Typography Brief

Brief One – Typography Project

The first brief developed focussed on the exploration of the cultural connotations of the letterform.

Primary background research was investigated based on the historical origins of the letter W. I began to collect information on variations to the letter W since its induction to the Latin alphabet at the start of the 1300’s. Exploring the historical origins of letterforms in general and how they are related to typography, I reflected upon the issues surrounding the printed word. Other areas I reflected upon included marks used such as hyphens and serifs. External references used to support my research included the writer Robert Bringhurst, the writer of The Book; The Elements of Typographic Style. The book examines ideas surrounding harmony, rhythm and proportion of the letterform and typefaces from traditional to contemporary.

The initial concepts explored during the development of this brief focussed on two methods. The first concept was an animated sequence of the letter W. The idea was to develop a short animation based in the historical events of the letter w and how it has evolved into the letter it has today. The animation was to be developed in Illustrator and animated in Flash. The aim of the style or tone of voice within the animation reflected an informative and educational feel.

Having assessed the time frame given for the brief, I developed two possible outcomes for the brief. The second concept which was to be the final outcome was a short paperback book. Vigorous research went into finding articles for the artefact. I engaged with specialist media and gathered visual and contextual information connected to the letterform such as the anatomy of letterform and Diacritics. I allocated time for designing illustrations that would later be incorporated onto the book.  As part of the development of the brief that I gathered a mass of visual photographic references. The series were edited and used in the main article of the book. The booklet when edited was broken down into four articles with the fourth being the main article:

Anatomy of the letter E – a diagram of the letter e

 

“The world begins with a letter...” is a short paperback book that was created with the intension of exploring several areas with the letter E in the form of articles.

Subjects chosen for the book touched on areas around the origin of the letterform E. Two of the pages 5 & 12 break down the anatomy of the Uppercase and lower case letter E.

 

Life without the letter E (E removed)

I have also written an article that highlights the origins and characteristics of the letterform. For this exercise I removed the entire letter E from the article. My reasons for doing so were to exemplify the regular use of the letterform E. By taking away the letter E from the article made parts of the article illegible and highlighted its importance to the Latin alphabet.

 

Diacritics - The letter E

Included in the book is also an article based on Diacritical marks. The article explores the types of diacritics used and what languages they are used in. Alongside is a detailed illustration of diacritics.

 

The world begins with the letter...

From pages 8 - 11 is an article called the World begins with the letter E. The article focuses on a series of photographs taken around the Birmingham City Centre. The photographs originally were a visual aid to show the usage of the letterform and how frequently the letter E is used in company’s organizations. Being the main article of the book, the article explores type classifications and contrasts between sans serif and serif typefaces and typefaces in general. Several different typefaces are discussed and there usage in today’s design.

 

 

Anatomy - The letter E

Two diagrams of the upper and lower case E are inserted on page’s 5 and 12. Both diagrams in the typeface are Baskerville. Baskerville is noted in the booklet along with the details of the design and the origins of the type.

 

Diacritics - The letter E

Page 7 is an article based on the diacritics of the letter E. I used Garamond typeface for this part of the book. Included with this article is an illustration of various different Diacritic marks and how they are used with the letterform E.

 

Additional Elements: Photography

A Photographic series can be seen edited and featured in the main article of the book: The world begins with the letter E. The idea behind photographing a series of letters was to explore the vast range of different typefaces used today from traditional to contemporary. The Photographs reflects the contrasts and usage of today’s typography. They also comment on the connotations connected to a particular style of company and the typography they chose to incorporate.  Photographing letterforms that are used in organizations company logos, I categorised the series into three sections: Uppercase letter E’s Lowercase letter E’s and letters found within organisations corporate identity. The photographs were edited and cropped in Photoshop and then positioned in the article in the publishing software InDesign.

The overall outcome of the brief demonstrates flexibility to a certain extent. The initial development stages beginning with the concept of producing an animated sequence to developing a short booklet. However if I had chosen concept one: the animated sequence, this concept may have answered the brief in more of an explorative method and would have potentially shown more creativity and imagination.