Project 3 — Exercises

Eileen Chen
CDF 2018 Fall
Published in
3 min readSep 23, 2018

Exercise One — Typeface Tracing

Exercise Two — Typographic Voice

Serendipity

Snell Roundhand

When I think of “serendipity,” I think of whimsicality and happiness. I think of people dancing in the rain and joy. When I look at Snell Roundhand, a script font, I immediately notice the smooth curves and fluidity, and that to me conveys whimsicality and joy. This was my favorite typeface for “serendipity.”

Savoye LET Plain: 1.0

Although the letters in this script font are not physically connected, it still gives the same sense of smooth flow. Savoye is a script, sans serif font that does an excellent job portraying serendipity. The fact that the letters are thin and curved cultivates a feeling of simplicity that reminds me of the spontaneous happiness serendipity brings.

Cochin Italic

Cochin Italic, like the other typefaces I played with, also has a smooth, scripture-like flow that’s both calming and uplifting. The curvature of the “d” creates a whimsical, aloof feel, and the way that the upper point curves jovially downwards is both serendipitous and fun.

Purity

Acumin Variable Concept

With “purity,” I think of simple, wholesome, and clean strokes. With Acumin, a sans serif font, the smooth, straight lines convey a strong sense of clean elegance. The dot of the “i” is in perfect alignment with the rest of the letter, which gives a sense of order, structure, and peace.

Helvetica Neue — UltraLight

Helvetica Neue (Ultralight), yet another sans serif, is very similar to Acumin Variable with a few key differences. For one, the letters are spaced closer together, and the font weight is noticeably lighter. Those two factors combined make this font visibly cleaner and more simplistic, leading to an even purer vibe. This was my favorite typeface for purity.

Avenir Next — Ultra Light

Keeping with the trend of smooth, sans serif fonts is Avenir Next. The bowl of the “p” is nearly perfectly circular, conveying a feeling of undisrupted completeness. The letters are a bit more spaced out than Helvetica, which is simultaneously cleaner, yet slightly more uncomfortable, detracting from the overall purity of the text.

Exercise Three — Typographic Hierarchy

I. Linespacing
II. Typographic Weights
III. Horizontal Shift or Indentation
IV. Typographic weights & linespacing
V. Typographic weights & horizontal shift
VI. Horizontal shift & linespacing
VII. Size change & typographic weights

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Eileen Chen
CDF 2018 Fall

Techie, yappie, foodie, musicophile (let me know if you figure out a word that rhymes).