Type & Hierarchy

Project 3

Typeface: Baskerville

Research

• Serif typeface designed in 1754 by John Baskerville in Birmingham, England.
• Classified as a transitional typeface. Transitional serifs are in between “old style” and “modern” fonts.
• Compared to earlier designs popular in Britain, Baskerville increased the contrast between thick and thin strokes. This made the serifs sharper and more tapered, and shifted the axis of rounded letters to a more vertical position. Curved strokes are more circular. This created a greater consistency in size and form.
• Baskerville was part of an ambitious project to create books of the greatest possible quality. Baskerville sought to offer books created to higher quality methods of printing than any before.
• Mathematically-drawn characters at the time felt cold, this prompted Baskerville to create a softer typeface with rounded bracketed serifs and a vertical axis.
• Didn’t become popular till after Baskerville’s death when his wife sold the Baskerville punches and matrixes to France where it began to circulate.
• Benjamin Franklin was an admirer of Baskerville and returned to the U.S. with his work, popularizing it through its adoption as one of the standard typefaces employed in federal government publishing.

Poster Contents

Name of typeface designer: John Baskerville

Year it was designed: 1750s

Identifiable features: Softer typeface with rounded bracketed serifs and vertical axis. Sharper and more tapered serifs.

Text that describes the typeface:

1. Immense care and attention to to detail
2. Admired by Benjamin Franklin

Sketching Ideas and Concepts

In my first few sketches I was just trying to get out some simple layouts for the poster. As I began to think about how I wanted to best represent Baskerville, I looked for some really interesting characters that I could perhaps highlight with scale. After seeing some other examples and browsing the character set, I started to lean towards the Q, B, and &. These characters were really defining and had interesting curves that could start the structure of my poster.

Towards the later sketches I played with different concepts that best showcased the typeface. From my research, I knew how calculated John was when he created the character so I wanted to showcase that in some way with some sort of math/deconstructed feel while also showing it’s smooth curves. The last sketch on the bottom right best represents those mathematical concepts.

First Digital Concepts/Iterations

I dialed down my initial ideas to showcasing the strong and elegant curves of the Q/& or displaying the calculated precision and elegance of the character set with construction lines. I started to gravitate more towards the Q as it was just a little more simple while still showcasing the features of the typeface. I knew I wanted to use it’s size and scale to create structure for the entire piece to work around.

I also tried seeing how the construction lines of some letters might look to further show the font’s calculated design. On top of the initial layout concepts, I wanted to start messing around with potential color palettes. I wanted to think about which colors best represented an elegant font made in the 1750s for the highest quality books. Shades of grey and black seemed safe and could definitely be used, but I wanted a pop of color to emphasize particular points.

First Iteration Feedback
After talking to my professor and TA about my initial iterations we decided that I should try to combine my two concepts. Combine the over all flow of the font with the tight discipline of its character structure. The Q’s overall structure can set the initial tone of the poster while floating and flowing deconstructed letters can help reiterate the fact the typeface is extremely precise. I could also try adding some deconstruction lines to the piece as long as I didn’t go overboard and make it look to tacky.

Second Digital Iterations

At this point, I knew I wanted to use the Q on a larger scale to provide the structure and flow for the entire piece. I started to experiment with how to lay out the rest of my information. I wanted to create a hierarchy that was easy to read but still followed the overall architecture of the typeface and its characters. I tried to use the space inside of the Q to convey information to the viewer. I feel like it’s oval shape really accentuated the thick and thin curves that John Baskerville put so much time into. I didn’t want to use normal square text in the Q because it wouldn’t match the shape. By cutting off the text and highlighting the year and creator, I was able to display important information while matching the architecture of the Q. I also like how the Q acts like a magnifying glass looking into the text of a book.

I still wasn’t happy with my choice of color. I really liked the shade of red as it felt like belonged on a poster in the past and I wanted to emphasize that Baskerville was not a modern font.

Third Digital Iterations

In some of these last iterations, I identified a simple color scheme that could portray the fonts original time of creation. Since the typeface was created to print high quality books, I choose a creamy off-white as the background. This off-white was similar to that of an old book or script. I thought the color was warm and subtle enough to convey context and lay a foundation for the history of the poster.

I also decided to show the construction lines of the entire Q. The lines provided a rigid structure that would contrast the smooth curves of the character. I made sure to lower the opacity so that the reader wouldn’t notice the lines first. The idea was that they viewer would see the beautiful shape of the Q and further appreciate the thought process and design after seeing the construction lines.

With the Q finished, I needed find a way to show off its character set and still give the name of the typeface. My earliest iterations had the name Baskerville follow the flow of the Q’s tail. Instead I decided to move the name to the top and also show the construction lines of just the larger B. This would follow the general theme of showing the character’s construction without being overbearing.

Lastly, I needed a way to fit in the specifics of the font. Here I chose to showcase all of the font’s characters by placing them on lines like a piece of paper. I was worried that the middle right section was starting to feel cluttered due to all of the lines I was drawing, but hopefully I would get good enough feedback after the interim crit.

Interim Crit

In the interim crit session I received good feedback addressing the majority of my concerns. People seemed to like how I used the construction lines to showcase the upper case letters without it being too distracting. However, the characters in-between Baskerville and the Q seemed a little crowded and off. I was recommended to remove some of the text like the italic, regular, and bold to free up space and create more balance. Others suggested that I take the Q off its rotated axis.

Final Poster

This was my final iteration for my typeface specimen poster. A lot of subtle changes were made from the interim crit. The most obvious change was in the removal of the extra text. However, to make up for the lack of text I slightly increased the alphabet size to occupying a little more whitespace. The text was also right aligned to match the alignment of the r in Baskerville. This gave the poster more space to breathe while still maintaining balance. I also changed the angle of the Q to be a little less jarring. By having the top right corner of the construction lines touch perfectly with the guide lines of the characters it made the guide lines less intrusive and awkward. I also repositioned the text inside of the Q to better accentuate the inner curve. Lastly, I slightly increased the weight of the words 1750s and John Baskerville to further emphasize the reading points.