Studio Brief 2 – Typeface Design - Initial Ideas and Crit

Typeface Initial Ideas, Peer Exercise and Crit

In order to begin portraying the idea of succinct within my typeface I identified some key points within my research into the meaning of the word and the typeface Univers, which I want to initially work with. Succinct means to be briefly and clearly expressed and I found many of the synonms for the word were things I could physically do to the type e.g, compact, short, condensed and to the point. Characteristics within Univers which I thought were appropriate to my word, were its moderate x height which makes it quite compact , narrow bodies make the width slightly less and it has short ascenders and descenders. The clarity of the letters will allow me to further exaggerate some of these other characteristics without losing the overall cleanness of the type.

Things I want to try are:

- Minimising the x height further and reducing the width to make the letters squarer and compact

- Shortening the ascenders and descenders to create a more condensed type

- Reduce the width of the type to fit more on a line

- Increase the width of the connection between the bowl of the letter and the stem and flatten the tops of the bowls to make them straighter and therefore blockier

- Experiment with angular ascenders like the ‘t’ to reflect the idea of ‘to the point’

- Making the contrast more consistent across the connections and increasing the counter size

Initial sketches

Initial sketches

Rationale for each initial design

1. Geometric angular ascenders reflect ‘to the point’

Making the contrast similar throughout and increasing the size of the counter makes it more readable 

Thinner weight makes the type finer and more crisp

Ascenders are shortened

2. The width and x height have been compressed to make the design more square

The weight is the same throughout the type with large counters and aperture

Get rid of the connection between the stem and bowl and make the shoulder straighter and more horizontal to give it a blockier appearance

3. Reduce the width to create narrower bodies making it more compact and able to fit more on a line

4. Compress the width and height to make the type more square

The ideas where there is a focus on making the type more square and blocky would be primarily used for display purposes e.g. magazine headers, this I think will provide character as well as clarity in reading, however I will also see whether they could be used as text type on a smaller scale. Where I have suggested making the type narrower this would be used as a text type and would be reflective of the quality within Times New Roman in newspapers, however I would like to experiment with this idea in a sans serif format as a space saving typeface. This would probably be better suited to editorial magazines rather than newspapers as it will have a more contemporary feel. 

Feedback on initial ideas

Points I will explore are:

- Reducing the letters back to their primary shapes by using as few lines as possible. Can I create the letter using one continuous mark?

- Research legibility and the speed at which people read and apply this to my type

- Consider stroke width when reducing the size of the type. Will it still hold its shape?

- Look at a serif type and try reducing this down further to make it more succinct

- Could I combine both upper and lowercase letters to make one alphabet?

Further peer work

Initially we were asked to create as many symbols as we could in a minute to represent our word. We were restricted to a three by three grid which I used to create abstract representations of the word. I focused mainly on the proximity of lines and how a scale could be used to represent distance between the two lines. Another meaning for the word was to encircle, so I tried to represent this by ‘wrapping’ a line around other lines.

Symbols representing 'succinct'

We then had to write our word and synonyms for that word on some paper. This was then given to another person and they had a few minutes to come up with as many responses as they could using a five by five grid. In these we were encouraged to use the grid more by using horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines.

Peer symbol response to 'succinct' 

We were then given another person’s word for which we had to create A’s that portrayed their adjective. I found this to be the easier task out of the three and enjoyed playing about with the structure of the letter. Creating symbols in such a small space of time made it difficult to think of ideas that I could make visual.

Peers portrayal of 'succinct'