Type Specimen Documentation

Sketches: From the beginning I knew I wanted to use a lot of white space with a very simple design to emphasize the textual elements themselves, with very little ornamentation. I initially thought of a magazine cover because of the connection to Harper’s, so I wanted DIDOT to be very large to mimic a magazine title.

First draft: I ran with the general idea of the first sketch, but the shape of a body doesn’t create a long enough line, so I used the silhouette to display the character set.

Adding Color: I experimented with some brighter colors, but ultimately decided that the muted appearance was more effective because it let the text stand out more. The purple tones felt fashionable and elegant, going along with the Harper’s theme.

Starting Over: After receiving some disappointing feedback at the first critique, I went back to the drawing board. I got positive feedback about the large, bold title, so I wanted to maintain that, but think more carefully about the visual hierarchy of the poster. I cut out a lot of the text, which improved the relationship between the elements dramatically. I used color and size to bring out the differences between the poster’s elements.

Final Concept: I liked where I was going with the above draft, but I felt like there was too much tension between the tall letters and the wide page. I wanted to emphasize the vertical strength of the font. Throughout experimenting with this concept I tried to be thoughtful about how the eye moves through the poster, left to right and top to bottom. I felt confident about the colors and sizes (which I probably should have paid more attention to), so in this iteration I paid most attention to the arrangement of the elements on the page to allow the eye to move naturally through.