OUGD403 - Studio Brief 2 - Typeface design

Today we were first introduced to our new typography brief. Simon explained about graphic design theorist Josef Muller Brockmann's classic and lead typefaces that we were to base our own unique typefaces on. These are Garamond, Caslon, Baskerville, Bodoni, Clarendon, Berthold, Times, Helvetica and Univers.  The unique aspect of this brief was the picking of a random  descriptive word from a bucket and base the typeface on it. The word I chose was 'animated'. I thought this word would be a good start to experimenting as it could be interpreted in a number of ways.

I first wanted to see other designers interpretation of 'animated' as a typeface. I looked on sites such as dafont.com and fonts.com and searched my adjective. The fonts usually portrayed characteristics mentioned in my found synonyms. I like the use of extending strokes such as used on the typeface: Sinzano. I felt like this could represented how speed lines are seen on some animated cartoons.

I thought of them as being lively, energetic and enthusiastic due to often uneven and random strokes. These worked well as an interpretation of my word but I find them too obvious. I hope to expand on the meaning of my word and explore these ideas through experimentation later on.

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The synonyms of 'animated' made me sure the typeface I design must look a certain way. The dictionary uses words such as energetic, active and alive to describe the word. This reminded me of posters I have seen on the graphics floor in LCA where typefaces are layered. The low opacity of the letterforms when layered appears like it's blurred and moving like when taking photos at a low shutter speed. I decided this was an idea that I could expand on later in my brief. I hope to use it during experimentation and once I have decided crucial parts of my design process such as choosing the appropriate font.

a similar idea to the artwork on the graphics floor

where the layering of type creates the impression of movement

The most important aspect of my design will be basing it on the right typeface. I feel the type should convey it's energetic description. To do this I will be looking for a range of features such straight and and angular stems with difference in thickness. Because of this I think it's important to use a serif typeface as the horizontal lines of terminals work well with the idea connecting to movement.





Six of Brockmann's nine classic and lead typefaces are serif and many of them suit what I'm looking for to base my own typeface on. The typefaces I described are Garamond, Caslon, Baskerville, Bodoni, Clarendon and Times. They all have unique characteristics distinguishing them apart. Choosing the most appropriate typeface is integral for me to create the most successful design I can. From research found both on the internet and through lectures with Simon.

Garamond
This typeface features brackets, cupped serifs and a low x-height. All stems are the same vertical with less contrasting sizes of stem to other san serif fonts.

Caslon
I found out that Caslon has short ascenders and descenders and so is quite a compact typeface. When used in italics this type looks typographic and hand drawn. To me Caslon italic also seems stretched and again compact. For me this looks too squashed in to a small place so may not work as a typeface.

Baskerville
This typeface has features that look hand written such as the 'swash-like tail of Q' and imperfections on the tail's of ascending and descending letterforms such as y, j and f. I like these features and feel they fit well with my theme.

Bodoni
Inspired by Baskerville, Bodoni's proportional serifs and geometric perfection comes across as being a more formal typeface. The high contrasting strokes can sometimes be hard to read due to the difference between stroke width. This is especially true in body text or when type is small.

Clarendon
This typeface has strong bracketed serifs that make it appear more strong and rigid. Letterforms have low contrast and so appear relatively thick. This bold appearance may work well within my design so hope to experiment later.

Times
This particular typeface was designed for The Times broadsheet as was criticised for the use of bad typography. It has fairly even strokes across letterforms however in relatively thin in contrast to other serif typefaces.
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I received some peer feedback about which typeface would be best to base my designs on. I was suggested a number of characteristics that best represent animated. These ideas have greatly influenced my choices early on in this brief. I was told my typeface should have a number of features:

it should look like symbols or be cartoon-like so is perceived to be animated;
it should look friendly;
italic may greater show the ideas of movement;
lowercase type may better suit my word;
there should seem to be a lot happening so it looks over the top;
having a serif typeface is important;
it should seem soft and have flowing and aesthetic features;
may look different when printed compared to when digital.

