Body Font Research

Much like my research into display fonts, I felt the need to look into appropriate body typefaces. I’m still unsure as to whether or not I want a serif or sans-serif for the body, so I’ve included a mixture of the two here. My favourite serif is Abril Text, and my favourite sans-serif has to be Brandon Text. I think either of these fonts would look really great next to one of the display fonts detailed in my previous post.

Display Font Research

Here we have a collection of typefaces I have compiled for the Professional Contexts 2 project. Out of the 100+ fonts I looked at, these 10 are my personal favourites. They’re all clean, available in multiple weights and perhaps most importantly, should work well in my design(s). I wanted to spend a good amount of time finding the perfect display font, as it will be used throughout the paper dossier and in the digital video.

Idea Update

Part 1

A physical dossier, designed to look secretive and confidential. Within the paperboard outer packaging, a series of informative documents (of varied sizes, materials) which outline the key benefits of working with willow. The package itself is designed to be shipped, direct to farmers and those interested in the project.

Part 2

Included within the dossier is a memory stick. To open the memory stick, you need to type the secret code hidden in the dossier. This continues the elusive, confidential theme and ensures the audience read through the documents. The code ‘_327637’ (_FARMER) once entered, unlocks a video file. The video is stylised as a secret message to agent ‘00WILLOW’, which is a play on words on the infamous ‘007’. The secret message recaps the information included in the documents, and exaggerates the benefits of getting involved.

Conclusion:

These two elements will come together to create a multi-platform campaign which aims to deliver what is essentially a lot of complex information in a simple and fun way.

Thoughts (first idea)

The idea of this project is to push the boundaries of how I use typography in my work. I’ve done quite a lot of research over the past six weeks, and attended many workshops designed to improve upon my existing type skills. This has helped a lot, as I now feel ready to begin the nitty gritty aspect of the project, actually designing my book.

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, the book in which the chapter I will be using stems from is about French Polishing. In the briefing, it was mentioned that we do not need to reference the material at all in our books, it is merely to be used as ‘copy’. I of course heard the ‘do not need to’, and as such want to anyway. That’s when I decided to look into exactly what french polishing is.

I discovered it is a method of varnishing wood, to give it a reflective gloss-like shine. I’ve seen some examples of wood being used in book binding on Pinterest, and I’m intrigued to see how I can incorporate it into my own work. I have a laser-induction this coming Friday, hopefully I can get to grips with the machine and perhaps try out some designs on real pieces of wood. Again, I don’t know how or if I will even use this for my final piece, but it sounds very promising.

As for the inside of the book, I already know that I want to create a set of custom endpapers using typography found within the book. I hope to create typographic compositions, much like the ones I created earlier in the project. Hopefully these will give me inspiration for the design of the rest of book.

The internal pages are at this point non existent. I don’t have much of an idea how they will look at this stage in the project, which I think is a good thing. I want to do some more research into editorial design and typographic illustration, which should inspire me to come with some great ideas.

Publication: EditionAfter a long discussion over coffee, our group have decided on ‘Edition’ as the name of our publication. We believe this name encompasses what we want our publication to represent. Professionalism. Integrity. Cutting Edge design...

Publication: Edition

After a long discussion over coffee, our group have decided on ‘Edition’ as the name of our publication. We believe this name encompasses what we want our publication to represent. Professionalism. Integrity. Cutting Edge design and a Contemporary view on the design scene.

Above are some quick sketches of logo ideas in different typefaces. We agree the style needs to be bold, in a way that reflects the simplicity of the name.

Speaking to Textbook StudioEarlier this week, myself and Kennedy had the pleasure of speaking with Vicky and Chris over at Textbook Studio in Islington Mill. We decided together that Textbook would be brilliant for our publication (and we were...

Speaking to Textbook Studio

Earlier this week, myself and Kennedy had the pleasure of speaking with Vicky and Chris over at Textbook Studio in Islington Mill. We decided together that Textbook would be brilliant for our publication (and we were right).

Armed with loads of questions and ideas, we drove to Islington Mill (which is situated right around the corner, luckily for us!) You are greeted by what appears to be an unused old mill. Which is pretty much what it is, besides the ‘unused’ part, that is. Upon closer inspection, you can see this artefact of a building is teeming with creative life.

We spent over an hour talking and chatting about all things design. We recorded it all, and I unfortunately was lumbered with the task of transcribing the recording, all five-and-a-half-thousand words of it! Lots of great content for our publication though.

Whilst we were there, we took lots of photographs of the studio and Vicky & Chris at work (or at least pretending to do so for the camera). I’ve gone through them all, picked out my favourites and edited them. We made a joint decision to make them black and white, purely because we will be risographing the photographs, and black and white is the best format to do so.

All in all, we had a great afternoon. Thank you again to Vicky and Chris for letting us into their amazing studio and for giving really insightful answers to our questions. We left the building feeling more motivated than ever to get cracking on our publication!

Manchester’s Creative Playground

After a recommendation from one of my tutors, I’ve taken a look at Manchester’s Creative Playground, a (rather out of date) map of studios creative collectives from around Manchester. I must admit, quite a few of the organisations listed are no longer around (or at least they have changed their web address). 

I did, however come across three particular studios that I’m in love with. They are Glorious Creative, One 69a and Truth Creative. I’ve included a screenshot of their website(s) above.

This is really helpful, as our group is currently looking for design studios to feature in our publication. These three are serious contenders!

Source(s):

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zHV2xUI-Jotw.kyfj-hSEXlJ8&hl=en

http://www.gloriouscreative.co.uk

http://one69a.com

http://www.truth-creative.co.uk

Irma Boom

Perhaps the greatest designer to come from the Netherlands. I admire her work and even more so, her attitude. Her recent TED X Talk is inspiring in more ways than one. I love her approach to work, and her apparent lack of remorse for her decisions.

image

I really like this book edging. The rough texture adds interest to what is in itself a very minimalist design for a book cover, she describes it as a ‘white block’.

Some of my favourite quotes from the talk:

“Don’t read briefings, you should just do whatever you like. It will always be better”

Boom believes we as designers “are not servants”, and as such chooses to call her clients “commissioners”

Mark Porter Associates

On the quest for great editorial design I came across Mark Porter Associates. They’re a UK-based design studio specialising in “Award-winning content-driven design” (what ever that means). What I do know is that they’ve produced some iconic pieces of work for brands including The Guardian, Internazionale and The Long+Short.

Their work, which is primarily magazine/newspaper layouts, has a beautiful sophistication about it. They have a way of working with typography that elevates a story and turns it into a piece of art. Similarly, their use of powerful photography creates drama and intrigue which ultimately adds to the overall appeal of their designs.

What I love about their technique is how they can determine what is right for their client and implement it through their design choices. You’ll notice that their work changes dramatically dependent on the medium and the actual content of a story/article. This demonstrates their ability to adapt and change to suit the clients needs.

Source(s):

http://markporter.com

Font Pairings

One of the hardest parts of editorial design is pairing the right fonts. It’s important that what ever display font you choose for a title or heading must complement the body font (and vice versa). I stumbled across Just My Type in my research, and I’m eternally grateful. The website hosts a wide selection of beautiful font pairings. The cherry on the cake? The vast majority of them are hosted on TypeKit, which is included in my Adobe Creative Cloud membership!

Whilst I may not use any of these specific examples, it has definitely inspired me to come up with more creative font pairings in the future.

Source(s):

http://justmytype.co/hfj/

http://justmytype.co/typekit/