Project Three: Type & Hierarchy
Introduction: Playing with Type & Hierarchy
Before starting project three, I completed three different exercises to familiarize myself with type and hierarchy. Through these exercises, I learned that typography has the power to add or subtract meaning from the words it displays. Additionally, I learned how to be purposeful when using linespacing, weights, and shifts of typefaces.
About the Project: Futura
In class, I was assigned Futura and was tasked with creating a 10" x 16" poster. For project three, I conducted research, ideated, and produced multiple iterations.Through this project, I learned how to convey the essence of Futura without actually typing a written explanation. I also highlighted key attributes of Futura through manipulation of space and size. As a class, we had desk critiques, a half-way point critique, and a final critique. I incorporated feedback from each critique to guide my next iteration.
Process: Pre-Digital Iteration
Research
When Paul Renner designed Futura in 1927, he had a specific goal. Futura is a geometric sans-serif deliberately created to be accessible to the viewer’s eyes. Renner valued form and function over ornamentation. This directly contrasts the serif typefaces that were widely used at the time. The forms are characterized by near-perfect circles, triangles, and squares. The lowercase letters also are known to have tall ascenders. Renner wished to invoke a sense of equality within his characters. Futura, although not directly associated, was designed at the same time as the Bauhaus movement. The Bauhaus movement shared many of Futura’s values. Futura has a utopian-like quality I wanted to explore. I wanted to create a poster that showcased Renner’s goal of social equality and accessibility.
Ideation
All but one of my sketches aimed to showcase the near perfection of Futura’s circles. Specifically, I wanted to showcase the O’s. Additionally, some sketches highlight the near perfect curves of the C’s, Q’s, and G’s. Through the use of scale, some sketches had O’s that bled off the page. Others included the full letter. Another common theme of my sketches was extending the tall ascenders. I wanted to highlight the straightness and length of letters by extending the lines beyond their normal length. Overall, I wanted to invoke a sense of equality through strictly balancing the elements on the page.
After an initial desk critique, the sketches that stood out to me for the included a circle grid and “Utopia”. I chose to pursue these ideas because I was interested in showcasing the geometry of Futura in two distinctly different ways. I also wanted to play with the compatibility of the literal meaning of utopia and the Futura typeface.
Digital Iterations
My first digital iterations were challenging. I struggled with hierarchy for both pieces. In my circle grid piece, I not only wanted to showcase the near perfect circles but also the sharp, exact corners of each letter. I used gray circles and lines to showcase the sharpness and connected them back to the character sets. I made a mistake for the first critique on my circle grid because I accidentally used the lowercase C instead of the uppercase C, which caused inconsistencies with the G and the Q. This was called to my attention during the critique and made me more aware of important details for my future iterations. I received the critique that the letters C, G, Q seemed to carry a meaning I did not intend them to have. I had to either make them less prominent or contextualize their meaning. Another key insight from the first critique was how the gray lines cutting through my circles were ultimately unnecessary. They did not bring meaning to Futura and instead distracted from what I wanted to highlight.
For my utopia piece, I wanted to show the meaning and use cases of Futura without using a character set. I did not use any capital letters to drive home the feeling of equality. I used words like utopia, equality, and accessibility as both examples of characters and intentional meaning. I struggled a lot of balance of the letters. I wanted to showcase the letter “O” but was forced to off balance the beginning and end of the word utopia. In the critique, I was challenged to focus more on alignment and balance. Also, the hierarchy of the utopia poster was confusing to most viewers. It was unclear whether they should view Utopia or Futura first. For my next iteration, I wanted to clear up this confusion.
For my next digital iterations, I focused on incorporating the feedback fro the critique. I fixed the mistakes and made my cases consistent. For my circle grid idea, I removed the gray lines. I also attempted to make the letters C, G, and Q less prominent. For my utopia piece, I continued to play with tracking and kerning to balance the page. I also repositioned the word Futura to make the hierarchy more clear. Despite my changes from the critique, I ultimately felt stuck. I felt like I was going in circles with my edits and needed to innovate. From an informal desk critique, I got the feedback to start fresh, which helped me greatly for my final iteration.
Final Iteration
For my final iteration, I interestingly mixed elements of both my first digital iterations and my initial sketches. I wanted to showcase equality through balance, highlight tall ascenders, and center a near perfect circle. For the final print, I messed around with extending the ascenders of various lower case letters. I obviously soon realized I could not extend every letter (a turned into d, r became almost a partial h).
I ultimately decided to invert the colors to highlight the modern nature of Futura. So, my future iterations were white on black.
I played with the lines and attempted to showcase different information. For example, I wanted to try showing a character set versus “utopian equality” and ultimately felt it looked too artificial. I didn’t want to show a character set for the sake of showing one. I would rather show the letters in context. I also chose to not have a solid lowercase “t” and “u” because, in my opinion, the extended white lines overpowered the page. Additionally, I did not add body copy because I felt detracted from the accessible nature of each element on the page.
Conclusion and Future Steps
During the critique, I got a lot of valuable feedback. In the future, I need to be more aware of alignment, spacing, and centering. I did not properly position the “O” with the page and the word Futura. Futura Light was also difficult for people to read from far away, along with the thin outline of the “t” and “u” In future iterations, I want to play with the balance and visibility of my work.
