The English Alphabet
The Watch
Wine
THE ENGLISH ALPHABET:
alphabet |ˈalfəbɛt|nouna set of letters or symbols in a fixed order used to represent the basic set of speech sounds of a language, especially the set of letters from A to Z.• the basic elements in a system which combine to form complex entities: DNA's 4-letter alphabet.
It is made up of 5 'vowels' and 21 'consonants'.
Vowels: A, E, I, O, U.
Consonants: B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y, Z.
There are dozens of alphabets in use today, the most popular being the Latin alphabet, (which was derivedfrom the Greek). Many languages use modified forms of the Latin alphabet, with additional letters formed usingdiacritical marks. While most alphabets have letters composed of lines, there are also exceptionssuch as the alphabets used in braille, fingerspelling and morse code.
The Alphabet is associated with a standard ordering of their letters. This makes them useful for purposesof collation, specifically by allowing words to be sorted in alphabetical order. It also means that the letterscan be used as an alternative method of "numbering" ordered items, in such contexts as numbered lists.
Etymology: The English word alphabet came into Middle English from the late Latin word alphabetum, which in turn originated in the Greek ἀλφάβητος (alphabētos), from alpha and beta, the first two letters of the GreekAlphabet.
The history of the alphabet started in ancient Egypt. By the 27th century BC Egyptian writing had a set of some24 hieroglyphs which are called uniliterals, to represent syllables that begin with a single consonant of theirlanguage, plus a vowel (or no vowel) to be supplied by the native speaker. These glyphs were used aspronunciation guides for logograms, to write grammatical inflections, and, later, to transcribe loan words andforeign name.
The Greek alphabet is the source for all the modern scripts of Europe. The History of the Greek alphabet startswith the adoption of Phoenician letterforms and continues to the present day. The Phoenician alphabet wasstrictly speaking an abjad in other words it represented only consonants. This arrangement is much lesssuitable for Greek than for Semitic languages and several of the Phoenician consonants, representing sounds ordistinctions not present in Greek, were adapted to represent vowels; consequently the Greek alphabet can beconsidered to be the world's first true alphabet.
The Greek Alphabet:
The Greek Alphabet on pottery, mosaics and coins:
.jpg)
It is evident the type is everywhere within graphic design, meaning the alphabet is everywhere within
graphic design.
The alphabet is a basis to designer, especially those who design typefaces. They're are thousands of varying typefaces were each letter has been designed individually to create a family of letterforms that are consistant with each other.
We know each letter as how it looks and how we write it down, for example an H is to vertical lines
with a horizontal line joining them in the centre. Because of the simplicity of their forms, it allows us
Graphic Designers to play with this and push the boundaries to what is still legible and understandable
as the alphabet we know.
You can see below examples of design where the standard letterform has been altered but it is still
recognisable and thus readable.
THE WATCH:
It is made up of 5 'vowels' and 21 'consonants'.
Vowels: A, E, I, O, U.
Consonants: B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y, Z.
There are dozens of alphabets in use today, the most popular being the Latin alphabet, (which was derivedfrom the Greek). Many languages use modified forms of the Latin alphabet, with additional letters formed usingdiacritical marks. While most alphabets have letters composed of lines, there are also exceptionssuch as the alphabets used in braille, fingerspelling and morse code.
The Alphabet is associated with a standard ordering of their letters. This makes them useful for purposesof collation, specifically by allowing words to be sorted in alphabetical order. It also means that the letterscan be used as an alternative method of "numbering" ordered items, in such contexts as numbered lists.
Etymology: The English word alphabet came into Middle English from the late Latin word alphabetum, which in turn originated in the Greek ἀλφάβητος (alphabētos), from alpha and beta, the first two letters of the GreekAlphabet.
The history of the alphabet started in ancient Egypt. By the 27th century BC Egyptian writing had a set of some24 hieroglyphs which are called uniliterals, to represent syllables that begin with a single consonant of theirlanguage, plus a vowel (or no vowel) to be supplied by the native speaker. These glyphs were used aspronunciation guides for logograms, to write grammatical inflections, and, later, to transcribe loan words andforeign name.
The Greek alphabet is the source for all the modern scripts of Europe. The History of the Greek alphabet startswith the adoption of Phoenician letterforms and continues to the present day. The Phoenician alphabet wasstrictly speaking an abjad in other words it represented only consonants. This arrangement is much lesssuitable for Greek than for Semitic languages and several of the Phoenician consonants, representing sounds ordistinctions not present in Greek, were adapted to represent vowels; consequently the Greek alphabet can beconsidered to be the world's first true alphabet.
