P3. Type & Hierarchy
Designing a type specimen poster
Introduction.
In this project, we will be exploring how we can combine design principles and Gestalt principles with new ones, such as line spacing, tone, color, and many others. Specifically, I will be assigned a typeface in order to learn more about its history and forms, and then applying this to create an overall poster that conveys this information, as well as the typeface’s characteristic qualities.
Exercise 1: Typographic Voice (2/24).
For this exercise, the goal was to be able to express the meaning of a given word using five different fonts, allowing us to explore the feelings evoked by certain typefaces. I picked the the word serendipity, and immediately thought about very light, playful fonts to express this feeling of a happy coincidence.
The first font I picked was Madina Script, which was a very calligraphy-based font. I liked the carefree loops and crosses, especially for the “t” and “y”.
The second font I picked, Moon Time Regular, had a similar carefree feel to it as it was part of the Script family, but I liked the thinner weight of the strokes. Overall, I think it gave it more of a light feel, which emphasized the meaning of the word.
Coco Sharp Extra Light is a type of Sans Serif font, and I picked this similarly because of its light feel, but I also enjoyed the round curves of the letters, especially “d” and “p”.
For the fourth font, I picked a handwritten font called The Hand, and put it in all capital letters. I like the slenderness of this typeface, compared to the other fonts I picked, as I feel like this conveyed both a sense of order and coincidence at the same time.
For the last font, I picked a member of the Serif family, Quincy CF. I like the roundness of the letters and their uniform proportions to each other, which I feel oddly gave off a playful feeling.
I love the idea that different fonts can have similar feelings and auras associated with them. With typography, one of the most important concepts is being able to convey a message to your readers, and setting the tone with font type is much more important than one would think.
Part 1: Research (2/24).
The typeface I was assigned was Garamond. I first had to gather all my information in this initial part.
Name of the typeface: Garamond
Name of typeface designer: Claude Garamond
Year it was designed: 1561
Full character set:
History and form:
Garamond is a part of the old-style Serif family and was mainly created by Claude Garamond in the sixteenth century during the height of the Renaissance. This classic font known for its handwriting-like resemblance has been used universally in book printing and body text, claiming its original role in printed works.
This family conveys a sense of elegance and romance with its ties to Renaissance design, featuring a balance of thin and thick strokes, tall ascenders, low x-height of lowercase letters, and oblique stress axes. The gently curved and angled terminals of lowercase letters provide both delicacy and ornateness, with generously open counters also adding an airiness to the font. Taking all of these features into consideration, Garamond proves to be a timeless font, used for crafting similarly timeless works.
Quote:
“The Adobe Garamond design is considered one of the most versatile fonts available today and certainly one of the most attractive and graceful in print. It is also one of the most eco friendly types to print because the letterforms use less ink than other similar faces.” — Adobe
Sketches of poster layout:
Exercise 2: Typographic Hierarchy (2/27).
For exercise 2, the goal was to experiment with different typographic variables — linespacing, weights, horizontal shifting, and point sizing. We were given a body of text to change these variables, seeing how these changes conveyed the desired message to the reader. For the four exercises, I chose to work with linespacing, typographic weights, horizontal shift and linespacing, and size change and typographic weight.
For this first exercise, working with linespacing emphasized the importance of helping readers avoid reading by chunking. In version 1, I mainly add line spaces to create chunks of information to highlight the three individual talks, leaving the beginning and ending chunks to have general information about the location/details of the seminar series. While it was much easier to read, I still felt like pointing out the details about the talks was still difficult. In version 2, I played with this, adding a linespace to separate the time/place from the CMU address, as well as the name of the seminar series. Overall, I think version 2 did a better job of chunking the information in an efficient yet simple way.
Varying the weights added a different level of significance to the information in the text. Using two weights — roman and bold — I mainly used the bold weight to emphasize any headers or seminar titles, putting the other info in roman weight. Contrastingly, when using four weights, I applied the bold weight to emphasize the overall title, medium to highlight the subtitles, roman for the speaker details, and light weighting for the location information. I think that using four weights allowed for more dimension into highlighting specific pieces of information especially with no line breaks, making it more effective overall.
