I've Just Seen a Face

The first part of the exercise was to create a sample book of typefaces for reference, organised into serif, sans serif, script fonts, decorative fonts and fonts giving a 'computer' appearance.

Although it was hard work and time consuming I'm now really pleased I have all of the fonts in one document to compare and arranged into groups. Although I have used the drop down menu in Illustrator and Photoshop to try and get the right typeface I now realise there are some great typefaces I'd missed. I'm also now aware that I wasn't paying enough attention to the differences of style within similar typefaces. For example if I wanted a handwritten typeface I it was difficult to decide on the right on - or compare the subtle differences between them.

It was good to be able to put this new awareness into practice immediately by using them for the four commissions. I was also able to work through different typefaces more methodically than from the drop down list before I finally settled on the choices below:

I tried quite a few typefaces before deciding on Lucida Bright for the first commision. Varying the typefaces immedeatley may a diffrence to where you would expect to find the story. A lot of the decorative fonts tended to make the story look like it would appear in a more downmarket publication. I decided to go slightly more upmarket and coupled it with Garamond Regular for a readable, stylish serif.

The choice for the flower was Poor Richard, which had attracted my attention during the grouping exercise. I love the diffrence between the tall height of the ascenders and the short/curled ascenders. I also like the constrained nature of the flourishes. It is the sort of typeface that might be found on a headstone - and therefore perfect for attracting budding church flower arrangers.

For the teenage boys' after-school club I wanted something that wasn't too conservative or authoratitive -it also had to be a typeface that had 'energy'. Italics were too traditional so I went with Forte which really fitted the bill. Importantly it's not too cliched or patronising and manages (hopefully) to speak to and connect with its intended audience.

The engagement flyer was the most difficult of all as I tried to balance fun with readability. I tried many typefaces before finally settling on Hobo Std Medium - a relaxed, fun and readable text.

As mentioned this was a very time consumig exercise but it gave me a real insight into the importance of using the right typeface in order to connect with the intended audience. I now realise that choosing the right typeface is crucial. I can also appreciate that although there are many typefaces out there, there should be one that serves the purpose.

All Together Now

Putting the strokes, serifs and bowls of Baskerville back together to form the pangram 'the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog' really gave me an appreciation of the different elements of a typeface. It also made me look much more closely at the subtle differences that exist within a typeface - down to which way a serif faces and the sharpness of the terminals.

Checking my version against the original I realised I'd used two thick strokes for the 'x' instead of one thick and one thin, and that I hadn't used the inverted 'v' shape for the middle of the 'w'. However, the exercise certainly succeeded in giving me a greater appreciation of typefaces, particularly how attention to detail helps contribute to the readability, beauty and effectiveness of a typeface. Consequently, I think that I will pay closer attention when choosing typefaces in the future.

We Can Work It Out

Identifying typefaces from a magazine initially didn't sound the most thrilling of activities. However, it did make me actually look at the typefaces used in magazines, rather than just reading them.

I like the appearance of BBC Music Magazine and so used this.

What surprised me was that the designers changed typeface when moving from headline to the main body of text, and from headline to sub-heading to sub-sub(?) heading to body of text. The changes also included movement between serif and sans serif - and back again.

I also liked the way different articles used different typefaces in order to stand out. A particularly good example is the Liszt article (below).

Variations were also provided by adverts, with the advertiser wanting to both stand out and promote their identity. I liked the EMI advert (below) which I think is either AG Book BQ or Helvetica. I personally prefer it when advertisements stand out. I have noticed a trend towards advertisers using the same typeface as the magazine to blend in with the articles, although I personally feel a bit conned and resolve not to buy the product.

Although there is always a danger that too many advertisements, or too much varying of typefaces, may dilute the brand or identity of a publication I think the right balance was truck in the magazine I chose. The exercise has certainly made me more aware of the variety of typefaces used, even within a single object, poster or product - and the way typefaces are used for various purposes such as display, titles, headings, main  text, summary, captions, contrast, etc. It was also noticeable that where the typeface didn't vary, other factors such as colour or size of text were utilised for contrast/to maintain interest. 

Twist and Shout

This section looks at typography, and in the first exercise a series of words had to be represented with the typography reflecting the meaning of the words.

Up to this point I have been using mainly Photoshop so I was keen to start using Illustrator more extensively. For me this exercise was as much about starting to explore the range of effects available in Illustrator as working with type.