The Greek Alphabet:
The Greek Alphabet on pottery, mosaics and coins:
Greek Inscriptions:
Several hundred years later, the Romans used the Greek alphabet as the basis for the uppercase alphabet that
we know today. They refined the art of handwriting, fashioning several distinctive styles of lettering which they
used for different purposes. They scribed a rigid, formal script for important manuscripts and official
documents and a quicker, more informal style for letters and routine types of writing. However the Romans
made further important contributions to type design: In the Roman alphabet, serif's originated with the carving
of words into stone in ancient Italy: Roman stonemasons started adding little hooks to the tips of letters to
prevent the chisel from slipping, which turned out to be the very aesthetic as well as legibility increasing
addition to type that we use to this day.
Yet another Roman innovation is the institution of the baseline: In typography and penmanship, the baseline is
the line upon which most letters "sit" and under which descenders extend. By these additions Romans
ensured that type, in opposition to the higgeldy piggedly writing of the Greeks, was perfectly aligned in rows,
thus greatly contributing to type aesthetics.
By A.D. 100, the Romans had developed a flourishing book industry and, as Roman handwriting continued to
evolve, lower case letters and rough forms of punctuation were gradually added. Yet another Roman innovation
was the invention of the Codex: A codex (Latin for block of wood, book; plural codices) is a handwritten book,
in general, one produced from Late Antiquity through the Middle Ages. The codex was a vast improvement
upon the scroll, which it gradually replaced as the written medium. In Western culture the codex gradually
replaced the scroll. From the fourth century, when the codex gained wide acceptance, to the Carolingian
Renaissance in the eighth century, many works that were not converted from scroll to codex were lost to
posterity. The codex was an improvement over the scroll in several ways. It could be opened flat at any page,
allowing easier reading; the pages could be written on both recto and verso; and the codex, protected within its
durable covers, was more compact and easier to transport. The codex also made it easier to organise
documents in a library because it had a stable spine on which the title of the book could be written. The spine
could be used for the incipit, before the concept of a proper title was developed, during medieval times.
Although most early codices were made of papyrus, papyrus was fragile and supplies from Egypt, the only
place where papyrus grew, became scanty; the more durable parchment and vellum gained favor, despite the
cost. From the point of view of Graphic Design the codex completely revolutionised the field in that codices
brought about the gridded page layout system, which we still use today.
The alphabet used by the Romans consisted only of capital (upper case or majuscule) letters. The lower case
(minuscule) letters developed in the Middle Ages from cursive writing, first as the uncial script, and later as
minuscule script. The old Roman letters were retained for formal inscriptions and for emphasis in written
documents. The languages that use the Latin alphabet generally use capital letters to begin paragraphs and
sentences and for proper nouns.
OUR ALPHABET TODAY:
Some Videos I found explaining and evaluating the history of the alphabet to what it is today:
The alphabet is one of the first things we learn as a child, as it enables us to write, read and understand
the language we speak.
As a child we are usually taught by what letters may stand for, thus to get an idea of the pronunciation.
For example: 'A is for Apple' or 'C is for Cat'...
The alphabet is how we communicate. We listen, read, and speak our language which is made up of the
alphabet. As mentioned earlier for people who cannot see there is Braille, which is understood but
touch.
BRAILLE / FINGERSPELLING / MORSE CODE
Braille is a tactile writing system used by the blind and the visually impaired that is used for books,
menus, signs, elevator buttons, and currency. Braille-users can read computer screens and other electronic
supports thanks to refreshable braille displays. They can write braille with the original slate of stylus or type it
on a braille writer, such as a portable braille note taker, or on a computer that prints with a braille embosser.
Braille is named after its creator, Frenchman Louis Braille, who went blind following a childhood accident. At the
age of 15, Braille developed his code for the French alphabet in 1824 as an improvement on night writing. He
published his system, which subsequently included musical notation, in 1829. The second revision, published
in 1837, was the first digital (binary) form of writing.
Braille characters are small rectangular blocks called cells that contain tiny palpable bumps called raised dots.
The number and arrangement of these dots distinguish one character from another. Since the various braille
alphabets originated as transcription codes of printed writing systems, the mappings (sets of character
designations) vary from language to language. Furthermore, in English braille there are three levels of encoding:
Grade 1, a letter-by-letter transcription used for basic literacy; Grade 2, an addition of abbreviations and
contractions; and Grade 3, various non-standardized personal shorthands.
