Project 3 Part 1
Exercise 1 Typeface Tracing:
In the first part of the project we drew letters in different typefaces by hand to get the sense of how the typefaces can be very different.
Exercise 2 Typographic Voice:
In this exercise we explore how by using different typefaces we can give a word different meanings and emotional feelings. I chose to do the experiment with the following two words: Trust and Relaxation.
Trust:
Trust is a relatively formal and serious word and it means reliability so the choice of typeface can have a great influence on the information we receive looking at this word. Following is an overview of all the font I tried and from left to right there are American Typewrite, Bradley Hand Bold, Charlemagne Std Bold, Giddyup Std, Rosewood Std, Times, Source Sans Variable, and Adobe Caslon Pro. Some of the typefaces did a great job expressing the meaning of the word but some actually make the straightforward word confusing.
In the picture on the left I used the Times font which is a typeface that is commissioned by the newspaper The Times in 1931 and then was conceived by Stanley Morison. It is a very popular typeface. It is used in many book publication and in many large newspapers around the world. With the word Trust we are trying to convey the idea of reliable and credibility so the traditional and widely-used Times font can be a good choice. The font itself is very concise, with no extra ornament and it used mostly straight lines instead of curves with also provide for the sense of credibility.
In this picture I used the Adobe Caslon Pro font. Caslon is a typeface designed by William Caslon in London and it is also a serif typeface that is classified as Old-Style. Just like the Times typeface, it also have a concise design and is really easy to read. Unlike Times though, at the end of the letter there is little tilt which makes it more modern but it doesn’t effect its overall clear expression. Therefore, Adobe Caslon Pro can also be a good choice to express Trust.
This typeface is called Rosewood Std. The Adobe’s Rosewood is released in 1994 and is modeled after a chromatic design from William Page in 1874. We can see that compare to Times and Caslon, the Rosewood typeface is not a good choice for the word Trust. It looks to artistic and not formal enough for this particular word. This font would look much better if it is in a circus poster or rock concert poster.
My favorite one among all the typefaces I have tried for Trust is Caslon. It is very aesthetic but in the meantime formal and clear.
Relaxation:
Compared to Trust, Relaxation is less formal and it is the state that there is no tension or anxiety. Following are my experiment with the word and from left to right are Rosewood Std, Times, Arial Black, Bodoni 72, Courier New, Savoye LET Plain, Acumin Variable Concept and Adobe Caslon Pro.
This type is called Arial Black and it can be a bad example for how a typeface can help expressing the meaning of the word. Arial is a sans-serif typeface and set of computer fonts. Arial Black is part of the Arial contemporary sans serif typeface family. We can see that this typeface is extra bold and black. It is really salient and modern but when looking at is I feel very pressured and not-comfortable. Therefore it actually contradicts with the meaning of relaxation and is not a good choice.
I also tried the Times font. For my understanding Times seems to be a plain typeface with no personal emotion. It can always present the meaning of the words to the reader in clearest way. Looking at the word you can read relaxation clearly but the downside is this typeface wouldn’t do any help to make the reader actually feel the word better. For the meaning of Relaxation Times typeface is a bit too serious and restrict so it is an ok choice but it is not the perfect choice.
In this design I used Courier New. Courier is a monospaced slab serif typeface designed to imitate the output from a strike-on typewriter. I the way this typeface expresses the word Relaxation. The letter shapes do not look very tradition and it is simple. There are also more spaces between each letter so it makes the reader more relaxed and comfortable than looking at a bunch of condense letters.
Among all the typefaces I have tried my favorite one is the Courier New.
Exercise 3 Typographic Hierarchy:
