Project Three: Exercises

September 18, 2018

Exercise 1 — Typeface Tracing

In this exercise I drew letter forms by hand using tracing paper and fine-tip sharpies. They cover a variety of styles. I noticed a variety of shapes and differences in weight, proportions, axis, terminals, and rhythm.

Exercise 2 — Typographic Voice

This exercise allowed me to analyze how typeface affects the meaning and emotional feeling of a word.

I chose to find typefaces for melancholy and relaxation.

Melancholy

1. Bradley Hand Bold — Bold: I think this font is the best for expressing melancholy because it is handwritten. I think this is a personal and intimate emotion and the fact that it is hand written makes this font more personal.
2. Snell Roundhand — Regular: I think this found describes melancholy well as it is dramatic due to the heavy curvature. It has sweeping curved lines that connect the letters together. I think this dramatic effect represent how melancholy is a more dramatic form of the word sad.
3. Trattatello — Regular: I think this font is also good for expressing melancholy because it is handwritten as well. It is also fancier and more ornate. It has think lines and is darker which emphasizes the sadness aspect of melancholy.

Relaxation

1. Avenir Next — Ultra Light: I think this font is the best one for showing relaxation because of its clean thin lines and distanced spacing between the letters. I think the ultra light font style adds highly to the relaxed aspect as it gives a ‘breezy’ feel to the word.
2. Helvetica Neue — UltraLight: I think this font creates a relaxed feel again because every letter is think and curved. The letters tend to close up and are longer than wider. I think this balance between curves and straight lines creates a relaxed feel. Also the thin long overall view makes the font relaxed.
3. Courier New — Regular: I think this font shows relaxation because all the letters are sitting on flat lines. At the bottom of every letter the serif is a flat line. The tops of all the letters also have the flat serif. I think this closure and balance in the letters makes this font have a relaxed feel. The letters are also spaced apart pretty far which makes it more open and relaxed.

Exercise 3 — Typographic Hierarchy

In this exercise, I explored typographic variables and how they can clarify a message. I worked with linespacing, typographic weights, horizontal shifts, indentation, and size changes.

1. Linespacing

2. Typographic Weights

3. Horizontal Shift or Indentation

4. Typographic Weight and Linespacing

5. Typographic Weights and Horizontal Shift

6. Horizontal Shift and Linespacing

7. Size Change and Typographic Weight

Through these seven iterations where I had to play with linespacing, typographic weights, horizontal shifts, and size changes I learned a lot about how these factors are key to hierarchy and organization. I learned how to balance each of these as if you use too little your information is cluttered and may not make sense to the audience. However, if you use too much of these factors you ‘organization’ can be overwhelming and make the information even more confusing. This exercise allowed me to learn how to use these four factors appropriately to deliver a message effectively.