In the face of screen-reader software, braille usage has declined. Braille education remains important for
developing reading skills among blind and visually impaired children as braille correlates with higher
employment rates.
Braille was based on a tactile military code called night writing, developed by Charles Barbier in response to
Napoleon's demand for a means for soldiers to communicate silently at night and without light. In Barbier's
system, sets of 12 embossed dots encoded 36 different sounds. It proved to be too difficult for soldiers to
recognize by touch, and was rejected by the military. In 1821 Barbier visited the Royal Institute for the Blind in
Paris, where he met Louis Braille. Braille identified two major defects of the code: first, by representing only
sounds, the code was unable to render the orthography of the words; second, the human finger could not
encompass the whole 12-dot symbol without moving, and so could not move rapidly from one symbol to
another. Braille's solution was to use 6-dot cells and to assign a specific pattern to each letter of the alphabet.
At first, braille was a one-to-one transliteration of French orthography, but soon various abbreviations,
contractions, and even logograms were developed, creating a system much more like shorthand. The
expanded English system, called Grade 2 Braille, was complete by 1905. For the blind today, braille is an
independent writing system rather than a code of printed orthography.
Braille is derived from the Latin alphabet, albeit indirectly. In Braille's original system, the points were assigned
according to the position of the letter within the alphabetic order of the French alphabet, with diacritic letters and
sorted at the end.
The next ten letters are the same again, but with dots at both 3 and 6.
Braille written:
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FINGERSPELLING:
Fingerspelling (or dactylology) is the representation of the letters of a writing system, and sometimes numeral
systems, using only the hands. These manual alphabets (also known as finger alphabets or hand alphabets),
have often been used in deaf education, and have subsequently been adopted as a distinct part of a number
of sign language around the world. Historically, manual alphabets have had a number of additional
applications — including use as ciphers, as mnemonics, and in silent religious settings.
MORSE CODE:
Morse code is a method of transmitting text information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that can be
directly understood by a skilled listener or observer without special equipment. The International Morse Code
encodes the ISO basic Latin alphabet, some extra Latin letters, the Arabic numerals and a small set of
punctuation and procedural signals as standardised sequences of short and long signals called "dots" and
"dashes", or "dits" and "dahs". Because many non-English natural languages use more than the 26 Roman
letters, extensions to the Morse alphabet exist for those languages.
Each character (letter or numeral) is represented by a unique sequence of dots and dashes. The duration of a
dash is three times the duration of a dot. Each dot or dash is followed by a short silence, equal to the dot
duration. The letters of a word are separated by a space equal to three dots (one dash), and the words are
separated by a space equal to seven dots. The dot duration is the basic unit of time measurement in code
transmission. For efficiency, the length of each character in Morse is approximately inversely proportional to its
frequency of occurrence in English. Thus, the most common letter in English, the letter "E," has the shortest
code, a single dot.
Morse code is most popular among amateur radio operators, although it is no longer required for licensing in
most countries. Pilots and air traffic controllers usually need only a cursory understanding. Aeronautical
navigational aids, such as VORs and NDBs, constantly identify in Morse code. Compared to voice, Morse code
is less sensitive to poor signal conditions, yet still comprehensible to humans without a decoding device. Morse
is therefore a useful alternative to synthesised speech for sending automated data to skilled listeners on voice
channels. Many amateur radio repeaters, for example, identify with Morse, even though they are used for voice
communications.
In 1836, Samuel Morse demonstrated the ability of a telegraph system to transmit information over wires. The
information was sent as a series of electrical signals. Short signals are referred to as dits (represented as dots).
Long signals are referred to as dahs (represented as dashes). With the advent of radio communications, an
international version of Morse code became widely used.
The most well-known usage of Morse code is for sending the distress signal: SOS. The SOS signal is sent as:
Morse code relies on precise intervals of time between dits and dahs, between letters, and between words.
The speed of transmitting Morse code is measured in WPM. The word "Paris" is used as the standard length of
a word. To transmit the word "Paris" requires 50 units of time. If you transmitted the word "Paris" 5 times, you
would be transmitting at 5 WPM. An experienced Morse code operator can transmit and receive information at
20-30 WPM.
The Samuel Morse Telegraph Receiver:
See and Hear Morse Code:
The alphabet is used everywhere. The human population would not work without it.
The alphabet is imperative to Graphic Design; Graphic Design is made up of type and image. Without
the alphabet there is no type.
