Gills Sans
Gills Sans, created by Eric Gill in 1928, is one of Great Britain’s most recognizable fonts, being used the logos for companies such as the BBC or Tommy Hilfiger. Having been tasked with making a poster about the above described font, I decided to take a look at its history and style.
Research
I started by researching Gills Sans in order to find out more about its history and purpose. From sites such as idsgn (http://idsgn.org/posts/know-your-type-gill-sans/), I was able to compose a sheet of information about the font, which includes its creation by Eric Gills to improve upon Johnston Sans as well as its release commercially by Monotype in 1928. Based on the information I found, I found its prevalence in British typography (especially among its users which include the BBC and Penguin Publishing) to be striking, so I tried to base my designs off of this fact.
Preliminary Designs
Based on Gills Sans heavy prevalence in Great Britain, I decided to style the poster with a British aesthetic, mostly through the colors of blue, red, and white, akin to the Union Jack. In my original designs I tried to take it a step further by forming the text into the Union Jack, as well as try to arrange the letters such that they form the skyline of London (with the London Eye and Big Ben). However, I scrapped these ideas because I believed they would be overly complex and very time consuming to make. In addition, I wanted to highlight the simplicity of the sans-serif font, so my later designs try to use the negative space better. As such, I was a huge fan of my final design (denoted with an asterix in the picture above) and went about creating it.
First Iteration
I decided to emphasize the name of the font as well as the date it was created such that they would be the first things you would see in the poster. The next thing would be the blue strip (which is a capital “I”) with the entire character set, with the “g” behind it; its supposed to evoke the imagery of the London Underground, whose logo helped to inspire the creation of the font.
Feedback was mixed during critiques of the design. Many people liked how the elements bled off the page, and how the colors were bold yet not too bright. People enjoyed the hierarchy of the typography and noted how there was a complete separation of elements and some good usage of white space. However, some people didn’t like the two directions of the font’s name, as they had to read Gill horizontally then Sans vertically. Also, the interference of the bottom bar (with the character set) with the “Sans” was not appreciated, as it obstructed the view of the title. Some wanted the year to be more well defined, and noted how they want the “g” to be more revealed such that it was more obvious that it was a “g”. Overall, people wanted the font to be clearer and the layout to be more clear.
With this information, I continued to iterate.
Second Iteration
I wanted to keep the clear hierarchy while also improving the legibility of the font. I shifted its direction to the left and removed the vertical “Sans” and just put the font name “Gills Sans” on one horizontal line. The color between “Gills” and “Sans” have been switched because I believe the dark blue is more striking than the red, and as such would move the eye towards the title of the font. I also moved the “g” up so that it’s obvious that the character is a “g”, which I believe is one of the more iconic letters in the typeset. Some people didn’t like how the date in the previous iteration sank into the “g” and was thus hard to read. Therefore, I put the name into the whitespace of the “g” so that it was clear. In addition, I extended the red bar (another “I”) upon which the slogan rested.
Third Iteration
I wasn’t happy with some of the changes in the previous version, namely the weird balance between the top and bottom of the poster with respects to the whitespace (it seemed very heavy towards the top). I tried to fix it by moving the placement of the blue bar as well as shortening the red bar such that it lined up with the paragraphs.
Final Iteration
In my final iteration, I set about fixing the balance issue by moving the “g” to the left and adding a blue “s”. I decreased the size of the title and placed it upon a new red bar and a new blue bar such that the top and bottom of the poster seem like a reflection of each other. In addition, I decreased the opacity of certain elements to add depth and to differentiate different parts of the poster. Therefore, people will notice the darker title as opposed to the large “g”. The year is also now blue in order to make it more striking.
Conclusion
Once I finished my final iteration, I printed out a 10" x 16" poster and presented it to my peers. This project taught me a lot about type hierarchy and how to properly use it such that each element stands out and is easy to read. I hope to use these skills in my future projects!
