinking about these little tiny components of images.   Some other “pixel-like” things to enjoy:

• Chuck Close’s paintings: from a distance you might see a large face, but up close you see lots of little colorful shapes
• Grain in old-school film
• A blade of grass in the lawn
• Tile in a big mosaic
• A single stitch in a sweater

Without the tiny elements you never get to see the big picture!

Kerfuffle is such a delightful word: it sounds like what it means.

“Kerfuffle” is a noun that means “A disorderly outburst or tumult.” ( from dictionary.com)

We have yet to ever work on a project that uses the word kerfuffle, but would really like to.  Not only does this word sound wonderful, but it is such a wacky combination of letterforms and has three f’s! And… it is a chance to use the elusive “ffl” ligature!

We’ll give bonus points (and potentially more) to any client who uses the word “kerfuffle” in a design project.