Project 3: Typography
Hello! This is the second project for my Design Center: Communication & Digital Design Fundamentals class. The purpose of this assignment was to learn how to work with typography in our designs. The end product of the project was a type specimen poster, that showed the font, and conveyed a message about it. The class picked out of a hat and I got the typeface Futura.
09/19 — Initial Sketches
I started the project by researching my typeface. I actually had never heard of Futura, so I was excited to learn more about it and how I could use it in different ways. I learned that it was a very versatile font, as it has been used in a lot of various, niche places. It was used as the logo for Ikea and on the Pittsburgh Steeler’s helmets, but it was created in the 1920s in Germany inspired by the Bauhaus design style of that time.
I actually really liked the font when I first saw and the different posters that I looked at that utilized Futura. I was inspired by both the simplistic and geometric feel of the typeface and the modern, Bauhaus style of the typeface. From there, I started drawing my first sketches. I used those two concepts to come up with four sketches that fit my typeface.
9/21 — Transferring Into Illustrator
I had to then transfer my work into Illustrator; for each concept, I just picked one illustration per concept to transfer, as I felt like they were a little repetitive. I was excited to start adding color to my illustrations and to be able to actually see what the design will look like physically. I also tried to combine the designs a little bit, to see if I could make it convey both concepts at the same time. This did not end up turning out the way I wanted to, so I had to scrap it, but it made refining my other two illustrations a little easier.
When I saw both of them, I was really conflicted with which one I liked better. I still had time, so I decided that I would focus on refining both of them before making a big decision.
One part that I did focus on was moving the big, background shapes around a lot to figure out where the best placement for them were. One of my posters utilized circles in the background, so I played with the placement, amount, and sizing of them to see how they affect the overall feel of the poster. My other type specimen utilized big characters in the background to read as the title. This was difficult, as I could not find a good spacing of the letters so that it was easy to read.
9/26 — Introducing Text and Color
This is when I introduced text to my poster. I had a couple pieces of text, but the project required us to have both a character set and a paragraph about the typeface. I struggled a lot with the placement of the paragraph and character set. I put them in different places on the poster, I tried combining them, but nothing seemed to work. I did get to experiment with typing on a path with Illustrator. For one of my posters, I decided to experiment with that, and it worked out well. It helped add to the fading effect of the poster, and it was a more creative way of inserting the character set without having to just plop it somewhere on the poster. I was still stuck on how I could add the character set and paragraph to my second poster and how I could add the paragraph to the first paragraph. I ended up placing them where I thought it would be clear to see and read, but I knew that those would not be the final placements on those. The class had a process critique in a couple classes, so I decided to wait and get some feedback then, and in the meantime, work on some other parts of the poster.
I also started experimenting with color in this step. I had not added any color into my original sketches, so I was not completely sure what I wanted to do with it. This was really helpful to my process, as I was able to how the different colors changed the vibes of the posters and how the color was used to affect the concept of the poster. I was able to play with the colors of the actual letters as well, and I think that really aided to my posters.
10/3 — Process Critiques
During the process critique, I was given a bunch of sticky with things that the person liked and things that the person thought I could improve on. This was really helpful in creating my final piece. I used a lot of the feedback to improve both pieces, but I was still unsure about which piece I wanted as my final. I decided that I would update both of them and then decide once I updated both.
10/5 — Final Revisions
In the end, I ended up picking my more simple, geometric design. I got feedback from both the professor and my classmates that that design conveyed the message I was trying to portray better than the other one. I changed the color in the background to make the contrast a lot better, and that helped with allowing it to pop a little more. I also was playing around a lot with the placement of the characters still, and I settled on one that I thought really helped the piece flow. As seen below, I kept making subtle changes to the piece to see what would work best.
Final Project
10/10 — Final Thoughts
I had a lot of fun working with typeface, although it proved to be difficult. It was hard to pick colors that worked well together and helped the page flow. It was also difficult to figure out the placement of the paragraph and character set; I think I was able to improve on how I think about typeface and flow in a project a lot through this whole process. One part of my project that I really liked is the flow of the characters. I think the big characters and the individual components work together to make the piece flow. Our next project uses typeface as well, so I am hoping I will be able to build on the skills that I just learned through this project.