Project Three Process Documentation

Introduction

This project builds on the ideas we explored in the project two, especially with respect to the gestalt principles. Although we explored the significance of squares in relation to each other and in contrast with a white background in project two, here the objects we can select from are members of a typeface class. Without using photos or geometric shapes, we were tasked to simultaneously convey meaningful information about the typeface (name, designer, year designed, its character set, and background info/history) as well as illustrate unique aspects of the typeface itself. In this project we were trying to achieve the goal of conveying all this information in a manner that flows—especially with respect to the hierarchy of the information displayed on the poster.

Initial Sketches—Breadth of Exploration

Coming from the squares project, I was in the mindset of exploring the contrast between black and white elements. That is why all my sketches were black and white, although I did explore color later in the project.

One of the most important characteristics of Helvetica that I wanted to illustrate was its clean-cut letters that lacked a serif. From my research, I learned that Helvetica was and is often used to convey information quickly and clearly, such as in signs. In the first sketch, I tried to juxtapose the meaningful information that we were required to present (history and character set) with the capital letter H, which is an excellent instance of the serif-less Helvetica style.

In the second sketch, I explored a different idea of actually building letters from the typeface with the meaningful information itself. I felt that this could be an important exploration because it simultaneously conveyed the information whilst also illustrating the unique features of the typeface itself—thicker letters whose edges were cut along straight or simple, curved lines. The a is supposed to contain the paragraph and the t connects together the typeface name as well as the character set.

In the third sketch, I took the idea in the second sketch even further by making the letter-shaped paragraph the center of the composition. The other elements I moved to different areas of the poster.

These two larger sketches explore the two very different ideas I had explored in the first three sketches. In the first of these sketches, I made a more detailed and modified version of the first sketch to see what it would look like. The second sketch here tries to illustrate the unique j and R letters. The j is very narrow and the R has a leg that is less oblique than it is in other typefaces.

Digital Iterations (Breadth)

First, I digitally created the sketch that I liked the most (the last one). Immediately, I realized that I had thought mostly of black and white and had not taken into account color. I stuck to using cool colors in the beginning to add a touch of color but not make it the center of the piece.

Here, I explored two more of the sketches that I had made, except slightly modified. I manually tracked the paragraph to fit evenly inside the H. Although these posters look really simple, I was trying to explore the idea of simplicity because I liked how Helvetica was used in signs and wanted to emulate that concept. Here, the meaningful information is displayed in a highly structured way due to the H. The hierarchy is top-to-bottom. The main difference between these two is just experimenting with the letter ‘a’ as a ‘naked’ character of the typeface vs. having only essential elements, with just the title.

This is another exploration that I like because it has just the essential elements, without any excess graphics.

In these digital iterations, I explored different ideas. On the left, I went back to the idea of constructing the Helvetica H out of the character set, but focused more on hierarchy. In both of these, I focused on hierarchy and tried to make a top-to-bottom flow of information that bounces of the sides in an alternating pattern. In the third sketch, I removed the Helvetica H made out of the character set to imagine what just having the hierarchy without any unusual elements would look like.

Digital Iterations (Depth)

After the initial critique, I received mixed feedback. Some praised the whitespace, but many questioned placing a few random characters on the poster because they distracted from the focus of the poster on its history and the typeface context itself. Having a stray letter ‘R’ or ‘a’ seemed out-of-place. I also learned that hierarchy was very important, so i decided to focus on my last few digital designs that had focused more on that. Also, I realized that the entire color palette was available to me so I had to make that a focus of the poster.

First, I explored the idea of emulating taxicab colors because I had seen Helvetica being used in such an application. I choose a taxicab yellow background with white and dark blue contrasting shadows and fonts, respectively:

I wanted to leave a shadow under the type to create contrast that would guide the hierarchy. The white would contrast best with black and draw the eye to it.

Here, I further iterated on the last couple black-and-white iterations by adding the yellow background and white shadow. I made the white shadow incremental to add another dimension of 3-D motion to the poster. Each black character actually has its own white character shadow that I aligned to make this effect. The main difference between these two is that the right one makes functional use of the large H. This is a development of my idea to create a poster that conveys information simply and quickly without nonessential components, which is what the typeface is often used for.

I continued to iterate on the design, I realized that the contrast between the characters in the large H and the rest of ‘Helvetica’ was too great due to the thickness difference. So here I made the H characters bold. More importantly, in these iterations I explored the effect of size on hierarchy. While the eye goes from top to bottom, I wanted the text to also decrease in size so that it is easier for the eye to start at the top.

Here, I took the first previous design one step further by taking Brendon’s advice to increase the size of the 1957 to make it easier to get to. However, I removed the white shadow on it to reduce its contrast so that the eye wouldn’t start there instead.

For the last feedback round, I proposed two distinct, but related ideas. The first one took my main idea on step further by making the title have lighter text with a bolded character set in the H to reduce the contrast between those elements. On the right, I presented a similar design that focused more on hierarchy and tried to make the Helvetica visible from a distance due to the bolded H. Most people liked the first one, but complained that the H did not appear to be a “Helvetica” H. Most of the feedback I received appreciated the hierarchy and white space, however.

Final Piece

This was my final draft. I chose the first one and modified it in response to the feedback. In this draft, I made the H exactly the same shape as Helvetica light so that it wouldn’t contrast as much with the title text. I also moved the the text and other elements inward to keep away from the edge. I also aligned them vertically in response to feedback.

Reflection

There were two very important concepts I learned about when trying to organize information on the poster. The first one was the importance of hierarchy. Making a poster is not just about presenting salient information in such a way that makes it interesting to look at. It has to be presented in such a way that the reader can collect that information from the poster without missing any of it. The order in which the information is given to the reader and more generally, how it is presented, cannot be ignored. Thus, the way the eye will move around the poster must be visualized. White space gives meaning to the objects occupying space. In this project, it was important to give every piece of information on the poster (including the character set) an important function on the poster rather than hide it away somewhere.

The second concept was the use of color. I learned that color is an important component of posters (when it is allowed to be used) because it can create contrast. The size of text and thickness of it are not the only characteristics that determine the hierarchy; contrast is important, too. Bright colors can bring attention to them or create contrast with other elements. In this project, I only used one color and I feel that if I had thought more about using colors (not necessarily bright colors, but just colors in general), I could have adjusted the contrast in ways other than just size and thickness.

In the next project, I will focus on continuing to explore simple, yet effective hierarchy. In this project, I focused on other aspects of the poster before I focused on hierarchy. In the next project, I will focus on hierarchy first, then tune the remainder of the content.