Type Specimen Poster
About the Project
This project is an exercise in making a poster that successfully communicates and informs about the selected typeface. The designer is to use Gestalt’s Principle, scale, rhythm, line spacing, indentation, color, tone, value, texture, and position to create a poster that focuses on the representation and history of the typeface given. The poster is to include the name of the typeface, name of typeface designer, the year it was designed, one to two paragraphs about the typeface and the purpose of its form, and the full character set for the typeface. The designer is given the freedom to arrange the content in any way that would emphasize and showcase the selected typeface’s unique qualities with the constrained poster size of 10" x 16".
The goal of this project for me was to apply the skills I have learned in the Form & Composition project and represent the typeface, Gill Sans, the best in addition to the new skills I have learned. I also wanted to create a visually appealing design and arrangement that will emphasize the Gill Sans history of being used in poster designs and the Penguin Book Publishing Company.
Initial Sketches
In the initial sketches, I thought about representing and grabbing people’s attention to the poster with the Gill Sans signature eyeglass “g,” so I created multiple variations where the character “g” was scaled up and covering most of the poster’s space. I also thought about using a playful tone in the posters by scale, rotation, and overlaps. I started off with four sketches that were very different then I started to use the same element and create four more sketches. I created notes for myself to show where the character set will be located and what typeface family will be used. I also thought about playing around with the character “s” that would be the abbreviation of Gill Sans. As for the character set, I tried arranging them more playfully by making it spell out the word “ANS” for “SANS.” During the sketch, I wasn’t thinking much about the hierarchy but the visual appeal of the poster.
Digital Iterations
PART I (breadth)
For the digital iteration, I chose two designs out of all the sketches and altered few of the elements around in both of the designs. During the digital sketches, I added all the necessary research components, played around with the character family, and arranged them without the thought of hierarchy and what looked best visually appealing. I also did it in grayscale because I wasn’t sure about what colors would work best with the poster.
During the first printed critique, I got arrays of both positive and negative critiques, but the most common critique I got was that both posters were overwhelming and cluttered, loss of hierarchy, and hard to read paragraphs. In the first poster, I had positive critiques like how they liked the character sets that followed the character “g” which created a sense of movement and the three-dimensionalities. On the other hand, I also had one comment that said they didn’t like the tilted “g.” For the second poster, I got comments saying that they liked the use of different opacity and layering. But overall, I was suggested to try using color to create more hierarchy, which can help distinguish the important text from the gray background graphics.
This mid-critique helped me see the weakness of my poster and what elements were not working to give off the specific effects I wanted. Overall I learned that the poster was really overwhelming, complicated, and cluttered, which made me realize that I should be now thinking more about the hierarchy and ways to show the difference between the background and the foreground. As for choosing between the two posters, I still wasn’t leaning towards one over another, so I decided to experiment more with both posters.
PART II (depth)
As a result of the mid-critique, I used the same element from both of my two posters and tried rearranging them. I still was creating the poster with grayscale because I still wasn’t too sure what color I would want to use. For the rearrangement of the poster, I tried to change the text colors, rotate them, align the texts to create some sense of hierarchy. For some, I tried changing the typeface family and adding “[]” for design and visual elements. I also tried different layering on the second poster and even tried deleting some of the layerings so it will feel less cluttered.
After trying out the different grayscales I had to decide on the color. Not familiar with color much, I searched up color combinations that would represent the typeface very well as well as help with the hierarchy. I got the orange creme color combination from the classic Penguin Book Publishing Company books, while the yellow and blue combination was chosen because of its contrasting combination. For the first few iterations of colors for both posters, I tried using creme and orange color combination with black and white. I tried different combinations for different designs to see which combination of colors would work great to help with the hierarchy as well as the 50 feet, 5 feet, and 5 inches rule. For both posters, I tried using the same color family but with a slight difference to show what was in the background and the foreground to help the readers have an easier time reading the information on the poster.
I did have to choose a design to go forward with but I wanted more critique and opinions. During the desk critique, the professor helps me lower the options for each poster design and it was up to me to decide, so I ended up deciding on the first design poster with the orange and creme combination. As for the overall critique I got during the desk critique, I learned that I was still struggling with the hierarchy and was suggested to try out the grid system to help me organize, arrange, and align the content more to create sense or organization and importance. Another thing that was brought to attention was the amount of variation in weights and style that I was using and how it may affect the feeling of overwhelm and clutter.
From the desk critique, I decided to make two slightly different designs using the same element as the first colored design that I had chosen. On the “Design #1” I kept the designer’s name and the date separate and spaced them out to allow the readers to take a visual break before going on to reading the next information. On the other hand in “Design #2”, I combined the designer and date together and added “|” character to separate the information but still have some sense of relationship with each other.
For both, I played around with the rotation of the big “g” so that the paragraph doesn’t overlap as much. In addition, I gave some space between the Gill Sans title and the big “g” to give some room to visually breathe and feel less cluttered. With the realization that the uses of many weights may be distracting, I limited the weights to only Regular and Semibold. As for the character sets, I tried using the gray instead of black or white so it will be more subtle and help with the hierarchy. I also tried aligning the information on the right side to give it more structure and organization. During the whole tweaking of the design, I was thinking about scale, hierarchy, and space.
Final Result
Reflection:
Out of the two tweaked designs, I chose the “Design #1,” but since I wasn’t too satisfied with it, I tried moving some elements slightly to achieve the goal of allowing the viewers to rest while reading the poster. From “Design #1” I lowered all the information down a bit so I could move the quote which felt really close to the edge. I also proofread the text so there won’t be very noticeable typos and mistakes.
While I was going through the process of designing the Gill Sans poster, I learned hierarchy is very important for the communication of information in many poster designs, and how color, alignment, scale, and weights help create a hierarchy. I learned the rule of 50 feet, 5 feet, and 5 inches that are common in many poster designs. I also learned that there is always room for experimentation and improvements in every step even the “final” design. The constant experimentation that I did just to go back to the first attempt and original design felt helpful instead of feeling redundant. The experimentation and many designs I tried showed me clearly what works and what doesn’t.
In the final critique, I got a critique that said that the quote was not integrated well with the other elements of the poster. In addition to that, it was suggested that I try out different arrangements for the character sets and see how the different arrangement changes the feeling of the poster. As for the successful elements of my poster, people felt that the 50 feet, 5 feet, and 5 inches rule worked well due to the color choice and the contrast between the creme and the orange. The color choice also did not compete with other elements in the poster. In addition, the overlapping of the paragraph and the “g” helped distinguish the foreground from the background.
In my poster, I could have experimented more with the arrangements of character sets just to see what might have changed. This could have given me more options to better represent Gill Sans. I also could have tried to integrate the quote better or take it out entirely. I could have thought more about what the quote element is doing in the poster. In my final poster design, I did feel that the quote was very separate and unnecessary. For the future, if I were to go back and make some changes, I would integrate the quote better, or change the design a bit more to better represent the Penguin Book design.
During the final critique, I learned that we as a designer should be aware of the edges and how it is going to printed and cut while designing so the words don’t get cut off and that it doesn’t create a tension between the words and the edges. I also learned that some minute details can be detrimental sometimes because of how people tend to focus on the detail when everything else seems to work in addition to how sometimes the small design mistakes can create tension. I also learned that some typefaces are easier to represent and understand due to the immense popularity of each typefaces. This shows that typefaces have their own characteristics and intention of use.
