Exercise: Typographic Hierarchy
Exercise 1: Linespacing
Weight: Helvetica Neue Light
Size: 24 pt
Process: I split the text up into 4 segments based on relevance and relationships within each block of text. The first segment tells the viewer who the host of the event is; the second segment lists all the seminars that are part of this event; the third segment is the overall title for the whole event; the last segment contains details on how to the event if people are interested. I originally considered grouping “Admission free” as its own segment (by adding a linespace between the last two lines), since I thought that this information, like the second and third segments, are responsible for motivating people to go to this event. However, 5 segments made the text too spread out, so I decided to group “Admission free” as part of the event details segment.
Exercise 3: Horizontal shift or Indentation
Weight: Helvetica Neue Light
Size: 18 pt
Horizontal spacing (top to bottom): 20p0; 0p0; 15p0; 27p9; 0p0
Process: I used the same relationship groupings as I used in Exercise 1, for the same reasons as described above. Since the vertical space between all lines must be equal (no linespaces allowed here!), I decided that the best way to separate the segments would be to maximize horizontal space between each segment, resulting in the right-left-right-left alternating layout. After making the final version below, I tried starting at the top left corner instead , but due to all the segments being left aligned, I had a hard time finding a good position for the 2nd and 4th segments. Draft 1 shows how I tried to align the 2nd and 4th segments, but this either results in the 2nd segment being cut off, or the 4th segment floating too far to the middle. Draft 2 shows how if I don’t align the 2nd and 4th segments, the entire piece looks unbalanced, and also causes the viewer some discomfort that segments are not aligned. In addition, I tried using 24 pt text to try to fill up the space like I did in Exercise 1, but this shrunk the horizontal space between segments, and made the piece look too cluttered, so I dropped to using 18 pt text.
Exercise 5: Typographic weights & horizontal shift
Weight: Helvetica Neue Light/Bold
Size: 18 pt
Horizontal spacing (top to bottom): 20p0; 0p0; 11p0; 25p5; 0p0
Process: I used the same horizontal shifts as Exercise 3, only adjusting the 3rd segment slightly to the left to accommodate for the wider bold weight. I used Helvetical Neue Bold for the seminar titles and the overall event title, and Light for everything else, since I thought that the most important things a viewer cares about when they see this piece are whether they are interested in the topics covered by this event. Also, using Bold for the seminar titles sets them apart from the big block of text in the 2nd segment. The date and speaker are what I would consider event details, or information that a viewer would care about more if they were interested in the bolded topics. I used 18 pt for the same reasons as described in Exercise 3.
Exersize 7: Size change and typographic weight
Weight: Helvetica Neue Light/Bold
Size: 18 pt; 22pt; 48pt; 22pt
Process: Using the same groupings I’ve used throughout the entire assignment, I ranked the segments according to importance, and then picked out information that would be of most interest to viewers out of the two longer segments (segments 2 and 4). The overall event title has the highest priority in terms of communicating what the event is about to viewers, so it is in 48 pt font, the largest size I could use without splitting this segment into 4 lines. Technically, the 2nd segment should have higher priority over the 4th segment because it viewers would only look at the 4th segment if they were interested in the topics listed in the 2nd segment. However, using 2 slightly different sizes for these two segments made the piece look unbalanced and distracting, so I used the same 22 pt font for both segments. I also bolded the seminar titles as I did in Exercise 5, and bolded “Admission free” because it plays a role in helping the viewer decide whether or not to attend the event. The first segment is the smallest, at 18 pt font size, because it is the only segment on the piece that event-goers would not care about. The information is merely there to communicate and give credit to the event host. It does help “frame” the important content of the piece below it, however, since having the seminar topics start right at the top seems too abrupt. I tried applying similar patterns of horizontal shift as I did in previous exercises, however the font size and weight already sufficiently divides up the segments, so horizontal shift made the piece look fragmented and distracted.