As well as this feedback I researched a number of typefaces on the internet that best suited my given word. These varied between serif and san serif typefaces yet consistently used high contrasting strokes within lettering. These seem to convey movement well as almost shows the letterforms starting static and moving as the eye scans across the image.

Letterforms start with condensed thickness of stems
and narrow to a less contrasting form.

From this research I decided that a high contrasting typeface was essential as would portray what I think best fits the ideas in my manifesto. The classic and lead typefaces with these features include:
Baskerville, Bodoni, Caslon and Garamond.

From these I looked at the Bold, Italic and oblique versions of the fonts. I felt like the best suited was Bodoni Italic as it had the highest contrast and seemed to be best suited to how I wanted to adapt to my word.

Another piece of research I have collated is a gif of variations of an A. The piece was created by Roy Veldcamp and combines "high contrast pairing or specifically designed serif and sans serif font families". As well as the animated movement of each half of type incorporated into the gif, I think the actual final letter creations portray animation well. The sudden change from a thick to thin crossbar suggest a sudden movement of letterforms. I hope to experiment with this idea once finalised which font I want to base the project on.

When searching "animated typefaces' and 'movement typefaces' the obvious results appeared such as gifs of type and movement within images. Originally this isn't what I was aiming for as I wanted to show movement within a static typeface but after seeing some examples of other designers work I have been inspired to hopefully pursue this later in my Brief.
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I've started some experimentation with Bodoni, my chosen typeface, based around ideas from research. I have found the use of layering letterforms an interesting concept and so did various different experiments with it on photoshop. I first adjusted the opacity of the type to 18% so it was only slightly visible after placing various copies of the same type over each other with slight horizontal change each time. The overlapping of the type darkens each letterform. 

Because of the combination of layers of text and the use of the oblique tool, the letterforms seem blurred and show movement, however I don't feel that Bodoni regular alone reflects animated as well as it could. I feel like if this was used within my project, It must come after redesigning the original typeface for it to work best with my theme.

For the following experimentation,I decided to use uppercase letterforms as I wanted to link to some of my word's synonyms such as energetic, excited and enthusiastic. I believe this is reflected within Bodoni's uppercase letter

Another experiment inspired by the layering of type is using only outlines. For this I have only used three layers to create the letters. This creates a 3D effect which may. not be suitable as doesn't clearly show movement 

My third idea for experimentation is that of creating what looks like a glitch within the type. This idea is one i knew would create the effect of movement whilst still staying static. I looked at various ways I could do this on photoshop. I used tools such as the zig-zag tool and the rectangular marquee tool to what make what looked like distorted type. These came out well but this idea may not work as a full typeface as may look too busy when each letterform has it's own personal distortion.

The experimentation that best links to animation is the one seen below as is one of the first things that springs to mind when set this task. I created a pixelated version of the word animated in Bodoni Italic. It's readability is minimised by the large large pixels however there is a clear link due to animation. My inspiration behind this came from the logo used for the video game Minecraft where you move around animated blocks set up as pixels.

I like this pixelated idea however feel that it doesn't appropriately convey my adjective in the same way as some of my other ideas. It brings down the meaning of the word to it's bare minimum with it's obvious links to 'animated' and it's digital side. Despite this it was the only experimentation that drastically differed from Bodoni. After noticing this I decided I should look to changing how Bodoni looks to create a more successful design in conjunction with the brief.

I looked to the concept of high contrasting stems showing the idea of movement as inspiration and decided to set out experimenting with this in mind. My starting point was Bodoni italics (as seen on the first line of the image below) from there i stretched and decreased the widths of several stems and bowls to what I thought reflected my adjectives in letterforms. I also experimented with several other ideas such a cutting parts out of the letterforms. Some of these ideas looked more like a gun or unlike my expected outcome so I decided not to pursue them. Because of my range of ideas I was unclear with which way my project should go. 

