Core Concepts- Exercise 14: A typographic jigsaw puzzle
On the facing page the typeface Baskerville has been deconstructed so it only contains the strokes, serifs and bowls that are common to all the letterforms. Your task is to try and put it all back together again to read the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
Having spent some time looking closely at typefaces, has your appreciation of them increased? If so in any particular aspect? Do you think that understanding more about how typefaces are constructed will be useful to you in future?
I began the task by drawing the baseline, and drawing out the “x” I was unsure whether this was correct, but it seemed the closest match. All of the parts/letters I was unsure of I have wrote a question mark near them. This task was much harder than I expected it to be! I enjoyed the challenge and looking at what shapes make up the font.
I have enjoyed looking into typefaces these past few tasks. I had ‘liked’ certain styles or fonts, but had never fully appreciated the depth, thought and uses behind them. I really like different sized stems on fonts and interesting serifs in particular. The ‘older’ style is very interesting and can be used for different purposes, it looks more modern when paired with a sans serif subheading or caption.
Throughout my work so far I haven’t focused on type, I feel like this will now change as I feel more inspired by the use of type, especially in a more abstract way inspired from the work of Piet Zwart. I look forward to continuing with this section and testing out some more typography.
Update after feedback/reflection:
What came to mind first was Exercise 3: Book Cover Design at the beginning of the course, where my focus was mainly on illustrations (and still has been until recently.) I began the task with creating composition ideas, and collecting potential imagery to include to present the meanings of the book titles. I then briefly consider the typographic elements, as a secondary element to the design, and in retrospect this is where the design begins to be less effective. Now, having developed my knowledge and appreciation of Typography, it’s affect on meaning and the design’s audience, my mindset has changed to how I would approach a design such as a book cover. When gathering insight/composing the design, I would’ve considered potential typefaces/fonts to use, tested with them, then considered their layout/positioning within the design and how this conveys meaning to the viewer, and asked myself does it have the desired affect? The issue I came across (now knowing that this is because of neglecting or being less aware of the importance of typography) of how to layout the book title and author etc was that wherever I composed the information, it didn’t seem to flow or have the desired affect. If I were to of considered which font to use and chosen a more affective composition at the beginning of the design, then decided on any illustrative elements, the designs would have been more affective and professional.
Looking at how a typeface is constructed, and how typography is really the core of design has allowed my perspective to change and my skills to develop. For future design projects, I have began to collate typefaces/fonts which could be affective for many different design scenarios. The appreciation of the ‘smaller’ but very crucial elements of a font such as it being a serif/sans serif or how the kerning affects legibility will hopefully allow me to create some affective and interesting designs moving forwards.
