Project Three, Part Two: Type and Heirarchy (2)
Print/InDesign Layout
September 15-October 4, 2016
Individual Project
About the Project
The goal of this project was to research the origins and characteristics of an assigned typeface and, using that knowledge, create a type specimen poster in Adobe InDesign. The creation of this poster was facilitated by exercises we previously conducted that acquainted us with the idea of heirarchy and aspects of typefaces in general. By using what we learned, the final poster would then be able to emphasize and showcase the assigned typeface’s unique qualities, while educating viewers on its history and usage today.
Project Process
In considering how I wanted to portray my assigned font Baskerville, I sought to highlight what defined it and make those defining traits clearly visible for my poster’s viewers. As Baskerville is noted for the shape of its serifs and the varying weight of its strokes, I sketched out individual characters, making them bigger in size and seeing how they could interact with other text on a poster. Later, I settled on starting with the “k” character as a foundation for my poster.
During the sketching process, I figured that text could be positioned in between the right side strokes of “k.” Playing with this idea in InDesign, I then realized that text could be placed between two “k” characters, with the two “k’s” making a loose border. Even with so much space in between my “k’s,” the negative space invited viewers to fill the space in themselves.
After placing the two “k’s” in a way that I found satisfying, I began to place my information about Baskerville within the border. I enlarged the first word of the text (“Baskerville”) so it could also serve as the title of the poster. To reflect the typeface’s history, I also chose colors that would give the poster an old feel of sorts. The beige background was chosen to give viewers the impression of aged paper, and black “k’s” and text were chosen to reflect John Baskerville’s use of deep, rich inks in the process of creating the typeface. The “Baskerville” title was also given a “maroon” color to help it stand out while complimenting the other chosen colors. To cap it off, I added two enlarged italic “N” characters to close off the border and incite viewers to further take note of typeface’s characteristics.
Feedback I received after the completion of my rough draft (pictured on the left) helped me realize that more could be done to improve readability, and further clarify how the border was actually comprised of Baskerville characters. I also resized my draft to be the proper size dimensions for the project, split the text into paragraphs, and spread out the “k’s” and italicized “N’s” to make the poster feel less sparse near the borders. Even after doing this, however, I knew more could be done to improve my poster’s design.
At the same time, I experimented with a new look for the poster, one that would highlight the characteristics of the Baskerville “k” more clearly. Not being satisfied with the border I created for my text prior, I also played with the positioning of 2 “k’s” such that they formed a more enclosed and visually-pleasing border. In addition, to improve vividity, I opted to use a deep, olive-toned green for the “k’s,” and darkened the beige background as a result.
Taking this new visual direction and my previous draft into account, I made a poster that had the two “k’s” positioned in the center. I also reduced the length of the text within the two “k’s,” and bolded key ideas with readability in mind. As for the “Baskerville” title, I positioned two of them on both sides of the border to reinforce symmetry.
One piece of feedback I received prior suggested that I could further highlight the characteristics of Baskerville characters by having smaller characters fill the negative space. The center picture is an attempt at doing so with “X” and “j” characters, albeit to the detriment of the poster. I retreated from that idea and went with an alternative design (pictured on the right). In having multiple “Baskerville” titles, I wanted to make it such that they faded in color starting from the center to the corners.
Both of these designs were ultimately unfulfilling. They gave something to viewers to engage with, but it hit me that I was doing too much and cluttering the messages that I was trying to convey.
I scaled back my approach, and went with the idea I had earlier of having the two “k’s” in the bottom right corner, only now with a third “k” at the side and the title “Baskerville” added on top of the three “k’s.” Considering the “rule of thirds,” it seemed like a more intriguing design visually. I also cut down my text even further, placing the most basic information about Baskerville in the border formed by the “k’s” and italic bolding the text that was deemed necessary to know. I also simplifying the text I had regarding traits of the typeface into mere words.
With the traits simplified to words, I wanted to arrange them in a way that went in tandem with what I already had. And while the iterations I made with this in mind clearly communicated what Baskerville was all about, something still seemed off about the design, as if it didn’t feel complete.
Attempting to find that sense of completeness, I felt that tying the traits together by more text would benefit. I brought back the text box from past iterations, making it small and placing it in the top left corner. Again, words in the text were italic bolded to highlight necessary information (and to be consistent in design with the text inside the border),and the text was split into two paragraphs to make reading easier. I also made the beige background brighter to make the text box more readable. At this point, my poster was tentatively done. As attractive as the negative space between the text box and the bottom corner’s elements seemed though, I felt that a little bit more could be added to top it off.
In accordance with the purpose of the project, I wanted to display elements like all the uppercase and lowercase characters of the typography and/or the various weights of it. Positioning these elements on the poster, however, proved unsatisfying. On one hand, I didn’t want to interfere with the pre-existing negative space. Yet, when I didn’t interfere with it, it still seemed like something was missing.
Eventually, I settled on using an “O” character to enclose my text box. Not only did it not interfere with the negative space, but it also added more color, highlighted the “curved edges” aspect of Baskerville characters, and provided a nice contrast to the “k’s.”
While I did wish I had more time to incorporate a way to display all the uppercase and lowercase Baskerville characters and/or the various weights of Baskerville, I now feel like the current design can stand on its own without them (however their inclusion is welcome). All in all, creating this poster helped me to recall my experience with Project 2, where I came to see simplicity as a stylistic direction to develop and hone. Looking back at this project, I recognize that I lost my way halfway through the creative process when I tried to fill the negative space with unnecessary elements. Getting lost in the complication was frustrating creatively, and the experience is something I’ll seek to avoid with the next project. For future projects, I also want to aim to convey elements more through showing than telling, which is something I didn’t do as effectively with this project (ex. conveying the traits more through text than visuals). Regardless, I’m happy with how my final iteration for this project turned out.