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Todays lecture looked at typeface manifesto's. They describe it's features and give a better understanding of it's meanings and origins. We first looked at creating our own in groups for one of Muller-Brockmann's classic and lead typefaces. I then set out to create one for my own typeface: 

Extended serif's combined with large contrasting strokes and an italic-like style apply a hand rendered aesthetic to the typeface. It's perceived as showing movement and having a lively nature yet there are no sharp intersects making up the letterforms; instead they are smooth and flowing which comes across as being a friendly and soft looking typeface. Despite having a fluid theme, there is a lot going on within the design with various components contrasting the Bodoni typeface it holds resemblance to. 

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My last crit has shown me which direction I should take towards my final design.

Points were made that will influence decisions in my project such as the addition and taking away of serifs. Such is seen on the bottom line of my experiments. This was an idea I really liked once experimented with and after asking numerous people on their opinions of my design I decided to use it for my final design. I created a unique design over 26 letterforms that worked well with my adjective: animated and portrayed its synonyms like I planned to do. This idea was difficult to accomplish on some letters due to curved bowls or obscure serifs such as on the crossbar of the E and F. Because of this it was important that I extended the serifs in the appropriate places and didn't add them haphazardly. This part of my work took the most time due to the importance of getting it right.

I felt that, despite relating back to the brief well and being a successful design, it looked similar to a typeface already created. Because this I felt it should have a unique element. For this, I looked to some earlier ideas. I wanted to use the idea of movement similar to the extended serifs. This made me look towards the layering of letterforms to create a blurred movement effect. I tried out different opacities for layers, the amount of layers used and the position of layers until I had created what I think is a successful typeface.

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An important aspect of this brief was the naming of my typeface. I wanted the name to describe what is seen visually whilst also linking to my inspiration and thought process behind the design. The typeface I based my project on was Bodoni, a serif font, created by Giambattista Bodoni. I decided to translate some words used within my project into Italian as this is where Bodoni was from. 

I have decided to name my typeface Vivace. It's translation back to English describes it as: lively, bright, vibrant, vivid, vivacious and animated. This fits in well with animated and it's synonyms as well as linking to it's roots with Bodoni. Because of this I think it's a successful name for the typeface that reflects a formal font with relations to animation and movement.

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I presented my final ideas as a number of pieces of paper for feedback Friday. I was again asked to display some questions for other students to comment on. 

Is there anything about my typeface you would change and why?

Does my manifesto & the thought process behind it?

Where do you think my typeface is most likely to be seen commercially?

Is there anything about the typeface you would change and why

OUGD404 - study task 0 - Colour relativity

This study task on colour relativity was set to increase my understanding of colour theory. We were first asked to note our least favourite colour, mine being bright orange as I don't believe it works with many colours. We were then to reference the Pantone colour guides and pick another colour that would work alongside my original colour, orange and black to represent the colour scheme of a children's book.

The Pantone colours I chose were _____ and _______ . Although orange is a colour I usually stay clear from unless coupled with primary colours: red and yellow I found it works well with the purple shade _______ due to it's blue undertones to convey a halloween theme. When added to _______ black this message becomes more clear and works well as a colour theme for a children's book.

colour theory

OUDG403 - Study Task 03 - Drawing the Detectives

Todays brief tasked us with re-designing the cover of an Agatha Christie novel. The title I was given was “They came to Baghdad”. I first looked at previous interpretations of the book's cover as found it hard trying to interpret the title as first sketches due to it being vague and not informative. These covers often tried to portray Baghdad either through photography or illustrations and hardly showed any relation to the plot of the book itself.

As I wasn't familiar with the plot of this book. I first read summaries and watched reviews which helped me recognise key events that may influence my design. A key source was a review on youtube by anskov which informed me about main events in the novel such as the killing of a British secret agent. It was from this that I created a number of designs that best portrayed the death. These preliminary sketches worked well and so I decided that this was one thing I hoped to base my poster on. I also felt it was important to look at how I could link my poster to Baghdad. I first tried to use the same idea that other books had, this was to show the city as a skyline, using the buildings in the distance as a clear link to the location.


These two ideas worked well separately but decided I wanted to involve them both within my design process. I experimented with showing the skyline through the window of the hotel window where the spy was stabbed. This would involve both a link to the location and plot to to the book. Despite working in theory, I had several attempts at creating such image. This didn't really work as felt the image looked too busy which is something at the beginning of the brief that I felt I should avoid.