I thought that adding horizontal shift to this passage called attention to information that was flush-left, since there could only be two lines at this alignment. In version 1, I added line spaces between the distinct talks — similar to the first exercise — but decided to keep lines 3 and 4 left-aligned to emphasize “The Z-Axis Seminar Series.” However, I feel that the space created lines 2 and 3 was a bit awkward, since the text in these lines almost overlapped. I changed that in version 2, this time highlighting “The Z-Axis Seminar Series” and “Carnegie Mellon Campus” at left alignment. I feel that this choice of line spacing and alignment allowed for appropriate gaps between chunks, and was easier to follow overall.
Out of all the exercises, I feel that this gave the most freedom with presenting the information. In version 1, I made the point size of the seminar titles and the overall title larger than the other information, drawing your attention to them easily. I also rearranged the information slightly, putting the titles first in each chunk, and applying light weight to the details. I had the same idea in version 2, except experimented with bold weights for the titles in addition to larger point size. However, I feel that this highlighted too much information at once, making it harder to read the other details. Out of these two versions, I feel that version 1 more effectively incorporated these typographic variables to convey the information to the reader.
After completing these exercises, I feel that I’ve seen how typographic choices can convey a whole different meaning, depending on how we employ them. Playing around with different point sizes and weighting were two of my favorite aspects, and it was interesting seeing how this made information much more organized.
Part 2: Digital Iterations (2/27).
For part 2 of this project, I will be transferring my text information about Garamond to Adobe Illustrator to create a couple drafts of my poster. I included my sketches for initial layouts, and will be playing around with text, color, and background when creating these drafts.
Draft 1
With this design, I liked the idea of having the font title vertically oriented, as well as bolded to make it stand out the most. When incorporating color, I picked a muted gold and decreased the opacity, since this font was known to be created during the Renaissance period, and I felt this color/font combination exhibited this elegance. I made the year and designer overlap because I thought it brought an interesting visual, especially since this info is at the top.
I also decided to apply drop caps and color to the beginning of the paragraph to make it less daunting for readers to approach. I’m not sure how I feel about all the text paragraphs clumped together — especially with the quote at the bottom — but I liked this general layout overall.
Draft 2
With this draft, I experimented with a whole different layout, this time having the font name near the center. I put a gold outline overlapping the font name, which I thought added a cool effect to it. I felt that separating the paragraph and the quote made the poster look less cluttered overall, compared to my previous draft. I like how the overlay of the designer turned out on the second paragraph, since it complements the color choice at the beginning of the first paragraph.
If I decide to use this draft, I want to find ways to incorporate more color or accents, since it looks sort of bland right now. Regardless, I like the organization of information in this draft.
Draft 3
Out of all the drafts I made, this is probably the one I want to continue developing. For this draft, I decided to use a landscape layout and applied a more coherent color palette. In Adobe Illustrator, I used the Renaissance color palette to go along with the fact that Garamond was born during the Renaissance period, which is where the pale greens and yellows came from. I also applied drop caps and left-align to the paragraphs to simulate a book passage, since Garamond is well-known for its applications in prints.
I also created a complementary outline/overlay pattern with the font title and designer, switching out the black fill and gold outline overlay. With the designer/year information, I tried to position this in a way that would be easy for the reader’s eyes to follow. To add stylistic designs, I used curly brackets and a tilde to fill in some of the empty space. I feel like these two characters showed the elegance of the font really well.
Draft 4
For my fourth draft, I changed the layout of the information, mainly putting the date in the upper corner to make it look like a page number, also going with the book-themed poster. I thought it was cool to type out the number in word-form since this brought back old print styles. I also sectioned the author and font title together, since the font was named after the designer. To differentiate this, I styled the designer’s first name with no text fill and only kept an outline.
For design purposes, I included a green strip to fill in the empty space, which I think neatly sectioned off the information well.