It is evident the type is everywhere within graphic design, meaning the alphabet is everywhere within
graphic design.
The alphabet is a basis to designer, especially those who design typefaces. They're are thousands of varying typefaces were each letter has been designed individually to create a family of letterforms that are consistant with each other.
We know each letter as how it looks and how we write it down, for example an H is to vertical lines
with a horizontal line joining them in the centre. Because of the simplicity of their forms, it allows us
Graphic Designers to play with this and push the boundaries to what is still legible and understandable
as the alphabet we know.
You can see below examples of design where the standard letterform has been altered but it is still
recognisable and thus readable.
THE WATCH:
A watch is a timepiece, typically worn either around the wrist or attached on a chain and carried in a pocket. Wristwatches are the most common type of watch used today. Watches evolved in the 17th century from spring powered clocks, which appeared in the 15th century. The first watches were strictly mechanical. As technology progressed, the mechanisms used to measure time have, in some cases, been replaced by use of quartz vibrations or electronic pulses. The first digital electronic watch was developed in 1970.
Before wristwatches became popular in the 1920s, most watches were pocket watches, which often had covers and were carried in a pocket and attached to a watch chain or watch fob. In the early 1900s, the wristwatch, originally called a Wristlet, was reserved for women and considered more of a passing fad than a serious timepiece. Men, who carried pocket watches, were quoted as saying they would "sooner wear a skirt as wear a wristwatch". This changed in World War I, when soldiers on the battlefield found pocket watches to be impractical and attached their watches to their wrist by a cupped leather strap.
Most inexpensive and medium-priced watches used mainly for timekeeping are electronic watches with quartz movements. Expensive collectible watches, valued more for their workmanship and aesthetic appeal than for simple timekeeping, often have purely mechanical movements and are powered by springs, even though mechanical movements are less accurate than more affordable quartz movements. In addition to the time, modern watches often display the day, date, month and year, and electronic watches may have many other functions. Watches that provide additional time-related features such as timers, chronographs and alarm functions are not uncommon. Some modern designs even go as far as using GPS technology or heart-rate monitoring capabilities.
The study of timekeeping is known as horology.
Watches evolved from portable spring driven clocks, which first appeared in 15th century Europe. Watches weren't widely worn in pockets until the 17th century. One account says that the word "watch" came from the Old English word woecce which meant "watchman", because it was used by town watchmen to keep track of their shifts. Another says that the term came from 17th century sailors, who used the new mechanisms to time the length of their shipboard watches.
A movement in watchmaking is the mechanism that measures the passage of time and displays the current time (and possibly other information including date, month and day). Movements may be entirely mechanical, entirely electronic (potentially with no moving parts), or they might be a blend of the two. Most watches intended mainly for timekeeping today have electronic movements, with mechanical hands on the watch face indicating the time.
Mechanicall understanding:
Compared to electronic movements, mechanical watches are less accurate, often with errors of seconds per day, and they are sensitive to position, temperature and magnetism. They are also costly to produce, require regular maintenance and adjustment, and are more prone to failure. Nevertheless, the craftsmanship of mechanical watches still attracts interest from part of the watch-buying public. Skeleton watches are designed to leave the mechanism visible for aesthetic purposes.
Mechanical movements use an escapement mechanism to control and limit the unwinding and winding parts of a spring, converting what would otherwise be a simple unwinding into a controlled and periodic energy release. Mechanical movements also use a balance wheel together with the balance spring (also known as a hairspring) to control motion of the gear system of the watch in a manner analogous to the pendulum of a pendulum clock. The tourbillion, an optional part for mechanical movements, is a rotating frame for the escapement, which is used to cancel out or reduce the effects of gravitational bias to the timekeeping. Due to the complexity of designing a tourbillon, they are very expensive, and only found in "prestige" watches.
The pin-lever escapement (called the Roskopf movement after its inventor) which is a cheaper version of the fully levered movement, was manufactured in huge quantities by many Swiss manufacturers as well as by Timex, until it was replaced by quartz movements.
Tuning-fork watches use a type of electromechanical movement. Introduced by Bulova in 1960, they use a tuning fork with a precise frequency (most often 360 hertz) to drive a mechanical watch. The task of converting electronically pulsed fork vibration into rotary movement is done via two tiny jeweled fingers, called pawls. Tuning-fork watches were rendered obsolete when electronic quartz watches were developed. Quartz watches were cheaper to produce and even more accurate.
