Behind the Glyph…
When the typeface poster assignment was given to our class, we were told to choose a glyph from our specific typeface, create a poster with that glyph while including 100 words about the typeface itself. I first began the typeface poster assignment by looking at all of the glyphs for the font ‘Didot Bold’. I created a new canvas in Adobe InDesign and went through every single glyph there is for this font. I did not know what a glyph was prior to this assignment and was overwhelmed. There were many to choose from and I did not know how I was going to narrow down my selection. After looking through everything, I chose my top four. I wanted to choose glyphs that were not letters nor resembled letters. I ended up choosing the last glyph in this set of four because of its script-like characteristics and I thought it would flow well in a large space or poster.
I then took a moment to figure out what my process would be, from a design standpoint and a technical standpoint. Even though this poster was created in InDesign I went ahead and drew some sketches. I knew sketching my ideas down would help me see my ideas come to life. I decided I would create thumbnail sketches, take them and create a poster in InDesign, then get a second opinion and go from there.
I began sketching. I wanted to see how I could create different compositions with the glyph itself. The sketches below show my original thoughts and ideas for the poster.
After looking over all of my sketches, I decided I wanted the focus more to be on the glyph itself, and have it the center of attention instead basing the composition around the text. I went back to the drawing board and drew up some more ideas.
I took these sketches into InDesign and started creating drafts. I first wanted to try out the more text-heavy sketches I had. I wanted to put emphasis on the word “Didot” while still emphasizing the glyph. In this first example, I made a border with the glyph, changing the size and thickness to make it more prominent. After taking a look at what I had designed, I thought it would be a good decision to reflect the glyph at the bottom of the page to really create the border.
For my second draft, I wanted to put more emphasis on the typeface itself. I really wanted to add contrast and have bold letters. I layered my text in front of the name of the typeface to see how it would look. It was too contrasting so I made the text a lighter grey and upped the opacity. I was pleased with how this look and decided my second draft was finished.
After these first two text-heavy drafts, I wanted to focus on the sketches that were all about the glyph. I played around with the size, thickness and orientation and then realized how versatile this glyph really was. As I was messing around, I discovered that this glyph almost looks like a link, and I wanted to see how I could set the glyphs together to create a different more abstract shape. I started out with two glyphs connected to each other like in the first image, in my second set of sketches. Then I decided to reflect those glyphs down to fill up the poster space.
I really loved how this looked and knew I wanted to use this as my final composition. Now all I needed to do was include my text. I placed the text behind the glyphs but it just did not have the “wow factor” that I wanted.
Knowing this was not the direction in which I wanted to go, I wondered if there was a way to put the text inside the glyph. I researched how to do this and started to test it. I was able to get the text inside of the glyph but I had to repeat it over and over again to make sure every space was filled. I also decided to fill the spaces between where the glyph met to give it a more connected look. I wanted to keep the text size that was placed inside, very small and almost unreadable so that your attention was still on the glyph itself and not the words.
After looking at this draft for a little too long, I wanted my professor’s advice and opinion. I knew that I loved the composition and orientation of the glyph itself but something was weird about the poster to me. My professor commented and gave me helpful feedback. I also was critiqued by my classmates which also provided me with a handful of comments. The overall opinion was that the use of space was great but the awkward gaps between the paragraphs really was distracting. This extra gaps and space really did throw of the balance and unity of the poster. I tried to fix the space but nothing was really working out. I then had to go in and delete every single space after every sentence. This was a very tedious task and took a lot of time but once the spaces were gone the poster looked so much better and I had a finalized draft.
I then wanted to make final decisions and changes. One point my professor made was to see what this final draft would look like if I took away the black fill in between where the glyphs met. In my earlier draft, filling the gaps made the poster look much better but it really was not necessary to have in this final. I took out the fill and decided the poster stood out more with it absent. It really looked like the glyphs were linked together which was what my original goal was when I started the poster.
After these changes I was really happy with the poster. My last design choice I had to make was whether or not I wanted to include the typeface name somewhere in the poster. Because the glyph is very script-like and curvy, the placement of the name was very important so that it would not take away from the overall vibe. I decided to layer it behind the glyphs and chose to make it a light opaque grey. I enjoyed the way it looked but then began to question myself. Should I just keep it simple and go with my original design or should I choose the busier poster?
The typeface name was very subtle and did not really take away from the glyphs, but the second “D” was hidden and I felt overall that the word just was not making the poster any better. I wanted a second opinion so I asked my professor and he agreed. So for my final typeface poster I chose draft 6. I enjoyed the simplicity of it and how abstract it was. I accomplished my goal of choosing a glyph that does not resemble a letter and is one of a kind, and my goal of keeping the emphasis completely on the glyph. This project took a lot of planning, many many drafts and many decisions were made. Each decision was important; from where I placed the glyph to the size of the text, every choice mattered. I am very pleased with the outcome and learned a lot from my process.