I have posted the ten words I feel were the most successful and why.

The nature of the word shy needed something simple. The typeface was perfect for this with the inwardly bending upstroke of the 'h' curling back on itself and the tail of the 'y' hiding in the corner. It needed something more and the parentheses seemed perfect. It was pretty obvious where the word needed to go on the page.    

I was still learning my way around Illustrator at this point but I like the sparky edges to 'sardonic'.

'Shattered' was a good example of finding a tool (slice) through necessity. Looking back, would be nice to add a glass effect now.

Starting to get into it now and was able to start playing around with the shape of the text.

Another (subtler) example of playing around with the shape and outlines of the text.

I really enjoyed this one. Started to look at glows, blurs and other effects at this stage.

Bit disappointed with this one. Couldn't quite achieve the glowing neon effect I was hoping for (although typeface was ideal). Will probably revisit this one along with shattered at some point.

Enjoyed 'speed' but probably a lot to do with the fun I had with the colours and shadow effect.

 
Bit more confident with the effects now. It seemed to be missing something. At the last minute I decided to add a thin stroke for definition and it really seemed to bring out the 'squueze' effect.

My favourite. Used a lot of the skills I'd learnt but I'm pleased it's not over the top or showy. Could have gone all trippy but wanted to retain a dopey dreaminess in keeping with the meaning of the word.

               

Yesterday

The brief of the third assignment was to produce a poster celebrating a colour of my choice - one that has a meaning to me. I could use only with this colour , its complementary and black and white. In this module I have been learning about visual dynamics, colour, collage and visual language so it was important that the poster utilised the skills I'd developed.

After some thought I decided to go with the colour orange. I wanted to work with a positive, bright colour but felt that red and yellow may result in me lapsing into fairly obvious thought patterns, whereas orange seemed a lot more challenging and original. The other reason I chose orange was that, when I think about my early childhood (in the seventies), it is the colour that most vividly evokes those memories and that time.

To make it more personal - and with the importance of utilising the skills from this module - I decided to go with the idea of a poster recreating a seventies living room.

Initially I had thought about trying to use just orange white and black but when I looked at the colour wheel I realised there was a great opportunity to use another colour that featured heavily in my childhood, teal. I started to collect images - an orange egg chair, lamp, sideboard, clock, penguin books and television. Finding teal wallpaper was much more difficult and I ended up having to use a single sample four times - matching it up was almost as difficult as the real thing! I found a small sample a teal carpet and used the perspective tool to create the right perspective looking into the poster. The white skirting naturally suggested itself as a border between the two patterns.

Positioning the objects was great fun. It initially looked quite staged and at that point I then decided to put a mug next to the chair to add some warmth - I also added more penguin books next to the television, with the final piece added being the space hopper looming in the foreground slightly sinisterly. In the early drafts I went with a still from 'Tales of the Unexpected' on the television as it met the criteria in terms of colour and memories. However, it didn't draw me into the composition enough so I searched for an image of Johan Cruyff - the personification of seventies orange. By sheer good luck the image was of him playing against West Germany (who played in black and white). I had to paint orange over some of the figures in the crowd and used the blur tool to blend them in. The (recently discovered) blur tool was vital for this assignment. I'd discovered it doing the Newsnight exercise and it really helped the object look natural and part of the same composition.      

I tried a few versions, including one where I went with my original thoughts of using black, white and orange only (below).

I thought I'd settled on the final version with the composition below:

But I then started to play around with canvas size. I really liked the slightly dreamlike feel I was achieving but felt it was missing something. Suddenly the tag from the original Orange mobile launch from the mid-nineties popped into my head and I added it to the composition, increasing the size of the text below to tie in with the perspective.

A bit of final tinkering resulted in the final image (below) which I feel used the best aspects of the three versions. I liked the slightly wistful feel of the text, evoking the happy, slightly naive optimism of the seventies.  

 

 

Mr Moonlight

In this exercise I created a collage with a political message. I decided to go with a subject I feel strongly about - the power of the press and media and who holds them to account. As I was doing this the phone-hacking scandal broke. I was pleased I went with the angle I did - the tabloids are too easy a target and current events are only likely to increase levels of smugness and complacency at the BBC.

Here, There and Everywhere

In this exercise 10 abstract designs needed to be created for a series of guidebooks for world cities. Blocks of subordinate, dominant and accent colours were to be used. I had enormous fun with this project.