Traditional mechanical watch movements use a spiral spring called a mainspring as a power source. In manual watches the spring must be rewound periodically by the user by turning the watch crown. Antique pocket watches were wound by inserting a separate key into a hole in the back of the watch and turning it. Most modern watches are designed to run 40 hours on a winding and thus must be wound daily, but some run for several days and a few have 192-hour mainsprings and are wound weekly.
A self-winding or automatic watch is one that rewinds the mainspring of a mechanical movement by the natural motions of the wearer's body.
Electronic movements have few or no moving parts, as they use the piezoelectric effect in a tiny quatrz crystal to provide a stable time base for a mostly electronic movement. The crystal forms a quartz oscillator which resonates at a specific and highly stable frequency, and which can be used to accurately pace a timekeeping mechanism. For this reason, electronic watches are often called quartz watches Most quartz movements are primarily electronic but are geared to drive mechanical hands on the face of the watch in order to provide a traditional analog display of the time, which is still preferred by most consumers.
How a watch works video:
Visual Design:
Analog: Traditionally, watches have displayed the time in analog form, with a numbered dial upon which are mounted at least a rotating hour hand and a longer, rotating minute hand. Many watches also incorporate a third hand that shows the current second of the current minute. Watches powered by quartz usually have a second hand that snaps every second to the next marker.
Digital: A digital display simply shows the time as a number.
Functions:
All watches provide the time of day, giving at least the hour and minute, and usually the second. Most also
provide the current date, and often the day of the week as well. However, many watches also provide a great
deal of information beyond the basics of time and date. Some watches include alarms. Other elaborate and
more expensive watches, both pocket and wrist models, also incorporate striking mechanisms or repeater
functions, so that the wearer could learn the time by the sound emanating from the watch. This announcement
or striking feature is an essential characteristic of true clocks and distinguishes such watches from ordinary
timepieces. This feature is available on most digital watches.
A complicated watch has one or more functions beyond the basic function of displaying the time and the date;
such a functionality is called complication. Two popular complications are the chronograph complication, which
is the ability of the watch movement to function as a stopwatch, and the moonphase complication, which is a
display of the lunar phase. Other more expensive complications include Tourbillion, Perpectual calendar,
Minute repeater and Equation of time. A truly complicated watch has many of these complications at once.
Some watches can both indicate the direction of Mecca, and have alarms that can be set for all daily prayer
requirements. Among watch enthusiasts, complicated watches are especially collectible. Some watches
include a second 12-hour or 24-hour display for UTC or GMT.
A list of all watch companies and mae
A
·
Accurist
·
Adidas
·
Armitron
·
ASUAG
B
·
Bench
·
Benrus
·
Bovet
·
Bulgari
·
Bulova
C
·
Casio
·
Certina
·
Charriol
·
Chopard
·
Corum
·
Cobra
D
·
Diesel
·
Dreffa
E
·
Ebel
·
Edox
·
EPOS
·
ETA SA
·
ESPRIT
·
Eterna
·
Elka
·
Elite
F
·
Festina
G
·
GUB
H
·
Hublot
·
Hermès
I
·
Ikepod
J
·
Jowissa
·
Junghans
K
·
Kienzle
L
·
Lacoste
·
Lip
·
Longines
·
Luminox
M
·
MB&F
·
Mido
·
Minerva
·
Molnija
·
Mondaine
·
Mossimo
·
Movado
N
·
Nivada
O
·
Omega SA
·
Orfina
·
Oris
P
·
Panerai
·
Poljot
R
·
Rado
·
Raketa
·
Roamer
·
Rodania
·
Rolex
·
Relic
·
Reseda
S
·
Saeki
·
Sector
·
Seiko
·
Seikosha
·
Sekonda
·
Stowa
·
Suunto
·
Swatch
T
·
Technos
·
Tissot
·
Titoni
·
Tourneau
·
ToyWatch
·
Traser
·
Tudor
·
Tutima
·
TW Steel
U
·
Urwerk
V
·
Valjoux
W
·
Wenger
X
·
Xezo
Y
·
Yema
Z
·
Zenith
It is very extensive.
THE WATCH STATION:
This store is one of the biggest in the world and sells a wide of brands and has it's own magazine.
This is where Graphic Design comes into play with Watches.
This magazine is beautifully designed and informs and educates readers and possible customers about
their store and the watches they sell.
Everyone of those brands use graphic design to sell, package and advertise their products. Watch Station is a
prime example of that.
ROLEX:
Again a huge brand of watch design of extremely high quality, of which web design, packaging and
advertisement are all necessary.
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