Month: October 2020

Project 01 – Type specimen for screen

What is a type specimen?

After doing some research I found out that in typography, type specimen refers to a any presentation of a certain typeface to showcase its design and/or use.

For this project I will have to design a type specimen screen for an iPad based on one of the following fonts:

  • Futura
  • Gill sans
  • Helvetica
  • Palatino
  • Times New Roman
  • Baskerville

I have chosen to go with Palatino – I like the simplicity of the font and how easily legible it is.

After doing some research on my chosen type face I decided to keep it simple and clean – this typeface was designed and released shortly after the war ended, I would like to integrate some colour in my design as a way of symbolising freedom and the end of darker times.

Key information on the Palatino typeface:

  • Was released in 1949 – shortly after WWII
  • Initially designed as a linotype
  • Created by Hermann Zapf
  • It’s the top 10 most used typeface in the world
  • Has a strong, open style
  • It is easily legible
  • Originally punch cut in metal
  • Named after Giambattista Palatino – a master calligrapher

Inspiration:

     

Sketches and notes in preparation:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Initial digital designs:

      

           

    

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think that the type specimen screen with the colourful shapes is the best one to represent the boldness of the typeface Palatino.

As shown in the pictures of my notes, I interviewed 4 people and I found that a younger viewer prefers the more colourful designs, I added up their votes and the 3 most popular designs were the following:

 

Critique – 16/10/20

After presenting my work to both Kyle and Pauline, they gave me a few pointers on how to improve my designs.

This is a scan of my notes from that day.

My favorite design by far was the colorful one with shapes but as my tutors correctly pointed out, that that design focused more on design, and shapes and being appealing rather than the typography – which was the whole point of the project – focusing on the typeface. The design was competing against the typeface.

I decided to focus on the one with the big bold letters as I got positive reactions to it from my tutors and they suggested that less is more, I’m not normally comfortable with that so I am picking that one to challenge myself.

I applied some more of the changes suggested by my tutors using figma and this is the result:

This is the final outcome and I think it is very eye catching. I tried to keep it as simple and uncomplicated as possible. I reduced it to the minimal and only left behind the essentials.

Wilson Miner – When we build

After watching the talk given by Wilson Minor I saw a bit more clearly that objects, no matter how nice or well designed are simple  “empty vessels to fulfill our desires” that we accumulate to gain some kind of sense of belonging or to be appreciated by others due to our material possessions. It makes me think of phones – how they are always being upgraded and how companies are always coming out with a newer, ‘better’ version that we ‘must’ have and how many of us fall prey to this. Weirdly enough the talk made me think of the song ‘Never enough’ in the greatest showman – no matter what we have or get, we will always want something else, it will never fulfill us or make us whole.

“we shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us” – Marshall McLuhan. What he is trying to say is that things can create a new environment, changes outlooks and attitudes in societies, it affects everything. The light bulb lengthened the work day and changed how we interact; cars changed our environment, we had cars so we needed roads, so we needed highways and so on.

I may not fully realize the extent of the change or impact an invention or design might have on the world – with the right tools anything is possible. Phones changed completely how we interact we each other and created a divide between generations – smartphones, for example, are all someone born in 2000’s has ever known, its a central point of our society, work and method of communication. This tells me that the things we surround ourselves with shapes us.

Everything I create as an Interaction designer should be designed to last and evolve with the time. Things that were important, relevant or revolutionary 100 years ago are now irrelevant or improved upon so much and changed it would be hard to know that the originated from that ‘outdated’ design or technology. The world is constantly changing and if we don’t want to be left behind then we must change with it.