Project 01: Part 02
In this project I worked with two 11"x17" pages to typeset spreads of an essay about literacy in graphic design. It was fun to play around with more text in part 02 as in part 01 we played around with less text. In these spreads I really tried my best to let the body of text dominate compared to the title. I worked with pulling out information out of the paragraphs and/or emphasizing important words in the paragraphs. My purpose in completing this project was to experiment with what text can do and look like. As my layouts progressed I feel like they become more experimental and I was better able to grasp the purpose of this project.
I chose to work with the infamous typeface Helvetica, which was created by Max Miedinger in 1957. Helvetica is classified as a sans-serif neo-grotesque typeface. In layout 4, I wanted to add contrast with the sans-serif font I had already chosen, so I chose to add Adobe Garamond Pro which is a serif typeface. Adobe Garamond Pro is classified as an old style typeface and the original designer is Claude Garamond. The regular letters of Adobe Garamond Pro were designed by Claude Garamond and the italics of this typeface were designed by Robert Granjon Jean Jannon.
Overall, I enjoyed creating these unique compositions while pushing the boundaries of what text can do!
Essay: Read Me! Part 1. Literacy in Graphic Design (Lucienne Roberts)
Layout 01
Layout 1 comes with the most limitations and I felt like it was challenging to make the body of text the main focus. Not being able to play around with scale forced me to come up with a different solution to activate the paragraphs, which was letter and line spacing. I picked out some words I felt were important and adjusted the letter spacing to 200. In the title I chose to use capital letters to set it apart from the paragraphs. Also, I felt like setting the letter spacing to 200 in the title would create some sense of unity in the design. As for the composition of this spread, I was inspired by patchwork and using negative space to create shapes. I enjoy that the text has room to breathe with the amount of white space there is.
Layout 02
I really had fun creating layout 02 as we could experiment with scale. I picked certain words that stuck out to me and either made them noticeably larger or smaller. I also referenced the Fibonacci sequence in this spread and put emphasis on the beginning and the end of the essay. The layout of the text guides readers through the essay in an unconventional way that makes readers understand the important information. I focused a lot on letter spacing, line spacing, and alignment in order to add variety to the layout. I experimented with intertwining paragraphs which creates depth within the design. I find this look to be very ascetically pleasing. My main goal with creating this spread was to let the body of text dominate.
Layout 03
This composition may be one of my favorites. Scale, style within the typeface, line spacing, letter spacing, line spacing, and alignment were all key factors in this design. Before I created this, I had only using line spacing to space lines far apart, so I decided to see what it would look like super close together. I really like the look of it with the letters overlapping. Setting type close together isn't normally done for readability purposes, but I think it works with this composition and the goal of this project- which is to be experimental. I enjoy the variety of line spacing, scale, and variation between rotating paragraphs from the x-axis to the y-axis (left hand side). I chose to leave the text ragged to create a waterfall or falling words illusion. I sparingly utilized the z-axis in the title to add interest, but I kept the text itself on the smaller scale in order to let the body of text shine. This added to the overlapping of type that was going on elsewhere in the spread. The shades of grey in this layout helped complete the spread in my opinion. I used Helvetica bold, light, regular, and oblique to achieve a good balance of lighter and darker shades. Using the styles within the typeface allowed me to emphasize the important information.
Layout 04
In this layout I was going for something experimental, bold, and magazine like. I love the look of a sans serif typeface next to a serif typeface, so I decided to bring Garamond into the mix (the italic is SO elegant). Like some of my previous layouts, scale, style within the typeface, line spacing, letter spacing, and alignment were all key factors in this design. I am drawn to large type contrasting with small type and bold type contrasting with light type. I am drawn to it because of the variety, interest, and balance. The smallest paragraphs in this spread I kept the same size, style, and font. I did this to create unity between the two pages in order to keep it cohesive. It creates balance and helps the composition not become too overwhelming. I chose to use a black shape since I was given the chance to with layout 05. I opted to use the Adobe Pro Garamond ampersand as I find the way the leg swoops visually pleasing.