I looked to other Agatha Christie novels in the hope that they would give me some sort of inspiration for my brief. From this I noticed that newly published copies of the books were very simplistic and used block colours to identify to the reader what the book was about. 

I noticed these illustrative covers all used a large amount of negative space as well as introducing small hints to the novels content. These were similar to the cover I hoped to produce but in my own unique style. With these covers as inspiration I decided to use a limited colour pallet. The obvious colours related to crime and murder were involved in my design process such as red and black but I also looked at less obvious colours. These choices were helped by Danny's lectures on colour theory where I thought more carefully about what colours would work together and the different pantone shades I could use to better represent the book title. After struggling to combine all aspects of the book into my design I talked to Simon. He gave me the idea to think of the design in more simple ways such as looking at using just type or focusing on the colour aspect more than elements such as illustration. This was similar to a book cover already created for they came to Baghdad. The typeface used appropriately communicates the the era and location of the book setting. This way of conveying the book so simply  works really well and so is what I looked out for when finding a typeface for my own design. 

The colours used within the above cover replicate that on the Baghdad flag. This is something I hadn't realised previous to researching but found to be a good source on which to base my own colour way and how to influence Baghdad into my design. This book cover shows the flag at it's very basic with the only resemblance being the colour. I wanted to expand on this and decided to try adding other elements such as the green stars as well as a black bottom half of the poster. 

The addition of the black and red into my design linked with the death and spy theme of the book so is something I stuck with. I felt that keeping my design to the flag only idea was too basic so added the idea of the the dead spy. To do this I started sketching out silhouettes of what I thought looked like a stereotypical agent lying dead on the floor. As a silhouette it would work with the black of the bottom of the flag so brought these two components together.

OUGD403 - study task 2 - symbol

We have been tasked with designing a logo for the Yorkshire sculpture park purely comprising of symbol. This must be able to accompany type for promotional leaflets and posters as well as work by itself. I wanted to incorporate things into my design that would make it unique such as using negative space, shadows and silhouettes. This is predominantly what I looked at when visiting the park. I photographed a number of sculptures and specific points of interest that I could base my designs on but found it quite difficult to think of a particular image that can best represent YSP as a whole. The majority of my photos comprised of the permanent sculptures at the park. This gave me a good starting point as I started drawing out various ideas.

After asking a number of people about their opinions on my designs, I came to the conclusion that basing a logo on a particular sculpture would not show the varied amount of artwork the park has to offer and so began designing logos based on a wider range of things such as silhouettes of buildings and the grounds. I looked at the walkway leading to the parks main building that shows all those that contributed to the making of YSP. Because this is such an important feature of the park as without these people 

When walking through the park I noticed how undulating the location is with different galleries dotted around it's grounds and decided I wanted to recreate this within a design. I extended the flowing hills theme with wavy lines across the sky and landscape representing the parks features. This was one of my only designs where I experimented with a colour pallet. For others I felt they worked best as monochrome images. This also means they can be used across a broader range of media however it was hard to differentiate the hills from the sky. I do like this design but feel it hardly communicates YSP. This would work better with type but as this wasn't part of the brief I had to try show the park through design decisions of my own. This was difficult so felt this design didn't work as well in comparison to the others when put into context with the brief.

I did some additional research on the park once at home and found out it was part of a larger group of galleries called the Yorkshire sculpture triangle. This comprises of YSP, The Henry Moore institute, Leeds Art Gallery and The Hepworth. I looked at the placing on a map of these places and sketched them out as ideas. After playing around with adding lines and other marks to the design I noticed it looked similar to a Penrose triangle so based a design on this outlining YSP with negative space on the map. I think this works well as a design as could be used throughout the Yorkshire sculpture triangle’s galleries by just moving the negative space to different points. The design I came up with is simplistic and can work for various things around the park such as signage, leaflets and merchandise like tote bags and postcards. Because of this I feel this is my most successful design and is the one I am most likely to submit to clients.