Part 2 continued. Digital Iteration 2 (3/1).
I met with Ji for my first 1:1 critique, mainly talking about principles like hierarchy, color, and margins. The first thing we talked about was the overall hierarchy — the right side neatly presented the block of text/information; however, the design on the left side made it hard to focus on what piece of information to look at first. For example, since the quote was placed in the upper left, naturally your eyes would be drawn to it, but they are also drawn to the large, black Garamond title even though it’s further down the poster. The heavier weight and outlining of “claude garamond” also draws your attention, which makes the left side look busy.
Another suggestion Ji had was to make the margins uniform all around, creating a neater appearance overall, and also being mindful of the aesthetic choices I made, including the placement of the curly bracket next to the font title. I also misread the guidelines for the poster when placing the rectangular color block, so I will update that as well.
After making a couple revisions, this is how the second iteration turned out:
I moved the font title to the top left to initially draw the readers’ attention, then proceeded to place the quote and designer/date information. This time, I intentionally placed the curly bracket to point from this “introduction” to the “body” paragraphs, trying to mimic the layout of a book. I changed the designer/date info to grey and removed the previous outline, also making the date smaller to progress down the hierarchy of information. I ended the left side with the full character set also in a light shade of grey.
On the right side, I changed the justification of the text to right-justified with last line aligned right because I like the overall block shape created. I felt that this sectioned off this important information effectively. It also made the right and top margins much more uniform. I really like the use of pale yellow to highlight important information or redirect the readers’ attention, and I feel like this color complements the pale green background very nicely.
I think this iteration definitely improved the hierarchy of information effectively; however, I still want to find a way to fix the space between information, specifically the designer/date and the character set, as I feel like the shape of the empty space looks awkward. I will continue to work on this!
I also decided to work a little on this version as well:
I also decided to refine this draft little, mainly changing the color and weights of the text. I made sure to be mindful of the margins, making them uniform whenever it was possible. With this version, I like the placement of the date as a “page number”, and also the placement of both the font name and designer together. Justifying the character set with the last line centered created a neat block of text.
Again with this version, I’m not a big fan of the two rectangular spaces, but will be working on this and getting feedback.
Part 2 continued. Digital Iteration 3 (3/3).
Today, we had our first peer review, where we posted our drafts-in-the-making on Miro and gave each other feedback. I presented these two drafts:
When comparing these two drafts, my peers mentioned how the curly bracket in draft 4 felt more effective, since the info paragraph directly pointed to the character set. For draft 3, I got feedback that the gold outline over the font name took a bit of attention away, as did the gold rectangles (which didn’t adhere to the project guidelines anyway). Overall, the use of gold to highlight specific phrases in the text was very effective.
In draft 4, my idea to write out the date was well-received, but the size of the number drew unwanted attention due to how large it was. When asking about how to deal with the negative space created, a suggestion was to either shorten the quote or remove it altogether, since it didn’t act as a supplement and was very chunky space-wise, and instead try to work with the character set to fill up the space. With both the drafts, Anna suggested to use a lighter background color since the current shade took away from some of the contrast between the black vs. gray text.
After taking these suggestions and criticism into consideration, I produced these two drafts:
For draft 3, I wanted to emphasize the “g” since I see it as one of the more characteristic letters, and decided to work with its curvature when placing the character set around it. I also nested the designer above the font name since I felt it fit well in the “nook” created, and used gray to draw less attention to them and more to “garamond.” I placed the date in the bottom right corner and wrote out the date to give it an “old” feel, mainly putting it here so it would look like a page number.
For draft 4, I got rid of the bulky quote to resize and arrange the font name and date. I wanted to experiment with the “G” and “C” since their curvature was similar, and made “Claude” gray to create hierarchy. Placing the date in the upper left corner also helped to fill in the space. I slightly changed the justification of the character set, adjusting it to make it boxy as well as aligning it with the font name/designer to create a neat margin.
Part 2 continued. Digital Iteration 4 (3/8).
