AType (research)

The work displayed here was created by a designer who goes by the name of Lobulo Design. The letters were made by manipulating paper and card in various different ways. The outcomes when photographed look really nice. The type is obviously 3D and the shadows created are effective. It makes the letterforms look more tactile than when shown on a screen. I may look at crafting paper to make up letterforms in a similar way to this

Kokoro & Moi (research)

I came across this work by a creative agency in Finland called Kokoro & Moi. The publication displayed above showcases a typeface named 'Yo Freckles.' The typeface was intended to be playful. It would not work as body copy but it was intended as a titling typeface and i think in this format the combination of variety in the letters could be really effective. I was worrying about making sure that my letters work as a set before seeing this. This project made me realise that letters don't all have to take really similar forms to work well together.

Each glyph within this typeface was designed by somebody different as the project was intended to bring open design and collaborative design to typography, something which is not often done. Looking at this typeface really inspired me as each character gave me new ideas of how to play with the way certain characters are formed.

http://www.behance.net/gallery/Finnish-Design-Year-Book-Yo-Freckles/10961813

Designspiration Research

I spent some time on Designspiration browsing through pieces utilizing type as their main element. I came across numerous examples. The pieces I have shown here are just a few of many I found. The reason I like these 3 pieces is because they are all two dimensional and all use one colour. I want my designs to be in a similar format to this. I feel it makes the bolder, simpler and overall more effective. 

Type Basics Workshop

We did a workshop looking at the basics of type to give us a better understanding of the way type works and the terminology we need to know to be able to talk about our work. 

We looked at typographic terminology such as the x-height, the baseline, bowls and more (shown in image of sketchbook) and the meanings for all these things. 

We also looked at line weights and the difference in this depending on the style of typeface. Sans Serif typefaces for example usually have a very uniform line weight. 

Alongside this we also briefly looked at classifications of typefaces. Going into more depth than serif and sans serif. I found out that Futura, the typeface I have been assigned for this project is classed as a geometric sans serif font. 

To test out our knowledge and to try and get us using the terminology we had been learning about we did an exercise changing sans serif fonts to serifs and vice versa. I feel actually making this transformation made the differences between these two categories really obvious and I now feel I have a better understanding of type. I intend to go away and read some books about type that were recommended in the session.

Futura Research

I did some research into Futura as I felt it was important to have some knowledge of the typeface before I started the project. I looked at a number of sources to get the information that I wanted to find out but the most helpful by far was idsgn.org. 

Futura was designed between 1924 and 1926 and was released in 1927 by Bauer type foundry. It was designed by Paul Renner, a German graphic artist, type designer and painter. As well as Futura, Renner designed the well know typeface Plak.

Renner designed Futura with the Bauhaus design philosophy in mind. Putting function over form and avoiding any non-essential elements. This has resulted in an incredibly simple, minimal typeface.

Futura is a massively popular font. Shown above are just a few examples of Futura in use. As you can see some huge companies have used the typeface in their logo. Futura was even the typeface used on the historical plaque that was placed on the moon in 1969 by the  astronauts of Apollo 11.

http://idsgn.org/posts/know-your-type-futura/

Research

I stumbled upon this piece of work on a design blog called print.pm. It displayed this image and thats all and I have been unable to find any information about the designer. The design of this really inspired me though, I like the way that the page is really fragmented with different size and style type spread around the page with photographs of different shapes and sizes in between this type. Despite this fragmented design the piece flows really well and I hope to take some inspiration from this for the design of our piece for the Introduction brief

Research

The design of this guide to a film festival in Singapore really stood out to me. I feel it will influence the design of the handout we are making for freshers in the 'How to...' project. It was designed by Anonymous, a design studio based in Singapore. The use of grids and columns makes the composition of each page really balanced. I like the way they have used a simple sans serif type for the title and then black copy against a white background for the body text. It makes it really functional and legible. I want a minimal yet well designed look to the piece we are creating as i feel that it will help to make the student work we will be displaying stand out. 

http://www.behance.net/gallery/Guide-to-A-Design-Film-Festival-2013/9378471