The project prompt was "typefaces" with meaning to the chosen font's history. The typeface I chose was Optima created by Hermann Zapf in 1958.
What I did to showcase the history of Optima was reel it back to the origins: Ancient Rome. The layout of the poster is organized to look like a column with a bleak but organized manner to it to present business-like.
I used kerning to end the alphabet at each column to have a start and finish with no loose-ends. The bolded title "Optima" is shrinking inwards to replicate the outward movement the typeface gives at the ends of each letter.
Below are early examples of previous iterations of the same concept with this type face. Sketches of the examples are also provided.