Project 3: Typography

3 min readOct 2, 2021

I am assigned to Avenir for the typography project. Avenir was released in 1988 by designer Adrian Frutiger. The typeface Avenir is powerful due to its humanistic qualities. The curl of the ‘a’ and ‘t’ provides for a more organic interpretation of the geometric style of sans-serif.

Here are some thumbnails.

Exercise 1: Typeface & Meaning

The first word I chose was purity. Frutiger designed this typeface in peace and quiet, therefore Avenir is a perfect representation of purity.

I questioned if and how I could make a geometric typeface feel relaxing. My solution drew from the warp tool, twisting and bending the “l” character, I allowed myself to relax and brought together the word.

Like the word relaxation, I had too much fun with the warp tool. Through warps, I was able to construct sharp edges and building-like characteristics.

Serendipity was a tough one. This one is personal. As the letter “i” in the bottom-left corner, I feel that I have experienced good fortunate of meeting people as a result of luck whether that is in terms of career or friendship

Denial. By squeezing and flattening the letters of the word, I feel I was able to capture the unconscious process of denial. Used as a defense mechanism against situations, it can be painful to keep up with your unpleasant thoughts and feelings.

Exercise 2: Typographic Hierarchy

Linespacing

With only one weight (Helvetica Neue light) and one full linespace between lines of type of my choice, I had to figure out what information was the most important. Here I decided the titles were the most important elements.