Project 3 — Type & Hierarchy

CDF Fall 18/Final Process Documentation

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Fall 2018
Class Project

About this Project

The purpose of this project was to create an effective type specimen poster that captures the essence of the typeface’s unique characteristics and history using only the type and hierarchy. The typeface that I was assigned was Didot. It was created by Firmin Didot and was considered to be a radical break from all the previous traditional serif sans typefaces. We were only allowed to use type and basic shapes with no illustrations or literal imagery.

Project Process

Initial Sketches

For my initial sketches, I tried to think of all the different concepts that Didot encompasses. One of the main usages of Didot is fashion magazines such as Vogue. Due to its high contrast in thick and thin strokes, the type itself gives a classy and elegant ambience to wherever it is used. The 2nd, 7th, and 10th sketch (numbered left to right) demonstrate such usage in magazines and I tried to capture it by making it seem like it was being used in a magazine. The 4th sketch plays around with the anatomy (thin hairlines, curvy descender, and thick bowl) that is unique to the typeface. The 1st and 5th sketches emphasize the letter “D” because I felt like that letter was an exemplar of showing the contrast between thick and thin strokes, as well as the fact that it was part of the word “Didot”. I was trying to capture the history of the typeface through minimalism in the 8th sketch minimalism is a characteristic of modern art and the typeface was also experimental and modern for that time.

Initial Digital Iterations

For the initial digital iterations, I first tried to put color where I thought it mattered the most. For the 3rd one in which I mimicked Vogue cover layout, I used a purple circle in place of where a person’s face would usually be. I used purple because I thought it was most symbolic of elegance. I used red in the 4th one because I thought it helped the word stand out, while still keeping the minimalist quality of the overall poster. Yellow was used in the 5th one to emphasize which letters I thought conveyed the characteristics of the typeface well.

Initial Digital Iterations — Feedback

I was told that this poster failed to convey the elegance of the font because the circle gives more of a playful vibe.

I received a comment that it would be interesting to combine these two in an effective manner. I also thought that that would be interesting, so that is what I ended up doing, as will be seen later. Another comment for the left one was that since I was trying to capture the contrast between the thick and thin strokes, it would be cool to change the thickness of the red strokes for each side of the square.

This one also was considered to be effective out of all the other ones, but I wanted to focus more on the modern aspect and the contrast between the thick and thin strokes, so I ended up not continuing with this iteration.

Interim crit & Feedback

Having the previous feedback in mind, I combined the two sketches to make this poster for the interim crit. I wanted the “Didot” to stand out, so I played with the kerning to make more space in between each letter. I was conflicted on whether to change the thickness of the red surrounding the white square because I wasn’t sure if it conveyed minimalism if I did so, but then I realized it was no longer minimalistic with the addition of the cut off ‘O’ on the top left corner, so I decided to change the whole theme of the poster to modernism and went through with the change. I tried to go for the aesthetics of Mondrian’s Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow, as that work is exemplary of modernism.

For the interim crit, the overall feedback was that the poster should be more dynamic and easy for the eye to follow. Some people thought that it was hard to follow from “1784” to the “Neoclassical” because it was so far spread apart from the main “Didot” in the center. So in my next iteration, I tried to think about how to make it more dynamic and compact.

Revisions

After the interim crit, I just went back and remade a poster. I ended up with the poster on the left which emphasized the elegance and fashion of the typeface. I really liked this poster, but I also wanted to stick to my original idea of emphasizing modernism through the contrast of thick and thin strokes. After some thought, I decided to face the challenge of improving the previous iteration from the interim crit based on people’s feedback.

As it can be seen, major changes were made from the interim crit. I made all the text fit within the similar vicinity around the main text that I wanted to focus on: Didot. I changed the kerning back to normal to capture the original essence of the word Didot, and to avoid collision of hierarchy between the big O and Didot, I framed the “Didot” with two other squares that were originally red but became gray to avoid abusing the color. No two strokes on this poster is the same thickness, which was purposely done to highlight the contrast of the thick stroke and the thin hairlines as characterized in the typeface.