The 9 typefaces we have to choose from are Garamond, Caslon, Baskerville, Bodoni, Clarendon, Berthold (Akzidenz-Grotesk), Times, Helvetica and Univers.
 |
| Comparison between hand rendered 'G' & digital 12px 'G' |
Caslon (1725)
Caslon is a group of old-style serif font created by William Caslon. The fonts are clean, clear and easy to read and is characterised by it's short ascenders and descenders. Along with that the italic font has a rhythmic calligraphic stroke and has high contrasting strokes, very much like Garamond.
Baskerville (1757)
Baskerville is a traditional serif typefaces which is considered a further refinement of 'Old Style' typefaces such as Caslon, hence why it is under the category of a 'Traditional' typeface. The font has an increased contrast between thick and thin strokes and also the serifs of the letterforms are sharper and more tapered than typical serif fonts of that time. The font was considered to be very popular within book design.
Bodoni (Late 1700's)
Bodoni is considered a didone style serif typeface which has overall has a very geometric construction to it. Unlike typical serif fonts, Bodoni has unbracketed serifs which makes it somewhat unique in comparison to previous serif fonts such as Baskerville, Caslon and Garamond. The typeface has an extreme contrast between thick and thin strokes which can be a struggle to read on screen, which is why it's not an overly popular choice when it comes to digital applications.
Clarendon (1845)
Clarendon is a slab serif typeface which makes it unique compared to the stereotypical serif typefaces, the reason it's considered a slab serif is due to it's thick, block like serifs. Similar to Rockwell Typeface it's mainly associated with American Old West wanted posters who's style was very popular during the 19th century. The typeface was mainly used for headings and originally had no lowercase because of this.
Berthold (Akzidenz-Grotesk) (1896)
As the name would suggest, this is a grotesque sans serif typeface which is used massively for commercial use, which was released by the Berthold Type Foundry. Its use of an oblique style rather than a true italic was extremely influential during it's time. The typeface has a very folded-up appearance due to it's narrow apertures and strokes curled up to the vertical.
Times (1931)
Times is a transitional serif typeface which was commissioned by 'The Times' newspaper in 1931. This font was used in mass-market paperbacks in the US and is considered to be one of the most widely used typefaces in history. This is due to it's strong and resolute letterforms and also it's varied rythem between thick strokes and fine hairlines.
Helvetica (1957)
Helvetica is a neo-grotesque sans serif typeface which is considered one of, if not, the most popular typeface within the 20th century and potentially the 21st century. The termination of the strokes on on both horizontal and vertical lines and unusually tight letter-spacing give it a compact look.
Univers (1957)
Much like Helvetica, Univers is also a neo-grotesque sans serif typeface which is commonly used due to it's wide range of font weights and widths. The typeface is also very popular within swiss style graphic design. Some distinct features of the font include squaring of round strokes and more stroke modulation than fonts such as Helvetica.
My first thoughts when I was given the word nervous was that the font to base my
typeface design from would have to be a sans serif font, simply because of I think of nervous as being frail/ skinny and very shy. I feel that a serif font wouldn't be entirely appropriate for this because of how the serifs on the letterforms tend to give them a slightly more robust looking, contradicting this idea of the typeface being 'nervous'.
To get more of an understanding of the word nervous I looked into synonyms and relevant words to it, in the hope that this would help to develop a further idea of how to portray my adjective as a typeface.
I also took a brief look into situations where people may feel nervous with the intentions of possibly using one of these situations to base my typeface on or in the least take inspiration from. These situations include:
- Making conversation
- Particular topics of conversation
- Approaching people to start a conversation
- Mingling
- Meeting new people
- Parties/Bars/Clubs
- Revealing personal information about yourself
The one thing that these all have in common is that in most cases being nervous is down to the situation involving other people whether you may know them well or not. This is one thing I want to get across within my font, to make it appear as though the outside world, whether that be people or the environment itself is affecting the way the typefaces appears, in the same way that this would affect how a person appears/acts.
During the first interim critique for this studio brief, I discussed with the group what my rough ideas are and where I aim to go with them. I got feedback from the group in the form of possible ideas of what to look into and what styles I could potentially go for with my typeface.
These included having a font that appears as if it's shaking to represent a nervous person. Also another idea was to have a scribble typeface to represent how a person in an exam, or something of the sort, would be nervous when running out of time. One thing someone within the group suggested to look into was nervous situations and how people act within them and then maybe to represent this within each letterform.
No comments:
Post a Comment