After meeting with Anna for a 1:1 critique, I changed a couple elements around. She suggested that I make my margins larger and uniform throughout, so I placed everything 0.75 inches from the edge. I freed up space in the left corner by making the paragraph lines shorter and shrinking the text. I also got rid of the gold highlighting in my paragraphs because although they neatly highlighted important phrases, they were competing for hierarchy overall. To make the hierarchy of information more apparent, I made “Claude” and the character set a lighter shade of grey, and also increased the kerning between pairs in the character set.
Part 2 continued. Digital Iteration 5 and Group Critique (3/10).
We had the group critique, where I presented my two strongest designs for my peers to give feedback on. I personally really valued this session, especially seeing the feedback on Google Sheets from my peers, as well as on Miro from Anna and Ji. From this session, I learned that I was doing a pretty good job expressing the hierarchy of information, as well as craftsmanship when picking colors and elements to highlight.
My peers, as well as Anna and Ji, suggested incorporating the cream color to the date, which I thought made the color palette even more cohesive. I also reduced the opacity of the green background color to further accentuate the hierarchy/color of my poster elements. When altering the paragraphs, Anna and Ji suggested making the paragraph line lengths even shorter by decreasing the font size, creating a more compact chunk of text to read. I also got rid of the drop cap “G” since the capital “G” in the font name was right above it. With the character set, I double checked the leading and fixed it to make it uniform across all the lines. Lastly, with the “C” in Claude, I made sure to move it backwards so that it wouldn’t overlap on top of “Garamond” disrupting the hierarchy.
This is how my fifth iteration turned out:
Part 2 continued. Digital Iteration 6 and 1:1 Critique (3/15).
I had my last 1:1 critique with Ji before the final critique on Wednesday. In this session, we mainly talked about details to put the finishing touches on this.
The text for “fifteen sixty-one” was hard to see due to the light weighting of the italic font, so Ji suggested that I either make the text larger or increase the weight. I changed it to bold italic, which improved visibility. I also noticed that the “f” and dot of the “i” in “fifteen” were slightly overlapping, so I increased the kerning between these two letters.
I slightly moved the “C” to the right, since the previous overlap between the “m” and “C” created a bit of tension at the intersection. Moving it to the right relieved this tension a bit, and I also like the way it aligned with the middle of the “m”. Ji also suggested that I align the paragraph with the character set. To do this, I decreased the leading between lines in the paragraph, which made these two elements line up, as you can see with the guide lines below.
Part 3. Final Critique (3/17).
For the final critique, each of us went around and talked about our typefaces and works, followed by comments from our peers as well as Anna and Ji. I really enjoyed hearing everyone’s thought processes when talking about their designs — it definitely opened up my eyes to different styles of craftsmanship!
Part 4. Reflection (3/19).
Overall, this typography project taught me a lot about expressing meaning through elements like paragraph alignment, font size, and color. During the initial stages of this project, creating drafts was fun but also a bit misdirected for me. For example, knowing that I had to include the font name/designer/year/etc. was a given, but I merely sketched out designs to block off certain areas for this information. Because of this, I didn’t think to explore ways to express hierarchy of the content, which is the main critique I got during my first 1:1 session.
I didn’t realize how much of an impact text elements like font size and paragraph alignment would have on expressing the font name. Having blockier shaped paragraphs vs. jagged shaped ones contributed to the overall ambience of the piece, where I personally used more left-aligned or center-justified alignment to add to the “old” feeling of Garamond. Even keeping margins uniform and making sure certain poster elements were aligned made the poster easy on the eyes. Using the guides on Adobe Illustrator helped me to do this.
I also liked having more of the peer-focused critique sessions since I felt that it helped having fresh eyes on our works. Personally, I found myself at dead ends every time I finished an iteration, where oftentimes it was difficult to pinpoint places for improvement after looking at it for so long. However, having classmates point out elements they liked/didn’t like allowed for many improvements and changes to make to my drafts.
Overall, I really enjoyed the design process for this typography poster project — I learned a lot about effective ways to communicate and display information, and I’ll take this knowledge with me even after this class!
