p3. Type Specimen Poster

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Communication Design Fundamentals | Spring 2021

7 min readFeb 25, 2021

Designing a Type Specimen Poster

For the third project in Communication Design Fundamentals, we designed posters based on an assigned font and a required set of information. This project focused on concepts regarding Type and Hierarchy, such as font types, styles and features as well as techniques like shape, spacing and justification as tools for organizing information.

The font I was assigned to was Linotype Didot, which was created by Fermin Didot around 1764. The Didot family was famous in France at the time for their printing and type-related achievements. I will be using two quotes on this poster as the description text for the font:

First, from Typography.com:

“Modern typefaces, characterized by consistently horizontal stress, flat and unbracketed serifs, and a high contrast between thin and thick strokes, were the final step in typography’s two-hundred-year journey away from calligraphy.”

Then, from the MET Museum’s website:

“Didot’s legacy can be seen in the “modern Moderns.” Modern typefaces tend to denote luxury brands, and are often used on the covers of fashion publications such as Vogue. Since Didot created his first typeface in the eighteenth century, many typographers have created designs inspired by the Didot type family, and these new interpretations pay tribute to the impact Didot had on the world of typography.”

In this article, I’ll describe my design process- from exploratory exercises, to initial ideas and iterations, to final refinements of my chosen design.

Exploratory Exercises

Before designing my poster, I conducted 2 typeface-related experiments to get more familiar with terms and concepts that will help me effectively create a typeface poster.

Exercise 1:

In this exercise, I chose a series of fonts to represent the word “future.” Descriptions of my choices and reasoning are below.

Best option: Option 1- Bank Gothic Light BT

I chose Option 1 because of its uniform, square-like structure. All the letters have the same width and the cap height and x-height are the same. This invokes the simplicity and angular nature that I feel like characterizes modern, futuristic design of the present.

Option 2- ISOCPEUR

Option 2 invokes computerized writing, and gives a tech-y look. I could see this font appearing in media as green text on a black monitor, and because of how technological it looks I think it fits well with the word choice.

Option 3- ＭＳＰゴシック

This is a Japanese font, which I chose because I feel like the Japanese language and many cultural trends in japan look very futuristic- from color, to attention to detail, to the streamlined and bright lines and colors.

Option 4- Source Code Variable

Computers and computer science came to mind when I thought of the future. As the world completes its technological revolution and we increasingly look to computers as integral parts of our daily routine, we get more exposed to code and computer principles by default, so I chose this font to invoke the ubiquity of tech in our lives.

Option 5- Pinot Grigio Modern Light

I chose this font because I feel like it reflects how people in the recent past viewed a futuristic look. It reminds me of the mid-century modern style, which is primarily concerned with functionality, simplicity and clean lines, which are all concepts I think of in conjunction with futuristic design.

Exercise 2:

In this exercise, I used 4 different combinations of linespacing, font size, indentation and font style to convey hierarchy on a provided text sample.

2A — Conveying Hierarchy with Linespacing:

In the left image, I placed one uniform-sized linespace between each row of text, as directed. However, in the right image, I was asked to convey the hierarchy of the text by varying the size of the linespace. I tried to group important information together with smaller spaces, and separate individual points or sections with larger spaces.

2B— Conveying Hierarchy with Font Style:

In the upper section of text, I chose 2 styles from the font family and used them to convey meaning. In the lower section, I used 3. I tried to use the Bold text to highlight important information, and the Narrow text to create contrast with secondary information.

2C — Conveying Hierarchy with Indentation:

Here, I tried 2 different ways of using indents to convey hierarchy. In the top, I centered important info while in the bottom, I used indents to make columns that categorized the information. My inspiration for the bottom was a music festival poster.

2D— Conveying Hierarchy with Font Style and Indentation:

In each section, I used 2 font styles from the family as well as indentation to convey the text hierarchy. I combined principles from 2B and 2C to accomplish this, and especially feel like the bottom exercise was successful.

Draft Posters

After completing the preliminary exercises, I started the drafting process. First, I created some black and white Drafts to test out different ways of showcasing the information, while keeping in mind the rich history and classic feel of the Didot font.

Black and White Drafts

From this exercise, I discovered that I really liked the shape of the centered paragraph text, as well as the heading looking like a magazine title. With these ideas in mind, I continued to play with different arrangements, but in color.

Slanted text Drafts

I tried out some posters that took on slanted text as a way to invoke motion and intrigue on my magazine cover-themed poster.

I appreciated the shape and depth that these shapes provided, but Didot is ultimately a font that is used in luxury brands like Dior, and magazines like Vogue. So I decided a very symmetrical and organized array of the characterset might be a better embodiment of the font and its uses.

Choosing a Color Story

Because I then knew that wanted to achieve a classic look and the magazine cover layout , I began investigating color pallets and slight tweaks in the layout for my draft poster.

I liked these posters, but felt that none of the colors were exactly right. I liked my original royal blue, and the rich red above left, but wanted to explore a darker purple color scheme to invoke luxury/royalty and elegance.

The Final Draft Takes Shape

I proposed this iteration during a later critique session. I liked the rich purple background, but made several small changes from this to my final draft:

Removed date range in favor of a single year to improve clarity
Made all paragraph text the same weight and font type in the Didot hierarchy as simply bolding the text wasn’t effective at creating hierarchy within the paragraphs.
Switched to pure white instead of 5 yellow.
Bolded last line of symbols to avoid them fading into the background.
Fully justified bottom text and split into 2 columns to appear more magazine-like.
Made sure alignment and margins were balanced.

Final Submission